Comparsion

In my Sportwagon photo archive I found some pictures of the first time we saw the car and of the first weeks we had the Bleu Lord at home.

This is the state we first saw the Bleu Lord in Antwerp at het @!#$@!%$#- Flemish mechanic. Behind the green and white striped gates, the guy kept his parts. On my request he pulled out some alternative wheels for the ugly telephone dial Ronals, everyone seems to want.

The fact that this guy wanted to deliver the car in my hometown, about 160 km from Antwerp, for a few bucks, had to make me think why he wanted this. Anyway. Case closed.

 

The Bleu Lord and my second 33, the black QV which donated the engine for the Bleu Lord.

The 13 inch Sprint wheels later landed on the Red type 3, 33. Never much liked these wheels. The  QV has the Speedlines I refurbished for the Bleu Lord.

Outside again

This afternoon it was very good weather for a late october afternoon. So I took the keys and put the bleu one outside. Alas not for a stroll, but to give it a good wash and, more important to fit the bumpers and skirts. That last job went very easy, the rear bumper too. The front bumper I already fitted last week.
The rear bumper is ready to paint. But I wanted to fit it to see how it looked on the car. This bumper has a hole on the underside, the former owner had a towing hook fitted. That hole is not in sight when fitted.

The ignition is still not good. I have to do it properly: poor some petrol in hte carburettors, the battery works, though not perfect, has to be fully loaded, or I'll swap the Fiat's battery in the Alfa. The petrol in the fuel tank is not good anymore. New petrol will energize the ignition.

I can't find the peace of mind these days, my job search is more important. Job interviews here and there: went to Gent, Belgium on tuesday, to Utrecht on wednesday.

The new ventilated brakes are very good, though rusty. I started by sanding, the rubbers seem to be OK. Here I had some older brakes, but they were not very good.

I bought a used set of ventilated discs and calipers. Rather rusty but not bad. 

Some sanding...

... some disassembling...

... and the world looks different. I won't paint them, 

that don't work on calipers: heat and dirt are ruthless

Front bumper, painted and fitted

Oh yes, a residue of my works, the unfaithfull 1.3 engine.

It's for sale.  

Pip reminds me of the work for today.

Job done. 

Bumpers and skirts. The rear bumper needs painting.

But after 6 years the rear of this macchina comes alive again.

Sorry for the 4 types of wheels. 

I'm saving money for a set of tires on my refurbished Speedlines

Oh yes. This little rascal took me to Gent in Belgium, a trip of almost 500 km 

(with an unfortunate detour over Liege) on high speeds (+ 130 km/hour).

For me FIAT stands for efficient transport on low costs: I love it!

New brakes

Today I purchased a set of frontbrake calipers plus ventilated dics. I wanted a ventilated heavier set because the extra power of the 1700 engine. This set came from a Type 2 Quadrifoglio Verde. What a coincidence. I put an ad on the forum, but the bushdrums brought the message to a guy in my very own street, just a few hundred meters away. Had a nice talk with Robert who is nowadays a salesman for Norwegian peatroofs, an interesting low tech water retaining roof.

Looking very natural, this peatroof

Tomorrow they will be fitted on the bleu one, one part I gave a good sanding today already.

I decided to mount the black back bumper, not reparing the holes for the towing hook. Just the bumper, later on I'll look for a complete one. Anyone? A Sportwagon type 2 bumper, without holes and dents?

Ignition 2

Yesterday late I was kind of puzzled how to connect my ignitionlock properly to the car. It didn't really work. This morning I went for a run with our dog Pippa and in a second it came to me that the little disc inside the steering column attachement of the lock had to be in the proper position to receive the lock. Not difficult but rather irritating when not right (see my former post).
Well all works, time for finishing the project.

Haha!

Steering column dismantled

Disc and lock need to be in the same position to connect the lock to the attachement

Oh, had I mentioned I fitted the front bumper?

Ignition

Now my engine is OK, the subframe is mounted and OK, the exhaust is fitted, the Bleu Lord must run.
Last weekend I charged the battery and fitted it into the engine compartment.
When I wanted to close the circuit and connect the battery my engine spontaneously wanted to start. Luckily the gearbox was in neutral, so nothing worse happened. Something must be wrong here.
I checked the ignition lock and there was no key. When I put in the key it was in the startmode (ST). Normally the key is locked in the lock when not on neutral, this lock gave the key away even in the Ignition and ST-mode. When I switched the lock to neutral and connected the battery again, it started again???
So I changed the lock. Now the key couldn't get out when in the ST-mode. In neutral the engine didn't start whith connected battery. Turning the key learned the engine started in the second ignition mode. I couldn't check the windows or windscreenwipers because the engine was starting again.
Strange. I must have made an error in sliding the lock into the housing on the steering column.
I don't know what might be the problem in connecting the lock in the housing, my manual has nothing on this subject. I have to ask my forum members on the SCARB-site.

Charged battery in refurbished battery-compartment

Original lock of the Bleu Lord, switched with another lock

The lock in its housing. Removing a little screw and pushing the pin on het housing when the keys are in and the lock can be removed

The pin on the lock and the keys (completely) in the lock to put in and pull out the lock

Tires

No working on the Bleu Lord, this week. I'm working on my portfolio, looking for a new job on landscape design. I even visited my university to catch up studies again. Tough. And a portfolio is acquired there, also. So, Bleu Lord has to wait.
But some time I spent in my garage, contemplating over the wheels. winter is coming and my best tires have been sold with the 146, last year. Even my fine Speedline Alfasud QV-rims ara gone. Sadly.
Two options are left. Either I fit the rather flat Michelin Energy Savers on the Speedline 33 QV-rims. Or I pick up the Imola-rims again and fix them up. These are 15 inch, the Speedlines are 14 inch.

