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UK Sprint 1.7 found in rural australia

4K views 26 replies 13 participants last post by  sudaddict 
#1 ·
Greetings everyone.
I have been researching Alfa Sprint since I aquired a poor dead alfa sprint early this year.
I have found this forum helpfull and will post some pics for your enjoyment!
All the posts here have given me tons of inspiration.
I am posting progress shots throughout the resto to help motivate me to finish.

Onto the car!

Had been left in a field in a fairly poor state. But not too bad by Sprint standards Luckily was covered with a tarp. Also was a late 1988 model, bought new in 1988 by a girl in the UK who then due to work moved to australia in 1989 (all in the compliance papers with the car). From the compliance info it seems this Sprint variant was never sold in Australia, only early 1.5 variants were. So the move to a dry environment saved this car perhaps. Also could easily be the only copy of this variant in Aus!. She went through a few owners here in aus, last being on the road in 2001 by the reciepts and was sold to the guy we got it off because of apparently a bust clutch. She came with a spare aluminum radiator and new clutch still sealed in plastic wrap!

My father (who has been restoring cars for years), also aquired three other sprints in the deal plus an additional 2X 1.5 boxer engines. So his plan is to eventually build a racing sprint from his three. My plan is to get my sprint running and back to its former glory at least. It is to be a learning experience for me, being my first complete resto. Plus good to hang out with the old man and all his toys! Dad collects mostly Fiat and Lancia, however nowadays we becoming alfaholics!

Once shes re-registered I may consider whether I race her or just show her!

Onto some pics:

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This is her after unloading from the car trailor. I need to chase up photos from when we removed her from the field! I didnt have my camera untill later sorry.

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And the stripdown can begin!

Land vehicle Vehicle Car Sedan Family car

The way the factory glued the zender kit on these puppies was crazy! Although the kits might have been attached in England? I tell you the kit had caused so much corrosion through holding water in against the bodywork. And the screws they used have all rusted in and had to be drilled out. I was extremely careful when removing the zender kit, all bits are intact including the moulding inserts for the door parts.
I am a lover of the bumperless look on my fiats, and here in Western Australia it is 100% legal to run classics with no bumpers. So I will be happy to provide the Zender kit to anybody looking for that for their sprint, as I read here they are quite desired and hard to find. Plus this would be complete kit, not just bits and pieces. Of course they need some cleaning up!

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Sexy bum on an Alfa sprint huh!

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Dads engine removal method, Using forklift and old seatbelts to lift car!!
Whole operation took about 4 to 5 hrs. Very satisfied. Engine needs alot of work! Coolant was left in system for last 7 years and has rotted through!

Land vehicle Vehicle Motor vehicle Car Automotive exterior

Waxoyl all over EVERYTHING. But because the car was bought to Australia from UK in its first year, and cars here typically aren't waxoyled (its too hot and dry), After cleaning off all the gunk the engine bay is flawless! Of course lots of rust in front shock towers, sills, the front guards are rotten through from the zender kits wheel arch extensions. The rear window winder mechanisms are just lumps of rust! The biggest areas to fix will be those rear window winder wells, and the front shock towers.

Because of the rust in the shock towers, being due to stress weakness and not moisture, we plan to weld reinforcements in that area to combact structural stresses obviously inherent in the design. I suggest it may have been the bigger perhaps heavier 1.7, definately more power, stressing through that area, as the design was originally a 1.3L engine. I, really just guessing on that one. If anyone knows more would love to hear!

Thanks for listening, more updates as they happen...
 
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#2 ·
First of all , big WELCOME :)

Second , the zender body kit is not supposed to be bolted on the car, but there are supposed to be some plastic push on clips that hold it on the car.

Third, I am interrested in the zender body kit but not the whole set. Front bumper, wheel arches, rear spoiler and the trim line that goes into the side skirts.
I dont need the rear bumper or the side skirts , if that is possible .

