A Leslie Wong Blog

I drove my Alfetta Sprint Veloce to the 2012 All Italian Car and Motorcycle Show. The informal show is sponsored by the Alfa Romeo Association for the benefit of the Alameda Special Olympics.

This year, my Sprint Veloce was joined by Chris Keen‘s red Alfetta GT, (see flickr photoset below) so there were four representatives of the Alfetta family, including a sedan and a GTV6. There were plenty of Alfa Romeos, Ferraris, Fiats, a few De Tomasos, a few Lamborghinis. a few Lancias and a few Maseratis. On the motorcycle front, there were many Aprilias, Ducatis, Moto Guzzis and Vespas.

(larger images in a slideshow on flickr.com)

I drove my Alfetta Sprint Veloce to the Alfa Romeo Association of California’s 2011 All Italian Car and Motorcycle Show last Sunday.

I took the photo (left) of my car and started thinking, was Sports Car Market correct? In an Affordable Classics article from the September, 2007, the author used the phrase, “Along with wretched refuse like the Alfa Romeo Alfetta GT…” The photograph seems to bear that out; it appears that nobody wanted to park next to my Alfetta. The reality was that it was late in the afternoon and the cars that had been parked next to the Alfetta earlier in the morning had left.

My Sprint Veloce was the only coupe present that represented the Alfa Romeo Alfetta family but there was an Alfetta sedan too (plus several GTV-6s). There were plenty of Alfa Romeos, Ferraris, Fiats, a few Panteras, a few Lancias, a few Maseratis, and a lot of motorcycles – everything was interesting to me.

When I installed relays and Cibie headlamps in my cars, I used 10 gauge wire. That’s probably larger than I need since I’m using only 60/55 watt H4 bulbs and 55 watt H1 bulbs, but it can’t hurt.

I couldn’t find any good sockets locally that use 10 gauge wire. Most of the connectors were phenolic resin that used 16 gauge wire. I’d read about ceramic sockets for headlamps on the Internets but never looked for them in earnest. When I broke a soldered wired off of one my headlamp sockets while troubleshooting a non-working turn signal, I thought I should find a socket compatible with the rest of the robust wiring.

I found these ceramic sockets on eBay and bought four of them.

They’re OK quality. The cover, which has a plastic hinge, snaps closed after inserting the contacts. I had to trim the tabs that hold the cover closed with an X-Acto knife before it would close completely. I soldered the wire to the connectors before inserting them in the sockets. At least they worked with the 10 gauge wire.

I re-coated the two-piece cast iron exhaust headers on my Alfa Romeo with Eastwood Silver High Temp Manifold Coating. When I first painted them two years ago, the surface preparation consisted of running a wire wheel on the rusty cast iron. The Eastwood coating lasted well, though small rust spots eventually appeared through the coating. Last week, I cleaned the headers with lacquer thinner and applied another coat.

To keep the headers attached to the head, I used brass M8x1.0 hex nuts, new lock washers and new copper gaskets.

I was having trouble seeing the turn signal indicator in my 1979 Alfa Romeo Sprint Veloce. Though I am relatively old if you’re young, I didn’t want to look that way driving down 101 with my turn signals on.

When the original thermal turn signal flasher gave up, I replaced it with an electronic flasher. With the engine off I can hear it clicking very clearly – I can’t hear it while the engine is running unless the fuse box is open and I stick my head next to it – not a good driving position since the fuse box is just above the floor.

Probably 40 years ago, I made a turn signal amplifier using a 555 integrated circuit and a Mallory Sonalert. It was annoying, sort of like the beepers that some vehicles have when they’re backing up.

I started looking for a brighter lamp for the turn signal indicator that is mounted below the tachometer. The OEM lamp is a 74 Miniature Indicator Lamp – 14 Volt – T1-3/4 Sub Mini Wedge Base. In bright sunlight, it’s difficult to see if the OEM lamp is flashing. I found an LED replacement lamp that is essentially a SMT LED stuck on the end of a plastic tube with a diode and resistor to drop the voltage. It had the necessary wedge base. I had to file the sides down a little so it would fit in the lamp holder, but it was worth the $5.50. It’s bright enough to see in direct sunlight, but not so bright that it’s too annoying at night.

When we first got our 1972 BMW Bavaria, the paint was failing. I bought a Makita 9227C 7-Inch Hook and Loop Electronic Polisher/Sander from Amazon to try to save it.

I didn’t know that the paint was already dead. All the Meguiar’s compounds, glazes and waxes couldn’t save it. After hours of work, the paint would look good for a week or two.

Now, with relatively new (single stage) paint on the car, it’s a different story. After washing the car, I’ve been using Meguiar’s NXT Generation Tech Wax, Zymol Cleaner Wax or Eagle One’s NanoWax, applied by hand with a foam pad.

Then the Makita polisher, with a wool polishing bonnet or a foam pad, removes the wax easily and leaves the paint nicely polished. It doesn’t take a lot of effort and the paint shines; I’m just trying to protect it. I still dread having to wax the car, but it turns out, with the Makita polisher, it really isn’t a big effort now.

This week is the big car week on the Monterey Peninsula. The weekend before the Rolex Monterey Historic Automobile Races at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, they have the “Pre-Historics.” A lot of racers are already setup in the paddock and anyone can go in and look around if you pay the $6 parking fee, which is about my speed.

We saw some of the practice for Group 7A, 1964-1971 FIA Mfg. Championship Cars: there were two 1969 Porsche 917Ks, a 1970 Ferrari 512S, 1969 Ford GT-40, a 1968 Alfa Romeo T33/2 and various Porsche 908s.

In Group 7B, 1973-1980 IMSA GT, GTX, AAGT Cars, there was Henry Schmitt’s (whose father started German Motors in San Francisco in the 60′s) 1974 BMW 3.5 CSL. I saw it in the paddock with hood off and took a piture of the engine. There were also a bunch of Porsche 935s, a bunch of 1977 Dekon Monzas and various Porsche 911 RSRs.

There were three Bonhams cars that are going to auction next Friday: a 1975 BMW 3.0 CSL in Taiga, the metallic green that looked ugly to me; a 1929 Bentley 4½-Liter (the Mrs. said, “This must have been where they came up with the term wind screen”) and a 1939 Auto Union 3-liter V12 Grand Prix Racing Single-Seater. When we went back to the parking lot (we drove the Bavaria), there was an E9 parked behind us. As we were leaving, we saw the Auto Union broken down on the track while doing a demo lap – they were attaching a tow rope the a fire truck.