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Japawagons Alfa Romeo 156 - Money Pit


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Prepare for an uneventful update...

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Back together and back on the car.

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God damn, this always surprises me. That's purely the strip from the inside of the door, and just the big bits I swept up. 

Should ask Greg how heavy all the sound deadening that went into his Kombi was, must be significant.

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I was going to use the ol' block of wood, but I just could bring myself to do it. Way too heavy, way too ugly, way to carpentry'y.

So instead basically used a bolt and nut, using a Skateboard truck bush to clamp the window, has a plastic tube sleeve over the bolt to hopefully prevent it from rattling on the glass and causing a breakage.
 

It works about 80% as well as i'd hoped, sags down slightly, but not enough to be an issue (atm), and I tightened the bolt a little too much so its pulling the glass off the outter seal. But hoping neither of these will be an issue until I can get some Lexan into the doors.

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Added 50g but being able to reach out and pull my door on the dummy grid will be well worth it. 

All in all, ended up with just over 5kg saved from each door. So pretty happy with that. Still alot heavier that the rear doors. Haven't done a weight comparison but i'd guess they're 1.5x heavy at least. Inner and outter door handles are quite weighty. Otherwise it's really only the glass weight, wing mirror and I drilled a few holes in the panel steel of the rear doors.

 

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Fuck I was super stoked when my package arrived from the USA under lock down....

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FUCK!!!! 

 

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So I ordered 12x1.25mm Wheel Studs. They sent 14mm Wheel Studs.

Fuck. Fuck Fuck. Fuck.

I swear, I am cursed with incorrect parts. Life as a mechanic has been painful, daily battles with Repco and BNT and parts departments. Waiting for urgent parts that only turn out to be incorrect, not what I asked for or even put into the wrong box. Just dumb shit. Anyway it's safe to say I've developed a complex and this shit kept me from making any progress in the shed today. (Just went and sulked instead)

Sent them photo's etc etc, but seeing that it's the USA, I can't see it being sorted anytime soon, let alone at all.

Rant over.

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  • 2 weeks later...

One of the important tasks for making  this bad boy road legal, was a handbrake. 

The original Handbrake and Gear Stick were mounted on a massive "U" shapped Panel that bolted up from underneath the floor. Pretty Italian. 

Basically I wanted to raise and shift the gear selector mounting position, I took it as an opportunity to completely remove this underfloor panel. Being that handbrakes a fairly redundant when circuit racing, I never got around to remedying the situation until now.

So I brought an El Cheapo Hydraulic Handbrake set up that I can put on my MSNZ Authority Card. I wanted to buy something of reasonable quality but also had the ability to be either vertically or horizontally actuated. I ended up buying a GKTech unit, which arrived promptly even during lockdown. "Essential" Car parts. Yeah Right.

Pretty sure, this is just a Aliexpress unit but hey it turned up quickly enough so I guess I can't complain too much.

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Wasn't all that sure where this was going to be mounted so I drilled our the spot welds for the original handbrake cable bracket mount.

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Looks like shit. I don't have any of the original paint I used for the interior, which is definitely a bit frustrating.

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Feeling like a high strung anorexic these days.

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All mounted. Decided on a semi vertical lever position. Feels natural enough, elbow doesn't jam on the seat. Underneath the aircraft alloy patch is the original opening for the handbrake assembly. As I have just mounted the handbrake with 4x Rivnuts in the floor, I was a little worried about the rigidity, being so close to this opening. I won't know for sure until I've plumbed it up and tested it in anger. But so far so good, feels solid enough.

 

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Alloy tape looks way better than shitty not painted area. 'Cause Racecar.

So far I've added another 1.1Kgs, but it had to be done, the weight is in about the best position you could hope for, low down and very central. After the gains from my front doors, I'm still well ahead, so happy days.

I've got to decide whether I plumb the handbrake after the Brake Light Switch, or whether I don't worry about it and plumb the handbrake through the switch. I figure it's probably a good thing to have the brake lights come on when I'm tearing a phat cone slide.

 

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