Now Where Was I? (Post # 148)

OK, so I took a 477 day break from blogging.  That doesn't mean work on The Alfatross stopped, just that other aspects of life got in the way. I have all the usual excuses: the Day Job, a trip to Italy the Alfatross' native land, repair work on some of her stable mates, and even shoulder surgery. But work continued on The Alfatross albeit at a reduced pace. The recent COVID pandemic has had virtually no negative effect on this and might even be accelerating progress by reducing other distractions.  
 

What you have to do to replace the odometer cable on my old 4Runner!

Excuses, Excuses 

Cinque Terre, Monterosso al Mare.

477 days ago I was looking at my 5-page list of tasks that remained to be done to finish The Alfatross and make her road worthy.  Some of them were relatively small, like various tweaks under the dash such as installing the corrugated hose running from the heater to the de-mister vent on the passenger's side.  Others were more involved like stopping the leaks from the oil pan and transmission.  Still others had to do with refinements in authenticity like fabricating and installing replicas of the heat shield over the exhaust system, the protective cover under the master cylinder, and the polished trim strips over the wheel arches either side of the back seat.  These are among the underestimated and overlooked reasons why car restorations take so long and cost so much.

I am starting to wonder if this kind of a restoration is ever really finished.  I thought I thoroughly researched the original mechanicals and esthetics of the known Alfa 1900C SSs bodied by Zagato in 1954-5, but during the restoration new information kept cropping up, necessitating additions and corrections. Shakedown runs revealed minor problems with the wiring harness, accuracy of instrument readings, interior trim details, and a tendency for the interior door on the passenger's side to mysteriously lock itself. Even after every detail is perfect there is always entropy to contend with.

81 indexed terms so far and counting . . . .

But where to start?  From the beginning on January 1, 2013 I printed copies of each post and collected them in 3-ring binders.  I know, totally Old School.  But I'm glad I did because I could leaf through all 147 of them to catch up on where I left off.  It was immediately apparent that I needed to number them sequentially and create an index so I could refer myself and readers of The Alfatross to specific terms and topics already covered. Of course you can always use the blog archive from the list in the right hand column, or even search for specific words with the search function, but with 147 posts that can be tedious! The Index is still under construction but I plan to publish it as Post #150 in a week or so.

If you're going to be spending a lot of time in there, make it comfortable!

Around the end of last year I looked at my "to-do" list and decided to tackle all the relatively minor jobs under the dash and elsewhere in the interior, which meant that all the seats had to come out along with the carpeting and insulation on the firewall and the entire transmission hump. I had been putting this off not because it meant spending a lot of time in twisted yoga positions under the dash, but because it felt so discouraging to undo so many things that had already been done in order to do the new things and put it all back together again. And of course there is always the strong possibility that during that process something will get smudged, scratched, dented, frayed, punctured or otherwise damaged, adding to the workload later. But you have to start somewhere!

Getting ready to install the de-mister hose behind the dashboard.

Coming Attractions

The next several posts will be about wrapping up repairs in the interior including, but not limited to:

• molding and casting the fresh air vent handle on the passenger's side
• running the vent hose from the heater to the de-mister on the passenger's side
• getting the Tudor windshield washer to work
• restoring the Jaeger chronometer
• rebuilding and testing the benzine gauge sender
• testing the acua and olio gauges and senders
• modifying the firewall insulation pads
• modifying the carpeting
• reproducing the polished aluminum trim strips over the rear wheel arches 

Erosion control at The Shed: BEFORE

No car is an island

Distractions abound in this world of ours. But even with constant distractions things do get completed--eventually. Some distractions are even necessary. Last summer some of The Alfatross' friends (one of whom is a civil engineer) came together to take on a series of erosion control efforts at an arroyo that has to be crossed to link The Shed to the world of roads. Maybe the next time I drive across it with The Alfatross I will think of it not as a distraction, but another one of the "little jobs" contributing to the completion of the overall project.

AFTER