Alfa 33 Restoration
- Thread starter dickyb
- Start date
TridentTested
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That is looking gorgeous.
What a sharp looking car the 33 is.
What a sharp looking car the 33 is.
Malcolm Pearce
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- 169
DickyB,
Well done - starting to look really good.
Malcolm
Well done - starting to look really good.
Malcolm
dickyb
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- 432
Thanks for your comments, very pleased with how everything is looking, its been a very long and difficult time though. Its nice that others appreciate the car too, I often question why the **** I'm spending all this money on a relatively low value car but they're quite rare now, it was the first car I ever bought and they're great fun so I suppose that justifies it.
I stripped the car in May/June 2009 when it went to the 1st bodyshop. They took a year to do a blowover for which they charged me £4000. The car then sat on my drive under a cover for 6 months before going to the second bodyshop in January 2011 where it has been ever since (getting on for 2 years now). They have nearly finished but the car will stay with them until around March (I'm between houses at the moment so no-where to keep it).
I've had a 2 year legal battle with the 1st bodyshop and have still yet to receive any money from the guy although something is possibly imminent. As I've mentioned before I've now entered into long legal battle with my credit card company who have refused to refund any money that was paid in this transaction due to a pathetic technicality. The Financial Ombudsmen are now investigating and they could potentially order the credit card company to pay up but it could be a long process, potentially up to a year.
Parts supply has been a nightmare, I started collecting parts around 5 years ago and have been spending a fortune on parts every month for years, sometimes I've been very surprised with what I have managed to get from dealers and have often snapped up the last of one particular part from the factory parts stock. Surprisingly a lot of the dealers I've used have been very enthusiastic and helpful (despite the reputation of Alfa Romeo dealers in general). I have also found a lot of parts to be NLA so I've had to scour the world for various parts or have had to make some stuff myself.
Just when I thought I'd overcome nearly everything I've found more problems involving parts that are NLA, some parts of the car got dissolved in the chemical stripping process so they will need to be sourced somehow. I also need a new tailgate seal as the 1st bodyshop kindly lost my original and the one I sourced from Australia was effectively scrap, they are NLA as with many other parts but I've found 2 in Italy, the seller is being a bit "difficult" at the moment though!
All in all this has been a complete nightmare and most sane people would have just quit while they were ahead but I've somehow managed to keep going. I suppose that solving all the problems and sourcing parts against the odds is all the more satisfying in the long run. If it were an MGB I could just buy everything off the shelf, where's the challenge in that? I really hope the end result is worth it and that I am not reminded of all the troubles whenever I look at the car and the encouragement I've had on this site has been really nice, so a big thanks to everyone for their kind comments.
Hopefully there'll be a few more updates in the next few weeks but things will go quiet for a couple of months until the rebuild begins in the spring....
Here's a reminder of how the car looked 14 months ago...
I stripped the car in May/June 2009 when it went to the 1st bodyshop. They took a year to do a blowover for which they charged me £4000. The car then sat on my drive under a cover for 6 months before going to the second bodyshop in January 2011 where it has been ever since (getting on for 2 years now). They have nearly finished but the car will stay with them until around March (I'm between houses at the moment so no-where to keep it).
I've had a 2 year legal battle with the 1st bodyshop and have still yet to receive any money from the guy although something is possibly imminent. As I've mentioned before I've now entered into long legal battle with my credit card company who have refused to refund any money that was paid in this transaction due to a pathetic technicality. The Financial Ombudsmen are now investigating and they could potentially order the credit card company to pay up but it could be a long process, potentially up to a year.
Parts supply has been a nightmare, I started collecting parts around 5 years ago and have been spending a fortune on parts every month for years, sometimes I've been very surprised with what I have managed to get from dealers and have often snapped up the last of one particular part from the factory parts stock. Surprisingly a lot of the dealers I've used have been very enthusiastic and helpful (despite the reputation of Alfa Romeo dealers in general). I have also found a lot of parts to be NLA so I've had to scour the world for various parts or have had to make some stuff myself.
Just when I thought I'd overcome nearly everything I've found more problems involving parts that are NLA, some parts of the car got dissolved in the chemical stripping process so they will need to be sourced somehow. I also need a new tailgate seal as the 1st bodyshop kindly lost my original and the one I sourced from Australia was effectively scrap, they are NLA as with many other parts but I've found 2 in Italy, the seller is being a bit "difficult" at the moment though!
All in all this has been a complete nightmare and most sane people would have just quit while they were ahead but I've somehow managed to keep going. I suppose that solving all the problems and sourcing parts against the odds is all the more satisfying in the long run. If it were an MGB I could just buy everything off the shelf, where's the challenge in that? I really hope the end result is worth it and that I am not reminded of all the troubles whenever I look at the car and the encouragement I've had on this site has been really nice, so a big thanks to everyone for their kind comments.
Hopefully there'll be a few more updates in the next few weeks but things will go quiet for a couple of months until the rebuild begins in the spring....
Here's a reminder of how the car looked 14 months ago...
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TridentTested
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You know, there is some very nice metal owned by the many forum members on this site but of all the cars here this one is the one I'm most interested in seeing in the flesh.
Keep up the great work.
Keep up the great work.
alfatan
Junior Member
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- 340
Nice 33 project, best colour for the 33 in my opinion. We had a 1.7 twin carb boxer 33 many years ago. It went very well and sounded stunning.
Seeing this post makes me think I really should get my Y10 turbo back on the road. My baby Lancia has been with me for over 17 years.
Seeing this post makes me think I really should get my Y10 turbo back on the road. My baby Lancia has been with me for over 17 years.
mjheathcote
Centenary Club
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I ran a late E reg. Y10 Turbo for 4 years in the late 80's early 90's, only sold it to buy a 33 Permanent 4!
alfatan
Junior Member
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small world! My Y10 turbo is a C plate in black with under 30k on it. I did regularly take it to meets and shows through the Lancia Motor Club.
The 4x4 33 they must be a real rare beast now. Am I right in thinking Alfa only made the 33 4x4 in a sportwagon?
My fiance Mike owned a little red Y10 turbo on a D plate for a while as well.
mjheathcote
Centenary Club
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No the Permanent 4 was different to the sport wagon, being the 4 door hatch just like dickyb on this thread.
It had permanent four wheel drive with a centre viscous differential to split the power front to rear. Normally most of the drive went to the front, with 10% I think to the rear, unless the front wheels started to slip and it transferred more drive to the rear. It transformed the car, you had no inside front wheel slip for example, it just pushed the drive to the rear and just went!
The sport wagon 4x4 if I remember was a part time system, certainly in the UK, and was available on the first generation 33 I think in the UK, not the second generation.
At the time, I used to show my Y10 Turbo through the Lancia Motor Club too!