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Last pictures of my 156 ...

2K views 51 replies 10 participants last post by  156Chris 
#1 ·
... before Dan writes it off buys it ...













 
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#3 ·
IMO it's far from immaculate, but not bad for 200k+ on the clock ... the side skirts are actually part of the zender body kit
 
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#5 ·
No!!! although I will leave in the custom electronics to talk to the car as he is thinking about putting in something himself ...
 
#7 ·
Really pleased with it! It drives very well, clutch & 6-speed gearbox to do and I think I'll treat it to a new DMF too.. Maybe Eibach rear roll bar if I can find a single one somewhere.

As for the front bumper, that is what original paint looks like after doing 212,000 miles! I'm assuming its original paint, quite surprised it doesn't have headlight squirters. Pleasantly surprised that is, I never did like them.

I forgot to ask, how come you moved the climate controls down instead of where they are in your signature pic?
 
#9 ·
I think the car was the basic Turismo when I bought it (hence no squirters), as for the climate controls, I'd changed the screen to a bigger 10" one which is why I moved them down.


Glad you're happy with it.
 
#10 ·
A4 3.0 Tdi Quattro (sorry!!!) ... convertible - to go with my midlife crisis!!!
 
#14 ·
Making a start on ICE now.. All seats are out, starting to pull out no longer needed wiring etc. Leaving in the main power for the amp though as that will be going back in after a time.

I wanted to ask about the little grey ribbon cable coming from behind the driver's side of the dash, which has been spliced into. Is this something to do with the steering wheel controls?

BTW the welding is sh8te, but it'll do for now. :)
 
#16 ·
the little grey ribbon cable is/was for the cruise control ... as for the welding - you get what you pay for!!!!

What is the toggle switch behind the dash for? Something to do with the amp's power?
There are 2 toggle switches, one controls the power to the amp (3 state, off, on or ignition switched) ... the second one used to control the power buttons on the motherboard
 
#20 ·
So the welding is done, both internal floors ground back to bare metal, zinc primered, painted, new underlay down, carpets back in freshly hoovered, RCA cables from head unit to boot have been put down along with the old power wire and a new amp trigger wire. Door sill trims back in. GTA seats are out, and I've put some Sport Recaros back in instead, driver's seat modified to lift the front up an inch. New centre console and ashtray/gearstick housing. All redundant wiring removed, now I just have to re-wire the ISO plug for the head unit's power, glue back in some of the framework from behind the dash that was chopped out, fit a new head unit and then the cabin is done.

Inside the boot, I will fit an amp to power to the door speakers and in time a compact sub of some sort.

I've not done any mechanical work yet but nothing is really pressing, I'll get an MOT on it first and then sort out niggles as they present themselves. 6-speed box has been sourced, needs removing from the donor car. I've got a 147 Ducati Corse / GT Cloverleaf (1.9 JTDM 170hp) clutch kit on order and a new DMF to go on when I get around to fitting the 6-speed box. Can't wait for that, makes such a difference on the 2.4 :thumbs:
 
#22 ·
Nice easy job!!! ... how did the MOT go? I'd be interested to know how easily it passed!!!
 
#24 ·
The only thing I could think of is play in the rear suspension as the bushes in the rear trailing arms were pretty knackered!!! ...
 
#26 ·
:thumbup:
 
#27 ·
We now have a dashboard, and we now have sound. Hallelujah!

Even with just the 4 BOSE speakers, no sub, that amp that you had and my JVC headunit running RCA leads the sound quality is really great. I can't wait to get a sub in it.
 
#28 ·
Excellent, yes when I was running it without a sub I was actually quite happy with the sound quality ... although with the sub it is definitely better :thumbs:
 
#29 ·
Fitted a decat pipe today and a straight through twin tailpipe rear section which I made myself* - sounds great!


* pair of chrome finished tailpipes cut off from a GTA backbox, a stainless steel 2 into 1 Y-piece, then some bends chopped from various Alfa exhaust sections, all welded together. A bit messy but looks good fitted, works well and I made it from stuff I had just laying around. Also sounds awesome, lots of 5-pot growl! :thumbs:
 
#30 ·
I meant to through in a decat pipe that I've got lying around in my garage that I didn't get round to fitting!!

I found that if you put a straight pipe from the air filter directly into the turbo you get some really good (and loud) turbo noises ... although I found it bit too chavvy!!!
 
#31 ·
The decat pipe I fitted was one Wizard made for my old 3 litre conversion years ago, its got a large silencer in it.. What is the one you have there? Just straight pipe and a flange on each end?

Getting parts together for the 6-speed swap now. I like the sound of that intake system I might have to try something like that. I'll have plenty of room as I'm going to relocate the battery out of the engine bay. Not sure where to put it though, the boot is usually rather full and I don't want to lose the spare wheel. Was thinking maybe a rear passenger footwell like I have done in the track slag, I can build a little box around it so it's concealed and nothing can touch the terminals.

Did the A/C work when you had it?
 
#32 ·
The decat pipe looks similar to this one .. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/160682242887

I know you're obsession is moving the battery back!!! it all depends if you plan to take any passengers, have you considered putting it in the front passenger footwell tucked just below the cabin filter, the front passenger will only loose a bit of foot space - but not that much


The AC had work when it was topped up, but it would loose it quicker and quicker. I did get some die added but when I looked in the engine bay for leaks it seemed to have splatters all over the condensor/compressor and ALL the pipe work
 
#33 ·
I think the A/C is going to go too then in that case.

