Zombie Alert! (Post # 91)

Recently it seems like The Alfatross presents a new surprise at every turn.  It's like fighting Zombies. There is an endless supply of them, all relentless in their determination to devour your budget and patience. You can't run away from them, you can't just ignore them, and they won't go away by themselves. All you can do is outsmart them.

Like Zombies, surprise restoration problems pop up when
you least expect them--and are just as hard to lay to rest. 

The Alfatross' original cams were badly worn and had to
be replaced.  DeWayne and Roger suggested why not go
for a custom design that would produce better
performance? All we had to do was turn in the specs and
wait . . . wait . . . wait . . . .

The cams finally arrived. The cams FINALLY arrived! As everyone knows, Crower moved its facilities to Mars recently, and you can't ship things from there to Earth in a timely manner until their orbits approach each other, roughly once every 750 years or so. This is typical of the many reasons why car restorations take so long. 

The new cams looked great, but weren't exactly as specified after receiving all the milling, tempering, coating, massaging and aroma-therapy treatments. But that's why machine shops were invented so Roger Lorton made the necessary adjustments and now all is well.

. . . until the custom-designed Crower cams finally arrived.  
Now we could finish it . . . but wait! There's more!

No sooner had the Cam Zombie been eradicated than the Gear Zombie reared its ugly head. Someone noticed a tiny crack in the distributor/tach drive gear. This is a small, delicate, unassuming item--but without it the car isn't going anywhere! In the spirit of keeping the car as original as possible, we first considered welding it up and re-machining it, but the cost would have been obscene. The only other alternative was to find an old one in good condition. This is where we discovered that 60 year old distributor/tach drive gears for Alfa 1900s are quite rare. And it isn't like there is only one type, so if you are lucky enough to find one you still have to figure out if it's the right type.

The distributor and tach are driven by a housing mounted

on the back of the left side cam. It looked good to go

without  a lot of work.  But on closer inspection . . .

DeWayne and Roger discovered a tiny 

crack in the distributor drive gear. 

It wasn't a bad crack or even a big 

crack,  but it wasn't supposed to be 

there and those guys don't like 

things that aren't supposed to be

 there. 

  

After a lot of inquiries into both repairing the old one and finding a new one I finally asked Dan Allen if he could help.  I say "finally" because I didn't want to approach him until we ran out of other options. He has already pulled The Alfatross' bacon out of the fire several times.  You don't want to wear out your welcome with a guy like that. But I did in desperation and sure enough, he had one on the shelf and sent it to me--problem solved, just like that!

And that's when the Starter Zombie, stumbling and slobbering, lurched into the picture. I get a message from DeWayne saying that the starter I provided doesn't fit. To the best of my knowledge the starter is the same one that I took off the engine a couple of decades ago, so how could it not fit now?  Well if it doesn't fit, it can't be the same one.  How the hell did that happen? 

While trying to figure that one out I remembered that there was a Bosch starter in a box in the trunk when I bought the car in 1969. I didn't know if it had ever been fitted to The Alfatross, but in any case it was broken so I just laid it aside. The fact that it was Bosch instead of Marelli or Scintilla made me skeptical, but when I looked at it again I noticed silver paint on the upper side. Silver paint? The Alfatross' engine bay was painted silver over black. Maybe it was a replacement fitted by a previous owner some time before 1969?  I sent it to DeWayne and Roger, who re-welded the broken gooseneck between the starter and the solenoid and got it going again.

The mysterious Bosch starter found in the trunk.  Note the silver paint on the upper surfaces (lower surfaces are black). Why the starter that was thought to be original no longer fits is still a mystery.

The cracked "gooseneck" part of the starter housing, now
repaired.

So now we're hunkered down again, locked an loaded, ready to fend off the next Zombie surprise attack.  It's just a matter of time . . . .

The PerfOMeter (Post # 90)

No, this is not The Alfatross' heater fan motor before
cleaning. The Antikythera Mechanism, found on a ship
that wrecked more than 2,000 years ago, remained
 unidentified for 50 years after its discovery.
Wikimedia Commons.

