Alfa Romeo 2600 Spider restoration - December 2024 update

More body work

On close inspection both door skins were in need of replacement. These new door skins were made and from scratch (thanks David!) 

The car went off to the paint shop in May 2024, so over the summer I finished off any part restoration that remained. The engine rebuild is also coming along, more on that in the net update. 

Manifolds

I have had all the manifolds and air plenum aqua blasted. The intake manifold has been de-Siamesed ready for the new throttle bodies.

After a long wait the car finally came back from the paint shop in December 2024, now at last I can start putting the car back together!!

Alfa Romeo 2600 Spider restoration - March 2024 update

Body work.

The underside of the car has been media blasted and epoxy primed. I then spent many happy hours seam sealing all the panels. 

All the panel edges were painted with a brush to ensure coverage before a coat of Epoxy mastic, once this had hardened I sanded the surface and applied a final coat of Raptor.

Engine Bay

I prepped the engine bay, epoxy undercoated then finished with Eastwood UnderHood Black that gives a very low gloss which is close to the original factory finish. I have used Raptor on the cross beams.

Here are the before and after photos.

Steering Box

In a previous posting I said that after I had had a quick inspection and the wear wasn't too bad, that I would leave the steering box alone.  I wasn't really happy with this but as the RHD rebuild kits are hard to come by, I was prepared to live with. 

Then I came across Ricardo Cavallero in Buenos Aires, they make all the bits I needed. As luck would have it I was planning to visit South America during December & January and Buenos Aires was on the schedule!. So a few emails to the very helpful Ricardo and it was all sorted, during my visit I could meet up and pick up the parts.

 - 1 (one) Gear worm & shaft (shaft installed into the gear worm).

 - 1 (one) Roller-kit  ( 1 roller, 1 pin for riveting, 2 oversize washers & the full complement of needle rollers)

 - 1 (one) Lower bearing set ( 1 cup and 1 cage with tapered rollers )

 - 1 (one) Upper bearing set ( 1 cup and 1 cage with tapered rollers )

 - 3 (three) Oil seals

 - 1 (one) Set of shims ( for axial adjusting of gear worm and bearings )

 - 1 (one) Gasket ( for sector shaft cover )

 - 2 (two) Housing bushings.

It all went to plan and I met with Ricardo and his sister and picked up the bits.

Dynamo & Regulator

I decided to do some minor upgrade work on the regulator which has now been converted to a solid state circuit, and the dynamo has been overhauled with new coils etc.

Fuelling

Having read so much on how to set up the Solex carburettors or the alternatively using the optional Weber's, everything I have read says that both options are not ideal and I felt that I would be "chasing" the set up for ever.
So decision made, I have decided to use heritage throttle bodies that look like Weber's.  I will add all the detail of the conversion in a later posting.