Le Roy Bleu va a la France

Holidays are here again. The plan was to take the blue one into the holiday and that we did. Amazing but it went right all the drive to the Normandie shores. For several days we are staying in a little town between Dieppe and Le Havre. The Blue King sits during the night on a parking lot, 50 m from the sea. For an Alfa Romeo not a garantee everything will stay okay, so we noticed today.
The weather during the first week of our stay was dry and sunny (we had some rain on our drive in Belgium). The nights however are cool and moist. That's tricky for an old Trentatre, just revived from a long stay in a garage. The contacts of several joints of electrical lines have corroded and during the restoration I've cleaned and derusted them more often. Before us leaving the wet country, everything worked fine, the weather even rainy. The trips we did to the towns and places in the vicinity all went good. Today we had foreseen a trip to Deauville and Le Havre. Just before the peage over the Pont de Normandy, the engine started overheating,, steam coming from under the bonnet. A lady passing us by gesticulated that we were losing water, in buckets it did. In the line before the peage control ports every stop would've turned the French in a state of revolution against their fellow traffic user from the Netherlands with a red light for water temperature. So I decided to gamble and pull through, as good as possible. The lady in the control port box sniffed a little in the upcoming steam, but after payment we could pull the blue one aside and let it cool down.

Not a good sight for an engine driver with an overheated motor.

Steam coming from the water reservoir.

I was glad I put on a new water pipe before taking the hike to France.

Wife and kids were happy Daddy could fix the problem.

Waiting and filling a good 4 litres of water made us mobile for the next 30 kms to Trouville. The congestion there did heat up the water again, but since we were driving into a valley I could drive down without the engine running, cooling the water a little bit. When we finally found a parking spot on the shores of the Touques river, I had my thoughts about the heating problem. After two checks (the fan contact and the tempreature gauge) I found the problem, being the corroded contact of the water temperature gauge. Sanding it off a little and connecting it again, the engine fan started running immediately. I figure the problem was solved.

On our way back there was no heating problem at all, even no trafic jams.

By the way, the French are as known very chauvinistic about their choices of car. I never saw this many Citroëns (Picasso's), Renaults and Peugeot MPV's as this time in France. These cars are so big, the small parking lot before our apartement is crowded in a sec. What wonders me is that these natives are so careless about their cars. I see dents and scratches on every car, I still park my car on a safe less crowded place. And they are so polite these days. I remember from our early journeys to France in the eighties, they were shouting and using the horn every hundred meters. But then again, we were driving a Citroën 2CV back then.
Alfa Romeo's are rarely seen here. Some new GT's, a single GTV (906) and some 147's. Mito's and mostly Giulietta's. Only saw one 156 Berlina, not even being a Sportwagon as  aspected since the French longing for space.

Endless French country roads made us call three ours later on our destination.

Blue King meets his peers

All going well just over the Franch border near Douai

Hills are coming up, just a quick check and a sanitary stop

For the structural maintenance I have to check the right hand head gasket of the boxer engine. Some oil is coming out. The engine sounds not fresh (it isn't, it has run over 200.000 km) and it rambles. The adjustment of the carburettors is not smooth enough, the engine is holding back around 2500 rpm. 
Annoying is that the tachometer still isn't OK; after a stay over night it runs like hell again, after a good 10 km it runs smoothly. The ride is rather bumpy, possibly the shock absorbers are too hard, too sporty. 
Amazingly it turns really light and drives good. 

Holiday is here again

Wow, what a machine it is, this Blue King. Yesterday was my last day at work before my holidays and it was a good day to test the blue one. Although the weather wasn't very good, King Blue went like a cannonball.
The only trouble I met was the tachometre that still keeps spinning. From the cold start to let's say the first 15 minutes it keep revolving. After that it works fine. Well, I figure from 80 to 140 kmh in about (I guess :-)) 5 seconds... ?  Yeah, that's very fine! And that deep growl from 2500 rpm to a great screaming at 6500 'giri', I love it.
It turns out to be a lazy shifter in the city when driving in third gear it's almost an automatic gearboxed car.

Driving the Sportwagon is somewhat different from driving a modern car. First there is the immense power on the front wheels. At work I showed my collegeas the finishd project and with five people we stepped in the car to protect us for the rain. I demonstrated the proper functions on the parking deck of my office and the wheels kept spinning in the wet. The nervousness of this engine is better not underestematet. This I was forgotten about the Tulipwoodracer, my first 33 Quadrifoglio Verde, the car that spent the motor for the Blue King.

The Sportwagon turns out to be a spacemaker: Pace, Grace and Space.

(Although a Jaguar slogan, it fits the Blue King)

The first drive, this time to the inspection (APK)

The cat monument in Maasniel is smiling at me...

 At Creemers' Vakgarage in Roermond. 

Encounter of a nuovo Giulia and a Brik bike, both cardan driven

On my way to the train station in bad weather, but with a big smile.

First flight to Maastricht.

Still smiling

Even Pip won't let the Alfa out of her sight.

