Eq = Ar/Tp (Post #141)

No, the title of this post was not the result of my cat walking on the keyboard.  Expressed here for the first time in scientific formula shorthand form, it is a critical problem often encountered by those of us who restore old cars.  Translated into English it states "Enthusiasm quotient of the restorer is equal to the Age of the restorer divided by the length of Time the project is taking."

In the case of The Alfatross, if I had finished the project the same year I started it (2013), my Eq would have been a lively 64.  Now, four and a half years later, if I finish it by December 31st it will be a feeble 13.6. 

What are the signs of flagging Eq? Probably the most common is what psychologists call "Displacement activity", I found this broad definition on the Web: 

"If an animal [such as a car guy] is stimulated to express a basic drive [such as bring an old Alfa Romeo back to life] , but the action is frustrated [such as mysterious brake problems holding up progress], the drive may find an outlet by inducing fragments of the pattern of behavior properly belonging to another drive [such as scrubbing the shop floor, cleaning the toaster, tightening the light bulbs, pecking away on his blog, etc.].  

. . . or at least I think that's what it means! 

So is the Eq=Ar/Tp equation infallible? Not really--too many variables. For example if we take 1969 (the year I acquired The Alfatross) as the starting point of the project and 21 as my Ar at the time, my Eq now in 2018 should be a measly 0.42. I think my Eq feels more like 13.6, so there must be other, as yet unidentified, variables in play--like maybe other projects competing for a proportion of the total amount of E a person can generate. By comparison, Albert Einstein developed the Theory of Relativity in 1905 when he was 26 years old. It didn't quite explain everything, so he spent the rest of his life working on the Theory of Everything. When he died 50 years later in 1955 he was still working on it.  Dividing his Ar by his Tp you come up with an Eq of 0.52!  I bet he had the shiniest floor, cleanest toaster, tightest lightbulbs--and (if there had been such a thing in 1955) a blog even longer than this one! 

It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems
longer. '

Thanks, Albert.  I think I've stuck with this one long enough!

Where Is Sherlock When You Need Him? (Post # 140 )

The unique brake fluid reservoir that was on The
Alfatross when I got it--not original equipment!  Is it
trying to tell me something?

Remember this photo?  Probably not.  You would have to go all the way back to June 28, 2013 in this blog to find the post where it first appeared.  That post, "Brake Time", starts with:

The brakes were the first thing to go.  Not the brakes themselves, but one of the hard brake lines that finally rusted through, bleeding all the fluid out of the reservoir.  So it was fitting that the brakes were the Alfatross' first major system to be restored--well, that and the fact that brakes are easy and inexpensive to fix!

The parts of the original reservoir.
The metal parts are in perfect
condition, but the rubber seals, some
of which are quite complex, are shot.

Obviously, I was a lot more optimistic 5 years ago than I am now! The photo shows the brake fluid reservoir that was on The Alfatross when I got it.  For a long time I thought it was original, so I took it apart and tried to identify the manufacturer--with no success.  Then I tried to figure out how it worked and why it was so intricate and mysterious when the rest of the brake system was all mass-produced by Girling.  All of the other 1900s I saw just had the simple can, proudly bearing the Girling label.  And so it was with no small measure of relief that I accepted the fact that the reservoir was not original and could therefore be replaced by a readily-available and inexpensive Girling reproduction.

Now, years later, I am once again wondering if I should have paid more attention to what that strange, apparently unique reservoir was trying to tell me.  One restoration expert I showed it to said he thought it was a combination of a container made by one manufacturer and innards made by a different one.  But why replace the original with this oddball reservoir?  It is obviously much more expensive than the original reservoir. And what is it supposed to do, anyway?  

A normal reservoir is just an empty can with a wide mouth at the top and a tube at the bottom eventually connecting to the master cylinder.  Why all the rubber, brass, and steel parts inside the aluminum can?  Was it an effort to treat some chronic problem the brake system was having?  Am I now experiencing the same problem?  Could it be manually "pumped up" to serve the same function as a brake check valve, always maintaining positive pressure within the system to keep the springs on the shoes from retracting the shoes so far that a single pump of the brake cannot supply sufficient fluid?

When we were preparing The Alfatross for the 2016 Arizona Concours we worked for hours trying to get a "hard" brake pedal.  In the end, we drove with a pedal that went to the floor every time with very little effect. In preparation for the Santa Fe Concorso a few months later, we bled the lines repeatedly, took the master cylinder out for bench testing, and adjusted and readjusted the shoe-to-drum configuration.  Finally, we disconnected the hard line from the master cylinder to the rear brake line and relied solely on the front brakes.  That worked well enough for a stop gap solution, but two years and a lot of other experimentation later we're still scratching our heads.  

