At last, some action again

It's been a long time since I worked on the Bleu Lord. In the last weeks i finally found some spare time to spent some quality time with the bleu SW. In the mean time  I was a kind of busy with my work and my family, and other things and so.
In the last few months I looked for a solution to dismantle the wheels and the front suspension, cq subframe. The simple way was to buy a 25 euro socket to dismount the wheel and lay aside the expensive socket for 10 years or longer. No, since this is a low budget an long time restoration project, I chose, better, was offered another solution. My neighbour Mike, the motorcycle mechanic, offered me a 36 mm ring spanner he specially brought from his work. Well even thsi thing didn't realy fit exactly, so we had to make it fit by grinding the outer rims of the spanner. Low cost, low effort, highest satisfaction.
So my suspensionpart are now sanded, put in Brunoxanticorrosion stuff and painted with Action-black matt spraycan paint.
I'm happy again. Next week checking the front brakes, changing the brake tubes and what comes roudn, and maybe I'll be driving in the summer.

Hmmm.

I had a little help from my daughter, but she hit the spanner too hard and the helping time was over.

Parts and fractions of the front left suspension

standard subframe bar has to go for the QV-substitute which is lying in my garage for quite a (too) long time.

Mike the mechanic on his custom built yamaha british green racer.

Quiet?

It's been a long time since I worked on my Sportwagon. The weather is too cold for me to stumble around in my garage. At the end it is a hobby and is supposed to be fun. Meanwhile I picked up my job full time. Also we have a new time consumer, Pip. The little rascal keeps the spirits high in our home.

Last week the 146 passed it's annual check (APK) without problems. I didn't expect any, by the way. It is suffering hard in our never ending winter. In our country the authorities use agressive alkaline salt to keep the streets free from ice, and that's not pleasant when you own a classic vehicle. The 146 isn't that classic but it's suffering hard under these conditions. This summer I'd have to check the underbody for corrosion an treat it with some anti-corrosion stuff.

Blue Lord is resting in our garage. Still hadn't the courage to check up the ignition lock.
My plans for the warmer days are to clean up the underbody completely and to restore the subframe and front suspension elements. These are the last pieces that haven't been checked. So I suppose the car will be ready after that. Will it really?

Winter depression

Well, work is still. Winter is around, funding is zero, ambition below. Some plans are made, but for the warmer time of the year.

Yesterday it even crossed my mind to swap the engine this year. But before that, the old engine has to be extruded, the engine bay derusted, i'd like to derust and prepare the front subframe and suspension, and then mount the 1.7 QV. Alas that block has to be revised before putting to work in the blue lord. So that'll have to wait. But the derusting an restoring the subframe can be done. Later.

In the meanwhile, the block can function as undercase for my livingroom table (this is a 16V block btw).

Oh. Since our labrador is dead, we miss the daily outdoor event of walking the dog. So we looked for another dog. Before we got Meckie, we looked for a Bracco Italiano and now we've found one. In some weeks we can fetch it. This little buzzer will surely energize my project.

Meckie

Our 11 year old labrador Meckie is dead. She had a cancer and in just a week time she couldn't get up anymore. So we had to release here, a week ago.

Meckie sometimes appeared on this blog (meckie, meckie), mainly when we considered to buy another car to replace hte red 33. Meckie drove us to a Alfa 156 Sportwagon, but finally it became an Alfa 146. So we had to help Meckie in the car when we took here to out for a good walk in the wild, it went worse the last few months. Now she lies in our back garden, may she rest in peace.

Dogs can tie you at home. But with a proper training they can be taken everywhere. Meckie came to us when she was 1,5 year, we didn't train her enough on this point. Now we're looking for a new dog. We can't miss the daily exercise and the pleasant company at home.

Many people drive vans, to transport their dog or their pack of dogs. No van for us, or it will be a campervan. But for the time being our 146 and our Blue Lord will suffice.

Two picures of our last good walk (swim!) with Meckie on the shores of the river Meuse in Venlo.

Contact and starting

Last week my neighbour Omer gave me a battery.  After recharging it seemed to work perfectly so  I put it in my Bleu Lord. To test my engine again, and to secure that it runs every now and then, I started it. At least I tried. Obviously something went wrong, because I hadn't even turned the ignition key to ignition, and it started already. Strange matter. So by turning the key to stand by, the starter engine already began its work. Turning the key to ignite, started the boxer engine, but het starter engine kept running. That was not good. My other neighbour, Mike, meant it could be the relay in the starter engine or leading to the starter engine.  I looked it up in hte manual, and yes, there is only one relay between the ignitionswitch and the starter engine. Exactly, the one in the aterter engine.
So yesterday I swapped the starter engine in the Bleu Lord by another spare one from my famous cellar. Actually this one came from my grey SW.
That didn't work out. The fault remained. So my second guess is the starter / ignition switch in the dash. I changed that a month ago by the one from again the grey SW, to make sure I needed only two keys for my Blue Lord, instead of three (left door, petroltank and the ignition/right door).
So now I have to remount the ignition lock again and remove the fault.

At least I have no whole in the engine wall. Good luck, Bert.

 Original Bosch starter engine, made in Germany.

The swap was complete, the result can't be seen on this picture.

Ignition key on the loose... damned.

Progress, another item

Well some weeks ago I kinda mounted the front bumper. The rear bumper still waits for painting and mounting on  the Blue Lord. Since I picked up my normal working scheme, time's running away.

Time for a short reconsidering. This year I made great progress in my project, due to a major leave from work. I mounted a new petrol tank (3 times), new petrol lines, renewed brake lines, I restored the rear axis, and mounted some little details in the interior. I even restored another set of wheels.

That's what I wrote this morning. But time has passed me by, and I had a little time today to fiddle about. The weather was perfect for a hike, but I was in my workshop sanding the ugliest rims I ever had. They came with my 146 and I changed them real quick for better tires and QV-rims. Just a little bit of attention and the world looks completely different. See for yourselves.

This was the state in which I bought the 146, with the Speedline alu wheels in really bad shape. Luckily only one was a little dented.

Corrosion has left ugly marks on this rim. Fake plastic bolts and a nice wheel cap in the center.

Ugliness by disconcern

A new owner and he wants to spent some time with the ugly one.

First run in restoring. Blank aluminium on the edge, silver painted center. 

Corrossion is fading slowly away.

On this particular rim I spent the most time with sanding the varnish layer off the blank aluminium. The corroded space let off the varnish real good. The other wheels are in a less corroded, in fact a better shape, so more of this naste work is to come. With some thinner I made a start in attacking the very hard varnish surface. More posts about this work are to come real soon.

Smart marketing from Alfa Romeo

Nice promotion, init?