wankski

i kinda have a soft spot for them, as my first real car i drove around in was/is a u13 bluebird.... torquey for a 4 banger, and really reliable... and yes, unburstable engine... seriously... NOTHING on it over 17 yrs from new... SEVENTEEN... theoretically, if my alfa lasts that long, say 18 years, it would be on its 6th belt, an' assuming i paid the $2.5k it costs here each time.... and nothing else ever went wrong... ya... $15k nissan also put out some nice cars at the time... 200sx/silvia and of course the R series GT and GTR particularly the R34 for me... but unlike alfa, boy did they age.... i look at a 156 more than 10 years on - still the best looking sedan on the market.... IMHO... nissans of the same era while i remembered thinking looked ok at the time... now.... bleh.

yea, smaky said it all... its not a big job mate... but a deep socket on an extension makes life easier to remove the strap... otherwise a bit awkward w/ a small spanner to remove the nut on a long thread down there... also you do not have to remove the intake entirely, just undo the clip connecting the angled pipe to the throttle body... then yank that pipe assembly off and kinda push it up and to the side just so you clear the battery a little... apart from that remember negative is first to come off and last to put on.... simples

hi mate... u would want something like the alpine MARINE series.... x100m is nice.. they are silver and w/ a silver adaptor facia wont look too bad... http://www.alpine-usa.com/product/view/ida-x100m specifically made for the ipod and yes, you can get some connect2 adaptors to retain steering wheel controls + even an alpine to iso harness to simply wiring (some mods needed) adaptors/harness all from nexia.co.uk

legend. thanks for that mate!! my arms are also trw... it didn't look easy to press out the metal sleeve as it is flanked by solid metal washers either side that seem part of the insert now, so it looks like they don't want u to disassemble them... thanks, i'm good to go now... (i used to have access to eLearn CD but it wont run on win7)

where u getting a v6 water tank for 20 quid? cheapest i've seen is ebspares and they quoted 42!

nothing will really do for a resto that u need - your front cover is pretty bad! i would wait until u need to pop your plenum - eg, cambelt or plugs need doing.. before you do that job, bag the alternator and remove the battery - use a bio-degradable cirtus cleaner and brush that on everything BAR the engine... doing even go there!! - wash out as much of the engie bay metal and fitments as possible, and carefully rinse that down w/ localized spray of water.. ok - clean engine bay, but dirty engine.... go ahead and pop off plenum and if obsessive, the valve covers... u need them blasted. end of.. water blasting works well... this is industry level pressure used in aviation to strip back parts to bare metal - they will come back like freshly casted parts!! - you will then need to paint the raised letters & numbers if you want them red again.. strangely the water blasting does a good job and repels oil and dirt for a while... pretty cheap doing as well... or of course you could paint/powder coat em... then its left to you to polish up the fuel rails and the all important intake trumpets... use appropriate metal polishes for that... will come up a million bucks!! HTHs

the only way to deal w/ swirls and scratches is remove them... u need to polish them out... u can see how effective machine work and good polish is here for a MASSIVE gouge in the paint... and it briefly tells how to sand back and buff scratches: http://www.ausalfa.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=5468 u can see the under front spoiler part that shows the result - right side treated w/ 2000 grit paper and polish, the left side left as is for before/after comparison... as stated - SRP is just filler and will wash out... not bad for a no-risk way of prepping before a show major event - but your paint is still bodged under there...

nice guide smaky... few questions.. 1) when installing a new arm - do you first remove the metal sleeve and grease it up? or is an oem arm ok in this regard? 2) tightening torque values? 3) is it worth semi-dismantling the lower arm bushings while removing the top arms to regrease or is this not practical? does regreasing the lower bushings require lower arm removal? cheers