RE: Cleaning the TI's Bottom

[Richard Broughton <richard.broughton@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

A while ago I posted a question about how to go about cleaning the underside
of my 66 TI. Thanks to all who responded with various suggestions and
experiences. Your help has been invaluable in that it set us on a line of
thought we had not considered. Several of you suggested turning the car
upside down, and we gave serious thought to building a device to do that. My
brother is a welder and can build almost anything, if it involves steel. We
soon realized that turning the car upside down was a little too ambitious.
We also tried to design brackets that would allow us to turn the car on its
side. Supporting it on its side is easy enough, what concerned us was
stopping the momentum of the car while it tips over. I could not bear the
thought of looking at this car lying on a crushed roof. What we did is take
bits and pieces of many of your suggestions and devised a similar setup. We
designed "L" shaped brackets  to bolt to the front hubs using the wheel
lugs. The brackets got the front axle about 18 inches off the ground. This
allowed us to jack up the rear so the rear bumper was about 6 feet in the
air. The front brackets allowed the car to pivot about the front hubs and
try to stand on its nose. Supported by large jack stands sitting on frames
of wood and old Alfa wheels, the car looked like it was in a swan dive.
Prior to scooting under the car on a rolling seat, I shook it violently to
see if I could topple it off the stands. I was surprised at how stable the
car was. With the car in this position, and the rear axle removed, it was
fairly simple to clean off the years of road dirt, grunge, and spider eggs
from under the car. I got as far forward as the front foot wells. When we
have the rear axle re-assembled we will repeat the process from the other
end. High pressure water, wire brushes, and degreasers revealed that the
underside is in remarkable condition. The rust I had seen before was the
type of superficial rust that is prevalent on any piece of ferrous metal
that is exposed to the typical southern summer humidity. After a thorough
cleaning and degreasing, the remaining light rust was sealed up with Duron's
Extend. The TI's bottom now has a clean shinny look to it. A few coats of
paint and a good undercoating will have it better than new.

 If you really want to appreciate the artistry and engineering that went
into these cars, get up close and personal with the underside of your Alfa.
The Italian engineers have gone to great lengths to build a strong rigid
structure from light thin material. Its easy to see why rust can be so
fatal. And to add to a recent thread, the underside of this car was painted.
The car was painted a mouse gray, it almost looks like a primer. The
underside was painted a metallic gray, slightly different than the body.
Really a prettier color.

As we got into this project this past weekend, I removed all the brake lines
and the fuel line from the underside. We were amazed that after 27 years in
storage, the brake lines still had brake fluid in them, AND the fuel line
still had gasoline in it! The engine was removed from this car in about 1973
and the fuel line was plugged with a rubber plug in the engine bay. When I
shook the car, we were even more amazed to hear gasoline sloshing around in
the tank! I thought these old tanks were vented to the atmosphere. 

This has been  a monumental hurdle in our way for the past several months
and we've cleared it. We are almost ready to put up the cleaning supplies
for good and get on with the really fun part of putting the car back
together. Thanks again to all who responded with suggestions and ideas.

Richard Broughton
Columbia, SC
1966 Giulia TI

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End of alfa-digest V7 #173
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