One thing I know for sure, I never ever buy Quatrac 3 tires again. That' a no-show for a 33, even when fitted on the magnificent Alfasud QV-rims. I figure Michelin of even Pirelli will be the next tire to drive.

New tires on renewed Speedlines

Makes no sense: QV's with all season tires

Speedline Alfasud QV, went with the 146. Alass.

Speedline 33 QV, in times gone by

Speeldine 33 QV is waiting for action

My set of Imola's I once got from a neighbour with snowtires are to be fixed up.

Planning to paint the back of my SW like this, yeah!

I'll probably won't be needing snow tires by then, everyone will run away.

GiuliaTubolare Zagato 2

Auspuff

Today the works on the SW continued after a pleasant walk through the Limburgian country with some co-workers on a project in Nederweert-Eind. Pip was with me and it was a pleasant stroll through the country. On the way home I was amazed of corner behavioiur of the Punto. It bounces on the road and corners are slow. But it's amazingly friendly and a hard worker.

A plan I've drawn was the main object of the day and lead us through the project. Young Pip is pleased by the Fiat. Wait till she will be driven in the Bleu Lord 

After that the exhaust under the SW was due. The old one was not all the way gone, but the one I had kept in my cellar for several years wat better. In fact it was the exhaust I had mounted under my former SW, my first Alfa Romeo, the TP-95-GD. The spaghettipipe tubes are a little wider than the one I kept form the Bleu Lord, and the middle pipe is better, almost no rust. The rear exhaust is from the Bleu Lord and that's pretty good too.
No problems so far. In about an hour and a half the exhaust was fitted. After that i fitted the sound insulation under the bonnet aand selected the best grill to fit on the front: the original bleu one is worn and broken, the better gray one has to be resprayed in bleu. I thin I'll choose the gray one and respray it. The first impression of the car will be the definite one.

Then I sat in the car for a while and imagined how it'll be driving the 33 again. In mind my thoughts about the Fiat of this morning.

The two exhaust pipes: spaghetti and middle part of the Bleu Lord. 

Here I already decided to fit the better pipes of the TP-95-GD.

The connection in rusty, the pipe is worn. But I'll keep it in my cellar fot later.

The better pipe already fitted under the Bleu Lord.

This photo remembers me I forgot to tighten the clamp on this part.

Pretty good pipes, ain't it? The petrol tank will be 'dinitrolled' soon.

Two of three grills I have are candidate for revival. I chose the gray one.

The 'rug' that came from the QV for keeping the sound under the bonnet. This will help not to get noticed to much in traffic, considering the two K&N lunchbox airfilters.  In the car the sound will be fantastic.

My contemplative moment: me and Momo.

By the way, my friend Roelie warned me to check the wire connections thouroughly, what I did. The colours of the wires can be the same, but they can connect different parts on the car. Happily I kept the cable tree of the 1.3S and the check was easily done: every input and output end was the same on the installed cable.

And I sold the gear box of the Bleu Lord to a friend with a hatchback Bleu Lord. I hope it will bring you lots of enjoyable miles, Henk.

The connection

After the marriage, last week, I had a fun time connecting the fuel-, water-, and electric lines together. The water gave some problems. Because I used the old hose between the waterpump and the thermostat, the connection was not correct and some water ran out. After demounting and replacing the clamp to fasten the hose, the problem was over.
The electrical system was a little more work, but not that much. The QV engine had one electric wire more than the SW, so the joined to the electrical tree in the car was to adapt. In stead of 9 wires 10 came frome the engine. So I had to figure out what wire was the additional one. Luckily this extra wire  was a bleu and white one after comparsion with the SW-wires, and went to the front of the car and was loose on both sides of the car. I guess it were the cables for the fog lights. An accesoire on the QV. My SW doesn't have any fog lights, and I intent not to mount them in the future. Problem solved.
Now I had to loosen the wires form the bigger 12-pole joined and put them in hte smaller SW 9-pole joined. That was half an our fiddling, cutting the upper pipes of the male joined and pushing the connecting cable end out of the joined. From the 9-pole I just teared the cables out, and removed the connecting cable ends. Colour by colour I pushed the QV-cables in the 9-pole joined and clicked the to parts together. Hopefully all works well.
That's my job for the weekend: checking the joineds, the water and fuel connections wit ha running engine. mernawhile I'll have to put the exhaust under the car and mount the bumpers and the plastic parts on both sides.

Connecting the loose ends, placing the radiator and fan, filling the reservoirs, checking for leaks.

Adjusting the electrical wires

All neat and clean under the newly placed bonnet.

 I'm hesitating to place the sound insulation under the bonnet.

In fact is looks really chaotic now with all the wires and pipes.

But the K & N performance airfilters (broodtrommels/ lunchboxes) look good, don't they?

 They make the boxer sound really wild!

I even had some time to wath this nice video of a very nice Land Rover, I could fall in love with.

While on the Petrolicious site, and being an Alfa addict, check this one of the very special Alfa Romeo Giula Sprint Speciale. The maker of this car Conrad Stephenson reveals the very essence ot the Alfa Romeo carmake.