In archaeology it is not unusual to find an object you can't identify.  If it is incomplete, a part of something else, identification is even harder. A good example is the "Antikythera Mechanism".  Discovered on an ancient Roman shipwreck in 1900, it was not identified until half a century later when a researcher realized it was some kind of mechanical device devised 2,200 years ago to predict astronomical and calendrical events. The scientific world was flabbergasted. More than 1,000 years ahead of its time, it has been called the first analog computer.

The Alfatross' Burg Dynometer

That doesn't happen as often in "carchaeology". After all, automotive technology is barely 120 years old, and is pretty well documented throughout the whole period. The Alfatross' version of the Antikythera Mechanism is its Burg Dynometer, which I have mentioned a couple of times previously, mainly in frustration over our inability to identify it and learn how it works.  

Thanks to the burgeoning internet and researchers like Wayne Mikosz who know how to use it efficiently, we recently discovered another example of the Dynometer being offered on a European auction site. By the time we learned about it the item was no longer being offered. Apparently there were no bids.

PerfOMeter road test results reported in Auto Age, 1951.
They loved it! 

But Wayne was not discouraged.  He turned to his own "archive" of old automotive literature where he hit pay-dirt: an advertisement in the first issue of a magazine called Auto Age for the "PerfOMeter," along with the results of a "road test" performed by the Auto Age staff!

The road test was conducted in a classy Jaguar
 MkVII saloon!

The advertisement was wildly enthusiastic. Would you like to know your car's actual horsepower? Its wind and rolling resistance? Its stopping distance in feet? The condition of your brakes? The gasoline best suited for your car? The results of an expensive repair job on your car? Well, the wait is over! Now, for only $22.50 you can have the answers to these and many more questions about your car's performance with the PerfOMeter De Luxe Model 104 available from the Autosphere Corporation of New York City.

The PerfOMeter, like the Burg Dynometer, works on the pendulum principle with the internal pendulum's motion dampened by baffles in oil and mechanical compensation for variations in temperature and atmospheric pressure.

The Alfatross' Burg Dynometer is virtually identical to this
illustration in the PerfOMeter ad.  We were particularly
interested in the configuration of the mounting strap that
allows the meter to swing freely under the dash.

We weren't interested in the advertising hype as much as in the explanation of how the instrument worked and how it should be mounted to the instrument panel. The reviewers at Auto Age spent a considerable time testing an example they were given under actual road conditions and were impressed. Their explanation for how the manufacturer could make so many claims about the information it could produce was succinct:

" How can one instrument supply so much valuable data? First you must realize that many of the items of information listed above are interdependent, that figures for one can be transposed into facts about another if you're willing to go through the math involved. (You must also realize that to obtain really useful results from the PerfOMeter you'll have to read the 64-page instruction manual carefully and spend some time absorbing it.)"

The PerfOMeter dial face is somewhat different than that of The Alfatross' Burg
Dynometer,  and a whole lot more visually complicated, but the functions are the
same.

But we still have questions.  We now know that the Dynometer was not a new-fangled contraption in 1955, but when did The Alfatross acquire it? It seems unlikely that it was a feature provided by Zagato, even though it is clearly meant for an Italian market.  More likely it was added by the first or second owner while the car was still in Italy.  Regardless of when that happened it is yet another indication of an as-yet undiscovered racing history.  

Suspension Animation (Post # 89)

Not suspended animation, suspension animation--the state of working vigorously on the suspension system. The Alfatross' front suspension with double A-arms, telescoping shock absorbers, and coil springs and its worm-and-sector steering system are pretty simple and straight-forward. But that doesn't mean they are easy to refurbish.  

The basic A-arm configuration.  Upper and lower control
arms connected by the steering knuckle, four pivot points
per arm, each requiring a bushing. 

Following disassembly Jeff Kramer and I determined that some of the the 16 copper-alloy sleeve bearings (sometimes called bushings) in the A-arms were worn and should probably be replaced. In the spirit of "In for a penny, in for a pound" we elected to replace them all as well as the four sleeve bearings for the kingpins.  

One of the original sleeve bearings, showing wear and 

corrosion.

