Front, Pass Side Work

So, last time, I was removing the front driver side suspension. I had left the hub, brake rotor, and upright/axle section in one piece. I eventually took those apart; I'll describe that on my next post.

On this post, I'll chat about the passenger side.

I must say, there's not much to say.

Although I must start by saying that side of the car was nasty-dirty! On the picture you can get an idea for the layers of dirt, undercoating, and overspray resting on the whole suspension. Again, the idea is to clean and paint all this stuff up, and hopefully, make it look nice again.

Removing the passenger side suspension was basically the same as the driver side (duh...) This time around, though, I removed the hub and brake rotor from the upright/axle before undoing the rest of the suspension. (again, more on that in the next post.) I then removed the brake caliper, disconnected the steering tie rod, removed the suspension upright, then the lower a-arm, then the upper A-arm components. This all took about 2.5 hours - not bad for a rookie such as myself.

A few things of note:

-- Removing the upper camber arm (part of the upper a-arm) was a bit tricky, since it involves reaching underneath both carburetors to get access to the bolt to which the arm is attached. This was tricky - it required long socket extensions, as well as long breaker bars. I also had to remove the air filter, which requires disconnecting some of the engine vent hoses that connect to the filter housing. Once all the stuff was removed, access was still tricky, but eventually it did come out OK.

Having the radiator out of the way really helped. Again, I am not sure how to do this with the radiator in place (I am sure there is a way, though.)

-- Running my hand over the inside fender near the suspension pick-up points would remove all the fresh red paint, undercoating, and dirty. I could have filled up a 16-oz. cup with all the stuff that came out.
It seems that, when the car was painted recently, the suspension was not cleaned up much. So it seems the body paint got oversprayed over the dirt and undercoating, and hence, the paint has nothing solid to grab onto.
I am not sure what to do - I am almost tempted to scrape all the old stuff away, grab a few cans of paint, and spray the whole inner fender again. I am not sure I'd make things better, though.

So for now, the passenger side inner fender has two tones: parts with the newly-applied red paint, and parts with the original dark-red color. (I think it's Rosso Amaranto, but I'm not sure.)
(http://www.alfabb.com/bb/forums/car-restoration/3895-1972-alfa-romeo-color-chart-reference-materials-2.html#post33453)

I'll admit - I tend to favor the original darker red than the current red color. Maybe in a 20 years, when I re-restore the car, I'll go back to the original shade... Hmm...
(yea, right...)

-- I have not found any signs of rust in the body, inner fender, or anywhere else near the suspension. This is really good news.


Now I have a bunch of parts that need to be cleaned, re-painted, and re-installed. I'm still not halfway there...