Fourth, I am so very very happy and excited that another Sprint is on its way to glory :cool:

Fifth, the same body was used for the 1.5 and 1.7 engines. The older alfasud sprint had a slightly different body and suspension, but nothing that critical. Also the 1.5 engine from the 1.7 dont really have so much difference in weight. Have in mind that the 1.7 engine is from an oversized 1.3 block !

Would love to see more pictures as you go on, and again very interested in your new project ! :)
Best of luck , and ask away whatever you need :)

Chris
 
#4 ·
Welcome Etchi
It will be good to see your progress in restoring your Sprint - and you have a nice big working area!!
As I'm sure you have realised you have a very good basis - some of us have had much rustier Sprints to deal with. Will you also post pictures of the other "to be racer" Sprint?
 
#6 ·
Thanks for the welcome chris!
glad to be part of alfa ownership! Ive always loved the sprint shape since very young. Hardly any around now though! Looking forward to driving it, from what I read they very nice handling. I used to own Lancia beta HPE, read somewhere they handle very similar to Alfasud sprint, so I know it will be a blast to drive.

It definately was held on with the plastic clips as you say. Bolts only in the bumper parts and rear wing. I did destroy a few of those clips, I want a semi-shaved look eventually so I had to remove everything. The clips were just screwed straight into the bodywork and had corroded pretty bad. I had to grind a groove in each screw head to get it out as they were tiny number 1 philips head, and after all the years they just stuck in there. All the clips broken or not are there, screws are useless now obviously. Car is 170km's south in the workshop, so will be a week before Im down south again and can get some photos. Dont mind separating bits if it goes to a good home. Postage from Perth australia could be pricey however.

Motor vehicle Windshield Vehicle door Vehicle Glass

Nice pic showing the box section rust. The wierd thing that made dad think it was stress rust was the lack of obvious rust on the outer section. Rust only on the wall right against the shock tower section. Will put all new metal in and add an extra layer just in case. Its probably normal, it was driven pretty hard by the owner that broke it apparently!

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The drivers side had much more rust, new box section has recently been taken off donor car to fix this.

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Pic of the donor car. This poor sprint has almost snapped in half from the amount of rust in the Left side door pillar! You can see the seats if you look through the wheel well, there is just a huge hole! Amazingly where there is rust on my silver 1.7, there is no rust on this one. Thank god for donor car! She will be well used. Also the rear window winder mechanisms in this one work perfect. I really want my sprint to have working rear window drop! So I was pretty happy when I found those.

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Engine out, As you can see the water pump is toast! Will water pump off 1.5 block work?

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Not too sure if its catalyst version greek, didnt look like any catalyst stuff. Still learning this stuff, but all looked too simple to be catalyst. Ill have to ask dad.
He noticed the weber carbs were bigger on the 1.7 than the 1.5, so I dont know if thats normal or not. Ive read this version had 117BHP? but then another site said it was more like 125ish? maybe catalyst on or off? Still havent opened the engine up yet, so I could be in for a shock. Dad did compression test and said it will definately need total overhaul with new rings etc. So Ill post pics as we do all that over the months. My aim is to have it done for Italian Car show next Feb, but dad says theres no way! Damn... :(

Thanks Alfasixnut, will definately post the racer one when its started. That will be dads baby, he's busy with building an x19 abarth prototipo replica this summer (xmas means summer here in aus!). But he's retired just last year so Im sure it will begin soon. The Sud he will use is a nice clean rust free shell. Will get some photos of it when Im down the coast next. Lots of space makes things great and the shed rocks but dad plans to sell it or rent it for retirement funds! so gotta use it while I can!
 
G
#7 ·
Good luck with the restoration etchi:thumbs: It will be good to watch/see another Sprint restored:cool:

Regarding the water pump, I think there was two different pumps. In the early days of the Sud, the pump was a bit shorter than the later ones. Someone here will know for sure.
Regarding the carbs, the 1.7 came with 40mm Webers or Dellortos. Hope this helps.
 