A couple of weeks ago I sat down to list all the elements of a non-assisted drum brake system:

1. Reservoir
2. Fluid
3. Master Cylinder
4. Pedal
5. Hard Lines
6. Soft Lines
7. Wheel Cylinders
8. Shoe-Drum Articulation and Adjustment.

Then I started checking each of the elements.  Remembering that The Alfatross was 14 years old when I got it and had 6 owners before me, each check started with the question "correct part?".  

1. Reservoir: Girling reproduction of original. Nothing to go wrong!
2. Fluid: DOT 5. Rubber parts in system show no signs of degradation. Other 1900 SS cars using DOT 5 report no problems.
3. Master Cylinder: 1" bore. Disassembled and bench tested, no leaks. Fluid volume displaced per stroke = 20 ml.
4. Pedal: factory Brake Pedal Ratio appears low, ca. 4:1.  
5. Hard Lines: All new cunifer, double flare ends.  No leaks. Lines bled using:
1. Foot on pedal activation
2. Lever attached to pedal shaft under car
3. Suction at bleeder
4. Under pressure from reservoir
5. Gravity (horizontal)
6. Gravity (tilted) Not tried yet!
6. Soft Lines: New reproductions, nominal.
7. Wheel Cylinders: Original front cylinders nominal. Rear original 1 1/8" bore  cylinders improperly restored. 
8. Shoe-Drum Articulation: Linings nominal. Drums nominal. All adjustments nominal.

Each stroke of the piston 
expels 20 ml of  brake
fluid into the system.  
Note the scale on the right
 is in mm.  Is that the 
correct volume?  Who 
knows?

Bench testing the  master cylinder.  The Starbucks mocha
 frappuccino  bottle makes a great reservoir!  The m/c
passed all the tests with flying colors, so not the source 
of the problem!

How to bleed brakes single-handedly: The black lever
arm is bolted to the bottom of the brake pedal shaft.
Pushing it to the left emulates foot pressure on the pedal.
The spring scale at the other end of the lever holds 
pressure on the master cylinder while the bleeder screw
is closed.

An exploded view of  one of  The Alfatross'
rear brake cylinders. The parts circled  in
yellow (two backing discs and a  spring) were
lost by the restoration company I sent them
to . . .  

. . . and replaced with just a spring!  Lesson:
Trust, but verify, the work you parcel out to
other people.

Analysis of the elements of The Alfatross' brake system, combined with the very important clue provided by the oddball reservoir on the car when I acquired it, suggests that it had a "preexisting condition" adversely affecting its brake system. Good thing I didn't tell Grundy about that!

But what, exactly, was the nature of the condition?  Over the next couple of weeks I am going to properly restore the rear wheel cylinders, make sure the pushrod between the end of the brake pedal shaft and the master cylinder allows the master cylinder its full travel range, prime the master cylinder and rear wheel cylinders before installing them, and gravity bleed the entire system.  I may even experiment with a check valve on the hard line to the rear brakes.  In the meantime, if anyone out there in Blogland has ever seen a reservoir like the one that came with The Alfatross and knows what it is supposed to do, PLEASE comment--The Alfatross needs a solution!   

Slip Slidin' Away (Post # 139)

Slip slidin' away,

Slip slidin' away.

You know the nearer your destination

The more you're slip slidin' away.

Left front wheel cylinder  and the offending
ball.

The two types of bleeder valves.  The shiny new
"improved" valve on the left and the old-fashioned ball
valve on the right.

The Alfatross' persistent brake problem continues to puzzle me even as I continue to try to trouble shoot it. I know! I know! It's a simple system with only so many things that can go wrong.  If I had a dime for every time a person helpfully suggested that perhaps all the fluid leaked out (without me noticing!), or maybe there is air in the lines, I could fly The Alfatross back to the Alfa factory in Italy and get them to do it!  

A few weeks ago  I was, under the car, working on the Alfatross' left front wheel cylinder. For some reason the bleeder wasn't acting right. When I opened it up to bleed the system (for what seemed like the tenth time!) I couldn't get a good flow, just an erratic dribble of fluid. I took the bleeder out and immediately saw that the pointed end was flattened and concave. What the . . . ?  I used a fine wire to probe the opening.  It seemed to be contacting some kind of obstruction but there was no way to look inside the bleeder opening. 

