Rebuilding Sofia - 1971 Spider in Oz

[Sambo42]

Very nice; is that Tony M’s car.

Nope, although his brother Angelo put me onto it. It's been over in SA - in pretty good shape although I need to sort the AC and get a fan override switch in (and replace the fan thermos witch....). No rust that I can find......

[Broadsword]

Very nice; I always wanted a Beta Coupe as my first car, but ended up with a 3 month old Alfa 33 at mate’s rates instead.
Not too many Betas or Montecarlos around that Angelo doesn’t know about LOL.
Congratulations.
Looking forward to seeing your spider though!

[Sambo42]

Just a quick update. I've finally got the axle finished with brakes installed and the brake compensator in so I can get the brake lines installed properly. Now moving on to the boot/trunk with the plan to start at the back and move forward. Have wired up the licence plate lights, the right rear light cluster and the right rear indicator.

So a couple of quick questions: 1) where can I get light bulb holders for the side indicators? and 2) what have people been doing to restore the rear light clusters once the chromed plastic starts flaking off?











(Now edited to get the links all working...)

[Sambo42]

FINALLY - the brake and fuel lines are in....

[Sambo42]

A few more updates...slowly, slowly things are crawling at the moment...


To cheer myself up I had the front grille powercoated and installed it and put Sofia back on her wheels.








Cleaning up and painting engine and gearbox - starting with the oil filter



I made up a little piece of wood and laminated it with some burled walnut then sprayed with two-pack to mount the heater switch (slightly repositioned as compared with the original) to go with the rest of the woodwork

[Sambo42]

Good god, it's been a year since I last posted!! Progress has been slow since my last post, thanks to home renovations, new jobs, elections locally etc - long story.

I'll see if I can get some photos to summarise, but to sum up the little bits of progress:

- gearbox is painted and ready to go back in
- doors and windows are being sorted out - I'm going to try and use vinyl paint on the door cards, the right side window and mechanism is done, now working on the left
- the loom is back in but needs a few areas of tidying up
- the engine is on its stand and is being tidied up - even though its all good on the inside I need to make the outside pretty - have painted the oil filter housing and the oil vapour separator, and going to paint the timing belt cover

which brings me to a question for the brains trust (that would be you guys):

Water pump (photo below) - looks pretty good after using the wire wheel and a wire brush. Should I give it a couple of coats of clear coat? (I'm worried about it flaking off in the future). Or metal polish? Or silver paint?

Alternator - should I buy a brand new shiny one, or tear apart and restore? (has anyone seen the youtube channel 'rectore it'? there's a fantastic video of a BMW alternator restoration. I'm slightly addicted to that channel - worth checking out if you haven't seen it...)

Thoughts?

[rjbaum12]

Wondering if your powder coater cold do a clear coat on it? Or perhaps jazz it up with some color? Otherwise I'd say a good quality clearcoat would be fine. It shouldn't get too hot - maybe a high-temp would be safest.

I'd rebuild the alternator if you feel confident, though new ones aren't that spendy. Cool channel.

She's looking great, following your progress!

[Sambo42]

I can't believe how long it's been since I last posted!! Feels like it's been going reeeeaaaallly slowly (because it has) - once I started getting the engine back together it took ages. Mostly because I decided I had to make it look purty - it was going just fine before, but sinc everything else was looking shiny and new I had to do something about it. So - jobs done since last post:

- stripped most ancillaries, painted the block
- painted the oil filter housing
- wire brushed and clear coat painted the water jacket T and oil pump (I decided I want to preserve a little bit of the original patina and not have absolutely everything look like new)
- restored the alternator (really just dismantled, cleaned and clear coated the metal + painted the outside surface of the magnet/core, sandblasted and painted the pulley wheel, greased and reassembled; need a new regulator)
- cleaned the heads as best as I could and painted them (3 coats primer, 3 coats silver, 3 coats clear coat)
- powdercoated the cambox covers
- new adjustable camwheels from Vicks, new timing belt tensioner bearing, new auxillary shaft pulley wheel
- painted the timing belt cover
- zinc plating the timing mark bracket and other bits and pieces

And now have installed both windows and weather stripping (I have to go back and adjust the right side - I ordered new winding mechanism from Vicks and undid the clip that holds the wire in place, just before reading the instructions about not doing that until you've installed it on the wheels....)

And last shot - we had our biennial Lancia meeting recently - a very nice Lancia beta with a race prepped engine (twin Weber 44s, dry sump, the whole bit) - how's that for an engine bay?

[RRoller123]

Nice!

[Sambo42]

Another quick update - gearbox and engine now reunited! New clutch, new thrust bearing. I've put the old timing belt on to check timing and I'm confused now. Here is what I did:
- rotate crankshart until no. 1 cylinder hits TDC (rocking backwards and forwards a million times in the process - could do with a dial gauge)
- rotate camshafts until exhaust and inlet wheels have their little holes lined up with the pointers
- fit the timing belt
- tighten the tensioner bearing
- check that the camshaft rotates freely and the holes still line up after 2-3 revolutions
- remove the timing belt and repeat 6 more times because one of the wheels moved ever so slightly as I was putting the belt on the first 5 times

The question that I have is about my crankshaft pulley wheel - with no. 1 at TDC the timing mark is at approximately 10 o'clock instead of the standard 2 oclock on the dial. However I have no idea where this wheel came from - could it be a non-standard pulley wheel?

[18Fiatsandcounting]

The question that I have is about my crankshaft pulley wheel - with no. 1 at TDC the timing mark is at approximately 10 o'clock instead of the standard 2 oclock on the dial. However I have no idea where this wheel came from - could it be a non-standard pulley wheel?

Just to make sure I'm following you: If the #1 (and #4) pistons are at TDC, the timing mark on the crankshaft pulley is pointed somewhere in the vicinity of the alternator (exhaust side)? If so, then yes, either the pulley is non-standard or something is goofy.

By the way, I wish the engine and transmission on my '71 looked as good as yours...!

-Bryan

[18Fiatsandcounting]

PS. This only occurred to me after I had posted the above: some engines had their timing marks on the exhaust side of the engine, so perhaps your crankshaft pulley is from one of those.

-Bryan

[Sambo42]

PS. This only occurred to me after I had posted the above: some engines had their timing marks on the exhaust side of the engine, so perhaps your crankshaft pulley is from one of those.

-Bryan

Thanks Bryan - it'll never look as clean ever again so I'm taking as many pictures as I can! Going to frame them...

[Sambo42]

Another quick update because I have finally GOT THE ENGINE BACK IN THE CAR!!!!!!
(excuse the caps typing - got a bit overexcited there)

Took 2 weekends working on my own with only a tiny bit of assistance - not least because I (ahem) managed to fit the gearbox support upside down in the gearbox cross member....then couldn't work out why the gearbox shift lever extension was fouling on the body. D'oh! Driveshaft now all hooked up from the engine all the way through to the rear axle!

Moving on - I have 2 questions for the Brains Trust:

1) I have the original 34 DNCF (I think?) carbie but had fitted an electric fuel pump. Can anyone post a photo of their carbie to show me where the fuel return connects to travel back to the tank?

2) Another photo request - this time to remind me where the engine earth cable attaches to the block (or does it attach to the head?)

Thanks all

[RRoller123]

On mine, I believe it is near the Bell Housing, passenger side, over to a point on the frame rail. But I added a second one from the block, at the point where the AC mounting studs are, over to the sidewall.