A black '69 124 Spider AS

[124JOE]

yes great news
and you can try to brush it out
i did that,but it leaked when i was done.so i bought a new caliper

[RCSquadraCorse]

yes great news
and you can try to brush it out
i did that,but it leaked when i was done.so i bought a new caliper

DANG!
Ok, I probably won't wire brush inside the caliper...
I'll use a toothbrush and my trusty WD40, sounds definitely better!

Riccardo

[blurple124]

I can't imagine it would be hard to find brake parts cleaner at a local store. If not, carburetor cleaner or even simple gasoline are all good solvents for getting grime off. Better than WD-40, in my opinion.

[RCSquadraCorse]

I can't imagine it would be hard to find brake parts cleaner at a local store. If not, carburetor cleaner or even simple gasoline are all good solvents for getting grime off. Better than WD-40, in my opinion.

Hmm... brake parts cleaner sounds good, never thought about looking for a such a product to be honest... lol! Sorry about my ignorance...
By the way, even if on purpose I've already applied the gasoline method today, so everything should be cleaned easily!
Still no pictures because today I had no time to work on the car (just soaked the calipers with gasoline)...

Riccardo

[ylbill]

Hey Riccardo, sorry this post is a bit off topic.
I hope your project is going smoothly. Looks like the cars in good hands. I noticed the pictures you posted of the valley you live near and of Lake Gada. I happen to have stayed right on that lake about four years ago.
This is the hotel I stayed at. Its called Hotel Luaren. It was a beautiful view! I was there visiting a company in Brescia that we do business with. About three years ago my wife and I stayed in Venice for a week. The Italian company had a condo available there at no charge! Couldn't pass that up. We had a great time. Anyway, I can see your getting lots of help on the forum. I have to say, this forum is the most responsive forum I've ever belong to. Someone is always willing to help and the answers come pretty quickly. Enjoy your restore! Keep the picture coming! Ciao, Bill

[divace73]

I can't imagine it would be hard to find brake parts cleaner at a local store. If not, carburetor cleaner or even simple gasoline are all good solvents for getting grime off. Better than WD-40, in my opinion.

Hmm... brake parts cleaner sounds good, never thought about looking for a such a product to be honest... lol! Sorry about my ignorance...
By the way, even if on purpose I've already applied the gasoline method today, so everything should be cleaned easily!
Still no pictures because today I had no time to work on the car (just soaked the calipers with gasoline)...

Riccardo

scotch brite can be good to clean, it is usually not that abrasive enough to damage parts...usually....


I've got to say your English writing skills are excellent, where did you get your education from?

[RCSquadraCorse]

Sorry if I haven't updated this thread in the last days, but I got a bit of flue and hurted my knee while working in my mum's farm (we've started the harvest of the apples in these days)... feeling a bit better now, hopefully I will come back on the car later this afternoon!

Hey Riccardo, sorry this post is a bit off topic.
I hope your project is going smoothly. Looks like the cars in good hands. I noticed the pictures you posted of the valley you live near and of Lake Gada. I happen to have stayed right on that lake about four years ago.
This is the hotel I stayed at. Its called Hotel Luaren. It was a beautiful view! I was there visiting a company in Brescia that we do business with. About three years ago my wife and I stayed in Venice for a week. The Italian company had a condo available there at no charge! Couldn't pass that up. We had a great time. Anyway, I can see your getting lots of help on the forum. I have to say, this forum is the most responsive forum I've ever belong to. Someone is always willing to help and the answers come pretty quickly. Enjoy your restore! Keep the picture coming! Ciao, Bill

Ciao Bill! That's a really beautiful hotel and glad you had a great time here in Italy
I don't like Venice that much because there are waaaay too much tourists out there, but I can understand that for someone coming from the other side of the planet is something not to be missed
I have to say that the people here are really great and I can't help myself but say a big thank you to everyone who's helping me with my resto!

scotch brite can be good to clean, it is usually not that abrasive enough to damage parts...usually....


I've got to say your English writing skills are excellent, where did you get your education from?

Cheers David, in the end I've used gasoline and a hard toothbrush to clean inside and the result is pretty good
Will post pictures when I'll go back in the garage!
And thanks for the kind words about my English...
Basically I'm self-taught... during high school my English was pretty bad, just went to a couple of Colleges near London during summer time for 1 or 2 weeks but never managed to learn something since I was with my Italian mates... ahah!
Then I started to go through some automotive forums and of course I needed to learn something to communicate with the people, so I began to use online translators like Wordreference to make some sentences and the rest is history
Watching movies and Top Gear in original language also helped me a lot with pronunciation and colloquial terms. Now I have friends from all over the world and I use to talk/write in English everyday, so even if I still make some mistakes I keep learning day after day

Riccardo

[giuliot60]

Hi Riccardo. Haven't heard anything lately. Any progress?