Our aim is to take the car to Normandie, next month. That'll be the ultimate test of my 'Project SW' that started 10 years ago in Antwerp with this car below. 

People asked me what I've done on the car. Thinking about it, it struck me that almost everything on the car was done, except the paint. I did some welding work (didn't do it myself), I changed the interior (new second hand seats, cleaned the roof lining, changed the windows, put in the leather steering wheel of the QV, changed the gear lever knob of my first SW) I changed the petrol lines and the brake lines, fitted a new master brake cilinder, redid the brakes and changed the front calipers and put on ventilated discs of a 16V. I derusted the subframe, the front and rear axles and suspension. Minor works on the window cleaning installation, front and rear, redid the wheels (several times for several cars), put in an new battery and put on some new tires (Pirelli Cinturato 5 Verde). 

Meanwhile I derusted, cleaned, tested (changed), resprayed, and greased everything I got a hold of, refitted new front and rear lights, checked and derusted the electrical installation in parts. 

Oh, I put in the QV 1712 ccm engine with a new clutch and new timing belts. cleaned and checked everything as much as possible.

For the Punto I made a full calculation on the costs of the car, even per km. For this project I did not keep up the costs or even the time I spent in the garage. That would be nonsense. Firstly because I started this project as a budget restauration, only essential parts are sold new, less essential parts are reused  as much as possible and safe. Secondly, this is and will be my hobby, "dat mag wat kosten" we use to say in our country. And I'm content with it, my family is and even our dog is.

What's next? I had some thoughts (here, and here and here) about new projects, but the wife has other thoughts :-}. The next summer our Blue King will be timespender number one. Then we'll see.

Have a nice summer.

Driving time is here again

My idea was to post this video when the Blue Lord eh,  I mean when King Blue is on the road. But I can't wait, this is too nice to let it wait. And so appropriate.

So for the sad days that are to come this weekend or until tuesday (the final official step: dutch APK (TÜV, MOT). 

Enjoy it.

Registration of a new king

Well isn't that nice. The new registration came yesterday by mail from my RDW friends. I have had my thoughts over the registration number, I even checked it via a site that claimed to be able to predict the approximate code by sales recods, actual plate codes and other data. I believe this is possible, but the random factor is immense. What about the personal influence of the RDW servant? At least I (as this servant) would try to mix car and code at a sensible explainable way. In case of the Blue Lord I think my RDW officer was my type of guy or girl. KB-170-X came up out of the proces and we as a family fully understand this sensible "choice". King Blue sends you 170 kisses.
Have a nice day.

Blue Lord becoms a king, King Blue,
king of the road

Connections

Connections, that's what's it all about. At least in an Alfa Romeo.
During my drive to the RDW the tachometre illness struck the Blue Lord again. Spontaneous accelelations from 0 to 240 kmh in 1 second!! What a car, one would say. But no, this one's due to a connection failure just besides the battery. A failure I thought I'd handled, but now it struck me like a lightning in the blue sky (what a great song, btw: Mr Blue Sky).

The @$£#%¥-multi way connector had some trouble with the moist air, so in years it corroded failureously... On the interweb now I found a company that sells these multi connectors, over in Luton, United Kingdom. The connectors I ordered are the connectors with an optional sealing. So the autumn and winter moist can't get any hold of the precious connections.
The installation of this connector is a tricky job; it can't be done outside the car, the location in the car is just a little awquart and stresses the leg muscles. Thereby the connection has to be done correct, no messing with the line colours, and a good connection of the cable ends. An adequate pair of pincers is essential too. The original Mate n Lock connectors pair of pincers costs about € 270 ! That's not the money I wanted to spent to fix a few cable connections. Maybe this would cost an entire wire web for the whole car...
At my local spare parts shop an old mechanic called 'grandpa' showed me how to fix the connectors with a Teng tools standard pair of pincers: costs € 25.
Now it's connecting time!

The package that came over the Channel

Lots of fresh and good connecting males and females

The 9-way connector with the blue seal

Make a drawing of the cables and their colours and do the job step by step


Mighty fine stuff

The right tools are important in this stage

Try the tool on the connectorparts first, do some practicing

And when you're persevering, this will be the result,

only the first side of the multi way connection

The second part from the old connector

Rusty, mwaah. Clean mwaah. Replace it? Yes

The matching of the colours is most important here.

After some practicing, I succeeded in making a fine connection with the cable

Looks fresh and sound

Even my tachometre and temperature gauge are working well again.

Let's hope the RDW will connect me soon, so the Blue Lord can be on the road again. Then filling this whole in my dash is the next on my list. Is there anyone who has a nice old radio for me?

RDW National Service for Road Trafic :-)

The RDW, our National Service for the Road Trafic saw the Bleu Lord wedneysday. In the burning heat, temperatures rose to 36 degrees Celcius, the bleu one was inspected. Well at least, in the morning of this day when it became 36 degrees, I was there around 9 o'clock in the morning.

Ready for the road.

