14x12 - 1987 Alfa Romeo Spider Quadrifoglio

[bunniefuu]

There's no driving
experience in the world

quite like a raspy
little Italian sports car.

Oh, it's lovely, isn't it?

The 1987 Alfa Romeo
Spyder Quattrofoglio, powered

by Alfa's legendary
twin-cam inline four-cylinder.

Bit tired.

But look again.

Is loaded with extras.

They literally threw everything at it.

Including an extremely rare hardtop.

It's the perfect sports car
for the rain and sun alike.

But this Italian beauty
hasn't aged very gracefully.

That carrier bearing is
absolutely shot to pieces.

With holes, missing parts
and broken bits aplenty.

It really, really labours, look.

And then it speeds up
again for the last few inches.

With a bit of luck, Antoni can turn
this four-leaf clover into a pot of gold.

Are you bailing?

You love doing this stuff.

Now today, I'm on my way
to see a guy called Florin,

who's got a cracking little car made famous
by Dustin Hoffman in the film The Graduate.

I've had one in the past.

It's an Alfa Romeo Spyder out here.

They call it the Quattrofoglio.

So I'm excited about
going to see it because

this is a good little
car and it's rare.

They only made 2,600 of them in 1987.

And this one has got that lovely
little two-litre fuel-injected engine.

The guy is asking $9,000 for it.

That's around £7,500.

And for one of these cars,
that's fairly decent money,

but I reckon I might be
able to get it a bit cheaper.

What makes it unusual here in California
is the car has been advertised locally,

where really what this guy Florin should
have done is advertise the car nationally,

where it rains in New York
and in Boston and Philadelphia.

He could probably get all
the money that he's looking

for because it's got one unique selling
point, which is a detachable hardtop.

Hopefully it's exactly
what I'm looking for,

and with some clever advertising,
there's a profit in it for us two.

Hey, you Florin?

Yeah, hi.

Florin, how you doing? I'm Mike.

Pleased to meet you, Mike.

Nice to meet you too, sir.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, I'm the guy that's come
down to see your wonderful little Alfa.

Tell me about it. How long you had it?

For about two and a half years.

Believe it or not, I put only 30 miles.

Belonged to a friend of mine.
Sadly, he passed away.

To this point, I said it because it's
too much emotional attachment to me.

Wow. You know, cars like
this, they do need to be driven.

That's what little Alphas particularly,
they don't like sitting down.

Can I have a look under the bonnet?

Yeah.

And there she is. Wow.

That's that nice little two-litre...
Two-litre engine, yes, dual overhead cams.

Quite surprisingly, usually
when I open the bonnet of these,

you can see rust down into the inner
wings, but this one is nice and straight.

It's got original hoses, original clips,

and it's nice to see the odd
cobweb under the bonnet.

It shows that it's not
been mucked around with.

And you say the engine runs OK?

Absolutely is.

OK, well, let's shut the bonnet down.

OK.

So, interior-wise... Yeah?

It's not bad, is it, the interior?

It's all there, all the trim pieces there.

You see the roof has ripped
the soft top underneath?

Right, but they do have a brand-new soft
top that comes along with the hard top.

That's fantastic.

So it's got a brand-new soft top.

That's good news, really good news.

And this hard top is wonderful to see
because it makes the car much more usable.

And quiet when you drive it.

And quiet, yeah, of course.

So, round the rear, here's the
big moment on an Alfa Romeo.

It's the boot of the car, because
if they're going to rust an Alfa,

especially one of these little spiders,

it's going to be down
here, yes, in these rear

quarters, and it shows
when you open that boot,

you can smell it almost immediately.

I hope I don't have a bad surprise.

No, I don't think you do,
because there's no smell.

It's got that red carpet again.

It's got that wonderful interior.

Surprisingly good.

For a 30-year-old Alfa,

it's probably one of the best-shaped
bodies I've ever seen, so that's not bad.

Thank you.

But being an Alfa Romeo,

it's all about that driving experience,

so for me, one thing I need to do.

is to enjoy this wonderful
weather in these nice country lanes

and take it out there for a test drive.

Is that OK with you?

Oh, absolutely.

The keys are in the ignition.

I'll bring it back in one piece.

Thank you.

Already, I can tell you,

the engine is that really
good little 2-litre fuel-injected...

It's got that...

Oh, lovely little raspy engine, though,

you only get from an Alfa Romeo.

Hey!

Going through the
gearbox nicely, that's full.

