THE BIG RESTORATION
Hopes were dashed when Kevin Gunner stripped his Alfasud – but the pain was worthwhile
WORDS RICHARD MASON PICTURES MATT RICHARDSON
It's lucky that Alfa Romeo enthusiasts possess such enormous passion for their cars because in the case of Kevin Gunner, his seven-year restoration journey began with a seriously rusty reality check.
‘When I bought the car online, it looked like a seriously good bet. There was a full folder of paperwork and had only covered 61,500 miles. How bad could really it be?’ Kevin’s Alfasud, with a tax disc from 1993 on the dusty windscreen, was an ultra-rare example of this little Alfa, too. ‘It’s a 1.5Ti from 1980, so it’s a crossover model manufactured to use up the old Series 2 booted shells – but looking like the new series 3 hatchback. According to the Alfa Romeo Owners Club it is the only booted Series 3 registered by the DVLA.’
The first of the three previous owners had kept it for 32 years. The next owner after that decided to cover the underside of the car in black under seal and stylish black tape on the body to hide the rust, selling it in 2016 to a classic car specialist, which is where Kevin got it. ‘They delivered it to me in February 2016. The plan was to just get the car resprayed and use it. It was running on three cylinders, which I thought would be an easy fix, plus it only looked like it had some exterior surface rust. So, a quick lick of paint and back on the road’.
Kevin had owned a few as a teenager. ‘I became completely at home adjusting the front inboard disc brakes or welding the rusty battery tray, so it didn’t fall onto the passenger’s lap. It was a quick and outstanding handling car, so that’s where my passion for them comes from.’ Optimistically, Kevin had his new project delivered directly to a local paint shop in Bagshot. ‘They’d agreed that to keep the cost down I could strip the car down there and prepare it for painting. I thought it wouldn’t take long. At the time, I already had a Lotus Excel project at home so there was no room for the Alfa’.
Alfa unravels
As Kevin started stripping the car down, it just got worse and worse. ‘To begin with I took the mouldings off the wheel arches. There was an arc of rust bubbling on the offside front arch above the moulding, but I thought it would be easy enough to repair and then just get on with the spraying. Once I started on the wings it was clear there was way more rust.’ But he admits he was in too deep with no option other than to keep going. ‘The whole of the interior came out and I pulled everything else off the body to get back to the shell to find out just what lay under all that black tape and underseal’. Rust began to appear as he scraped the underseal off the rear of the chassis – and continued all the way to the other end, unfortunately. ‘The two chassis sections running front to back were filled with a sort of foam at the factory. The idea was to prevent rust but actually it led to more condensation. So a lot of the foam had to be removed before I could do any welding.’
Finding good front wings wasn’t easy. ‘In the end I bought three sets of wings, all used, and fitted the best ones from the six I had’. New old stock rear arch repair panels and sills were bought via club members. Where the rust was running along the lower portions of the sills, Kevin cut it out on the bottom of the sills to preserve the shut lines with the bottom of the doors. ‘The sills are covered with a black moulding so you can’t see the join anyway.’ Kevin didn’t want to cut corners.
‘It was important to me that everything was done properly. I was lucky that the inner wings were in good condition although the same couldn’t be said for the ‘A’ pillar on the passenger side. The metal was totally rotten and needed new bits welding in. Wherever there was rust, it was cut out. And this included the roof just above the front windscreen. The rubber screen seals trap water eventually leading to corrosion around the edge of the windscreen. I couldn’t just grind down and fill because I just knew I would end up having to do the work all over again one day.’
The black tape around the sunroof was concealing rust, but it wasn’t just a case of taking the glass panel out. Kevin had to become a carpenter. ‘The whole roof section went all floppy without the sunroof frame, so I had to build a kind of roll cage to keep it rigid. It took me half day to fabricate the cage using pine. I had to plain it down to get the right curved shape. Luckily I used to fit kitchens so it was easy!’ Only then with the roof square could he get on with welding new bits of metal in. Kevin’s next challenge was replacing the rear side windows that have a metal surround bonded to the glass. Not unsurprisingly this had rusted out. ‘Although Alfa Romeo manufactured over one million Alfasuds, it remains quite a challenge to source good quality parts.
‘Eventually I did manage to locate some new side windows from Greece. They cost me £300!’
Fortunately, the doors had little rust – not much more than a few scabs near the bottom which were easy to repair. Not so easy were the rear panel extensions to the boot floor. ‘There just wasn’t anything available. I looked everywhere. To make matters worse I needed them for both sides. In the end the panels had to be fabricated’. Kevin says that the bodywork and painting were completed after about a year. At this point, the Alfasud was taken home where Kevin could source and refit all the parts at his leisure. ‘What with work, other hobbies and one thing and another it took me six years to get it finished.’
The big refit
As he was refitting the running gear, Kevin replaced as much as possible with new parts from bushes and pipes to brakes, clutch and many gaskets. ‘This is where it got a bit obsessive – the sub frame, axle, sump, arms, springs, all got shot blasted and powder coated, anything metal colour got zinc plated including a new exhaust and any alloy got polished.’ The interior needed to compliment a now near perfect Alfasud. Kevin says the low mileage helped to minimise wear to the seats. ‘The covers weren’t worn but the cushioning has gone all saggy, you just sink right into them. It’s something I still need to fix but for now, there’s a plank of wood under there to keep me from sinking to the floor.’ Everything in the interior is original and was merely cleaned it and refitted it. Even the radio still works and remarkably, the rubber door seals were good enough to use again. Kevin makes it sound easy until it comes to the headlining. ‘It was brittle, so I had to be so careful with it. I couldn’t just stretch it to where I wanted it to go. At least with all the windows out it was easier to do!’
Kevin changed the steering wheel for a wood rimmed one that was fitted to the top of the range ‘Sprint’ model – but it hid a surprise. ‘I didn’t realise the wooden steering wheel was fake until I started paint stripping the flaking lacquer and ending up with a plastic orange wheel! After I did some clever painting, it looks like wood again.’
Kevin was correct in his optimistic assessment of the engine. ‘It fired up after a good four hours tuning the twin Webbers using a service kit. Now it runs on all cylinders! I replaced the rocker cover and sump gaskets, as well as the water pump and cambelt. The gearbox was fine and just needed new bushes for the gearstick’. Then the petrol tank sender unit stopped working. ‘I managed to find a sender unit and a secondhand tank in better condition, which I two-pack painted and fitted.’ Looking at the car now, you’d never know the pain Kevin went through – it is stunning. So much so, the Alfasud recently won first prize at the Phyllis Tuckwell Classic Car Show near Farnham. While it was a difficult ride to a rosette, it was worth every hour spent.
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