2013 wasn't much of a year Coupé year for me. The car was taken to just one event (Stanford Hall) and spent the rest of the time hidden away in the Garage... To be honest I had lost the love probably due to a combination of thinking of getting another car, Yes I almost bought a TT there was also the fact I had dented the boot lid and the roof has suffered the Scots Green paint lurgy.

So, why the heck have I committed to Turin 2014

I've now got quite a few jobs to do, and get done, to the Coupé before the event. Last thing I want to do is turn up in The wife's Grande Punto, or worse still an Alfa!

So, the to do list...

• Clutch (It's not gone yet but it judders and sometimes slips when cold, better safe than sorry)
• Remove dents
• Remove interior & glass
• Re spray
• Refit glass and interior
• A service might be in order
• Paint the rear brake callipers.
• Fit them and the new pads that have been sat in my toolbox since 2012.

Car should be good for Italy then!

Wish me luck....

Has anyone LOCAL got any good condition black door cards and rear side panels?

Nigel offered me the choice of his stock but I just haven't had time to get over that way.

I am going to do away with the light Tan items because I damaged both rears when I had a boot lid on the back seats. The edge protection slipped off and the sharp edges split the vinyl on both sides, worse still I damaged the boot lid too. I knew I should have gone to Nobby's in the Alfa

I know I'm not local, but I have a rear drivers side card with a crack in the plastic near the seatbelt (which I did when I pulled it off ), but other than that it is in excellent condition.

Can post with, or without the speaker if you want to save on postage weight.

I also have a few jobs to finish on my Coupe before Turin:

replace rear springs are refurb brakes
treat subframe rust etc
sort out whiney power steering

Did the clutch and belts last year. I am using Turin as a kick up the @55 to get it sorted. A darn good reason if you ask me !

Go for it Bob !!

Good luck Bob!

I need to tart up my red LE ready for Italy...she's just turned 235,000 miles

WOW that's good

Managed to sell some more 166 bits today, £175 towards the clutch fund

Good effort, I'm having garage tidy up and and selling bits to help fund Turin !

Mine's just probably (deliberately) failed its MOT this afternoon... then we can fix that and see about a comb-over for the crazy paving passing itself off as a paint job.

Out of interest what are you going to sell to put towards the great emulsioning?

@Bob, good to hear you got over the doldrums and are thinking barmily sensibly again

Well, there was a black and yellow coupe cluttering up the yard last weekend. Joe said I could have anything I wanted...

Good to see a plan is coming together to put her back on the road Bob

Hopefully I won't be waving you down in Calais this year

Ha, yes I remember it well. Some bloke running out into the road in front of me

UPDATE

I've been chipping away at little jobs and now, after considerable thought, I've booked the car in for the bodywork. I couldn't bring myself to fork out for a full re-spray / restoration and was even considering taking the car to Italy looking scruffy.

I have though decided to get the roof - bootlid - bonnet and front bumper done. Should "make good" the car for a few years and the big rebuild will be put off for a few more years!

The NEW to do list...

• Clutch (REPLACED)
• Remove dents (BOOKED IN)
• Remove glass (BOOKED IN)
• Re spray (BOOKED IN)
• Service (DONE)
• Change door cards & side panels.
• Paint the rear brake callipers. Fit them and the new pads that have been sat in my toolbox since 2012.

Good stuff Bob. Where did you get your clutch done? Mine just started slipping so will be adding that to do list before turin!

You have PM..

Great news Bob!

Not done too much, other than strip the car ready for painting. Car is in a fairly sad state at the moment with not much interior

It goes to the paint shop on Friday though... hope they do a good job.

Time for an update.

The car has been in and had the Roof, Bonnet, Boot-lid and front bumper painted. The fellow also stripped the lacquer of the rear 3/4 panels and re- did those too. He was rather critical about the quality of the "factory" paint. He did go on about paint types - Single / double / water / solvent but have to say he lost me a bit. Apparently what happened with my paint (going milky then loosing lacquer was inevitable something to do with the paint used. Suffice to say he then told me he had used something different. Apparently the milky business shouldn't happen again, I do hope so.

Have to say I'm quite pleased with the paint work. There are a couple of tiny imperfections but I suspect they may well be able to be dealt with by some proper machine polishing.

The only thing I'm not totally happy with is the front screen rubber. The re-fitting of the old seal isn't as nice as I would like. In hindsight I should have found a new seal. A job for the future I guess.

The fellow has machine polished the doors but as was suggested here, there is machine polishing and "Machine" polishing. I would love to attack it before Turin but with the weather as it is today it looks unlikely, I am struggling just to get the interior back together in all this rain

So, £1400 well spent? Yes I think it is.

Glad you kept the coupe Bob. I really think you would have been unhappy letting it go.
Well done mate.

Got to keep it now. Spent the money I had saved for something else on...

* An Alfa 156
* A Coupé paint job
* A coupe clutch

And loads of other bits and bobs

that's the spirit Bob

Good choice Bob, you know it makes sense

Before and after pic ?

This post is nothing without pictures.

BEFORE



AFTER

Happy now?

Looks good Bob, with the right sort of clouds in the 3rd "after" picture.

Excellent Bob, see you here next weekend!

Should be asking you that, very artistic and shiny!

All these repainted coops, I'm feeling jealous

I do though need a new SPA sticker. Mine got removed by the paint shop