Right, I've come to a stop.

Let's accelerate away again.

When I accelerated away,

moved my foot off the clutch
and applied the accelerator,

I could feel that there was a delay

between the power getting
from the engine to the rear axle.

In this car, it's rear-wheel
drive, it's got a prop shaft,

and I would imagine that
there's a fault in that prop shaft,

whether it's worn or it's loose
or something's wrong with it,

but that will have to be attended
to, so that might need rebuilding

because there's definitely
a delay in the pick-up.

What you should do when
you go and test-drive a car,

you should make sure that
everything seems to work,

so all the dials and gauges
are singing away to me,

they look nice, but
the air-conditioning,

that's not very good,
so we'll have to fix that.

I just want to find out a little bit more
about this car and what it's got to offer.

Just saying that,

the connection's starting
to happen just on that bend.

That's why I love Alphas.

You get to a bend, you push it into a bend,

and it just rewards you.

Immediately, I have
started to fall in love with it.

I am enjoying it.

So, let's see if we
can put a deal together.

How did he go with that car?

I'm going to be honest with you, Florent,

this car is a bit of a gamble for me
because it has got problems, you know.

The good stuff is, and this is unusual,

I am standing in front of a


with a detachable
hardtop that is rust-free.

For that reason alone, it
makes me want to buy it.

How much did you want?

£8,900.

See, you want nearly $9,000 for this car.

I want to rescue this car, I
want to put it back on the road,

but for that to happen,
it can only be for $6,000.

What do you say?

Can you go eight me?

I can't go eight.

I'd be willing to give $7,000 for it.

What do you say?

OK, you get the deal.

Yes? Fantastic.

Thank you very, very much.

I've just bought myself
an Alfa Romeo Spyder

Quadrifoglio, or as us
Europeans say it, a cloverleaf.

And don't worry, I will do the
right thing by the car, I promise.

OK.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, hang on
a second, hang on, hang on.

I'm just sweeping up.

Get this Alfa out of my workshop.

Now, usually you would say,

don't come anywhere near the
workshop with an Alfa Romeo,

but trust me, this is
a rust-free 1987 Alfa

Romeo Quadrifoglio,
which is four-leaf clover.

Look at this bodywork.

Nice and solid, you can bang it on
any body panel, and no rust falls out.

So this is an Alfa without rust?

Yes, listen.

This is as good as they ever got.

I've never seen a hardtop
on one of these cars before.

I know, it's so rare, and that's what
dragged me to this car in the first place.

It's got a detachable hardtop,

which is probably the
first one I've ever seen,

and I know that if we
was to take that off and

sell it, I could get just
$1,500 for that alone.

No, no, no, we don't want to sell it.

This looks amazing.

It's good, isn't it?

So let's look under the body.

Yeah, I get it.

It's a bit tired.

It is a bit tired, but look
again at what you're seeing.

Let me guess, the air
con doesn't work, does it?

No, I can't get it to go cold.

There's no belt.

That's why it doesn't work.

So what's it drive like?

Actually, it goes really, really well,

but there is a problem between
the engine and the rear wheels.

Somewhere in the driveline,

there is a lack and something's missing.

So I would imagine all the rubber,

all the bushes underneath,
they all need replacing.

Cool.

Yeah.

Let's look inside.

Well, go round.

I'll tell you what we should do.

We should take the roof off.

I've pre-undone all the bolts for us.

There you go.

Grab the roof.

Let's go backwards.

What's the soft top like?

Right.

I wish it never asked,

but it has got a soft top.

It's got both a hard top and a soft top.

Let's have a look.

Oh, blimey, that stiff has
not come up in 30 years.

Oh, hang on a second.

I know it looks bad, but the
previous owner, when I bought the car,

he always intended to do this himself,
so he's already bought another roof for it.

So you've got a spare roof?

I have.

Result?

I love the red carpet.

Yeah.

This is all right.

You need sunglasses.

When you're driving down the road
in this car, the carpet is very bright.

Yeah, because this is a run-out model.

They literally threw everything at it.

Got red carpets.

We've got leather seats,
red stitching, electric windows,

electric mirrors, air conditioning,
five-speed gearboxes.

More or less got
everything you can think of.

Yeah, but does it all work?

Well, most of it works.

There's a couple of things that don't.

Air conditioning for one,
and the electric window

on the driver's side
is a little bit sticky.

Yeah, nothing to a man like you.

Right, so you know what you're doing?