I did not really want to remove the whole wheel cylinder because that meant the wheel, hub, lug nuts, rondellas, drum, and shoes would have to come off too--a lot of work!  But I couldn't see any way around it.  

Normal bleeder on the left and the damaged bleeder
extracted from the left front wheel cylinder.  Note the
concave deformed tip caused by contact with the ball.

At that moment I realized that the SiriusXM radio was playing Paul Simon's song, Slip Slidin' Away, and I thought "Ain't that the truth"!  A year ago I thought I was coming down the home stretch with this restoration and now I feel like I'm farther away than ever!

I saw what the problem was as soon as I got the wheel cylinder off: a small steel ball was lodged in the bleeder opening.  The original 1955 vintage bleeders on The Alfatross' wheel cylinders used a steel ball to seal the opening.  The bleeder screw had a flat nose with a shallow concavity to keep the ball centered.  We switched over to the new, supposedly better-sealing bleeders with pointed ends during the restoration, but somehow this one steel ball was not removed.

So does the story have a happy ending?  No, I'm still slip slidin' away! This simple repair did nothing to ameliorate the overall brake problem (more about that in the next posts), but I am glad it was found and fixed.  And yes, I did do a thorough check of the other three bleeders, all of which were in proper order. 

There's More Than One Way to Skin a Cap (Post # 138)

The basic Motive Products pressure tank
and feeder hose.  It can do a lot of other
jobs too, like fill your transmission.

If you can't get your brake system to bleed the normal way by pumping the pedal, maybe you can pressurize the reservoir and "force bleed" it.  This is the whole premise behind a variety of kits  made by Motive Products https://www.motiveproducts.com/products/0100-european-bleeder. Sounded good to me. Nothing else I tried worked, so what have I got to lose?  I also liked the idea that theoretically you could bleed your brake system by yourself.  Theoretically.

The idea is simple, and so is the equipment: a Nalgene pressure tank with a gauge that can be pumped up to 30 psi (more pressure than you need to do the job), a few feet of clear plastic tubing, and a variety of caps to fit various types of reservoirs.They even make a kit that includes a cap for "European vehicles with a 45 mm opening".  Because the Girling tank opening measures 44.5 mm I thought maybe that's close enough.

The first problem was this breather nipple on
the underside of the cap.  A few drops of 
lacquer thinner dissolved the adhesive  and it
came loose by itself.

So I ordered one.  I did not really expect any of the supplied caps to fit The Alfatross' 1950s vintage Girling reservoir, so I was not disappointed when they didn't.  The only question was what would it take to make it work?  Could the Girling cap be modified to take the feeder hose and be leak proof?  Only one way to find out! Fortunately, I had a spare Girling reservoir I could experiment with.  It turned out to be pretty easy to adapt the Girling cap to the basic Motive Products kit. The hardest part was patiently waiting for the adhesive to set.

As I write this, the cap is on the reservoir in the car and I have pressurized it. The pressure tank's volume is 2 liters, which is way more volume than the brake system needs.  It would have been helpful if the manufacturer had mentioned that even with 5 bottles of fluid in the tank it takes about 150 strokes to get the pressure up to 15 psi! 

The "power bleeder" does work and it can be done single-handed, but through no fault of its own, it did not cure the problem(s) The Alfatross is having.  More about that in the next post(s).

Now, with the nipple out of the way I could
drill through the cap from the inside and screw
on this nylon hose barb fitting.  

A generous amount of my favorite all-purpose
adhesive, E-6000, made it an airtight seal.

At this point the cap was reunited with the
reservoir and pressure tested before being
filled with brake fluid.

The center of the original rubber cap seal had
to be removed to accommodate the end of the
hose barb.

The right-angle hose barb seemed like a good
idea at the time because there is very little
clearance between the top of the cap and the
body, but it made removing and reinstalling
 the cap very clumsy.  Of course this cap is  just
 for "power bleeding".  The original goes back 
on for normal service.

For Questions About Originality, Ask Italy! (Post #137)

Gigi's photo of an original aluminum master cylinder cover
(copertura) in place.  Luigi Ventura.

Original copertura (right) and its
 reproduction.  Paolo Galafassi.