New sleeve bearings are readily available on line, so parts were not a problem. This time the problem was ingenuity: getting the old sleeve bearings out, pressing the new ones in, reaming the new ones to fit the pins on the steering knuckles and A-arm pivot points, and align-reaming the new bushings for the kingpins. Modern suspension systems don't use sleeve bearings, so your average gearheads, like us, have never done this type of work. How hard can it be, we thought, and dived in, cheerfully oblivious to what we were getting ourselves into. 

The first thing we needed was a selection of "stepped" bushing drivers to press the old sleeves out, so once again we called on machinist Jeff Robison for his help making them to the right dimensions. This is where we got a surprise. One would expect the dimensions of the suspension members of an Alfa Romeo to be metric, but they were all Imperial. We had already noticed that the brake system and shock absorbers were made by Girling.  Now it seemed that the suspension system was also British made.

A selection of some of the tools we had to buy or fabricate to get the job done.  The Chadwick & Trefethen reamers are at the top.  Jeff Robison made the three drivers on the right, the brass "sleeve expander" on the left, and the aluminum collar in the center.

Pressing out the old bearings turned out to be the only easy part of the job. By "easy" I mean relative to putting a man on the moon.    

One of the 16 sleeve bearing joints needing replacement. 
Press out the old one, search the Web for replacements,
press in the new one, ream the new one to fit the specific
pin it will receive. Repeat 16 times--and don't screw up!

A stepped driver in position on an A-arm, 
ready for pressing. the first step fits inside 
the bearing.  The second step catches on the
lip of the bearing and presses it out. The 
third step limits the travel.

The original sleeve bearings seem to have been
technically superior to the new ones.  Note that they
are "split" instead of being a solid tube,  that the
split has a "dove-tail" tab to limit expansion, and that
they are bi-metallic: steel on the outside and copper
alloy on the inside.

All of the original sleeve bearings bore this logo: 
PV LTD. Anybody recognize the manufacturer? 
The LTD seems to suggest British origin.

Two sleeve bearings became loose during the
reaming process and had to be tightened up
using the "sleeve expander" manufactured by
Jeff Robison. Problem solved.

Hand-reaming the newly installed sleeve
bearings.  Each bearing took about 30 minutes
to ream to fit the specific pin it would  receive.
I hope I never have to do this again!

Reaming the sleeve bearings in one of the spindles with a self-aligning Chadwick & Trefethen reamer made specially for this purpose.  Don't leave home without it!

The tie rod ends held even more surprises.  Again there was no indication of who made them, but the dimensions of the threaded elements and nuts were all Imperial, so they probably originated in Great Britain. Some of the originals were re-usable but others were not and they are not rebuildable either, so new units were necessary.  Several on-line vendors offer tie rod ends, but none of them have the same dimensions as the originals.  

We ended up with a set of 6, 3 of which had right-hand metric threads on the tie-rod ends while the other 3 had left-hand Imperial threads on their tie rod ends.  Go figure.  So now we are going to have to make our own tie rods with metric threads on one end and Imperial threads on the other!   

The original tie rod ends, also manufactured to Imperial
dimensions.  They bore no logo or manufacturer's name, 
and could not be rebuilt.

After conferring with Dan Allen I now suspect the tie rod ends that were on the car when I bought it in 1969 may not have been original. He sent me the photo below of a tie rod end from a Matta, an Alfa Romeo-produced vehicle similar to the American Jeep that shared many parts with the 1900. With the right spanner you could remove the top to clean and recondition it. Dan thinks Alfa 1900s produced in the mid-1950s probably carried this type of tie-rod end. If anyone out there has definitive information about this subject, I'm all ears!

A tie-rod end from an Alfa Romeo Matta.
Dan Allen.

ReinCARnation (Post # 88)

Restoration of an automobile is as much a re-birth as it is a re-build. If The Alfatross could see, smell and hear, it might think that it is back in Zagato's workshop in Milano, 60 years ago--except that everyone is speaking English instead of Italian, of course, and their hand gestures are less . . . expressive. 