#13 ·
Thanks all.

SteffenJ3316V
I hear you on the bumper issue. To keep or not to keep huh! Personally I prefer the look of the early sprint with the small metal bumbers and early grille. Beautifull simple lines. I feel over the years as they put kits on these cars they ruined the designers original idea. I love Guigarios simple lines and curves on the body. The Zender kit bought the car into the 80's era well. But I feel by todays standards it dates the design. Totally personal however as there are a number of unbelievable nice sprints with Zender kit! I loved the kit for about 3 days. Then I just hated it all of a sudden! Dont know, maybe I should keep it just in case.

Same thing with x1/9's we collect. I have early small bumpered 70's X1/9 speciale, most are later models, they had these big *** US spec plastic aircraft carrier landing pads as bumpers :cry: Series1 bumperettes have become very expensive and desirable as people revert their later model X1/9 to early model.
Same with the Sprint I guess, as series1 grille and the small spoiler are pretty pricey thru ebay! A big issue for me is weight as well. The Zender kit was pretty heavy. Only problem is I have to make holes for and figure out what style of front indicator to use.

The wing mirrors suck too. We have some vitalonis here, but I will have to fight dad for them! :lol:

markp2, thanks for the comments on the 124! Red 124 is a 1969 AC variant with 1400CC (Can tell from the rear lights same as lamborghini Espada) The BC 1600CC is the Yellow one you can just see in one of the photos with an old rug over it. Same rear lights as Maserati ghibli or bora, cant recall which one. BC was bought brand new by my father in 1973! Its 1 owner, was bought back to concourse condition 15 years ago, but needs a clean up now.

Pride and joy of the family is off course his genuine 124 Abarth CSA, currently under repair as it was damaged in a historic car race recently by some bozo in a replica Stratos.
I dont want to talk too much bout the Fiats. Lets keep things Alfa!!

Only other Alfas we have is 3X Alfa 164. Which is an awesome saloon car. I loved driving it up and down the coast last summer, but got three speeding tickets. Thing just keeps powering. Awesome cruiser, the missus drove it for a while too. Loved it but V6 fairly drinks the fuel. Here in Australia most people Ford and Holden nuts, so old Fiat, Lancia and Alfa Romeo largely unwanted and available cheap. Great if you want something Italian and a little bit different! Oh we just got given an Alfa 33 for free, but need to pick it up from a field, non-runner of course. That will help with some bits no doubt! :thumbs:
 
#16 ·
Ok , since you have carbs it s not a IE model. If it was it would have injection and fume box in the trunk. I assumed that since it was a 1998 model with zender kit it would be 1.7 IE. Well, 1.7 8v produced 118hp , 1.7 IE 112hp and rare 1.78v with mech tappets 125hp.

Water pump is the same , only early models of Sud had different. You can find new part and it will be better to do so because those parts have metallic mill instead of plastic from factory which could brake easily or be cracked after all these years.

Also , i would suggest you to have a Dellorto's carb repair kit , it is cheap enough and it will make great difference on performance.
 
#19 ·
Thanks MrXzender, I had a feeling I had it all wrong, Im pretty slow with the names for these things. To me it was the thing that the tubes coming from the radiator go into :lol: But yeah thermostat rings a bell. I didnt pay much attention to where everything went when I stripped her all down so putting it back together will be lots of help from dad, and refering to the spare car. Ive always been in charge of the spray side of things, mechanicals are a new thing for me.

Greek, I definately remember dad being interested in this engine. It definately has mech tappets, he noticed it straight away. I was like huh, it had to be explained to me and I still dont get it! You can see it in the photo of the engine. I noticed it because the cam covers on the 1.5 engines looked different straight away. so that must have been where I read the 125HP figure. Ill get photos when Im down south next to confirm if it is. I have to do my business tax this week due 31OCT! :cry: so is going to be at least a week.

