Alfa 146 1.8 Project Options

[JeremyG]

So, this is the 146 I picked up a couple of weeks ago.

It's a black 146 1.8, late 1999, Phase 2 with a decent black leather interior - and a rusty floorpan.

Mileage is just over 90k and bodywork is in pretty good condition - straight panels and what seems to be original paint.

It has little service history but appears to have been well looked after (the engine oil is the cleanest I've ever seen... the interior is in excellent condition, aside from some slight wear on the driver's seat bolster... and the suspension is nice and quiet)

So it seems to be a good, original car - that needs a bit of TLC to keep it out of the scrapyard...

Outline plan:

- Assess the extent of the rust, and get a price for repairs
- If reasonable, proceed with the work and get the car though its MoT
- Cambelt and engine service - the car seems to have lost a few horses
- Sort out the few things that don't work - heater resistor pack, radio, bouncing door locks, n/s front brake vibration - and test aircon once it gets a bit warmer...
- Sort out the cosmetics - not much to do here, beyond a heavy duty polish, replace a broken speaker grille, fix a leak where hatch meets roof

I've already fixed a few inexpensive items - heater fan fuse, exhaust rubbers - but my next step will be to remove the sill trim panels, get the car up in the air, and have a good look underneath.

I should get this done over the weekend - will report back!

In the meantime, here's what it looks like now:






This post has been edited by JeremyG: 21st February 2018 17:34

[Nigel145]

Good look
And keep us updated

[dante giacosa]

this makes me realise how few 146s I have seen in this colour

It really looks quite lovely

fingers crossed you can save another Jeremy!

[JeremyG]

I had a little time today to investigate the 146 (having had a few Spider-related dramas to deal with yesterday).

Jacked up the driver's side, had a good look, attacked it with a wire brush and discovered the usual rows of holes for the front and rear footwell drainholes, plus a previous repair to the sill at the front and a further repair needed further back.

(As an aside - I have no idea what Alfa thought their 145/146 owners would be doing in their cars that would necessitate footwell drain holes, but that's a question for another day...).

I'll have to drill out the retaining screws for the sill trim so that can wait till next weekend.

Pictures show - rear drain holes (plus view of carpet):


Front drain holes (sorry, out of focus):


Front sill repair:


Rear repair required:


Now, assuming this is replicated on the other side, roughly what will that cost me in welding? Any thoughts?

And what is the best way of dealing with the drain holes - given each one sits in its own channel - cut out the rust and weld in separate plates to fill each hole? Or fabricate a single patch to replace each row of holes in one?

Any thoughts on the likely welding costs would be welcome...

This post has been edited by JeremyG: 25th February 2018 17:56

[JeremyG]

this makes me realise how few 146s I have seen in this colour

It really looks quite lovely

fingers crossed you can save another Jeremy!

Yesterday, I washed the car and remembered how difficult it is to wash a black car without leaving any streaks or marks... grrr!

So as it was such a fine day today, I got to work on the paint - bit of scratch repair, bit of paint restorer, bit of polish - and it came up really well. There are a bunch of surface scratches that can probably be fixed this way. Plus, once it was buffed up, it became clear that there is a sort of bronze metallic effect going on. Very nice!

[dante giacosa]

Any pictures of the paintwork, Jeremy..?

I think it looks tremendous already... But now it sounds very special..


I would say, a single 'area' of a car, with treatment & fabrication of new parts, might cost 'about' £250 /300.

You can negate a lot of the labour, by doing a load of prep yourself; keep grinding back until you have bright metal all around the spot, outside & in, remove all the interior trim and carpet, seats. (drive around race-car style for a few months- I did!) Do everything that the guys would need to do, before actually starting to weld.

But obviously it depends on the outfit doing the work. If they know you are onboard for the big-shift (they are not just going to see you once) then they may do you a favour.
Eventually, for the third wave of welding on my example, I had two holes under the seats sorted and a gaping hole in the OS rear sill (that you could get your hand into) and that came to £600.

All in, it was about £1300 of welding for me, to reach the kind of car I'd have my kids in.


This post has been edited by dante giacosa: 25th February 2018 21:17

[Ganz]

This was similar to mine but with less rust around the holes. As mine was in a lock up garage I had to hire a welder who also had to hire a 60KW generator. The generator itself cost £60 to hire for the day. Can't remember exactly but it was over £200. I thought it was a bit expensive and I wasn't impressed with the job.

[dante giacosa]

you managed to get someone to come to the garage!??

Yeah- I think there is a distinction between guys who 'weld' and 'fabricators'...

[JeremyG]

Any pictures of the paintwork, Jeremy..?

I think it looks tremendous already... But now it sounds very special..

The paint code is 821/A - "Nero Fuoco" - which, if my Italian serves me correctly, translates as "Fire Black" - I like the sound of that!

Will get some pictures up when it's next sunny (and not snowing).

You can negate a lot of the labour, by doing a load of prep yourself; keep grinding back until you have bright metal all around the spot, outside & in, remove all the interior trim and carpet, seats. (drive around race-car style for a few months- I did!) Do everything that the guys would need to do, before actually starting to weld.