Yeah, so we're talking
about sloppy drivetrain

somewhere between the engine and
the axle, air conditioning shot to pieces,

window's really slow, and the
whole car needs a good going over.

Yeah, so just a little list.

All you've got to do is fix it.

In Alpha-spider terms,

this car is the best of the best.

It's got all the bells and
whistles and everything

that you'd expect from
an Italian sports car.

And yes, it's far from perfect.

It needs quite a bit of TLC.

But owning an Italian sports car
is about the driving experience.

It's about putting the power
down onto the rear wheels.

And Mike says that
distribution of power is sloppy.

And in a sports car, sloppy won't do.

Mike says the engine pulls really well, so
at this stage, I'm going to discount that.

He also says the car drives
through the gears really well,

so I'm going to discount
that, which means the

problem is probably from
the gearbox backwards.

Now, this is a rear-wheel-drive vehicle,
and it takes the power from the engine,

sends it down a prop shaft,

and distributes it via the
rear axle to both rear wheels.

And that prop shaft joins the gearbox
via this little rubber coupling here.

And yeah, it looks all right.

A little bit perished.

Well, that's a consumable item.

I'm going to replace that anyway.

There's a fixed prop shaft that
goes to a middle carrier bearing.

Yeah, and there's a problem.

It is destroyed.

We're in the Italian sports car market with
this 1987 Afro Mayo Spyder Quattrofoglio.

This is as good as they ever got.

The rear detachable hardtop means I
can market it outside of sunny California

and make a bit more profit
off our $7,000 investment.

So what's it drive like?

But it doesn't perform like a sports car,

which is why Ant's taken a
hard look at that drivetrain.

There's a fixed prop shaft that
goes to a middle carrier bearing.

Yeah, and there's a problem.

That carrier bearing is
absolutely shot to pieces.

It is destroyed.

No wonder the car had a
sloppy slack driving experience.

That'll have to be replaced.

Now for the rear axle.

I want to check the play where the
prop shaft meets the rear differential.

Get hold of the prop, turn it,

and feel at what point
do the wheels start to turn.

And when does it kick in?

Is there some slack?

The other way to determine play
is I hold the prop shaft fixed still,

turn the wheel,

and feel at what point
does the prop kick in.

Oh, no, that's too much play.

The whole drivetrain needs to be dropped,

rebuilt, and refitted.

The first part of the drivetrain I'm
going to remove is the prop shaft.

It unbolts from the car at three points,

the gearbox, the centre
mount, and the differential.

I'm bringing the prop shaft
over to the bench for a strip down,

because there's parts I want to keep
and there's parts I want to replace.

I'm going to clean up and
paint the whole prop shaft,

but my main concern is
replacing the carrier bearing,

so I remove the bolts from the centre joint

to separate it into two
manageable components.

Then I remove the locking
nut holding the hub in place

and pull out the woodruff key to
gain access to the carrier bearing itself.

After giving the prop shaft a
thorough cleaning and a coat of paint,

I reassemble the carrier bearing,

bolt on a new rubber coupling,

and finally mate the two halves
of the prop shaft back together.

The wobbly prop shaft is actually a
smaller part of what is a bigger problem,

because I noticed earlier there is
some looseness, some play in the diff,

so what I want to do is I want to get it
down, get it open and have a look inside.

Now you have to be really careful
when taking an axle off because it's heavy,

so what I'm going to do
is leave the wheels on,

undo what I can while I've got
good access and it's in the air,

lower it down,

undo the last few bolts and then lift
the car leaving the axle on the floor.

That way I won't bust my back.

I start by draining and
removing the brake lines.

Then I detach the driver and
passenger side anti-roll bars,

which reduce body roll during cornering.

That frees up the bolts holding
the axle to the suspension arms,

which I'll loosen before
putting the car on the ground.

I can also unbolt the diff from the frame.

By raising the axle with a gearbox mount,

I can lighten the load on the limit
straps just enough to unclip them.

Now that the straps are off and everything
else I can get access to is loosened up,

I'm going to lower it now,

stick the car on the floor
and tack the rest on my back.

First I drain the differential oil.

Then the suspension bolt comes
out with a subtle application of a mallet.

That's all disconnected
now and it should lift off,

leaving the axle on the floor.

That's really heavy.

Now the axle is off the car, I
can remove the brake mechanism.

and slide the axle shaft out of the casing.

And this half should...

..simply come off.

And there's all the good bits.

