Bought this at the beginning of May. Main reason was that although I have several 33s, they all need a bit of work, and I wanted something nice to drive through the summer that I could fettle and tweak, but not have to do anything major. This one certainly meets that criteria - very very nice car.



Managed to have a good poke around of the car today. One of things where I thought 'I've got 10 minutes to do that' and it turned into a bit longer.

On account of finishing my lesson planning for my last training week, and marking 2 classes worth of assessed practicals, I decided to have some car time before I get going on finishing my last assignment. It's been a long haul!!

Anyway, the 16v job started as dis-assembling the drivers seat as the outside bolster has a tear in it. I have a local company who is happy to match the material and make a new bolster cover for a fair price as long as they get just the bolster. Well, fannied around with that for a while and decided that the alcantara seat base could really do with a new cover as well as its gone all bobbly and has a few tiny holes appearing, so took out the passenger seat, swapped the rails/seat belt anchor with the drivers seat, and now am minus a passenger seat which is in bits and ready to go off next week and get sorted.

The 33 has spacers under the seat rails, and generally they are small at the front and over an inch at the back to make the base level. There are also slide stops at the back which are almost 2 inches long. So, now large spacers at the front, small at the back with some washers to hold the rails off the carpet, and slide stops removed - hey presto a 33 with a driving position made for a 6ft 2 beanpole.

Then, you know those days when you see a job that needs doing, make a start, and then you wish you hadn't!! I noticed some paint bubbling just above the skirt at the bottom of the OS B post. Looks like the skirt has not been held securely by its fixings and has rubbed through the paint. Decided to take the front skirt section off to clean up the rust bubble and get some protection on it.

I am sure you know how the rest of this goes. When you start poking and prodding old Alfas, you tend to find holes. Whilst its not too bad at all, the whole skirt will need taking off, and worst case a new sill stuck on. Best case, some careful patching in 2 places, some rust treatment, and plenty of protection. Its all under the skirt so cosmetically easy.

Naturally, I had a good look around the rest of the underside, and its OK. Not removed the NS skirt yet but no bubbling in the same visible places. Jacking points and suspension mounts good, so hopefully I have seen the worst.

Tidied up the centre console while the seats were out, and swapped the gear shift gaiter for an original and unmolested or broken one I managed to acquire.

Will be driving this next week and got to get that assignment done, then next job is to stop the NS front suspension squeaking (coil is just rubbing the turret), and then I have a few brake mods I want to do - 2000 Vectra front calipers (bolt straight on), 155 V6 284mm front discs, braided hoses, and a 75 V6 master cylinder (3mm bigger internal diameter to move more fluid for the bigger calipers).

More on that soon.