Abandoned in 1986, rare sports car finally gets cleaned!

adventure is in my blood finding treasures big or small and having fun is what it's all about with my wife Melissa and our three kids life is pretty full but there is an amount we can't climb together this isn't your ordinary antiques store my name is Alex Archibald and this is curiosity [Music] this car has been sitting in a garage for quite some time in fact how long has it been sitting in someone's garage for well here's a clue their insurance booklet is from Expo 86 it's gonna have stinky gasoline in it well that's probably the least of the cars problems right now it has spare parts in the back I just got it today like today is the day we're gonna have the first look at this car do a walk-around and I'm also going to be doing a complete detail on this car in this video as well but there's one problem it is cold outside it's winter in Canada so I'm gonna have to do a like like a seniors at a seniors Lodge I'm gonna have to give this car a sponge bath in my garage mind you that's not where you'd wash seniors but anyway that's what's happening to this car it's gonna get cleaned off in the garage here and we're gonna try and see what kind of condition the paint is in underneath all this you can see it's kind of dirty and a little bit on the growth side those bumpers don't look so great windshield is really dusty and disgusting but before I get into cleaning the car which will come at some point I have to get all the spare bits and pieces out of the interior and I also have to see what's in the trunk and the glovebox and all the fun stuff make sure there's still an engine under the hood fun times but this will be the project today a 1967 Alfa Romeo Duetto Spyder I'm going to set up a little folding work table in this area here somewhere to sort these parts it looks not so great right now but anything has potential we'll start on packing parts and see what we've got overall the body doesn't look that bad on the car but I can see that it comes with via the times were nice enough to put automatic recycling fender wells those are turning to dust a little bit rusty and crusty somebody has sanded it and put a little bit of paint on there how did we give that some attention at some point I am not planning on repainting this whole car although it is a car that is somewhat valuable when done that's not the intention with this I'm just trying to get it to driver quality well let's start on packing parts and I think I'm gonna start by hauling out these I don't even know they're probably off to some other sort of Alfa not off of this one studded winter tires well if they're driving this car with these studded winters on the back that would explain the rust I can't imagine driving this car year-round but it does have a hardtop so maybe those are aftermarket studded tires somebody was using on this not a great winter car but I guess if that's all you've got why the heck not tires are out of the back and somebody's got a great efforts to wrap a garbage bag around the convertible top which is usually a sign that the top was probably leaking and it had to sit outside for a while I am going to take all that off because it's just gross either way and see what we have to deal with underneath all this now the car did also come with a spare windshield but what it said it looks fine I don't know why there's another way chilled here but I got to get it this guy must have had shares in the aftermarket floor mat business because there's tons of these floor mats that are out of this car none of which look like they're specific to this vehicle sometimes if you leave your car sit long enough it becomes kind of a catch-all for everything I know this for a fact has nothing to do with this car it's off of a Volvo so there's some random bits and pieces probably offer some of his other cars it ended up in here not gonna have a use that must be off of a Volvo 240 that square those are actually a good car you had the rest of the car not a bad vehicle okay well that is the lower plate off the steering column that is for this car and I'm gonna assume all those keys the screws down here belong to that let's get those all together just about got the interior cleaned out other than the glovebox come back around to the side and check this out the back is off or hopefully not broken off at the back is off of this seat makes it a little uncomfortable to sit on but seats aren't in terrible shape really how many miles are on this car 47,000 well the dash is good could be factory oh and look whoever had this car was a Hot Tamale ladies you can imagine this guy's like if the tinder was around back then check out his dating profile that's right ladies I Drive a red Italian sports car he's got his red chili-pepper hanging from the - let's see what's in the glove box somebody's old Kleenex turn the light on so you guys had me gross out about what I'm finding - see that is a retail shelf strip but those are trend pieces odds and sods I have to vacuum but floors look rock-solid that's a good sign driver's floor not too bad either to get the vacuum out and clean that up in there bit more than a bit this appears to be the world's ugliest homemade blanking plate for a radio ever take that out of there I would have thought that somebody who had a chili pepper hanging from the - probably had some kind of thumpin killer's stereo at some point but there's nothing right now but thankfully they didn't cut the the dash out like a big