The differential inside the casing.

This is where we've got our problem.

Now, in really simple terms, a
differential has two primary jobs.

Job number one, it takes
the power from the engine

via the prop shaft and turns 90 degrees
so that power is given to both wheels.

It takes a turn from
here and puts it into here.

And secondly, it allows
each one of those wheels

to travel at different speeds.

So if you imagine you're taking
a really tight left-hand corner,

the inside wheel's actually travelling
at a slower rate than the outside wheel

because, of course, the outside
wheel's trying to play catch-up.

Now, this should just slide out.

Nice and easy, I'll check that in a second.

Now, this Alpha actually
goes a step further

and the give-away is right underneath
here, this casting Mark, that V.

This indicates that
it's a limited slip diff.

The reason a limited slip is so good

is it still allows the wheels
to travel at different speeds,

but it limits the
difference between those

speeds, distributing
the power more evenly.

I'm just going to do a visual check.

I'm just going to check the teeth here.

I'm looking for any cracks
or scores or Mark lines.

And that looks all good.

Very little play in the bearing.

And then I'm going to check here.

Actually, this looks pretty
good for the age of the car.

I'm happy with the outside of this, but
the bits I want to get to are inside here.

So I'm just going to spin it over.

because these are the
bits I want to crack open.

Now, it's important to Mark the diff up.

That way, it ensures that it
gets realigned in the same place.

The good news is that
once I've undone those

bolts, the rest of it
comes apart by hand.

Now, I'm going to use a magnet
because it's all quite greasy.

And I'm going to take the first plate out,

the second plate out.

And what I'm trying to
get access to is this here.

This is called a friction plate.

And Mike's actually gone and
got me some new ones here.

And straight away, I can
actually feel the difference.

The old one's smooth.
It's almost like it's worn down.

Whereas the new one
has texture to the surface.

It's actually going to
work as a friction plate.

Now, I'm taking it apart because I
know a really good cheat for the Alfa.

If I take the friction plates
out, and there's two in total,

one either side, and replace
them with four, two either side,

it's going to vastly
improve the drive of this car.

This stack of plates transfers torque
from the differential gears to the axle.

The friction plates rotate with the gears

and use friction to turn
the rest of the plates.

When they wear down, they loosen the stack
and allow greater slip into the system.

And this one's come out with
the friction plates attached.

And it's the same, just one each side.

And again, that feels really smooth.
That's worn down.

So I'm going to do away with that one.

I've got a little bit of oil.

There's the new ones.
Let's soak them in there.

And the trick is to
sandwich between the two

a new friction plate, nice
and oily so it's all lubricated up.

And then I want to stick one between.

Effectively like a sandwich.

So it goes plate, friction
plate, plate, friction plate, plate.

Now it's going to be easier if I
load them onto this side gear here.

By adding the extra friction plates,
play in the differential is reduced.

So it locks up sooner
and harder under power,

reducing the slip and
improving the driving experience.

This is not a process you
can knock out in an afternoon,

but it will improve
the traction and driving

performance of the Alfa
in all weather conditions.

When trying to get top value
for a car, the details matter.

Then it's a matter of
reassembling the axle,

reinstating the brakes and
getting the axle back on the car.

Along with the refurbished prop shaft.

And that's done.

Although these
improvements are really small,

they're going to have
a huge impact on the

driving experience
on what is a sports car.

No more sloppiness.

It's going to be tighter, more
responsive use of that power.

And that should keep
Brewer happy for a while.

Not having work in air conditioning
will affect the sale price of this car.

Here comes the rain.

To fix it, I've got to
remove a load of stuff.

I brought back to the workshop
a 1987 Alfa Romeo Spyder.

I love the sales potential of
the rare detachable hardtop,

and I have a plan to give the
Alfa a bit of extra curbside appeal.

Hey up, fella.

I need you to give me the valve cover.

Okay, you do that. I'll do that.

No worries.

Right, here we go.

It comes off easy. Look at that.

So what are you going to do with it?

Well, I think it needs
tidying up under the bonnet,

so I'm going to handle this.

You just do the rest of it.

See you later.

One thing I've noticed
since moving to California

is that every car
has air conditioning.

Over here, it's seen as a
necessity, not as a luxury.

Not having work in air conditioning
will affect the sale price of this car.

Now, an obvious issue is
the fact that there's no belt,

and to get to that to fix it, I've
got to remove a load of stuff.

The AC is buried under the cooling system.

