1985 Alfa Romeo GTV6 (my first Alfa)

sirrichardpumpaloaf wrote: In reply to Hungary Bill: I believe there's a supercharger just lying on the bench somewhere in your garage.....

There is

I've been doing some poking around the webs and found someone who has pulleys for sale

They're really not that expensive, and since I'll be away from the car I can put most of the kit together over time. The makers of the kit advertise 11-14psi from an eaton M62 on a 2.5 liter engine, or 5-11psi on a 3-liter.

This is definitely bound for 3-liter glory, but I think that since we're dealing with an M90 I should be able to comfortably squeeze 10psi out of this beast.

on a related note: If I decide to go with the lower CR pistons, I get the added benefit of having a non-interference engine

Also: that is one cool avatar picture you got there SirRichard

Etching primer. Panel 1 done

I gave it a good scrubbing with 220 before I sprayed (properly cleaned, of course). Judging by the drip marks, it looks like I'm out of practice

Good times

Late edit: on the subject of my fears about spraying in the cold,the primer was tack free in less than 30 minutes at almost 40deg in the garage.

Good times

Don't you dare lower compression... management can (should be able too) handle any detonation you may encounter.... and keeping the compression will allow you better throttle response.

Hungary Bill wrote: This is definitely bound for 3-liter glory, but I think that since we're dealing with an M90 I should be able to comfortably squeeze 10psi out of this beast. on a related note: If I decide to go with the lower CR pistons, I get the added benefit of having a non-interference engine

nice paint work... it looks pretty darn good, even with a small drip... light sanding and that drip will disappear

In reply to oldeskewltoy:

You know... I was wondering if I should go with the lower CR pistons or not since the MS3 I have will be run as a batch-fire system (to begin with because there's no cam sensor at the moment) and I'm not quite educated enough enough on the subject to understand why modern FI doesn't need the reduction. BUT i did some digging after your post and found out the manufacturer of the kit is running his supercharger with the stock L-Jetronic system so now I'm thinking we should be safe (batch fire or otherwise).

(besides, I didn't really want to spend the $$$ on new pistons)

In your opinion, should I shoot for a coil-on-plug/sequential injection setup when boost becomes an option or keep it cheap and simple?

what are you spraying with? a gun or a rattlecan?

In reply to AClockworkGarage:

Cans at the moment. I have two more left over from the 4-runner project to cover the bare spots, then it's on to epoxy from the gun.

I might need to call in sick on that day

Last nights progress (Thursday was P-6 days if you're still counting

The short version? Sanded drip marks on fender and re-sprayed affected area, prepped and sprayed roof, some sanding accomplished on hatch, and I ended up prepping and spraying the driver's side door.

And that's where my phone died. It cant take the surfing I do on these 10-hour days work had us scheduled for this week (and next). Which reminds me, if it seems like less is getting done on the car it's because work is doing its best to get in the way again. I'm supposed to work another 10 hour day tomorrow (Saturday) but I pulled the "E36 M3 boss, I got a house to move" card. Gluh (more 10 hour days next week)

Also on that door, the primer ended up being a little thin (last bit of the can). There's one spot I'll touch up tonight and then I'll scrub the door with a little scotchbrite and slap on another coat before deciding what panel I want to tackle next.

Good times

PS

That roof shot probably explains why everything in the car was pink. Masking tape wont stick there to save my life!

Keep up the good work!

Are you at least using a can handler?

Hungary Bill wrote: This is definitely bound for 3-liter glory, but I think that since we're dealing with an M90 I should be able to comfortably squeeze 10psi out of this beast.

The stock 3.8" pulley on the m90 will make 9 psi on the 3.8L it came off of. You should have no problem hitting your goals. I actually built a "high" compression 3800 and ran a custom 4.2" pulley to make less boost and increase efficiency. I was getting upper 30s in mpgs in my Impala.

If the snout length is inconveniently long, I'm fairly certain the snout from the Ford Super Coupe swaps over with minimal hassle.

Weekend work. Quick and dirty

I had to fix some spots on the driver's door:

Some spots though were raised areas from welding and I thought I'd just let them stay (as opposed to lots and lots of bondo). I'm not sure how I missed this, but I did. ah well

all in all, the door turned out pretty decent

I did some "creative masking" so I could continue to sand the wheel well and not get dust in my new primer

Good times

Continued

After that it was on to the front. There's some damage here I'm not going to address either. I'm hoping to find an air dam one day to cover all this (much like the one on the team dynamics car I shared a while back)

And then we round the corner and head on into the passenger fender!

I'm not sure how I missed that bit at the front (below). It looks like I hit it with the body filler, but must have gotten a bit overzealous with my sanding afterward. ah wells

Clockwork? This one's for you buddy To answer your question, I do NOT have a can holder. Just me and my index finger. Look what the rattle cans did to my sprayer finger!