[fiathead]

I'd love to see what progress is being made too. This has been a great thread so far. My Spider is also an AS series 69 and I'm considering buying another early Spider as a restoration candidate. The new one would be a '68 though. This thread has me looking forward to another restoration project.

Tim

[RCSquadraCorse]

Hellooooooo chaps!

Sorry if I haven't posted anything for a long time now, but I still haven't had a chance to work on the car since the first days of Spetember. My job is keeping me in Milan!
However since the last post I've fitted the new brake pump and connected all the brake hoses and the hard lines to it. The calipers has been cleaned (now with new seals too) and the e-brake leverage has been refurbished (I will upload some pictures). Still need to put back the pistons in the calipers tho... Unfortunately I think I will need to change also the wheel bearings and I still have to buy the new parts.
However don't worry, the car has not been forgotten, as soon as I will be able to do something on it I will update the thread
Time to go back to work, take care guys and talk to you soon!

Riccardo

[RCSquadraCorse]

Hi guys,

It's been a while since my last post! Unfortunately as I said last summer I don't have much spare time over the year to go to work on the car due to my job. But don't worry, she's not been forgotten!
I'm finally in vacation and I'm back wrenching on the Spider
I've started to strip out the engine bay today, the radiator is out and I've started to disconnect a bunch of cables and hoses from the engine. Why? Because I've decided to pull out the engine! Small oil leaks on both engine as tranny and the disgusting conditions of the cooling system made me think about checking everything better. I'll use a forklift to pull the engine and transmission since I don't have a crane but I think it will do the job.
I have a question tho: can someone show me how to disconnect everything properly from the engine? Some sort of jpeg with some arrows would be perfect. I know it may sounds like a noob question but that's actually what I am!
Is there a proper procedure to follow to be sure to do everything in the right way?
Thanks in advance and sorry if I disappeared over the last months!
Of course some pictures are here as well
This is how the cooling system looks:


And this is what I've found inside the radiator and into the small reservoir:


Pretty gross uh?!

[BEEK]

the unfortunate thing i see, is the corrosion in your cooling system, i hope your head is not damaged.

[RCSquadraCorse]

the unfortunate thing i see, is the corrosion in your cooling system, i hope your head is not damaged.

That's why I wanna take that engine out!
If the engine inside is as bad as it looks outside I'll look for a fresh 1.8 engine, no big deal!

[giuliot60]

Good to see you back Riccardo.

I don't think you'll regret pulling the engine. A shop manual will be very useful to have, but I would also photograph everything in place just in case. I haven't seen anything with step-by-step, but I know some have photographed their process. I'll see if I come across any. I don't think the '69 is very complicated. No Fuel injection wiring and no smog (if they even did that in Italy). So it should be fuel lines, vacuum lines, throttle/choke cables, clutch & shifter connections, alternator, exhaust, drive shaft, and motor mounts. You already have the radiator out. I wouldn't think it would be too hard to figure out even without a manual.

Good luck. It's going to be beautiful!

Giulio

[RCSquadraCorse]

Good to see you back Riccardo.

I don't think you'll regret pulling the engine. A shop manual will be very useful to have, but I would also photograph everything in place just in case. I haven't seen anything with step-by-step, but I know some have photographed their process. I'll see if I come across any. I don't think the '69 is very complicated. No Fuel injection wiring and no smog (if they even did that in Italy). So it should be fuel lines, vacuum lines, throttle/choke cables, clutch & shifter connections, alternator, exhaust, drive shaft, and motor mounts. You already have the radiator out. I wouldn't think it would be too hard to figure out even without a manual.

Good luck. It's going to be beautiful!

Giulio

Ciao Giulio!

Thanks for your reply. I have the .pdf version of the manual but the images are not very visible and the engine is from the later version of the Spider so many things are located in different places. I know it's possible to do everything with no issues but since it's my first time removing engine and transmission I'm afraid to do some mistakes (how silly it sounds, uh? ). There are some wires that I'm not even able to disconnect! Like the one that goes to the water pump for example... I've cleaned that part but the wire just doesn't want to come off! It's connected with a hard plastic pin and it just won't move from there! Oh well, I will see what I will be able to do with the manual, if some wires and cables still won't come off I will just cut and replace them later...

Talk to you later!