Here comes the rain.

So first, I drain the coolant.

Then it's a matter of
pulling out the hoses.

I'm bolting the radiator
and removing the fan.

Now that that's all out of the way,

I've got better access to
the air conditioning system.

Now, the belt itself sits on this pulley
here on the front of the compressor,

so I'm just checking
to see if it moves freely.

And now, just as I feared,

that compressor is completely c-solid.

It's going to have to come out.

But before you touch any
air conditioning system,

you first have to
check if it's pressurized.

If the AC were under pressure,

it would spew out a cloud of
Freon when I messed about with it.

So to check, I'm using
an AC pressure Gauge,

which does exactly what it says on the tin.

Yeah, the reading says
zero, which means that the

system isn't pressurized
and I'm safe to take it apart.

I unhook the AC lines running
to the evaporator and condenser,

and then unbolt the compressor
from the engine mount.

Now, I've come down to see Dan.

He's the primo of power decoders.

He reckons that we can do
something special to our Alfa,

set it aside from all the other
cars out there on the market.

Dan, you around?

Hey, how you doing?

I'm all right. How are you?

Good. Good to see you.

Good to see you, likewise.

This is the valve cover
of our little Alfa Romeo.

I've been thinking about it,

and I was going to recommend a red wrinkle.

Nice.

Similar to what you see on a Ferrari.

Yeah, I love that.

Alfa Romeo, a lot of European cars.

Let me show you what we got here.

Here's a great wrinkle red.

That's going to look fantastic.

Yeah, soldiers don't
need to tell me any more.

Should we get to it?

Yeah, let's do it.

The first step is to have
the valve cover sandblasted.

If you can make that look like
new, that would be fantastic.

Not only is it in dire need of cleaning,

but the blasting will also prep the
surface better to accept the powder.

Ah, and here it is.

It already looks like new.

Thank you, Coco.

That looks amazing.

What are we going to do to it?

We're going to blow it off with clean air.

Get this here.

Okay, and then we're going to mask it.

We're going to mask the backside
with 500 degree high heat tape.

Ah, I've done this before, yes.

Yeah, so go like that and there you go.

Powder coating is 400 degrees, so you need
a heat tape that's higher than the 400.

And we don't want any
powder in here because there's a

possibility eventually someday
the powder could fall off

and it would fall off in
chunks and clog your

oil filter possibly and
starve your motor of oil.

Really, later on?

You don't want any powder inside and
you want to take this and... Rain trim it?

Yeah, razor blade.

How am I doing?

Doing great.

So now we've got it all
tightened up, what do we do?

Plug these holes?

Yeah, you want to plug any
threaded hole or any open hole.

You don't want powder
getting into the valve cover area.

Here we want to mask
too with high heat tape.

I'll give you the razor blade, same thing.

You're going to put me
under pressure, aren't you?

So are we all ready?

Yeah.

Let's do it.

Let's do it.

Get it over to the powder coating.

Alright.

Lovely.

The valve cover is hung in a line
with electricity passing through it.

While the powder is given a
positive charge by the g*n I'm using.

So it's drawn to the cover like a magnet.

Then it's cooked at


only turns the powder
into a durable finish,

it also catalyzes the chemical
reaction that creates the wrinkled texture.

Oh, yeah, look at that, that's fantastic.

We've ended up with a
unique part that not only is going

to set the car apart from
all the others out there,

it also gives a nod
to that Italian heritage.

I'm making progress with
our Alfa Romeo Spyder.

Everything under the
car is fresh and tight.

I've also installed a new AC
compressor and a new belt

that runs from the
compressor to the engine shaft.

Once that's hooked up, I can
reinstate the cooling system,

remount the fan and
radiator and rerun the hoses.

Have I got a surprise for you?

You ready? You ready? You ready?

Boom!

Nice!

I like it because
it's got that kind of

Italian flair to it. It's
a bit Ferrari-esque.

It is a bit Ferrari-esque.
I even went for the wrinkled finish on top,

just to add that little
bit of style to it as well.

It's going to look fantastic, isn't it?

Nice, I like it.
I never knew you had a bit of style.

Yeah, see, that's what people want.

What they want when they turn up
to see a car, you open the bonnet,

a little bit of flash underneath, they're
always going to go for it, which is great.

If you carry on...
You're not going to help?

It's only a few bolts,
you'll be done in a minute.

Bruh!

The valve cover looks great, but
Mike also bought a new gasket.

