1980 Alfa Romeo Alfasud Sprint - Moving on to pastures new..

Managed to squeeze this into my storage space after a hasty tidy up to make room, I say my storage space but Mrs omnipod has a lot of her curse word stuff here too. The Austin stored here is really next in line for attention after I finish the Triumph so the Alfa might have to wait, have to see how things turn out.
The first step though is to get the car dried out as the cover it was under was useless. There is standing water in the drivers footwell and the interior REALLY smells.



I went back to make a start today, first was to clear all the curse word out, I'm always amazed at how much curse word people store in their cars, and I always seem to end up with another wheel brace.



The rear seat also then came out as it is pretty damp, I will be ripping off the minging seat covers next time I'm there. I've already dumped the front ones.



Looks like somebody has been getting 'creative' with the interior too, painted white air vents, and the dashboard has been painted black!

With all the shiz removed the boot didn't actually look as bad as I was expecting. There is some shoddy wiring going on too.







I then removed the front seats but didn't get time to get the carpet out.

This car is imported from the UK in 1985 so RHD. It still has the original dealer sticker in the window, anybody know of Willshires of Southampton or Sialsbury? Are they still going? Bit of a strange mix of cars they chose to sell Alfa, Citroen and Lada.

Yeah you're not wrong, the car has had a blue respray at some point and considering it was taken off the road when it was 10 years old, makes me a bit suspicious, were they trying to cover something up? On the Other hand the extra layer of paint might just have preserved the body a bit longer too, needless to say it won't be staying blue if I do take on the restoration.

145 would have been the engine evolution I was thinking of, might be a thread here once of such a Sprint.
Sadly I like the blue.. but have seen a very nice early one around my way in it's original bright,light green metallic paint to admire.
Solid colours much easier to paint respectably though.. especially one patch at a time. I often like the idea of original colours but that orange might take some time to accept.
Seat look fairly reasonable under the grot..

I think we can all agree that 'suds have a reputation for corrosion. Installed at the factory? Probably.

And cooler than peguin poop

I have been trying to limit my Alfa time as I really need to get the Trumph finished but you know what it's like with new and exciting projects, they keep sucking you in, this car is no exception.
Carpet is now out.



leaving very soggy looking, very smelly, underlay stuff.



that is also now consigned to the bin too, leaving the the now fairly useless bitumen sound deadening pads. Had a quick scrape at these and seems like they should come off without too much bother but I ran out of time to get this finised today. Once these are gone I will be able to get a proper look at the floors, but I must say it looks promising so far. I was expecting worse.



I also finally managed to get the battery out today, it put up a fight as they are secured by a bolt through the bulkhead, which is not only very difficult to reach but almost impossible to see. In the end I got a bit brutal with the battery tray instead. I persuaded it to free it's grip with a crow bar.

Again I was pleasantly surprised, I have read horror stories about the space under the battery being a common rot spot. Again, not too bad looking.



The biggest news though is that having removed the air filter box, alternator and the radiator I was able to get a socket on the crank pulley bolt, and joy upon joy I was able to turn the engine without any trouble at all. The only slight resistance was the what felt like stiff cam belts. I guess they have stiffened to shape after 25 years in one position and didn't care too much about being moved. I did have to cut off the alternator / water pump belt too.
Also found evidence of previous squatters, they don't seem to have been here for long though as I can't see any damage to the interior or the wiring.



So looks like the project is doable, my next goal is to get the engine started. I think i'll change the cam belts first as it seems pretty straight forward and they only cost 20 quid. Be stupid not to. Will need to change the oil and filter too just to be on the safe side.
Won't be able to get too much more done now for a week or so but I'm happy with progress so far.

Great news that the engine is free - and that the floor pan is in good shape - many Sud/Sprints in far worse condition have been saved so I'm sure yours will join them.

The car is starting to look like a Bargain

Got a thread for the Triumph?

There are worth getting excited about. Besides the great looks they are great handling cars, lovely steering & brakes along with the sweetest four cylinder engine I've even come across.

Looking forward to reading about your progress.

Been on and off tinkering with this the last month or so, the lower cam belt cover bolts proved stubborn and as expected sheared off, although I must say that so far they are the only two bolts I have had any problem with everything else has undone without drama.
Time constraints mean there has been a fair deal of homework recently, like gluing cam belt covers together, general parts cleaning and such like. I even took apart the alternator as it wasn't spinning to freely or sounding too healthy when it did. Not surprising when you see the state of the bearings. lol



So I tinkered away in the shed making things pretty.
A PO had been 'creative' with the interior and painted various things either black or white, might have been OK in the 80's but looked a bit naff now, so the challenge was to get the paint off without damaging the plastics.





Googling gave me several answers but non of the cleaning agents suggested are available over here so I used greensoap floor cleaner. It seemed to soften it OK but the most effective way to scrape it off turned out to be by using my thumb nail.
The same allpied for this.

Umm, not so good paint job...



Browness restored.





I really want to get the engine running so with this as my goal I started buying in bits, oil filter, plugs, plug leads, cam belts and tensioners, points etc.

First off of course was to drain the oil and dispense with the filter. The oil came out although pretty slowly as it was kind of gloopy. I let it stand without the drain plug in the sump for a week or so to let as much as i could out. Put the sump plug in and then poured in a cup full of oil. I let this stand for a week or so too. When I drained it out again it was still gloopy, so a sure sign that there is a layer of sludge in the sump. Nothing much else to do that drop the sump. So I did.



With that sorted and the sump back on I filled up with oil, the plan was to turn the engine over to line up the timing marks so I could replace the cam belts. So I put a socket on the crankshaft bolt and turned, what?! wait, why is only one cam turning, aw curse word.





OOOhhh. Glad I didn't just connect a battery and try to start the engine.

So, the timing on the right back of cylinders is now lost, the left belt is still intact but the question now is, can I rotate the crank and cams by hand to line up the timing marks without damaging the engine? it is a 1.5 with 8 valves. Not turning up much info via google.
Now that I have come this far and seeing the state of the bearings in the alternator I have also decided to change the water pump, but will that come out, no. Anybody any clever ideas other than resorting to destroying the pump?