rectangle it does have the original size openings which means if I find an old radio about the right size it'll look appropriate in this car see what is under the hood I can reach in here that I did buy this car sight unseen it was an estate situation what's under the hood does it engine it's already that battery looks like it hasn't been serviced in some time what year 1985 perhaps that registration was from 86 that's probably 85 yeah that's been sitting a while but it has a dual Weber carbs it was not for now actually I don't know if it's stuck or not I'm not gonna plastic fan I'm not gonna try to get a bolt on that just yet put some wheel down the cylinders and let it soak for a while see trying to find the trunk release there it is right there kind of fancy how that pops up all magical like okay well there's the floor mat there's the proper formats for it you can kind of get an idea of what was going on with the car when I got parked by what's in the trunk and I'm seeing a lot of bits including some mechanical parts in here so let's unpack this and see exactly what is inside the trunk it was kind of cool that looks like the tool roll the spark plug ran in here Golden Lodge crazy-looking spark plugs another taillight lens that one's got a bit of a crack to it they must have replaced it with the better one at some point if you mirror what does it have on it oh there's no rearview mirror on it right now not sure where that would have gone I don't see any mounting holes for it unless they if they painted at some point they might have deleted the the mirrors but those should go back on the car my radar down there somewhere easy fix and I'd definitely offer this car it's all for Romeo I'm organizing this in a pile of parts I know or for this car that I'll need and then parts that are probably not like the Volvo taillight and the GM floor mats that are not for this car start putting things in their respective piles so that I know what I'm looking at definitely not a fan of this cheap aftermarket rear view mirror that can go thankful that this never made it on the car this looks like a spoiler for the trunk laid that is exactly what it would do to the looks of this car oh it's boiling extra exhaust manifold don't know if that is from this car but I'll keep it until I'm 100% sure that's and perhaps Dodge it's not for this vehicle it'll go in that not for this car pile there is a grip blow and there's a hole for spare tires but there is no spare tire I guess that's because they had those rims or I vacuum in here and nice surprise again very solid I'm making sure to pick up all of these random screws and nuts and bolts and fasteners if you don't alou's it what surprises me that people don't organize this stuff better when they dismantle a car it's like what do you want me to do with these really you know fancy screws and nuts that are off this taillight assembly i just chuck them in the back and then they get thrown in the back never to be seen again well nearly vacuumed up again I'm gonna collect all these off to sort them out and the little zip locks or something later on but I don't want them to get thrown into the vacuum cleaner [Music] so we go the dismantled seat to try and figure out what's going on with that I think there's two brackets that I have to find somewhere and I'm gonna pull the top off to kind of figure out what's going on with this convertible top and why somebody has spent the time to stick garbage bag all around the bottom of the of the top let's see if we can figure this out ah yes nothing says well-maintained Italian car like a garbage bag for a rear window it may as well just come off I'm gonna take the garbage bag portion off anyway well look somebody has gone and stapled or Franken stitched at the top to a garbage bag hmm this would have taken his cool factor down a notch from being the Hot Tamale Chili Peppers going in from the rearview mirror to when you have a rainstorm you have to explain your date while you're surrounded by a garbage bag I also have to make sure that I can find all the missing pieces that's how the the top panel was taken off maybe they're gonna get it reupholstered at some point but this top has definitely added and I've decided that this top is best off of the car for the time being until we figure out exactly what's going on with this frame I'll keep it in case I need to make a template from it but that top it's way better having it off and that frame doesn't look to be in too bad of condition once I put all the bits and pieces back together found the original jack and the wingnut should be this right here there we go I was hiding in one of those junk boxes well you don't throw out your boxes of junk till you go through everything drop the jack you got the rubber mat which I vacuumed I have to sweep it out and clean it have a tyre trunk is empty [Music] well that was a mad panic I was washing down the floor mats for the Alpha and the thought well I made a little vacuum out my old ambulance I accidentally hit the siren I think I scared the heck out of everybody in this whole car wash I better get out of here don't let that happen again next up we're gonna give this car a bit of a wash I have been working on the interior bit I've got the carpet drawing it was finishing up see this missing the convertible top makes a wonderful drying rack I'd encourage you all to do this to dry your clothes there was some spots on the floor pen where there was surface rust on the pan I've painted that a