I lay down the gasket
and bolt on the valve cover.

I then replug the leads and reattach
the hose running to the intake manifold.

Don't forget the oil cap.

Now I can button up the air con.

Whenever an air
conditioning system is opened,

it's always best practice
to replace the dryer.

It's a $30 part that's about £22, and
it's the only filter in the whole system.

The dryer contains desiccant, which removes
the water that contaminate the AC system.

Now, in order to charge the air conditioning
system, I need the engine running,

which means I've got to
fill it back up with coolant.

Now, at this stage, you can
take the car to a specialist

and have them recharge the system for you,
but I'm going to do it myself using these

gauges and these
over-the-counter canisters.

These are $20, about £15, plus you get
half back when you take the empty can in.

This screws on here.

I've connected the AC
pressure Gauge to the system,

and the refrigerant itself
runs into the compressor.

Once it's all hooked up, I
start the car and run the AC,

which allows the refrigerant
to cycle through the system.

I'm looking for the Gauge to hit 60 psi,

at which point the
system is fully charged

and ready for testing
once I close the valve.

So, right now, cold air is blowing.

I can feel it. It feels really good.

I want to test it, and I'm going
to use this tiny little thermometer.

And, ideally, I'm looking for
about 40 to 50 degrees Fahrenheit.

That's about 5 to 10 degrees Celsius.

It's dropping slowly.

Getting down to 50.

This is pleasing.

That's bang on.
It's around 45 degrees Fahrenheit.

That's made a real difference
to the sales value of this car.

This is a 30-year-old car, and in
that time it's developed some quirks.

The driver's window is sluggish, which
is a common problem on these Alphas.

And it's likely to be one of two issues.

It's either a mechanical resistance,

something is physically stopping
the glass, slowing it down,

or electrical resistance,
which is a bit trickier.

But I just want to see
exactly how slow it is.

Yeah, that is pretty slow.

If this was my car, that would annoy me.

But, really, there's only one
way to properly investigate it,

and that's to take the door
card off from the inside.

The door card is held
in place by five screws,

including hidden ones on the
door handle and behind the reflector.

Then you just need a
bit of force to unclip it.

Once the card is off, I need to
push aside the protective shroud.

First, I'm going to check the runners,

make sure that there's
no obvious obstruction.

The runners look fine,
but what's really confusing

me is that if I put the
window down, it's quite good.

It's fast for the first few
inches, and then in this

middle piece here, it
really, really labours. Look.

And then it speeds up
again for the last few inches.

Goes down nice and quickly.

Same on the way up, nice and quick.

Struggles in the middle.

And then speeds up again.

My gut's just telling me
this is a mechanical issue.

If it was an electrical issue, it
would be a consistent problem.

I want to see how the window
works when it's just hanging freely.

So I'm going to remove the rear runner.

The runner holds the window in place,

and it unbolts from a bracket at
the bottom of the window mechanism.

I can already see that the
runner has a big bend in it,

right at the point where
the glass was sticking.

I need to straighten this out.

The best way to deal with a
bent runner is to bend it back.

Little tweak. Perfect.

Right, moment of truth. That should...

It's definitely quicker.

More importantly, there's
no delay in the middle.

Nice, consistent.

That's going to change
the driving experience.

But the soft top, it's shocking.

There's no way this is
going to keep the weather out.

Plus, it's going to affect the sale price.

With all this work on this 1987 Alfa
Romeo Spyder, it's starting to take shape.

The driveline's fixed, the AC works,

and I've even had time to take
care of the driver's side window.

Nice, consistent.

Now I have to tackle
the one problem on the

car that you can spot
from 30 metres away.

The hard top on this Alfa's in pretty good
shape, but the soft top, it's shocking.

There's no way this is
going to keep the weather out.

Plus, it's going to affect the sale price.

Now the good news is that the frame,
with a few small repairs, is salvageable.

So while Mike's sorting out a new skin,

I'm going to remove the old one.

As satisfying as it would
be just to start cutting,

there's more to it than that.

First, I need to remove the latches,

along with the cloth handle in the centre.

Then unbolt the header bow from the
side members and remove the forward seal.

There's a bracket holding
the hood to the header bow,

so I need to drill out
the rivet securing it.

Once the bracket is out,

I can finally begin tearing out
the hood's fabric a bit at a time.

It's a satisfying noise.

I can at least pull the hood out

far enough to remove most of the fabric.

Then I unbolt the base of the
hood from the tack rail and it's off.

