Tim vs. the Trim (Post # 85)

Now that The Alfatross' chassis and body are finished and in primer, Tim is concentrating on making sure all of the trim pieces fit and are finished properly. In keeping with using light weight aluminum for the body panels, Zagato also employed it for virtually all trim and filler panels, hand formed from sheet or using various configurations of bar stock made from pure aluminum. 

The Alfatross' door handle housings and minimal polished
aluminum trim can be seen in this photo from about 1979.

This includes the chrome trim rings around the headlights and turn signals, the aluminum door handle housings, windshield and rear window surrounds, hood scoop trim, license plate light housing, and a number of pieces in the interior. After the preliminary fit it all has to be removed before the body can be painted, and then re-installed after the paint has cured completely.  

The cracked hand-made passenger's side door handle
housing posed a nerve-wracking  repair challenge.

Since modern aluminum is almost always alloyed with other metals, it is very difficult to locate pure stock in any form other than sheets for replacement and repair purposes.  It is important to replace or repair using pure aluminum because the presence of any other metal (like copper) in the repair material can change its color and forming characteristics.  

Tim micro-welding the broken door handle housing. Tim
Marinos.

This may be acceptable on some painted pieces but not on polished parts, e.g. window frames, or parts requiring forming work.  When simple, flat pieces that are supposed to be highly polished such as sill plates and lower inside door cover panels are overly-corroded, it is sometimes more efficient to hand-form replacements from new material rather than trying to repair them.  

Clamped firmly in Tim's vice the door handle housing is
first tack-welded, then the cracks are "V" cut and TIG
welded with 1100 grade aluminum rod.  Tim Marinos. 

But what does one do with a cracked door handle housing, corroded and damaged window frames, etc. that require welding and that also must be polished? There are still a few suppliers on line that sell 1100 pure aluminum welding rod. Alternatively, wire rod can be cut from sheet stock.

There is a lot of manual labor involved using the same
techniques that the original Zagato craftsmen employed 60
years ago.  Tim Marinos.

By using the correct replacement material, welding rod, and proper repair techniques, it is possible to make undetectable repairs in keeping with period correct building practices.

Fortunately for the Alfatross, Tim is willing and able to "tame the trim" and expertly craft the repairs.

The finished repair before polishing.  Tim Marinos.

The corroded corner of one of the hood scoop trim pieces
required re-welding and filling with 1100 rod . . .

. . . followed by careful filing and polishing.  Both by Tim Marinos.

Under the Influence . . . (Post # 84)

Under the Influence.

. . . of Route 66, that is!  A couple of weeks ago some friends invited me to go with them to the "Route 66 Fun Run" an annual event celebrating, well, Route 66--"The Mother Road." One of my earliest memories is of a TV show by that name featuring two young all-American men wandering the highways looking for adventure in a C1 Corvette. I was infatuated by the concept and wanted to do that too! I don't remember anything about exactly where they went or what they did.  All I remember is the hypnotic theme song and the afterglow I felt at the end of each episode that put me permanently under the influence of the Great American Road Trip . . . and since you can't make a road trip without something to ride in . . . cars! 

The American West is BIG!

So of course I accepted my friends' invitation immediately. Then I discovered that Route 66 no longer exists. It was superseded decades ago by the Interstate Highway System. The little towns that once depended on it withered and died. But vestigial bits and pieces of the old 2-lane tarmac still remain--bypassed and now just back roads--but they're still there.  One of them is a stretch between "survivor towns" Seligman and Topok, Arizona. This is where the Fun Run takes place.

Main Street (on old Route 66) in Seligman, AZ, starting line
for the Route 66 Fun Run.  Drive what you brung!

The 500 mile, 8 hour drive from Santa Fe to the starting line at Seligman paralleled a lot of the original route.  That gave us plenty of time to ruminate about things, like the way the invention and evolution of the automobile changed just about everything in American life.   

The first roads were rails and the first cars were pulled 

by "iron horses." This one is in Kingman, Arizona.  

The personal automobile is the embodiment of freedom, but it needs a road to access that freedom.  That's what Route 66 did so well, and although the route itself eventually yielded to 4-lane interstate highways dedicated to moving as much traffic as fast as possible, losing a lot of its original mystique along the way, the legend survives. 

Better take along a spare gas can . . . .

Route 66 started out in 1926 as a link between Chicago on Lake Michigan and Los Angles on the Pacific coast. It was a long, often lonely drive across thousands of miles of prairie, high desert, majestic mountain ranges, mighty rivers, Indian reservations, widely spaced gas stations and a really big sky, altogether spanning about 2,400 miles across 8 states. 

It became a by-word for travel, exotic locations, and adventure in America.  The allure spread far and wide in song, literature and theater.  Today thousands of tourists from all over the world come to the US specifically to drive portions of Route 66 in cars, RVs, motorcycles, dedicated tour buses and even bicycles.  We saw a lot of them--and they were all smiling!

We were smiling too, utterly relaxed. We had three sunny, cool days to cover 70 miles, so no one was in a hurry. I found myself wondering what The Alfatross would think about this storied road. Construction on the US Interstate Highway System--that we all now take for granted--was not started until 1956, the year after The Alfatross was born.  It struck me that Old Route 66 and The Alfatross are both experiencing the same type of nostalgic re-birth that things go through if they survive long enough.  They are contemporaries: the car and the kind of 2 lane blacktop road it was designed to travel.  I allowed myself a little daydream--that maybe one day in the not-too-distant future they will get the chance to meet in person . . . .

