hardtuned.com's alpine 500 Preparation
Four weeks before the alpine 500, hardtuned.com decided it was time to prepare its' entry. Mitch's Muffler Works set us up in December when the exhaust split wide open at the header. A pile of maintenance had been slowly compounding since the purchase of the car last year, and there's nothing like a deadline to light a fire under us... Plus this was a great opportunity to set the ride height where we wanted. The Supernatural Corolla team was under a similar schedule for front-end rebuilding , JP had renewed the brakes on his BMW 1600, and there are probably 48 other similar stories out there.
Before. The crossmember had separated from the uni-body of the car. Not to mention most of the ball joints and bushings were well past worn out.
Front suspension came off, (as did rear springs and shocks for replacement also) and you can see before and after crack welding. This is above the upper suspension arm.
Left side after re-attaching crossmember. It's ugly, but it made it through the Alpine without re-cracking. I cut pieces out of another car (project) to make crude gussets for the top of the crossmember.
After tracking down suspension parts and welding the crossmember, I decided to peel the carpet away on the passenger's side floor. Hardtuned's navigator, Leadfoot Kiesling, requested that the passenger seat should be firmly attached to the car (not falling through the rusty floor), and be equipped with shoulder belts that would hold her in place. Attention to these details would make the trip more pleasant for everyone. With a little more than two weeks to go, I peeled back the carpet. Ugh. After I scraped out the sprayfoam holding the front footwell together, a fine swiss cheese pattern emerged. The large holes at the bottom of the picture (above, right) show where the stock seat broke through the floor.
The scene from the outside. It was a bit cluttered.
Hack-job floor construction. That's the rear corner. The front looks similar. It's not a stamped original replacement - but nobody's going to fall through it either. Primer helps make it all dissapear. Floor welding wrapped up 4/17.
Here's the seat bracket I fab'd to allow the driver's seat from the Cortina to adapt to the passengers side of the Alfa.
Primed crossmember, and suspension reassembly.
Dropped the car without brakes, shocks, and swaybars to check on the height. AAARRGGHHH. These springs were supposed to set it down an inch and a half. Here it looks higher than when I started. After trying multiple spring rubbers (Alfas have rubber caps of differing heights that hold the springs in place) I found a height that seemed acceptable in the front - without them. The rear was way too high.
Adjusting the rear ride height required the expert services of Conrad Stevenson. He's removing a coil from the new rear springs.
Front and rear back together, brakes and stainless lines on, bled, shocks mounted and ready to drop. It hit the ground and drove on Sunday April 24th. Of course, the front springs settled, (and it looked super tough - but had less than 3" of ground clearance on the oil sump) so I slipped half of the rubber spring hats back in.
Here's the Giulia stalking a Lotus Super Seven. JP Revel image
selected images from the preparation for the 2005 alpine 500
look for Top Notch TV coverage of the Alpine 500
