11.24.2002-Beginning the clean upI headed out to the garage this morning refreshed and ready to tackle the work of the new day. When I turned off the lights in the garage last night I left a pretty big mess. It had taken a lot out of me getting the engine and gearbox out in one day and I was very dirty, greasy, and more than a little sore. I went to great lengths to keep myself, my tools, and my garage clean during engine removal but it's still dirty work and no matter how hard you try, you're going to end up needing a shower. I like to wear latex surgical gloves on my hands for a lot of this work. It prevents grease from being embedded in your skin and under your fingernails. After years of scrubbing in vain to get grease out of my skin after working in the garage it's quite nice to peel off the disposable gloves to hands that need almost no washing at all. Of course there's no way to prevent grease from getting in your ears, eyes and hair, but at least your hands are clean. I got out of my dirty overalls, cracked myself a beer and soaked a while in the hot tub, reflecting on the sense of accomplishment. It felt good to have the engine out and I was looking forward to beginning the cleaning process. The engine, gearbox and engine bay are very dirty and I was looking forward to cleaning them all thoroughly. My goals for the day were to get the car back down on its wheels so I could roll her out of the shop and down to my storage area so Chela could get her Z3 back in the garage. It gets pretty wet here in the winter, and there are lots of trees constantly dropping leaves and needles. We try to keep the cars out of that as much as possible, but sometimes we just don't have enough room. The Alfa body needs to be stripped completely, but first I need to get what I've already removed cleaned, dismantled and stored. I also needed to clean the garage floor as it was pretty dirty. I'll again plug Griot's Garage Floor Paint for its excellent performance. When we bought the house the first thing I did, despite my nearly uncontrollable desire to set up shop immediately was to clean the concrete floor thoroughly and to paint it. It's been one of the best things I've ever done for my shop. The floor reflects light, is easy to clean, and best of all it looks great. Before I could roll the Alfa out of the shop I still needed to remove the brake pads from the calipers. They were so solidly frozen/rusted to the rotors that the car was nearly impossible to push. I had a hard time getting them out, but some pliers, a hammer, and a punch helped the process along. With the pads out the car was rollable, and I put the wheels back on and set her back down on the floor. I backed her out of the garage and tucked her safely in her spot and covered her up. Back in to the garage I mopped and cleaned the floor thoroughly before lunch. After lunch I went back to my now clean garage and had a look at the gearbox and engine. Both were dirty, the gearbox was exceptionally so. Second to the floor paint, my Snap-On Solvent tank is the best thing in my garage. I was very lucky in finding it at a going out of business sale at a local auto shop one day and the trouble I went to in getting it set up pays huge dividends when it comes time to clean parts. It's big enough to put an entire gearbox in and holds enough Stoddard Solvent that I can run it for hours withouth any problems. I turned it on and started cleaning the gearbox. I've never seen so much dirt and grease on an automotive component in my life. After an hour or so of scrubbing I had nearly all of the gearbox clean. I spent some time cleaning the flywheel cover and some of the brackets that are bolted to the bottom of the car too. They'll get bead blasted and then powder coated black before they get installed again. Switching gears for a while I moved over to the engine. I was really looking forward to getting it apart as I wanted to see what was the cause of the knocking noise it was making. I suspect a con-rod bearing but of course you never know. I removed the flywheel, intake manifold, engine mounts and valve cover. The dirty pieces got put in the solvent tank for their cleaning session. I was just cleaning myself up when the dogs came out to ask me if I would mind taking them to the school to play some ball. It seemed like a good time to quit, so I put down my tools, moved the Z3 back in to the garage and said goodnight. Tomorrow night I hope to get the head off the engine and get it cleaned up. Thanksgiving is coming and we're off on vacation for a week so I won't be able to work on her for a while. There's certainly plenty of work ahead but so far things are looking good! Ciao! TJ |
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