A restoration shop is a place of sensory contrasts, a place where things of delicate, ethereal beauty somehow miraculously emerge from the sturm und drang of shrieking power tools, endless thrumming of massive compressors, hissing air lines, crackle of welding torches and the cringe-inducing nails-on-chalkboard sound of hand filing.  A place where all verbal communication is delivered as a shout. Where handshakes are replaced by elbow bumps. Where the atmosphere is perpetually flavored with the aroma of strong solvents.  It's easy to imagine that the sensations in Zagato's shop, where The Alfatross was born almost exactly 60 years ago, were very similar.

Whether it's a piece of furniture, a house or a car, "Preparation is 95% of a good paint job." The Alfatross is living proof of that adage.  How do you get a car ready for a paint job?  Well, if it's your 1991 Toyota 4Runner with 250,000 miles on the clock, you hose it off, let it dry in the sun, buy a case of rattle cans, and have at.

But if it's a 1955 Alfa Romeo 1900C SS Zagato there are a few additional steps in between the "hose it off" and "have at" steps--like, about 18 months' worth! And don't even think about it if you don't have a few hundred thousand dollars worth of building stuffed with all the right equipment and spacious paint booths like the one at Vintage Auto Craft.

The body shell in paint.  The color was carefully chosen to match the original.  Tim Marinos.

The doors, hood, and boot are painted separately.  Tim Marinos.

Yes, the body shell looks good, but there's still a lot left to do before I can bring it back to The Shed in Santa Fe: The doors, hood, and trunk have to be painted, everything has to be baked, cured, sanded, and polished. The bottom, engine bay, trunk, interior and wheel wells have to be painted, each requiring a different finish. Then the grills, windows, and trim can be re-installed. 

In addition to the main body shell, which is all one piece, there are a number of essential panels that also needed removal, repair and repainting.  Some of them are quite intricately shaped. Here is the panel that defines part of the left front wheel opening. The hose that supplies fresh air to cool the exhaust manifold comes through the hole in the panel. Tim Marinos.

The area from the bottom of the firewall to the beginning of the enclosed drive shaft tunnel was originally covered by aluminum panels that protected the brake, clutch,  and shift linkages.  Tim had to fabricate new ones because the originals were lost long ago.  Tim Marinos. 

To keep the weight down, all the windows are Plexiglas except the windshield.  Fitting Plexiglas quarter windows to their frames is a tricky business.  Plexiglas scratches if you look at it too hard!  Tim Marinos.

If the cost of restoration seems exorbitant, stop and think about what it takes to get the job done.  The physical infrastructure, the financing, the time it takes to gain the necessary expertise in so many areas, the research, the knowledge, the connections . . . .  Everyone wants three things: Good, Fast, and Cheap, all of which are relative terms, and everyone knows that you aren't likely to get all three of these, but sometimes you can get two. When it comes to car restoration, in my experience if all you get is Good, be happy.  Be very happy.

D.N.R. (Post # 87)

The first time I heard the expression "It's only original once" I wondered what that was supposed to mean. Eventually I came to understand that at least among some car collectors it means Do Not Restore. That made me think of the medical order Do Not Resuscitate, which has the same acronym. So, what?  Just let it die . . . . ?  

As an archaeologist as well as a carchaeologist I interpret the DNR order as a reaction, or even over-reaction, to over-restoration. Some restorers lost the "All things in moderation" ethos along the way and "better than new" became the level necessary to win the big prizes. People and judges liked it and that became the norm.

The Alfatross was a complete, numbers-matching car when I bought it in 1969, but by the time I finally got serious about restoring it on January 1, 2013, its condition would not have qualified it as a "preservation candidate," "barn find," or even "derelict." Although I did make the often fatal mistake of working on the car in fits and starts over a period of many, many years, at least there was method in my mistake-making.  I observed carefully, bagged and tagged parts that were removed, made notes and took photos. So it wasn't a disaster. 

For The Alfatross, the only reasonable course of action was disassembly and full restoration. There are times when I wished I had never touched it all those years, but who could have foreseen how desirable The Alfatross would become?  And who has the wherewithal to store a car in a secure, nitrogen-filled, climate controlled environment for 46 years? 

Which Once?

