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Fun fixing a wreaked Spider!

3K views 24 replies 6 participants last post by  agusta74 
#1 ·
Well I bought a 2000 2.0 Phase 2 Spider last week. Well most of one....
It had a frontal crash in 2012 and has been worked on but not finished.
It's silver with black cloth interior and when I am finished the plan is for it to be the factory yellow with blue Lusso leather interior.
It looks like it has run into the tow ball of the car ahead.
Lets see if the picture uploaded....
 

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#2 ·
If you need 2nd hand spares... try GTV City on Facebook and for new parts, try TotallyAlfa. Good luck with the project.
 
#3 ·
Yeah, thanks! It should be a fun project. The car is worth saving as it was a nice car when crashed.... NZ from new, 80000kms only, full service history and books.... it was a well looked after car when it looks like it ran into the tow ball of the car in front and did the damage.

Tow ball punctured the bumper and bent the rail ahead of the radiator, totaled the aircond condenser, ripped the bonnet catch from the bonnet. The radiator that comes with the car looks like a second hand replacement and a new front cross member comes with it. Head lights are fine. Bonnet has a small amount of damage I can fix. For some reason someone has undone all the spot welds and taken off the bumper mount on the LHS of the car. I expect the chassis arm was bent and they took out the spot welds to get it back in line but never got around to re welding anything.

I have found two donor GTV's at two different wreakers in NZ which is a bonus! So I can get all the needed parts, plus one has the front intact and not damaged so I will not only be able to remove the parts from that car BUT take accurate measurements at the same time and even make a template of the bumper bolt positions and the bonnets latch positions that I can use to help with the alignment of the parts correct on my car.
 

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#6 ·
Nice project, good luck with it.

Renovo does very good hood cleaners and treatments. They do a black dye to refurbish black hoods. I doubt whether you would be able to successfully dye a black hood blue.

You might find that a thorough clean with the Renovo cleaner and the stiff brush they provide will bring it up pretty well, without the need for dye.

The window can be replaced e.g. this one although I think you should be able to get one cheaper than this https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Alfa-GTV-plastic-rear-window-916-Spider-with-zipper-for-convertible-hood-top-/131981805882
 
#8 ·
Nice, I have gone through a similar repair not so long ago:

https://www.alfaowner.com/Forum/alfa-gtv-andamp-916-spider/1119362-repair-break-sell-or-crunch.html

I still have a few bits and bobs left from the repair (plastic clips, bolts...) let me know if there's something in particular you cant find.

I also have a spare space saver wheel but you're literally on the other side of the world! I'm not sure which other models shared that wheel? 156 perhaps, certainly not the cover though...

Cheers
 
#10 ·
Ahaha, nice one, you're welcome.

I will keep watching this space but by all means contact me if you need anything in particular.

I'm also probably going to take the bumper off one of these days for further repairs so If you need any more reference pictures and / or measurements let me know.

Cheers
 
#11 ·
Without the car to hand I have been looking at the photos and working out what happened.....
I think the damage happened in two separate times....
Once when the tow ball went through the bumper and bent stuff..... and second "round" of damage after the cross bar had been taken off when the person I got the car off tried to move it with a rope around the bottom radiator panel.... which of course bent and twisted the two towers that the bonnet attaches to forward.
I am thinking that the bonnet damage might have happened when they tried to move it and not in the crash at all. When I get the car in the workshop in a couple of weeks I should be able to see in the fractures in the part ripped from the bonnet which way the force was going.... back then the tow ball did it... forward then towing on the radiator support did it....

Interesting detective work!
 

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#12 · (Edited)
I have a couple of questions that I hope the group can help answer....
1. The two mufflers that are side by side.... are they the same "type" inside? IE do they work the same way? I see the front one has in and outs at either end and the rear one has both in and out at one end... follow up question... would the sound change depending on which of those two mufflers you might delete??
2. How much change (exhaust and intake mods) will the ECU cope with before having to be upgraded or changed in some way?
3. Why does the Spider have 4 mufflers?? I have an MX5 Mk1 which came with a resonator and one muffler...
Thanks!
 
#13 ·
I have made some progress on the Spider. Last Thursday I acquired all the front end parts I "think" I need to fix it from a GTV that was being wrecked for parts... and a full blue leather Lusso interior from another GTV that had a frontal. Got the seats, door cards, blue dash, carpet and lots of little bits from inside.... I will have to do something with the carpet around the storage "hole" as the GTV carpet stops at the bottom of the rear seats... but I am sure I can do something with that. Might be able to dye my grey carpet blue in that section? Or just replace that section with new carpet to match. Seats are the blue leather Momo seats and in super good condition. Before someone says I can't use the GTV seats in the Spider because of the seat belt guide on the Spider seats.... I will strip the fabric off my Spider seat backs and pull the blue leather cover them so solve that problem!
Photos to come in a few days....
 
#23 ·
I straightened up a lot of the issues and got as far as I could doing obvious stuff. Next I need to get the car up on four axle stands and level the car to the floor, then take a bunch more measurements off the undamaged but striped GTV front end at the wreckers and start comparing and correcting... I will put it on a chassis machine later for the major alignment check but my guess is it will need all these little things sorted anyway. If the car measures up way out then I will go to the machine first. The front chassis "arms" do not have much strength without the front brace welded in or the top and bottom radiator mounts. Funfunfun!!! :)
 

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#25 ·
I have not done anything on the car in the last couple of weeks BUT I sold some old motorcycle parts and put the money into bits for the Spider.... cam belt kit with bearings water pump and balance belt, belt changing tools, new Alfa wheel centres, new Alfa badges front and swiveling back, new intake pipe to engine, blacking and water proofing kit for the roof... some cool looking aftermarket Pininfarina badges, new front discs and an after market muffler. Still a few things on my list to buy as money comes to hand, like a set of new tyres, rear discs, all new pads, oil and filter, oil for gearbox, air filter accessory belt, new battery, plastic to replace the rear window.... then I will have all the parts for a full service! Going to drain and clean the fuel tank and lines too as the car has not run since 2012. Then it should at least be a runner. Got to get some two pack silver paint for the wheels as I might as well tidy them up before the new tyres go on and as I am a retired spray painter that is easy and cheap for me to do. :)
 
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