Yep, will definitely take that approach!

[dante giacosa]

'Fire Black' is absolutely right

Back in the day, when I had my Coupe 20V Turbo, I toyed with trading it in for a 156 2.5 v6 a couple of times, of which fire black would have been the ideal colour.

Or so I thought; until I saw nuvola blue, and hankered after that.

But I remember the orange/red sparkle in that paint; I didn't know it was a 146 colour...



I did eventually own a 156 v6 IN nuvola blue, around 2005, and spotted that exact car I owned shortly after getting the

I couldn't resist parking in front of it for a group picture...u



This post has been edited by dante giacosa: 26th February 2018 20:23

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[VROOM]

I had a little time today to investigate the 146 (having had a few Spider-related dramas to deal with yesterday).

Jacked up the driver's side, had a good look, attacked it with a wire brush and discovered the usual rows of holes for the front and rear footwell drainholes, plus a previous repair to the sill at the front and a further repair needed further back.

(As an aside - I have no idea what Alfa thought their 145/146 owners would be doing in their cars that would necessitate footwell drain holes, but that's a question for another day...).

I'll have to drill out the retaining screws for the sill trim so that can wait till next weekend.

Pictures show - rear drain holes (plus view of carpet):


Front drain holes (sorry, out of focus):


Front sill repair:


Rear repair required:


Now, assuming this is replicated on the other side, roughly what will that cost me in welding? Any thoughts?

And what is the best way of dealing with the drain holes - given each one sits in its own channel - cut out the rust and weld in separate plates to fill each hole? Or fabricate a single patch to replace each row of holes in one?

Any thoughts on the likely welding costs would be welcome...

Whoever did the rear drain holes on mine seemed to have ground away the rust to leave bigger holes with jagged edges and then welded one big plate on from the other side. They then filled the holes with some sort of "chewing gum" and slapped over sticky underseal. It was an awful job trying to tidy it up. To be fair it was solid, the plate followed the contours well and it was MOT standard, but I'd have finished it off with a bit of filler.

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[VROOM]

Be prepared for something like this when you take off the side skirts. Very easy to weld yourself. I managed it with a Lidl welder and had never welded before - the advantage being that's it's covered from view if you don't do a neat job.

Attached thumbnail(s)

 

[dante giacosa]

classic

that's what I had

[Ganz]

you managed to get someone to come to the garage!??

Yeah- I think there is a distinction between guys who 'weld' and 'fabricators'...

Yes. I had to take time off work to help unloading the massive generator needed to power up the welding kit. Garage lock up. No heating, lighting or electricity.

[JeremyG]

I did eventually own a 156 v6 IN nuvola blue, around 2005, and spotted that exact car I owned shortly after getting the

I couldn't resist parking in front of it for a group picture...u

I owned a 166 in nuvola blue for all of three days. I picked it up as a parts car for my 166, as it had a leather interior and a Ragazzon s/s exhaust (still visible in the pic below)

.

It was being sold as a non-runner as the tie rod on the rear suspension had failed; for the sake of a £25 second-hand spare I got it home for the princely sum of £150, then spent the weekend swapping over the interiors and exhausts before selling on the blue car the following week for the princely sum of £1.

The Ragazzon sounds great - and it was amazing how much lighter it was than the standard system.

All told, £149 for the leather plus exhaust was a total bargain...

The nuvola blue did look great on the 166 - but the car itself, being a 2.5, was neither Arthur nor Martha...

[dante giacosa]

ooh- not sure what you mean there, Mr G..?

'neither Arthur nor Martha'...?

what would be your preferred 166 engine, then..?


Personally, I'd have done ANYTHING to keep the Nuvola blue one over any other colour, but I can't vouch for the state of it at the time...

[JeremyG]

ooh- not sure what you mean there, Mr G..?

'neither Arthur nor Martha'...?

what would be your preferred 166 engine, then..?
Personally, I'd have done ANYTHING to keep the Nuvola blue one over any other colour, but I can't vouch for the state of it at the time...

The 166 was available in the UK with the 2.0 twinspark or the 2.5 or 3.0 'Busso' V6 motors.

The 2.5 has less power (noticeably) than the 3.0, but the mpg is just as bad. Hence, if you want the horsepower the 3.0 is the only choice (and on the facelift model the 2.5 was dropped altogether, with the 3.0 upgraded to a 3.2).

The little twinny might look lost in that giant engine bay - but is actually surprisingly nippy.

As an aside - on the continent, the 166 sold in far greater numbers in a 2.4 JTD version - popular with the fleet buyers. The lack of a diesel option in the UK was a major factor in its poor sales figures over here...

And as to which of those 166s to keep: engine aside, the blue one just wasn't as good as the red one - it was rustier, suspension needed work, brakes needed work, etc. etc.

This post has been edited by JeremyG: 2nd March 2018 15:50

[dante giacosa]

ah, I see...

interesting

thanks for expanding on that...

[VROOM]

classic

that's what I had

Any idea how the sills manage to rust from the inside out (both sides at the rear)? Water must have entered somehow - maybe from the holes for the sill covers?

[145v63.0]

Looks good