Back to the "It's only original once" admonition.  When, exactly, is "once"? The day it rolled off the assembly line? The day the dealer bought it? The day the first owner drove away in it? The day it was dragged out of the barn and into the limelight? The day the first photos were taken to create an actual record of what it looked like? Italian exotics from the 1950s bodied in small numbers by carrozzerias like Zagato do not seem to have formal "birth certificates" like collectible American and German cars, so there is no "build sheet" specifying what features they had or even the original colors of the body and interior.

The Alfatross has unusual features that could be original or added by one of its previous owners years later: the Jaeger clock, Nardi wheel, Berg Dynometer, redundant ignition coil, and the Stridor air horn.  Which of these qualify for "original once" status?     

Is there a downside to imposing the DNR order on an historically significant collector car?  My own experience tells me there is. When I look back on the restoration of The Alfatross I think of the many things we learned about the car that would have remained hidden and unknown if we had not completely disassembled it. The following is a short list of some of the things we learned:

Serial Numbers

During disassembly and cleaning I was careful to log the make, model, and serial numbers of every part that had them.  This was a lot of work but it provides a record of exactly which parts were on this particular car.  I venture to speculate that The Alfatross is the only 1900C SSZ with that kind of build detail.

The Zagato serial number, scrawled in pencil on the back side of a thin strip of upholstered
plywood affixed to the roof just above the ceiling, hidden since the day the interior was finished.

The Zagato serial number also appeared on the inside of the door panels. Here seen for the first time in 60 years. Derrick Dunbar.

After cleaning we realized that many of the suspension and steering components bore cast and stamped numbers and codes such as these "Cs" on front and rear suspension members signifying a short chassis.

Unexpected Finds

There was relatively little standardization among The Alfatross' brethren, but some departures from "conventional wisdom" were more surprising than others. Stripping the paint from the left front fender revealed two such surprises. The first was two parallel dark-colored strips just above the break line between the front wheel and the driver's door, apparently made by a trim strip. But there is no matching pattern on the other side of the car and although some later cars were fitted with trim strips none of The Alfatross' closest relatives have them.  Is thisp evidence of an early design experiment that didn't find its way into production until later?

The Alfatross' left front fender between the wheel arch and the driver's door, showing the mysterious parallel lines of discoloration suggesting it was once fitted with a trim strip.

The second surprise is two small holes providing conclusive evidence that The Alfatross was originally fitted with the small "Z" emblems just above the break in the body line and ahead of the doors.  Other Zagato-bodied cars of the period more commonly carry the written-out Z-a-g-a-t-o emblem.

The Zagato emblem that came with the car but was not re-attached after the 1965 repaint.  
Various authorities have assured me many times that this is not the "right" emblem for 
the time period.  The two small holes in the photo below prove they are wrong. 

Previous Owners

Two of The Alfatross' previous owners left their personal touch to parts of the car.  Pat Braden scratched his initials and date into the engine's bell housing and Paul Turner engraved his name onto some of the tools.  Both were discovered after cleaning. 

Previous owner V. Pat Braden's initials and date (10/64) scratched into the bell housing as a reminder of when the clutch was replaced (the inscription is easier to make out in person).

Paul Turner inscribed his name on some of the tools in the
tool kit.

Hidden Damage

In The Alfatross' case, the main reason for disassembly and full restoration was to discover hidden damage and potential safety issues with the chassis, suspension, steering, power train, brakes and electrical system. 

The original sleeve bearings from the suspension and steering systems showed wear and were replaced, but kept for later reference.  

Only after disassembly did we realize that the right front suspension spring was broken . . .

. . . and that the two shock absorbers were different: an original Girling on the left side and a replacement Armstrong on the same side that had the broken spring!

Among the worst of the engine's hidden damage problems was dramatic wear on the camshaft lobes.  Carter Hendricks.

All the exhaust valve lips were ground too thin and had to be replaced.  

Cylinder three showed evidence of having digested a foreign object at some point which damaged the head.  Roger Lorton.

Once and for All

So it seems to me that if during disassembly you took photos--lots of them--and made sketches and notes, you captured the originality for all time.  On the other hand if you just wiped the dust off, put gas in the tank, and drove it to the nearest concours (as some purchasers of "barn finds" claim) then you didn't preserve, or learn, anything . . . but you did save the enormous cost of restoration--a powerful incentive!