I didn't think I would be taking any rear seat passengers until I found it has Isofix mounting points, so it might end up carting the family about but probably only on the odd long trips. In which case a battery in the rear footwell would prevent the car seat from fitting. Maybe it could go on the tunnel between the centre console and rear seats. I did think about front passenger footwell too, there's a lot of room there. I took a freezer to the tip in the front passenger footwell of the track slag, easier to get it in there than through the back doors. Maybe as I'm running a straight through rear exhaust with no box I could extend the spare wheel well to also contain a battery box, that would be a nice bit of fabrication, and a good excuse to buy a plasma cutter. :D

I think I'm also going to remove the power steering cooler & pipes which go up and over the gearbox, directly linkink the steering rack outlet straight back to the pipe that returns fluid to the bottle, my last one has done over 20k since I sold it including the Isle of Man TT and Nurburgring & back twice with no issues (on an over 200k pump just like your old one).
 
#34 ·
Started on the major work now, subframe off gearbox out etc. Its a dirty job but someone's gotta do it!

Making a battery box accessible from the boot floor too, in the space that was previously taken up by the rear silencer.. Wish me luck!
 
#35 ·
Good Luck ... especially with the rusty nuts!!!! :biglaugh:
 
#38 ·
Routing the exhaust past this is proving to be very very difficult!
Just put in a straight through pipe on instead!!! :biglaugh:

Looking good through.
 
#37 · (Edited)
Did it all out of 2mm steel as it needs to be strong, those strips down the side of the battery box were 1 inch box section cut diagonally across to make 90 degree angles. It was all welded from below initially, all the internal welding you can see is just to get rid of sharp edges.

There is enough room for the exhaust but I'm creating it out of individual bends, tacking in place then taking the whole exhaust off to fully weld. There is no room for a backbox but plenty of room for the 2.25" tube I'm using. Thinking of using a pair of tailpipes from a scrap GT 3.2 backbox..
 
#39 ·
Aye thats the plan, no backbox, twin tailpipes. Thats what I had on before I did the boot floor job actually but the one I'd previously made (which ran roughly through where the centre of the original backbox would be) no longer fits. Making that was easy as there was loads of room..
 
#40 ·
Well, finally, the 10v has an MOT :D

Six days after the last update we got flooded, and at that point most of the bell housing bolts, subframe bolts, suspension bolts etc was sat in my bolt tray underneath the car, so they all turned into a rusty mess once the water crept into the building. Many thanks to Craig from AL for digging out replacements for me.

Eventually we got sorted out from the flood and managed to get the rest of the work completed, so it has now got a 6-speed gearbox with the Q2 moved over from the 5-speed, new clutch, new rear engine mount, both driveshafts replaced with low mileage ones, re-booted and joints re-packed with grease, amazingly the flywheel was perfect! New driveshaft seals & O-rings, new Koni FSDs at the front as they had all done over 100k and one was leaking, new front top mounts, new lower wishbones, new upper wishbones, new droplinks, while the suspension was out we removed the plastic arch liners & jet-washed inside the arches and ground all the rust back to bare metal, treated with Jelonite, then zinc primered and two coats of underseal. New GTA front anti roll bar with 23mm Powerflex bushes, I've got an Eibach roll bar to go on the rear which needs to be done, those trailing arms & hub bushes passed the MOT but I will still do them when I get around to fitting the rear Konis.

GTA leather interior swapped for black (red stitching) Sport Recaros, battery to boot conversion finished off with new custom-made power & earth cables and the straight through rear exhaust section modified to clear the battery box, I used an original 156 chrome tip in the end so it looks stock for now.

Still to sort out is the air intake to turbo which I want to straight-pipe, the rear suspension as mentioned above, I want to put a new windscreen in it as it has 212k miles worth of chips, front end needs painting, she needs a new set of headlights, I am still thinking about facelift front end conversion and I need to mount a discreet slimline subwoofer into the parcel shelf.

But alas my 2.0 TS Sportwagon has decided it wants to leak clutch fluid from its concentric slave cylinder, so that is now coming off the road and the 10v will have to do me for daily-drive duties. The Twinspark has been consuming 1L of engine oil per 300-600 miles depending on driving style for the last 70k miles, and the gearbox hasn't been right for sometime either, and its due a cambelt, so given all that I have decided to treat it to a new heart & lungs, courtesy of a rotten '99 Fiat Coupe 20v turbo :D
 
#41 ·
As it turned out, one of the front Eibach springs was broken too, so I'm just going to bite the bullet and do all 4 Koni FSDs & Eibach springs, all brand new. The 10v deserves some love. Do you know the year & mileage they were fitted Chris out of interest?

Also fitted a set of 17" 156 GTA multispokes in anthracite, as they had some Pilot Sport 3s on them with a few mill all-round which needed using up, big improvement over those Chinese ditchfinders :D Only down-side is it doesn't give epic tyre howl when nipping around the estates :lol:
 
#47 ·
Probably a bit late now ... they were fitted at about 80k (so I did about 130k on them)
 
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