gloss not sorry semi-gloss black it's gonna draw it's not done drawing yet but I've done both sides there well that is drawing I've decided it is time for me to give this car a bit of a a washer ooh a wash down and what are you doing Canada when it's freezing cold outside it's wintery out there if you don't believe me let me get up to the window and show you this is the scene outside of the garage and all day this little presto heat dish has been going in here and it's actually barely warm warm enough that I can wash the car I'm going to start with a front end where it's kind of crusty and gross I'm going to take off the covers for the headlights get those off and start going over the car with some soap and water [Music] gonna see all that that is years of grease and grit and I'm just using plain old grease cutting dish soap that you get at your grocery store and it is taking a little bit of effort but it is slowly but surely coming off that because I don't want to try power polishing with a bunch of grease and stuff stuck on there clog up my pad make a big mess so I'm just gonna keep going at it with this [Music] [Applause] [Music] one thing I am gonna do omits washing the car I'm gonna pull the spark plugs out and put a little penetrating oil on I'm using PV Blaster I've used this stuff before in it nothing seemed to work better I mean they say diesel fuel will work really well but this stuff worked really really well to free up some stuck piston rings I don't know that there's anything wrong with this engine right now but you know you kind of don't park the car for over 30 years for no reason I don't know what's wrong with it before I attempt to even turn it over I'm gonna try a little this in each of the cylinders and I won't try to turn it over until probably a couple days for now tracks have a chance to soak in once we get this out we'll see what kind of shape that spark plug is in sometimes you can tell the health of an engine from the spark plug like I said I'm worried because the guy that had this car decided a garbage bag would make a good convertible top let's hope he maintained the car better a little bit oily but it's kind of typical looking at the end I think it's oily because somebody's actually spilled oil around the outside there I don't think that's a result from it coming up through the the Rings but I'm gonna put some PB Blaster down that hole and let that soak I have to say though I really haven't done any detailing under the hood and it's pretty clean under here already that is a good sign and I checked the oil it does have oil in it it has an all week doubt and there's no metal filings or anything weird in it so I'm gonna let this sit for about a day but let's have a look and see how the wash improve the look of the car [Music] already looking a whole lot better with freshly washed paint on it we can start to see what imperfections there are in the paint is little specks of debris which will hopefully come off when I polish this is not a perfect paint job you can already see that just by washing it makes a huge improvement on the look of this car now there's still lots of little things that need to be done little specks of the paint some discoloration I don't know exactly how much that's gonna come up with the polish and this is certainly not going to be show-stopping paint job especially considering that there's a little bit of rust on the back but we are gonna clean it up as best we can to kind of do it before and after here and so far even just with the bit of washing that we've done it's looking pretty darn good now that the car is essentially clean I'm gonna be using some Meguiar's ultimate compound that guy right there not sponsored by McGuire's but probably should be as I'm using several of your products today I'm going to be trying this it's meant to take oxidization in the swirls scratches this is your first sort of polish that you do to a car and using my buffer over there and we're gonna try and take it back to a shine I'll do a couple passes of this and then we'll go into some of the panga lazes and waxes hopefully bring this paint is up nice as it can be even though there's some scratches and rust we'll try to bring it up as best we can [Music] you already see how deep the red is getting with a bit of Polish I'm gonna keep going over I'm gonna move over to the hood now and basically you got to do the whole car [Music] this hood is really oxidized I'm gonna have to go at it a couple times you can see how hazy it is and you get to a spot that's got a little bit better polish better shine you can see the reflection of the light it's almost like clouds passing by the Sun I've got to try and make it I mean this better is coming out pretty good but it is taking a little bit more time gonna take probably one more pass with the power polisher and then I'll have to do a hand polish on it after [Music] this is the part I haven't done that's the part I just did see what a difference that makes already with our polisher I've given the car the entire car I passed with the power polisher and there are still spots in the paint which are a little bit hazy or where there were scratches a lot of times people put their stuff on the back of a parked car on the trunk around the hood leaves little marks wasn't able to get all those in but you can see it's a heck of a whole lot shinier I'm gonna go over it by hand now and just give it another coat with that same polish but by hand then I'll get into the real shiny