My car scene right now is a little like an act on the Ed Sullivan show, where a guy spins a dozen or so plates at once and everyone is amazed. Of course that guy has talent whereas I have a combination of trial-and-error know-how, persistence, and a few spare dollars to throw at problems that are either too boring or too time consuming for me to address.

To wit… The TI got painted (yay!) and I am reasonably happy with the results. I have to remind myself that the price was right. There is a lot of orange peel and the coverage isnt’ perfect, but I’m sure a good wet sand and polish will do wonders for it.

There are some unwritten warnings when it comes to painting a car. Here are but a few.

1. Within a week or less, something will happen to compromise that beautiful paint job. In my case, I was reinstalling the windshield wipers and forgot that the wiper motor on this car doesn’t automatically return to the home position. I installed the blades and hit the button and the passenger side blade promptly dug a nice scratch into the hood as it wiped downward rather than upward. Sigh. At least I have some touch-up paint.
2. You will regret not doing more prep work yourself. I am still looking at visible evidence of my own repairs, e.g. some crusty bondo work under the left rocker. Also, one of the door handles broke when the painter’s assistant was putting it back on the car.  Maybe it was ready to break anyway, but I’d rather be the one breaking things on my own cars. Luckily, I had a spare and that problem was solved.
3. Anything that’s not new or restored on the exterior of the car will look crusty and ancient next to all that new paint. I now need to paint my wheels, buff out my bumpers and grill, clean up the various lenses, and eventually replace the windshield and rear window gaskets.

And so it goes with the TI. In spite of these issues, which are all of course cosmetic, I look forward to it being my daily driver and giving the Super a well-deserved break.

In other news, the Sprint has received a lot of attention, and is getting closer by the day to being a driver. I’ve rebuilt all the cylinders that needed rebuilding (five, at last count), and just today received the new brake shoes.

On the inside, the seats are almost done being rebuilt and will be ready tomorrow.

The gas tank is still out for inspection and repair. As of yesterday, it was still in the tank getting boiled out. I will call tomorrow and find out what the status is.

I’m happy having the TI back, and excited about the Sprint’s future. One way or another, I think a road trip is in the cards.

Until then, here’s someone else spinning the plates:

Erich Brenn, 1969

Posted Thursday, November 12th, 2009 at 10:41 pm. Filed under 1962 101 Sprint, 1966 Giulia TI, Alfa Romeo. Follow responses through the RSS 2.0 feed. Leave a response, or Trackback from your own site.