Pip was anxious to accompanie us.

 Turning the 33 to the Highway, on my way tot the inspection.

You should've heard the boxer growl.

The inspection did not go as aspected; I hadn't mentioned that I swapped the old 1350 ccm engine for the more powerful 1712 ccm from my old Tulipwoodracer, the QV.

This delayed the proces, but eventually did not frustrate it. The public servant asked me to declare where the 1712 engine came from. So I did. And I only had to fill in one form. The servant had to read the exact engine number on the block. I thought I'd be clever and make a little note beside the battery, good visible in the engine compartment. The servent however had to read the exact number where it was engraved in the cast iron block. That lasted a while because my note wasn't correct, I forgot to copy the code properly, so I myself had to sand the block and read the AR code instead of a A code to the public servant in duty.
After that the inspector checked the underbody and weighted the car: 1068 kgs in full armour.
After the inspection the bill was around 160 euros, just to register the car.

In the inspaection hall a rather fine C6 V6 HDI rolled up from behind.

The 33 with the unknown engine...

Some foreign bugs flew inside the hall

Underbody: check

Even Marianne was pleased to see any progress, at last (left side)

The second part was to establish the amount of taxes (BPM) I wouold have to pay. Therefor I had to declare what amount the carbon dioxide was  the car produces. This was the funny (!) part. Several forms and notices I checked to establish the amount. More than one hour I spent reading and calling to the Tax services call center. I had to calculate the amount for the declaration, knowing that my car was older than 25 years, and the taxes would be put on € 0. In the mentioned heat I was calculating like a cockchafer to find out the (BPM) taxes. (Dutch citizens have te calculate their taxes, and when they're lucky the calculations will be checked immediately by the tax office servants.)

In despair I read my declaration form to see what I had to do when the amount was calculated, when I read in the last line of the form, in small capital: cars over 25 years need not to make a tax calculation, taxes will be zero....

Have a nice day.

At least the 33 had some fine company on the parking lot.

The calculated way of driving

The little Fiat has had some attention last week. During the christmas holidays I changed the sparkplugs, oil and filters (less then € 50). The stupid gasket of the engine head still leaked oil like a drunken sailor. It seems to be a common problem of these engines. So I took a tube of silicon kit and puttied it till it never leakes again.
The tires are worn too. I had these tires since we bought the little one, almost two years ago, and they weren't very good. The profile was good but the front right tire had a puncture and was empty every three months.  And while winter is coming to us from the north (Groningen and Friesland are frozen in by blizzards), I bought a full set of second hand winter tires at Gijs Janssen's shop. Good service reasonable prices and a nice guy too.
For 50 euros I became a set and that's cheap. 14 inch wheels, so now my last years copricerchi, imitation FIAT wheel caps, don't fit anymore. Maybe I will look for some light metal wheels to put the tires on, maybe I won't.
This car still surprises me. Its a little rascal and for the purpose we need a car, just good. In our holidays we went to Maastricht several times, we visited Aachen and Nijmegen. Comfort isn't Alfa like, material in the car isn't too, but we're driving. When I make a short calculation this is what I find:

Costs up till now (from february 2014) 25.000 kms:
Maintenance
clutch and timing belt € 710
2x oil and air filter, sparkplugs € 52
oil due to gasket leak € 50
windscreen wipers € 20
APK (technical inspection) € 30
sub sum € 862

Extra costs
gasket engine head € 18
gasket injection unit € 16
used winter tires € 50
sub sum: € 84

Tuning & trims
gear lever knob € 20
gear lever cover € 16 and a lot of love
wheel caps € 38
sub sum € 54

Exactly 1000 euros for almost two years of driving, ex petrol, taxes and insurance.
Count that up with petrol (1,50 a liter =) 2500, taxes 616, insurance 408 euros the total amount of 25.000 kms or two years driving is 4525 euros. Per kilometre this is 0,181 cents total cost for everything. Oh wait, the car itself cost the proud sum of 650 euros.

So the total driving costs are
€  1000 maintenance and extra costs
€  2500 petrol
€   616 taxes
€   408 insurance
€   650 car Fiat Punto 60S, 1994
€ 5175 all costs / 25.000 kms is 0,207 cents for everything.

I figure some more costs are due this year. The front brake discs are gone. I have to change them, plus an extra set of brake pads and brake fluid. Don't know what more I'll find.
I looked the discs up, and a rediculous sum of 28 euros are the price of a set of two discs for the Fiat. Pads are not even 20 euros. So this repair won't alter my total driving costs very much.
In that respect the Fiat is a sensible car. It's practical, cheap in maintenance and driving (I calculated 1litre for 15 kms). I stiil like the looks of the little rascal for a small car. It's a good design. What I don't like is the interior, which is cheap and of a mediocre quality. But what would we do with an all new car and being cautious not to scratch or dent it?
This is another way of driving, very sensible. When the Alfa will be on the road, in spring time when the weather is fine,  we'll experience a whole different way of driving.

I'll keep you posted.