I’m afraid to say the past couple of weeks haven’t brought obviously huge gains to the Alfa. Each weekend I continue to chip away, a few hours at a time, but to the casual observer the progress would appear glacial, at best. While I have been reluctant to accept this pace, the fact that I recently registered for a certificate of non-operation, vs. paying standard registration, is an indication of the progress rate I am able to maintain. The left front wheel well is finally almost ready to have some shiny refurbished suspension parts installed, and the front passenger floor pan repairs are closing in on completion. Today though, with rain drops keeping me inside and away from the car for the day, I decided to turn to one of my “rainy day” projects: the carburetors.
Shortly after getting the car I pulled the carbs off to give me better access through the engine bay to some of the harder to reach hardware of the suspension components. However, once they were off, it was clear to me that I couldn’t in good conscience put them back on without giving them a good clean. So, with the sound of raindrops on the roof, today I began the process of taking apart the Weber 40 DCOE’s.
As I’ve mentioned prior, I’ve done a little carb tuning before, but never have I taken one apart; I’ve always been intimidated by the sheer number of fiddly little parts involved. With this in mind, I armed myself with a clean surface to work on, a Haynes Weber Manual, soaked the area in light, and kept my camera close at hand to trace each and every step of the disassembly.
Next up: cleaning. I’ve been doing a bit of research on the best way to clean the bodies and hardware and, like almost everything to do with car restoration it seems, the variety of opinions is a bit daunting. The internet is an amazing thing, with information almost more abundant than air, but this abundance has its downsides as millions of people chime in to share their best kept secrets on everything from peeling carrots to building jet packs, it’s often challenging to weed out the true experts from the armchair quarterbacks. My hope is to find a method of cleaning the bodies that doesn’t require me to wear a hazmat suit (I’ve never looked good in Tyvek) but also gets the finish back to its former glory. If you’ve got good tips, don’t hesitate to send them my way. Tomorrow I’ll get the rebuild parts ordered from Pierce Manifolds, and with any luck, I’ll get back to the job next weekend.
65tomfoolery 