Good times

Continued:

Oldskewl and Ross, I appreciate the kind words. when I had this all planned out I had visions of concourse paint when I was done. As I go I realize that's not going to happen. BUT I do have a plan that may let us hide some of the scars that are showing through the primer a bit. Stay tuned

In between sprays I've been sanding away at the usual spots (both rear quarter panels).

I have more to share, but the buckets of photos is choosing this very moment not to cooperate.

FooBag wrote:

Hungary Bill wrote: This is definitely bound for 3-liter glory, but I think that since we're dealing with an M90 I should be able to comfortably squeeze 10psi out of this beast.

The stock 3.8" pulley on the m90 will make 9 psi on the 3.8L it came off of. You should have no problem hitting your goals. I actually built a "high" compression 3800 and ran a custom 4.2" pulley to make less boost and increase efficiency. I was getting upper 30s in mpgs in my Impala. If the snout length is inconveniently long, I'm fairly certain the snout from the Ford Super Coupe swaps over with minimal hassle.

Dude, you're awesome! I thought the kit mfgr was using some sort of special snout for their kit and I was going to have to pay out the yin-yang for it. With the googling I've done, it looks like they're just using a shiny Supercoupe snout.

Thanks!

OOH! The buckets are back!

Ok, (clears throat) Continued:

So I was sanding the usual areas. The idea is to work the DA as long as I can, and when the compressor gets wheezy I pick up some masking tape or primer and go to town on that project.

I was pretty tired by that point. It'd been a long week, and I don't even remember what night this was. I think it was saturday.

Anyhoo, the sanding is going "ok" but I'm not thrilled with the progress or with what I'm seeing on the passenger back side.

And then...

(ahem)

And then, I run my sander over what looks like a paint blister...

It turned out they painted RIGHT over a grease blob!

When my sander hit it, it left a nice streak. I worked on getting it out before I realized I should take a picture

I figured that was a sign that it was quittin time.

Continued:

So yeah, the paint blister had to be saturday night because by sunday I was good and tired of body work so I stuffed the dash in place and hooked the ECU up electrically.

I was waiting to do the ECU until I had the battery hooked up (so I could watch for smoke) but I really didn't do anything with the engine harness so I'm hoping all will be ok there.

The dash was on hold so I wouldnt ruin it with paint, but I'm just going to have to make sure I'm very careful when I spray. I promised progress if I couldnt get the body work done, and I intend to deliver (lets face it, we're P-minus 2 days. Unless I took some serious vacation time...)

Also I have to address my gauge surrounds before I install those (ick!)

Notice that broken corner in picture # 3? I about puked. But some super glue and she was good as new. I'm hoping it'll hold while installed. If not, I'm sure it wont hurt anything since there are 3 other screws.

So yeah, that was Sunday night... Not a bad weekend if I do say so myself (no saturdate with the kid though. He's going to crap his pants when he sees that dash put together)

Good times

oh. and there was a bit of this

In related news, Alfa got the giulia to US dealerships before you finished.

I am going to hold that they had a head start and more people working on the car than you...

In reply to Hungary Bill:

You're welcome! I was aware of this thanks to a couple crazy guys that modified their m90's to accept the rotors from the m112 from the Mustang Cobras. With the rotors being like 4" longer, they had to figured out the snout swap to make things line up. These swaps were from before the days that the PCM from the 3800's were hacked enough to handle running a turbo.

Flight Service:

Hahahahaha!!!! That puts things in perspective Thanks for that one

Foo:

I'm striking out on fleabay looking for supercoupe snouts, do you happen to know of a vendor or a good supply pool (forum) I might be able to draw from?

Last night in a nutshell:

A few notes on the photos

Picture 1) It's in! and man did that take way longer than I thought. I chipped a bit of paint off the gauge surrounds during the installs but nothing I cant touch back up. The build quality of this stuff is pretty darn poor and it's so brittle with age I'm thinking I may source some aftermarket gauges in the future.

Picture 2) Sorry about the blurry image. After 10 hours at work my phone lacks the battery charge to use its flash anymore. this battery is the one out of my Toyota pickup. It's been sitting in the basement ever since that Optima made its debut about 2-weeks ago (?). Eventually it'll go back in the truck and this is where the optima will reside

Picture 3) Key on, lights illuminated, dash clock is ticking. I'll admit to a LOT of looking and feeling around looking for smoke or hot wires. This was scary and I wasn't going to go this far but I KNEW I wouldnt be able to sleep if I didnt. I should tell you the wipers don't turn off (or even speed up, regardless of switch position) I also unplugged the wiper relay to get them to stop but I'll have some troubleshooting to do there.

(and of ALL those switches and lights in the center section, only two have wires going to them)

Good times

Speaking of not being able to sleep. Here's a teaser trailer for an upcoming movie that's been keeping me up at night lately.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/BmwZe7yERBw

Stay tuned

That was a terrible teaser! There wasn't even any smoke let out....

Yet.

You forgot the "yet".