The previous owner 'Martin' whose field it was in (races an alfettaGTV) said it was a very desirable motor. There is a bloke in Perth who races his 33 in hillclimbs and stuff. It has a worked 1.7 16V. That guy apparently wanted the engine from mine because he believed the 1.7 8V w mech-tappets would be lighter and something about a different tourque curve for hillclimbs? Martin said he prefer to sell to me because I wont split the car and engine! I have photos of one of those hillclimb events, will post.

Carbies are definately weber. It took me hours to clean the gunk off them, hands were black with waxoyl and grease. Found Turpentine works best in the end. Finally I could look them over and noticed weber embossed in the side of them. very happy about that! Ill get some detail photo of that as well.

Hi David, Good spot! It is Fiat130 saloon. Came as a deal my dad got with another working, registered Fiat130. But he sold it years ago to a club member and ended up lumped with the spare! Well beyond help that one! On the subject of awesome wrecked cars beyond all help...

Land vehicle Vehicle Car Motor vehicle Scrap

These babies will be saved at some time. Dad was going to just cut bits out of them when we needed panels but they are becoming so rare, we will try to rebuild them all. These were all free to anyone prepared to remove them, unbelievable he was only guy to show up! Did the whole move by himself. Some serious love for 124's!
 
#20 ·
Ok , If you have webers on then the engine should be from 33S1 QV 1.7 of 1983 or so. Only first production 33's had mechanical tappets and Webers. After 1984 the started using Delorto's due to better emitions , more stable idle and the didnt go out of synchr.

Mechanical tappets had 2 characteristics. Better cam shafts than hydraulic, more "aggresive" i would say, and they could endure high revs for long. Thats why they produced 125 hp and thats why everybody who new wanted qv engine. I am still trying to figure how on earth i am going to use mech heads on a 1.7 block and get rid off hydraulics.
 
#23 ·
You couldn't get a 1,7 in the S1. The S1 33 QV was a 1,5 105 bhp. The 1,7 came with the S2 33 QV. You got the story about the mech tappets wrong. When they first introduced the 1,7 engine it was with hydr tappets, but they had a lot of problems with noice from the tappets. That's why they changed them to mech tappets for a period until the solved the problem.

Etchi: From the picture of your engine I'm pretty sure that it's with hydr tappets.
 
#21 ·
Awesome thanks for that info greek. Hope you get yours working! Cant wait to hear mine. The sound with open carbs and nice fat exhaust should be amazing.

Was in the workshop on Tuesday and got a chance to open up the gearbox. selector thing had come unhooked. Hooked it back up, closed gearbox and could then get into 2nd 3rd 4th 5th and R but no 1st gear. Dad says use another gearbox we have from 1.5, then fix mine but I just realized all the other gearboxes are inboard brakes. Damn. At least clutch is fine and wasnt problem at all!

Some Alfa specific pics from VSCC hill climb this year.

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Just lovely huh! Didnt get to see this do a run unfortunately.

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Guy who sold us the sprints with his GTV, plus dad and one of my buddies all lookin pretty serious. :lol:

Land vehicle Vehicle Car Regularity rally Coupé

Note the side exit exhaust. Makes this thing very LOUD.

Land vehicle Vehicle Car Rallying Regularity rally

33 with 1.7 16V

Alfasixnut, thanks for the tip. Seen demon tweeks catalouge laying around (lots of babes in those crikey!) so probably dad got them from there. Yours is the V6 mid mounted in Sprint yes? Awesome project. Alot of aussies follow your posts! Those V6 amazing engine, crazy dudes even put them in X1/9's! Here in Aus we have Giacottollo, Im sure all you guys know about that thing, aussie V8 mid mounted in modified Sprint body. Scary!! Unfortunately the creator was killed just recently in one of his own Giacottollo's drag racing it. Quite sad really. Be careful when drag racing powerful mid engine cars I guess! All the write ups on Giacottollo say its handling was ruined by heavy v8 lump. Alfa V6 is much better, keeps it 100% Alfa!

more pics next week...
 
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