Alfa Romeo TZ1: Ongoing chassis

Back to the bench after a week out of town on my other job. You know, the one that earns me money, not the one that costs me money ... anyway I've made some progress, but a minor self-inflicted injury involving an Xacto knife and my right middle finger has sidelined me for now. So time to detail the latest work instead.



The basic frame went together OK as discussed earlier. A trial fit of the engine and drivetrain looked good so it was on to the rear axle. The cast suspension units consist of upright, driveshaft and at least two locating arms, all in one casting. Getting it all to line up with the appropriate little sockets required a fair bit of gentle bending of struts before risking glue, but the left side went in fine and looks good. The disc brakes in particular look fine.



Here we see the right side installed. Still looking OK.



One of the locating links for the rear hubs is a long radius arm which reaches forward and is hinged under the door sill. I trialed the floor pan to make sure it all fits, which it does, but it is really unfortunate that the chassis will be essentially invisible once it's all done. The fact it is all meant to be semi-gloss black for historical accuracy just makes this worse. I am not recommending pink or anything that extreme, but I have been playing with matte and gloss black paints as highlights for some details, in order to try and get them to stand out. I've also gone for steel or aluminum on bits that may well have been unpainted originally.



Next the engine went in, which also required a bit of bending and twisting of the main chassis bits.



My only concern here is that the engine may not be tipped over as far as it should be, given the oil pan and the gearshift not being perfectly horizontal or vertical, respectively. We shall see.



The base chassis went together relatively easily but the front and rear upper frame sections are going to be a challenge. The rear section, which carries the fuel tank, was not be too difficult. There are 8 pins to line up, but 4 of these involved the gas tank or a beefy subframe, both of which are pretty solid and therefore represent fixed points for the various tubes to socket into.

 

Here is the rear frame installed. Access to the rear discs, pads and handbrake is now just like on my old Rover 2000 TC, which is to say essentially impossible. I am assuming, perhaps incorrectly, that the pads didn't need to be changed during the 24 heures...



The front upper frame component, on the other hand, doesn't appear, at first glance, to line up very well at all. A bunch of trialing will be needed before the glue goes on.



This upper item involves locating mounting points for springs, shock absorbers and kingpins, at the same time as lining it up with the large tube along the top of the firewall and 8 other little sockets. This will definitely be challenging and all the various tubes attached to the motor will make it worse. First, though, I need the use of my right middle finger back.



Separately I managed to get paint on it before heading out of town, so it has all been hardening for over a week now. The orange peel is minimal so it will really only need polishing with the finer grits and pastes. Stay tuned!