More Than Meets the Eye (Post # 86)

A tall engine, to be sure!  Once the cams finally come back it can be completely reassembled. All the other parts and sub-assemblies are ready for installation. DeWayne Samuels.

The engine still ran when I bought the car 46 years ago, but just barely. It showed every symptom of having been rode hard and put away wet. It smoked, drank (fuel), and had difficulty waking up in the mornings. At that point it was, after all, just an old used-up sports car of a make most Americans had never heard of. But it was all there. In a way, the engine's numerous problems probably saved The Alfatross' life and maybe even my own: If you're afraid to drive it, you won't get into trouble.  

The engine in about 1980.  The air cleaner housing and
exhaust manifold shroud have been removed.  Evidently
the cam covers and cylinder head were stripped of their
finishes before I got the car when they were removed to
do a valve job.

The original matching-numbers engine looked pretty good on the outside. Sure, it was rusty, the carbs were gunked up, and the rubber parts had given up their ghosts, but until the initial disassembly and scrutiny I was still hoping that maybe all it needed was a good cleaning up and a little mechanical massaging--but no such luck. The cams were worn badly, apparently the result of inadequate lubrication. The exhaust valves were ground too thin to reuse and all the guides were sloppy. Piston number 3 had nicks on it from a foreign object that somehow found its way into the combustion chamber. The sprockets on the cam chain needed to be replaced. The distributor drive gear was cracked. The more we looked the more problems we found.

So the engine restoration mandate became to disassemble and analyze all parts for evidence of wear and injury, repair all items that could be repaired, replace items that could not be repaired (with better than original equipment whenever possible to promote reliability and longevity), and tune it to produce strong performance using modern fuels.

The Alfatross' engine is now almost complete.  Once the cams come back it can be completely reassembled, run in, tuned, and dyno tested.  Changes have been made internally, but the engine's outward appearance remains the same as when it came from Zagato.  

I will restrain myself from estimating exactly when it will be ready for me to pick it up, but it won't be long now.  Why does it take so long and cost so much to restore an old four-cylinder two-liter engine built more than 60 years ago? 

Oil pump internals. DeWayne Samuels.

Well, let's take a look at DeWayne's description of what needed to be done to a relatively simple part of the engine, the oil pump: 

Oil Pump and pickup: continue from receipt desassy for rebuild and restoration. Deburr, smooth, blend and detail oil passages and pressure cavity. Surface base and face plate. Fab gaskets as supplied units are shrunken. Assemble with friction coated gearset and install.

The engine block was a little more complicated. Following basic disassembly, cleaning and inspection:

Machining the cast iron engine block.  Roger Lorton.

Engine block: Prep as required after all machining work, including but not limited to chase and verify all threads. Oil pressure circuits optimized for flow. Glyptal paint internals for oil shedding and to seal the cast iron. Install all main cap alignment dowels and end cover and cylinder head locating dowels. Install all studs internal and external. Final prep and install of main bearings. Install crankshaft assy. Measure thrust end play--excessive clearance, no proper bearings available, send bearings out for additional babbit layer. Set thrust with rebuild bearings after many sizing fitments. Finalize mains and set torque.

The color of the deep oil sump was derived from a paint
chip from Jean-Marc Freslon's 1900. DeWayne Samuels.

Even the oil sump needed a bit of brazing and refinishing in a color computer-matched from a paint chip taken from a friend's 1900 sump.

But those procedures are child's play compared to issues posed by the cylinder head, valves, guides, and cams--which I described in a previous post. In fact, the cams are still what's holding up completion of the engine.

The cylinder head, cams, and valves needed the most attention. Where are those damn cams? DeWayne Samuels. 

Right rear view without the intake 
manifold in place. The cams are 
still MIA. DeWayne Samuels.

Intake manifold, painted and ready to be installed as soon as 
the cams come back from . . . wherever they are!  
DeWayne Samuels.

Why does it take so long? The main reason is because during the 40+ years  that The Alfatross spent sleeping like Snow White, waiting for Prince Charming to come along and bring her back to life, unforeseeable world events were conspiring to make her ever more rare and desirable. For such a car exceptional care must be taken with every aspect of its restoration. It has to run as good as it looks.