Now while Mike's getting a new top,

I'm going to tackle some issues on this
frame and the problem area is right here.

This arm's supposed to
be connected to this arm

via a rivet, but the
problem is the rivet's broken.

That's probably the reason
it was so stiff to open.

What I'm going to
do is I'm going to drill

the old rivet out and
replace it with a bolt.

I'm just going to line those two holes up.

I'm not going to use a standard
bolt, I'm going to use this.

It's called a shouldered bolt.

The shoulder part is
where this extra material is.

That's where the frame can pivot as
opposed to binding up against the thread.

Oh, look at that.

That looks fantastic.

Yeah, it moves nice and freely now.

The problem was this little rivet here

and I've drilled it out and
replaced it with a little bolt.

Good one.

Yeah, this is going to
work really, really nicely.

What was the old one like to get off?

Well, part of it fell apart in my hands

and it's a little bit fiddly, but
it's out and it's dead on the floor.

Good.

See, I make things easy for you, don't I?

New one.

New one.

This came with the car.

I've had to go and collect
it off the previous owner.

He forgot to put it in the boot.

Put it up there a second.

All right, well, fitting
this is going to be

a bit of a two-person job,
so I'm going to need a hand.

Yes, let's get stuck in.

Right, just down the
side, there's a little cable.

And this?

Now, just poke it up
through the little eyelet hole.

Yeah.

And run it to the front of the car.

And just slide that over.

Yeah.

And then if we close it...

Ah, see, that pulls it taut.

The next bit is a little bit fiddly because
we have to trap the canvas behind there,

get it through those bolts, which
means punching open these little holes.

All right.

Give it a try, see what it looks like.

Oh, look at that.

Tight as a drum, that
looks fantastic, doesn't it?

Eh?

All you've got to do
now is put the clips on.

You can finish that up, can't you?

Are you bailing?

Yeah, you don't need me to do that.

I've got to get this car
out there on the Internet.

and advertise it, so I've got things to do.

Make sure that you tidy it up inside,

give the carpets a good shampoo,

clean the dashboard, make
sure you detail the engine bay,

give the car a good Polish,

clean the wheels.

Don't forget as well,
it's really important

when I'm advertising
the car, clean windows.

Come on, smile.

You love doing this stuff.

What?

This car just wants to shout
itself towards the horizon.

Look at that.

Absolutely brilliant.

I've almost finished work on our


Mike did arrive in time to
help me put the new hood on,

but he left me to sort
out the finer details.

Typical brewer.

The heat g*n's really
good for getting rid of

all the creases and
imperfections in the hood.

What the heat does is
it softens it, stretches it,

and then add a bit of cold,

and that tightens it all up and
hopefully the creases will go.

That's pretty good.

The last few tucks and
tweaks require a desip

to smooth out the
inside of the new hood.

Now that's the bulk of
this tiny little Alfa done.

This car is mechanically sound,

more responsive, more
reliable, and more comfortable.

And all I've got to do now
is a final bit of detailing,

and then it's down to Mr. Brewer.

The 1987 Alfa Romeo Spyder Quattrofolio

is a raspy Italian convertible
with every option under the sun.

It's top of the tree for spiders.

It's still powered by
the classic Alfa Romeo


by a 5-speed gearbox.

It's a driving experience
you'd be hard-pressed to match,

with a rare hardtop
making it the perfect sports

car for places outside
of sunny California.

I think we've got a real
cracking little car for sale.

The Alfa Romeo costs $7,000.

Rebuilding the driveline costs $700.

New parts, including the AC
compressor, set us back $600.

Powder coating the valve
cover costs another $100.

With 45 man-hours in,
our total cost was $8,400,

or just over £6,000.

A lovely little sports car like
this is begging to be driven,

so Ant and I need to check our work
before handing it over to a new owner.

Damn. I mean, come on.

Damn, look at the car. It looks so good.

Damn, you even cleaned the window.

All right, I get it. We're at a dam.

Yeah, no, what a great
place to come and meet me.

Look at the car. I mean, it always
looked good when I bought it,

but now you've done
what I said, polished it back,

cleaned the windows.
It just looks exceptional.

So why are we here?

Right, well, I know this location's
amazing and the dam's beautiful,

but if you look beyond it, see
that winding mountain road?

Well, it's an Italian sports car.

We're in America, so I
figured that's going to be

the closest we can get
to an Italian winding road.

Fantastic.