As mentioned in the last post, Gigi Ventura made me aware that his friend Paolo Galafassi (https://www.classicvintagecar.it/) has not only rare original examples of the heat shield over the first muffler set, but also the "copertura" covering the master cylinder.  I have to admit I was at first skeptical that such a feature was an original factory item because although I have seen the underside of quite a few 1900s, none of them was equipped with one.  Furthermore, no such cover for the master cylinder appears in the official Alfa parts catalog for 1900s.  The first photo Gigi sent did nothing to convince me.  It showed a somewhat battered-looking alloy box, open at the top and back, covering the area around the master cylinder. Then I noticed in the same image the unusual finned oil pan sump, oil filter housing, and the front suspension lowering spacers.  Hmmmm--maybe the copertura was a modification too?

The factory-installed screw holes in the Alfatross' chassis
for attaching the master cylinder copertura.

One of The Alfatross' original rondellas (right)
and Paolo's reproduction (left).

I wrote back to to Gigi to express my skepticism. In reply, he sent photos of an original surviving copertura alongside a reproduction made by Paolo's shop.  But the thing that really convinced me that coperturas were original factory equipment was the four attachment points Gigi told me to look for on The Alfatross' chassis.  Sure enough, there they were, and not just holes drilled for sheet metal fasteners, but carefully made threaded inserts for 5mm x .80 machine screws!

I immediately put in an order with Paolo for reproductions of both the exhaust heat shield and the copertura.  On the same page of Paolo's Web site  https://www.classicvintagecar.it/catalogo/ricambi/alfa-romeo/1900/freni-1900/, I also saw something else I had been looking for: rondellas--the steel rings that securely lock the lug nuts to the splined wire wheel hubs. 

Paolo's reproduction copertura fit The Alfatross perfectly.
It will be painted black to match the chassis color.

Note the 3 fasteners along the longitudinal
frame member and 1 on the transverse
member.

Having had some bad experiences during The Alfatross' restoration when ordering reproduction parts, I am delighted to report that all three orders arrived quickly, were carefully packed, and just as advertised--and the prices were very reasonable.  Grazie Gigi and Paolo! It doesn't get any better than that . . . .

The Last Detail . . . (Post # 136)

Master welder Chris Felix carefully makes the 10 TIG
welds mating the exhaust sections and hanger tabs
together. 

The exhaust system is finally finished--welded, aligned, scuffed, painted, polished, and insulated.  Finished, but not installed yet.  

I decided to insulate the top of the last set of  mufflers with
"lava shield", a thin sheet of material made from crushed
volcanic rock, in order to protect the Zagato paint and
body work inside the confined space in the rear muffler
recess.

There are a couple of reasons for this. The main one is because I need to complete work on the brake system first, and that is more easily done while the exhaust is out of the way.  But, in the form of a comment from Gigi (Luigi Ventura) affter the last post, another reason presented itself: the opportunity to add a rare element of both improved functionality and authenticity!    

Gigi informed me that he knew someone who actually had more than one original example of the coperatura (heat shield) Alfa originally fitted on top of the first set of mufflers on 1900 SS models--and that he was willing to make a reproduction for The Alfatross! I knew these heat shields existed because they are illustrated in the Alfa parts catalog for the 1900 SS model, but The Alfatross did not have one when I got it in 1969 and I had never seen one on an actual vehicle.  I assumed they were the automotive equivalent of a unicorn's horn. But thanks to Gigi, and in keeping with my intention to restore The Alfatross as faithfully as possible, we ordered one!

Gigi's friend, Paolo Galafassi, has a shop specializing in classic Alfas  https://www.classicvintagecar.it/ If you have an Alfa 1900, you need to know about Paolo and the services he can provide. He has a lot of original parts and also makes reproductions to a very high standard, all at very reasonable cost.  While I was putting together my order for the exhaust heat shield and a shield for the brake master cylinder (more about that in the next post), I also added 4 "rondellas", the "lock washers" for the lug nuts holding the brake drums to the wheels. The Alfatross' originals have seen a lot of use!

The finished Quicksilver exhaust system.

The insulating aluminum cover (yellow circle)
over the first pair of mufflers is clearly
illustrated in this drawing from the Alfa
Romeo  1900 parts catalog.  Easy to find the
picture, very hard to find the part!

Examples of original heat shields attached directly above the first muffler set on a 1900 SS
chassis.  The function and location of the heat shield put it squarely in harm's way and most
did not survive into the present day.  Paolo Galafassi, Classic Vintage Car. https://www.classicvintagecar.it/chi-siamo/

Paolo Galafassi's reproduction muffler heat shield 
compared with a well-used original.  https://www.classicvintagecar.it/

All the parts were in my hands less than a month after placing the order and the whole process could not have been more satisfactory. So now the exhaust system is ready for installation.  None of the 1900 SSZ Alfas I have seen in person have this heat shield, but at least some owners have complained about excessive heat coming from the floorboards.  Perhaps the heat shield is an essential part of the exhaust system, not just a garnish. We will know soon enough, but I still have to solve the brake problem before it can all go back together.