stuff the polish and then the wax [Music] okay fair to say the outside is looking a whole lot better but I haven't done a whole lot on the inside we're gonna put the carpets back in get that tidied up let's move inside for bed [Music] we could definitely tell which carpet was pressure-washed which wasn't all TMI carpet cleaner and do that many stats and pumping back in the car and for original carpets that's still in really good condition [Music] do use definitely looking better than it did before - is all cleaned up I've kept the chili pepper on the dashboard there just because it makes me smile I'm gonna tear under the hood a little bit now that the outside is looking better and the inside is looking more like a car again I'm gonna pull the old battery out I've been letting the oil sit for two days now and we're gonna see if this thing will crank over thankfully for me this car was parked with an empty tank of gas so it's not gonna be drawing any fuel into the engine I'm sure my Weber's are gonna need to be rebuilt we can't see if the car has you know some sort of a spark or some kind of will to live still I'm gonna get this removed put a new battery in and test it out batteries out and well there's some battery acid residue but not rusted a lot of times if you leave a battery in a car like this it'll just rust a giant hole right out by the battery tree thankfully this one's good I do have a battery that I picked up for the rolls that I'm working on don't know if it's gonna fit in there we'll be able to try hey got it in now let's play the game of what works and what doesn't I'm gonna pull the wipers up just in case those turn on I want to scratch up my nice windshield because look at what good condition that windshield in hey let's go hop in hey I've got - lights I've got gauges and this is my key right now even though I have the keys for the car the ignition was broken so they had to pop it out you can see things are trying to turn on see what works horn sounds like an air horn almost okay horn is working let's see No yeah there's a lie pers glad I don't have them sitting on the windshield that works one thing I forgot to do is to check the fuses I'm gonna give them all a bit of a wiggle these European fuses are notorious for getting a little corrosion on the ends and then they don't make contact I can just feel them kind of breaking loose they're from having some corrosion we get around a little bit so hopefully the metal will make contact again and we'll see if we have other things that work like lights you know I've got a signal light I've got a back signal light I did try the other side okay the other side is working that's a good sign okay the big test see if it turns over here we go holy cow she said that actually sounds really good oh yeah this baby's gonna run the engine bay actually wasn't that bad to begin with it was already pretty clean and there's certainly a lot more detailing I can do this was just a cursory clean up and polish getting some of the extra grime and stuff off the inside of the motor that will come at a later date you can see the last person had new spark plug wires on there and from what I can tell this car is going to be a driver very very quickly let's put the hood down lines here well yeah it's nice and shiny kind of cleaned up around the headlight so I got the covers back on now and that looks so different than it did just a day or two ago it always feels so much better to have a good clean car this one was pretty forlorn inside the truck everything is cleared out of there have the jack we're supposed to go right there and the tool roll that's all tidied up and all those extra parts are in the trunk I will throw in a bin because well bin is in literally a plastic bin I'm not gonna throw them out because I don't know if I'm gonna need them or not yet but trunk is looking good and look at that paint shine a little bit of a light on there so you guys can see a little bit better but that really came up nicely it's a nice deep gloss red and I got most of the scratches imperfections out while I was polishing and I was kind of having to work a few spots more than others to get some scratches out but it looks a lot better I put the top down or the top frame down so we could get that interior more in view well did not polish the hardtop yet I will probably put that back on the car after and you know I'm just kind of taking it all in being a proper convertible right now let me stand back and have a good look at her [Music] well that's it and I'm pretty sure this little alpha is gonna be back on the road in no time but thanks for watching this episode subscribe if you haven't already we're gonna follow up with doing a video trying to get this car running at some point in the near future here if you have a checked out our channel we do all kinds of fun stuff antiques and old cars and who knows what okay so subscribe you can check us out on instagram under curiosity inc yeg in the facebook as well but I think this one turned out pretty good thanks for watching guys and have a great day bye for now [Music] you

Channel: Curiosity Incorporated

Views: 201,233

Rating: 4.9056282 out of 5

Keywords: iMovie, Alfa romeo, barn find, hoarders, junkyard, detailing a junkyard car, overhaulin, restoration, polishing a car, duetto, curiosity inc, american pickers, discovery channel, tlc, full episode, pottera house

Id: p4bpU9CCPIo

Length: 32min 29sec (1949 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 01 2020