Well, that is the perfect location as long
as you've done the big job on this car.

When I bought it, it had
a really sloppy drivetrain.

I need it nice and tight and on the button.

The power needs to be instantaneous.

This car is dialled. This car is on it.

It's tight, and you're going to love it.

Fantastic.

Do you want to get in?

We are in California,
and I know it's winter,

but at the moment, it's kind of warm,
so why don't we get the hard top off?

That's the best thing you've said all day.

Lovely option.
This comes off nice and easy.

Over the back.

Right.

Hit the mountain.

Bellissima!

To the Italian music.

There you go.

It's instantaneous.

It's instantaneous.

I love it.

And it really does pull.

I mean, you can
really feel it pulling that.

I mean, it pulled before.

Engine was good, but now
it's snatching through the gears.

You can really feel that power
getting to the rear wheels.

Instantaneously.

And when you've got a little Italian sports
car like this... That's what you need.

That's what you need.

You've nailed it, son. What did you do?

Right, well, first off, you were right.

There was a problem between
the engine and the axle.

Prop shaft was sloppy as hell.

That middle bearing that holds the prop
shaft in was totally shot to pieces, gone.

So the prop shaft's had a nice rebuild,

and on top of that, there was
also a little bit of play in the diff.

Stripped it down.

I put an extra pair of
little clutches in there.

So now it grips, it bites, it
turns the wheels instantly.

Can you feel it?

I can feel it.

As soon as I match my foot in the throttle,

this car just wants to shout
itself towards the horizon.

Look at that.

Whoa!

Absolutely brilliant.

Shall we put the roof up?

I reckon get the roof up.

This nail's starting to rain quite heavily.

Come on, get it over. That's it.

Look at that.

You see it's now nice and
enclosed and cosy in here.

Plus, you can close it up even further.

I think I can use my newly restored...

Look at that.

It's an electric window. How good is that?

And it goes up nice and smoothly as well.

Well done, Anne.

And of course, now instantly
we've coseted ourself inside.

All of a sudden, the
screen is starting to mist up.

Let's see if your air conditioning works.

Hit the air con.

Oh, look at that. That fast.

That is instant.

It's great that you
managed to do this whole car

with no more than a set of
good standard workshop tools

that anyone can have
in their garage at home.

And let's not be greedy,
let's just sell it for £10,000.

One shot deal won't take up any less.

Ten grand.

$10,000 is around £7,200.

That's a lot of car for £7,000.

For £7,200, I'll have it.

Well done, Anne.
You've made my job so much easier.

Love it.

Now, when I bought this car off Florin,

he advertised it locally.

He made a mistake.

What he should have done
is advertise this car nationally.

Once I got it out there on the Internet,

I had quite a few calls.

But this guy behind me, Mark,

he's the first to beat a path to my door.

He's taking it for a drive.

Let's see what he thinks.

Right, then. I see you under the bonnet.

You like that red crackle
finish on the valve covers?

It's a really nice detail.

It's lovely, isn't it?

Makes it very Italian.

It's a good driving car.

It looks well.

It presents itself incredibly well.

I've advertised it out there for $10,000.

and that's what I was hoping to get for it.

What do you think?

Well, I'm here right now.

$9,000?

$9,000. That's a very generous offer.

I got the cash in my pocket, so...

What do you think?

I just can't do it.

Unfortunately, I've got
this long list of people from

all over the place
that want to buy this

car for $10,000 if you
don't want to buy it.

That's about £7,000.

I know it's strong money
for one of these cars, but this

is a good car and I reckon
it's going to go up in value.

So if you want it, it's
going to be $10,000.

Unfortunately, I can't sell it to you.

What did you say?

Let's do $10,000.

Yes? I'll take your hand.

You just bought yourself
a cracking little Alfa.

Nice.

Enjoyed this car for many years.

Now, when I first found this car,

it was almost
embarrassing to drive it down

the road, but with the
work that Ant's done,

well, we've turned it into
a thing of Italian beauty.

Now, the aim of this car was
to give it international appeal

and I think we've pulled it off because
this car really does suit any environment,

but rather ironically,
we've sold it to Mark,

who lives right here
in sunny California.

So I gather he's going
to ditch this hardtop,

roll back that soft top
and enjoy it on the sunny

Californian roads and you
can't say fairer than that.

If you want to see more iconic cars like
this being turned around by me and Ant,

then join us again soon
on Wheel Of Dealers.

Salut.