Alfa Romeo Spider 916
Discussion
Hi all, decided it was about time I made a thread on my Alfa Spider 2.0
I bought the car late summer 2014 from a family friend who owns a garage. It's a 1997 phase 1 twinspark and had roughly 70k miles on
I first saw the car in the picture below, and could see it had once been well looked after by a previous owner, but was in need of some love again!
Deal done and the car is now home!
The car had an airbag light on, this was reset and the car passed its MOT. Fast forward a couple of weeks and the airbag light was back on
. As new parts on these cars are almost non existent, took a gamble and purchased an airbag ecu on eBay... And success! Airbag light is no longer on!
At this point I couldn't afford to run and insure 2 cars, so decided as summer was nearly over, I would take the car off the road and get all the mechanicals sorted for next year, which was really just a full service including cambelt and water pump
Decided while the cam cover was off I would clean it up and get it painted the same colour as the car
Can't seem to find a finished picture yet.
Anyway, with winter 2014 upon us, the car was covered and left like this until spring
...to be continued later once I've gathered pictures!
I bought the car late summer 2014 from a family friend who owns a garage. It's a 1997 phase 1 twinspark and had roughly 70k miles on
I first saw the car in the picture below, and could see it had once been well looked after by a previous owner, but was in need of some love again!
Deal done and the car is now home!
The car had an airbag light on, this was reset and the car passed its MOT. Fast forward a couple of weeks and the airbag light was back on
. As new parts on these cars are almost non existent, took a gamble and purchased an airbag ecu on eBay... And success! Airbag light is no longer on!At this point I couldn't afford to run and insure 2 cars, so decided as summer was nearly over, I would take the car off the road and get all the mechanicals sorted for next year, which was really just a full service including cambelt and water pump
Decided while the cam cover was off I would clean it up and get it painted the same colour as the car
Can't seem to find a finished picture yet.
Anyway, with winter 2014 upon us, the car was covered and left like this until spring
...to be continued later once I've gathered pictures!
davebem said:
I love these, nearly bought one several times but ended up with something bigger instead.
It definitely isn't a practical car that's for sure!Back to it, while the car was covered for winter, I'd had the centre console removed. Anyone familiar with these will know the plastic paint used on these over time becomes sticky and horrible. After many hours spent trying to get this paint off with wet and dry, I'd had the console painted in a glossy grey. It doesn't look too drastic and still looks like it was a standard item. Don't seem to have any pictures of the before and the after picture will follow.
Time came to uncover the car
Oh well, cleaned up and also cleaned and protected the seats with a leather balm
The car was then put into daily use as my girlfriend had bought a mini which turned out to be more trouble than it was worth, and promptly sold on, so she insured and ran the Spider
This is how the car stood at the beginning of summer, running as a daily and generally just enjoying having the roof down, until the mechanism broke. Will update later once I've sorted out the other images!
Just about to start a project phase 1 Spider as well (1996 car), needs just about everything doing to it including paint unfortunately. I like the Spider so thought it worth saving from the scrapyard, think it will try my wallet and patience though!
What did you use on your seats, mine look very similar at the moment?
What did you use on your seats, mine look very similar at the moment?
Took a while like longer to update than I expected!
Not a particularly interesting update, but by now it was mid summer last year and the roof decided to stop going up and down, and stuck in the down position. The gear inside the roof motor had snapped and after searching the Alfa forum I bought one of eBay
Fixed
Around this time I decided to have a go at detailing the car. I started on the roof as it has mobile in the groves and had no protection of any kind
I used autoglyms pack and the I thought the results were pretty impressive
The bodywork also had a decontamination, iron x and tar remover before the car was polished and waxed. No during photos but I have some afters
The leather also got cleaned and protected
Sf_Manta said:
Trick for when storing a car up, and my friend found this one out by accident
Put trays of dry kitty litter in the car, it absorbs moisture and prevents the mold forming.
Good project car though!
I heard this trick before and filled an ice cream tub with litter but I don't think I had enough for it to work. Didn't take too long to clean up thankfullyPut trays of dry kitty litter in the car, it absorbs moisture and prevents the mold forming.
Good project car though!
Not a particularly interesting update, but by now it was mid summer last year and the roof decided to stop going up and down, and stuck in the down position. The gear inside the roof motor had snapped and after searching the Alfa forum I bought one of eBay
Fixed
Around this time I decided to have a go at detailing the car. I started on the roof as it has mobile in the groves and had no protection of any kind
I used autoglyms pack and the I thought the results were pretty impressive
The bodywork also had a decontamination, iron x and tar remover before the car was polished and waxed. No during photos but I have some afters
The leather also got cleaned and protected
We went on a mini break to Wales and the weather was looking good so we took the spider
At least the weather was good when we set off...
Made it to the beach!
Thankfully the weather picked up when we got there and we could finally have the roof down
I had started to become obsessed with cleaning the car but the water just runs off!
Early September we bought our first house, thankfully I've managed to avoid selling the spider and I now have a garage to store it in! Hopefully no more mouldy spider
Unfortunately this brings me up to date with the spider, I don't plan on getting the car through an mot this year as the priority is working on the house. The car also needs some work doing to it before I get it back on the road, the complicated rear suspension needs some attention, the shocks definitely need replacing so I plan on doing a complete suspension overhaul and addressing any rust underneath the car so hopefully I can come back to this thread later in the year
At least the weather was good when we set off...
Made it to the beach!
Thankfully the weather picked up when we got there and we could finally have the roof down
I had started to become obsessed with cleaning the car but the water just runs off!
Early September we bought our first house, thankfully I've managed to avoid selling the spider and I now have a garage to store it in! Hopefully no more mouldy spider
Unfortunately this brings me up to date with the spider, I don't plan on getting the car through an mot this year as the priority is working on the house
. The car also needs some work doing to it before I get it back on the road, the complicated rear suspension needs some attention, the shocks definitely need replacing so I plan on doing a complete suspension overhaul and addressing any rust underneath the car so hopefully I can come back to this thread later in the yearReaperCushions said:
Looks like bindweed, not quite as destructive, but still needs to go asap. /Off Topic
Hopefully neither! Wasn't picked up on the survey and whatever it was I removed it when we got the keys. Plasterers and builders have mixed cement and plaster out there so the whole area is covered/filthy at the minute, neighbours must love us 
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