Alfetta GT street car update

["Zacharey Cox (Siemens Business Services Inc)" <v-ntxzco@domain.elided>]

Yet another update......hopefully I can give updates of how much fun
this Alfetta is to drive soon!



Saturday afternoon Webster came over & did a few things like remove the
front sway bar to replace end link bushings, replace steering rack boots
& tie rods, install new polyurethane caster arm bushings & start
gathering heavy items to weight the car for ride height.  When replacing
the steering rack boots we made sure to put some gear lube in the boots
to keep the rack in good shape.  Actually, I've had many compliments on
the steering rack so far as there is virtually no slop.  About the only
other thing I need to do for the steering is replacing a steering column
bushing, then get the car aligned of course.



So, we started fairly early Sunday morning & made our first attempt at
getting the ride height correct.  We had the necessary weight in the car
& everything was in place.  We removed the jack stands & let the front
end return to Earth.  It looked good, very good.  We measured both
sides, the passenger side was about 0.25" lower than the driver side.
This was unreal.  We removed the simulated driver & passenger weight
inside the car & hopped in.  Both sides were dead even!!  Hahahaha!!!!!
Earlier Webster had been saying we'd need to try several different
settings to get the correct ride height & we'd be working all day.  We
have the desired ride height on the first go, I'm very happy about that.
These are the GTV6 torsion bars so I'm hoping some of the body lean will
be reduced.  I'm also installing GTV6 rear springs & will most likely
need to chop at least a coil out of them.  Oh, if anyone is wondering,
EACH rubber Alfetta bumper weighs approximately 65lbs!



So the street Alfetta is sitting on all fours finally, hopefully
installing the exhaust will be one of the last times it's up on jack
stands for a while.



I do have one problem:  The only dent in the car is directly behind
where the rear bumper goes (it's off the car currently) right at the
horizontal body seam.  It's a 'V' shaped dent that squished part of the
spare tire well & pulled the left side bumper mount inwards so that
bumper can not be fitted.  A few ideas have been brought up:  Attach
something to the seam (either by clamping or welding) & simultaneously
pulling on the seam & using a bumper mount & breaker bar to pull & bend
the metal back into shape.  There is also room that a larger hammer
could be used on the back side of the dent.  So I'm looking for advice
on how to fix this enough to mount a bumper.  I'm sure a body shop would
charge me more than the poor car is worth!



Until next time,

Zach

Redmond, WA

--
to be removed from alfa, see /bin/digest-subs.cgi
or email "unsubscribe alfa" to majordomo@domain.elided