This page documents the restoration of a 1975 Alfetta Sedan, arguably one of the least "collectable" vehicles in the automotive universe. Perhaps that's why I am doing it - I appreciate the underappreciated.
It has been said that the true Alfisti of the world own at least one Alfa Sedan. Having grown up driving Alfettas and having owned a GTV/6 Coupe for nineteen years, I have a real fondness for the DeDion suspended, transaxle 116 Series Alfas. In late 2005, I was at Auto Zone (an automotive collectibles shop in Birmingham, MI) for their Saturday morning Cars and Coffee gathering. I was admiring journalist Richard Truett's flawless Triumph Dolomite when it occurred to me that it would be cool to have a retro sedan like Richard's, but mine would have to be an Alfa. Since I have four kids, I could even try to sell the practicality angle to the wife! I immediately began watching eBay for any signs of an Alfetta Sedan. I was hoping for a First Series car (1975-77 in the States) because of their more stylish interior and exterior trim. After only two weeks of searching, I found one in Cincinnati and drove down from Detroit to get it.
January 2006
A Texas car for most of its life, it appeared to be completely rust free. Then I started to dig....
What appeared to be simply a crack in the paint turned out to be much more.
Spring 2006. My son, Bobby, getting into the act...
Well, well, well, what do we have here?
There was even rust in the roof....
At some point someone had welded these small tabs to the cowl to hold the windshield in place. They then fiberglassed and bondoed over the whole mess to hide their secret. We broke the windshield trying to free it from the glass resin. Fortunately, the car came with a spare.
July 2006. Ready for the trip to the welder.
September 2006. New metal welded in around windshield and backlight.
May-July 2007. PPG DP50 primer/sealer applied to cover bare metal and seal the surface. First coat of PPG K36 primer/surfacer applied next.
July 2007 The Alfetta has a garage mate for a week prior to the AROC National. The irony of parking a 1931 6C 1750 Zagato next to an Alfetta Sedan was not lost on me. I thought that the Alfetta's imitation of the Exxon Valdez was a nice touch.
Door shutfaces had to be perfect.
August 2007. Time to pull the engine.
The engine bay was an absolute mess. Fortunately, grease is a great rust inhibitor. I believe that the motor had never been pulled before beacuse all of the factory hardware appeared to be untouched.
Motor taken outside for power washing. In the background is my 1984 GTV6 fresh from its class win at the AROC National Time Trials.
Nice crud.
August 2007. I spent exactly two weeks cleaning and prepping the engine bay for new AR501 Red basecoat/clearcoat paint. Much of the hardware was simply cleaned in a jar of lacquer thinner. All hardlines sanded with 220 grit and buffed with a Scotchbrite pad.
Some before and after detail shots.
All the while I have been compiling a treasure trove of NOS Alfetta Sedan parts. These bumpers came from eBay Italy still wrapped in the original brown crepe paper.
A wood Momo Montecarlo steering wheel also sourced from eBay.
December 23, 2007. At Wheel to Wheel for paint. These guys have painted cars for Chip Foose and Jay Leno and built concept vehicles for the SEMA show. They have also been featured on TV's "Rides" and "Payback". In background is noted painter John Kinney admiring his work.
Car back in my garage wearing a set of 16x7 OZ Supturismo rims with rare 4x98mm bolt circle. Found these on eBay UK for $200! They need some refurbishment but they look great on the car.
These scrapes and scuffs will all be addressed. Those wheel wells will be thoroughly cleaned as well. Remarkably, the red paint visible behind the dirt is the original paint - should clean up nicely.
Remember what I said about perfect door shutfaces....
Perfect rockers are nice, too...
Looking across its other stablemate, a 1960 Giulietta Spider.
Dec 23,2007. Not done yet but it looks a little better after some degreasing...
While we are on the topic of cleaning, let's talk about the trunk. After removing all of the trunk trim, the inner fenders, spare tire well, fuel tank and battery box were all washed with a bucket and a sponge. I realize that this will all be covered with trim but I'll know it's there.
I may have to change that trunk mat - stubborn stains.
January 6, 2008 The devil is in the details. Each of these body plugs was cleaned and reinstalled after painting.
Interior vinyl had to be re-applied to the door flange prior to fitting the door seals.
I think that I found the last set of NOS Alfetta chrome tailamp trim and NOS tailamp lenses on earth. I think I paid 20 bucks for the chrome and another 20 for the lenses.
A little Simple Green, a scrub brush and a quick hit with the Power Washer makes the wheel wells look new again. That is actually the factory original paint lurking in there.
Compare this shot with the same view from a few slides earlier on the page.
January 15, 2008 Hood and decklid return from painter. Not a lot of fun removing them from the car by myself while standing on an icy driveway.
Decklid safe and sound on car. Slight orange peel in clear coat will go away when entire car is sanded and buffed after assembly.
Look closely...that's an NOS lock cylinder and keyset.
Lock cylinder came with these nice NOS door handles. Another eBay find for the low, low price of $22.
The car had a broken window regulator cable so I needed a new assembly.
I decided that it was not worth the effort to repair and refinish the OZ rims so I purchased some 4x100 Liquidmetal 5 spoke rims from Discount Tire and had them redrilled to 4x98. The lug holes had to be welded shut and then spot faced and drilled - 30 bucks a hole - ouch!
New set of 205/45-16 Yokahama Parada S tires should be nice and sticky.
By now my weakness for NOS parts should be obvious. I COULD NOT pass up these NOS grilles from eBay Italy. Attaching a new part to a freshly painted car is one of life's simpler pleasures.
May 3, 2008 Thankfully, John Kinney makes housecalls. Here is John sanding the clearcoat down to 3000 grit before final rubout.
Polishing the hood - now we're getting close!
Freshly rubbed out and with grilles reinstalled - unbelievable!
Anyone who has worked on an Alfetta knows that EVERYTHING is held on with rivets - even the grilles. This detail shows how I swapped the rivets for stainless screws and washers.
Rivets were also used as hood hinge pins!. The old "pins" were hopelessly worn and left an ill-fitting hood. I drilled the rivets (pins) out and fashioned a new set using a metal sleeve, stainless caphead screw, nylon bushing and nylock nut. It works great and looks cool, too.
New mirror
May 12, 2008 Fresh Dean Russell built cylinder head ready for installation.
July 2008 - I found this technique for removing the rear motor mount from the bellhousing on AlfaBB.com (thanks, Jim Isaacs!).
$10 puller from Harbor Freight and 2" threaded pipe cap from hardware store.
Not sure if this bushing really needed to be replaced...
Done.
Since I removed the broken intake duct bracket, I needed to clean up the cam cover somehow. I drilled out the rivets and tapped the holes so that I could thread in some nice stainless cap head bolts later.
Motor detailed and ready for installation. Cam cover was wrinkle-finish powder coated with the Alfa Romeo script Jet Hot coated (Jet Hot does a great job of duplicating polished aluminum). SPICA drive pulley was removed, blasted and Jet Hotted as well.
More details. Stainless idle hoses and new clamps. Also note new intake hoses as well as new Romablok SPICA clamps from Mt Carmel Spares in Israel.
July 29, 2008 - Almost one year to the day since the motor was disgorged from its oily tomb.
Now that's nice. What a difference a year makes!
