Conaero's Spider Rebuild

conaero

Forum Owner
Messages
34,593
Most of you know that I bought a salvage 2005 Alfa Spider 3.2V6 so with its arrival due next week I thought I would start a progress thread to keep you up to speed with developments.

Currently, I have won the auction, and am due to pay but am waiting for the master brown key to turn up which is supposed to be en-route, but until I have seen it, I will hold off paying.

I got quoted by the commercial breakers £375 to ship the car on a low loader the 350 miles. I thought I cold do better than that and found a bidding site online called www.uship.com/uk and got a firm to do it for £180, £200 all in with some website fees which I am chuffed with.

So, I know the car is a 25k miler with one owner from new so I am expecting the general condition to be excellent. The damage is underneath as indicated by the chalk mark on the bonnet. The engine has been run dry from oil, probably after sustaining impact to the oil cooler and pipes.

First job will be to bypass the oil cooler, effectively joining the two pipes together, fill it with some thin oil and run it to see how bad it sounds.

Crank is the obvious area that is going to take the strain but I have found several sizes of oversize bearing shells so hopefully I can get away with a crank regrind and a blow through.

More to follow next week when she arrives.

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MAF260

Member
Messages
7,662
Nice one, will follow this with interest. I'm feeling the need for another project to play with this year. My biggest problem is storage - I have 4 cars at home already and another in a few months when my son turns 17. I can't find a unit near here to store and work on cars for any reasonable amount.
 

dem maser

Moderator
Messages
34,220
Nice one, will follow this with interest. I'm feeling the need for another project to play with this year. My biggest problem is storage - I have 4 cars at home already and another in a few months when my son turns 17. I can't find a unit near here to store and work on cars for any reasonable amount.

A few around me but that's 30 mins drive for you
 

Contigo

Sponsor
Messages
18,376
Thought it was. Was tempted to open one but when I saw the faff involved I bottled it!
 

2b1ask1

Special case
Messages
20,220
There are two levels of signing up to Copart, you can just sign up to look for free but to bid you have to register for an account and pay a fee. Not too painful but proves a commitment. You will still not be allowed to bid on cat-B stuff which has to go to licensed breakers, this is a pain if you are looking for a donor vehicle as the cat-C & D's tend to go high...
 

Maser Sod

Member
Messages
1,962
Cracking project, Matt.

I still catch up once a year with Marky Mark, he of the pimped LHD 3.0 spider from www.gtvv6.com, his mean machine always outshines anything I turn up in. I'm sure yours will too.
 

lisknik

Member
Messages
5,524
Copart is one of the sites we have to watch at work, as well as a quite few others, there is not alot that goes through that i miss, anybody wants me to keep an eye out for anything then just shout.

Matt will ring Duncan tomorrow for you, he wasn't there this morning.
 

conaero

Forum Owner
Messages
34,593
Copart is one of the sites we have to watch at work, as well as a quite few others, there is not alot that goes through that i miss, anybody wants me to keep an eye out for anything then just shout.

Matt will ring Duncan tomorrow for you, he wasn't there this morning.

Ok cheers Nik. The more I think about it the airbags went off not much engine running should of happened.
 

lisknik

Member
Messages
5,524
Ok cheers Nik. The more I think about it the airbags went off not much engine running should of happened.

If it is totally ok i am going to hate you, should of bought it meself, as it will be the bargain of the centuary!! ;)