Some stops along the way haven't changed much. Gas station at Hackberry, AZ.

"Bilt, not bought!"  Deluxe Rat Rod.

It's not the destination . . .  it's the journey!  Roadside breakfast: We don't need no stinking restaurants!  

Get your motor runnin'
Head out on the highway
 Lookin' for adventure
In everything that comes our way!
--Steppenwolf

The Dyno(saur)meter (Post # 83)

The Alfatross came with a strange looking instrument bearing the label "DynoMeter."  Former owner Pat Braden writes in his book Alfa Romeo All-Alloy Twin Cam Companion 1954-1994 that the man he sold it to (the man I bought it from) "never knew the car carried an (originally fitted) accelerometer." I think the DynoMeter is the accelerometer that Braden was talking about.  How he knew it was "originally fitted," and exactly what that phrase means is a mystery. To the best of my recollection, when I bought The Alfatross 46 years ago it was included, but no longer attached.

The Burg DynoMeter before restoration.  The 
more you look at it the less you understand!

Profile view of the DynoMeter.  There are no
connections, electrical or otherwise.

I puzzled over this thing for many years.  What does it do?  How exactly does it work? Where and how is it supposed to be mounted?  Why can't I find any information about it?  Is this the only one left in the world?  Is it another mute, but tantalizing indicator of race history?

Thanks to the indefatigable efforts of Jeff Kramer, Internet Nightcrawler, we now have answers to some of those questions--but by no means all.

Bands, Numbers, and Increments

The Burg logo appears to show a pendulum hanging from
the top of a box with a graduated arc just below it: a
simplified schematic of the mechanism inside?

The steel housing is surrounded by a chrome band with a peculiar clamp. Both detach easily from the dial face and inner body. No clues there. 

Only the dial face hints at who made it and what it does. Starting in the middle of the dial we see that it is called a "DynoMeter" and it appears to have been manufactured by a company called Burg.  The Burg name is written in script over a logo that appears to depict a pendulum suspended over a graduated arc.  This is an important clue. The device appears to be patented "PATENTE ANG.", but where? 

All the text is in Italian, but it could have been produced anywhere with dial faces appropriate for the market.  At first glance, it could be mistaken for an item from the Italian equivalent of the J.C. Whitney catalog, but on further close inspection there is more than meets the eye.

This might get a little tedious, but I just want to point out some details that are easy to miss if you aren't paying close attention.

The dial face is divided into four bands encircling the pivot point for the needle. The outermost and innermost bands are symmetrical circular bands, but the two between them taper as they spiral around the dial face. 

Acceleration is measured on the white band in meters 
per second squared when the needle moves in a clockwise 
direction.  Braking is measured similarly when the needle
moves in a counterclockwise direction.

The outer black band is evenly divided into 80 increments representing percentages of G-force, and numbered 0 to 40 % reading from top to bottom clockwise and counterclockwise respectively. Note that the outer band is labelled "discesa" (deceleration) left of the zero point at the top of the band, and "salita" (acceleration) right of the zero point. Are you following this? Good, because it's about to get complicated.

Acceleration and deceleration are measured in different ways on four information bands.

The largest text is at the top of the dial face. On the left is the word "FRENO," meaning "brake." It is in white letters on a black band.  An arrow beneath it points in a counterclockwise direction. To the right of the 0 point at the top of the dial is the word "MOTORE, meaning "engine," in black letters over a white background.  And in the middle, between them, is the word "FOLLE" in red script, meaning something like "don't even think about it." These comprise the second and third bands.

In addition to the percentage increments around the outside of the dial face band 2, the white band just inside it, is numbered clockwise 1 through 4 from top to bottom in meters per second squared.  Although the numbering stops at 4 at the bottom of the dial, there is one incremental mark beyond the 4. The black band inside the white one is labelled counterclockwise 1 through 8 meters per second squared. Note that the distance between graduations decreases dramatically. 

The fourth band is labelled and graduated somewhat vaguely compared to the others. All of the left side of the band and part of the right side are labelled "insufficient" in white letters on a white background and the remainder of the right side is labelled "good" in white letters on a green background.  

So what does all this tell us?

The Bowmonk Connection

Searching for information on dynometers, Jeff made contact with Mr. Ernie Hill at Bowmonk Ltd., the British manufacturer of Bowmonk Brakemeter/Dynometer, used primarily as brake testers (http://www.bowmonk.com/automotive/brakemeter). According to their literature their meter, which is substantially the same as the Burg, 

consists of a finely balanced pendulum free to respond to any changes in speed or angle, working through a quadrant gear train to rotate a needle round a dial. To damp out vibration, the instrument is filled with a special fluid not sensitive to changes in temperature. No maintenance is necessary.

The dial is calibrated in percentage "G", the accepted standard through the world for measuring acceleration and deceleration.   

Here's a helpful little schematic and formula to help clarify the above statement.  Say what?

So now we're getting somewhere. Bowmonk was able to clean and repair The Alfatross' DynoMeter and refill it with the anti-vibration fluid, which had leaked out long ago . . . but they are just as much in the dark about the Burg company and this particular device as we are.

The Burg DynoMeter after cleaning and restoration by
Bowmonk, Ltd.

It is clear that we are missing part of the instrument's mounting apparatus, perhaps just a simple bracket. At some point in the not-too distant future we're going to install this thing in one of our vehicles and field test it to see how it actually works.

Bowmonk provided this certificate of calibration after restoring
the Dynometer giving it a clean bill of health!