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.

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!