Hotfooting It (Post # 135)

Wrapped headers on chassis *01909*.

 The Heatshield Products exhaust armor's
inner ceramic fibers layer is capable of
withstanding 1800 degrees F continuously.

Now we're back to the exhaust system, following Post # 129. The Alfatross has a hot engine. No, really, I mean HOT! And the exhaust gasses are the hottest part.  Alfa engineers knew this, so 1308 SS engines came from the factory with aluminum and asbestos heat shields protecting the starter, generator, and part of the steering column from the intense heat radiating off the headers.  A dedicated aluminum scoop and shroud ventilated the entire exhaust side of the engine when in motion, but was of little help otherwise. We need to get those hot gasses away from the car as fast as possible while at the same time keeping the decibels down to a civilized level. Alfa engineers put the first of three pairs of mufflers or resonators right under the driver's seat. At this point in the system the gasses are still at a few hundred degrees F. This might seem like a dumb thing to do, but if you look around under the chassis there really isn't any other place to put it, given that the chassis is short and you still need to find space for two more muffler pairs. 

The corrugated metallic outer layer keeps the
inner layer together and allows it to be shaped.

We discovered this "engineering compromise" during the 2016 Arizona Concours d'Elegance. Positioning the cars on the field in the wee hours took a long time, with a lot of stopping, idling, and waiting.  Even though the pre-dawn January morning was quite chilly the cabin became uncomfortably warm very quickly.  Fellow 1900C SSZ owner David Smith experienced the same phenomenon while preparing his car (*01947*) for Pebble Beach this year. During road testing the floorboard got so hot it started to melt his shoes! The only viable solution is to add more insulation between the first pair of mufflers and the floor under the driver's seat.

The Heatshield Products "Exhaust Armor" installed on 
top of the insulation previously fixed to the bellypan creates 
a good two cm total insulation between the exhaust system
 and the floorboard directly under the driver's seat. 

The third muffler pair hides in a recess in
the bodywork with no more than half an 
inch of clearance on either side.  

Trial fitting the Quicksilver exhaust system in preparation for tack-welding.  Altogether there are 10 joins, 2 hanger tabs, and a brace to weld.

Now that The Alfatross' new Quicksilver exhaust system is welded up and almost ready for installation, it's time to beef up the insulation in a discreet manner that does not detract from its originality. There is no question that insulation materials and technology available today do their job quite well, and some 1900 owners have gone so far as to wrap their headers, but some authorities think this practice may be damaging to the headers themselves. In any case use of header wrap for The Alfatross would be an inappropriate anachronism. On the other hand, replacing the traditional asbestos insulation attached to the bellypan beneath the driver's seat with modern materials is easy to do and should make a big difference without even being visible. 

Another place where the exhaust system could stand additional insulation to keep it from damaging the body paint is the muffler recess in the trunk area where the last pair of mufflers reside. On Zagato bodied SS cars like The Alfatross this space is only about 7 inches wide, leaving about half an inch of space on either side of the twin mufflers--too close for comfort!  

The Lava Shield mat material looks like carbon fiber and
is only 0.008 thick, but is said to reduce radiant heat by up
to 80%.  

After some online research I ordered two different kinds of insulation for the two applications, both manufactured by Heatshield Products (https://www.heatshieldproducts.com/): "Exhaust Armor" for the area under the driver's seat and "Lava Shield" for the last pair of mufflers in the recess. "Exhaust Armor" is a mostly fibrous ceramic material 0.50 inch thick bonded to a dimpled metallic sheet said to be able to resist 1,800 degrees F continuously, while reducing radiant heat by 60%. "Lava Shield" is a completely different material ("made of crushed volcanic rock" according to the manufacturer).  It comes in the form of a self-adhesive mat only 0.008 inch thick but capable of reducing radiant heat by 80%.

At this writing the Quicksilver exhaust system is back on the workbench following a test fitting to make sure everything is still in alignment after welding. The next step is prepping it for coating with the same high-temperature flat black paint I used on the first system.  I won't know how effective the heat shields are until after the whole system is back on and the engine fired up. One thing I can say for sure is this better be the last time anything having to do with the exhaust system needs attention--I'm tired of living under a car!