The idea and the start

My daily/weekend racer bored me, it's fuel consumption wasn't great at all, and day by day I was thinking to get new daily. It had to be cheap cause:

• daily beaters are popular these days
• don't have money to buy something not broken

Friend of mine accidentally showed me this Alfa, made inception and overnight I made my mind to get it. Not the least, hands were itchy to get to work on car, cause it was a while I worked on last project.

Its 2004 Alfa Romeo 147 1.9JTD diesel, 85KW, manual transmission.

It had been through hard times:

• accident on front drivers side
• clutch gone
• gearbox broken cause of idiots driving without clutch

It's price was very cheap 260euros, engine alone costs something like that, engine seemed fine, which is basis for my decision, so I got into this gamble. Which is to make this absurd cheap Alfa drive good for under 500euros in total. 500euros challenge if you will.

My thinking was to fix this car as cheap as possible and have italian looks daily beater with good fuel economy and relaxed ride.

I do every job myself, maybe with some good friend help ;) I don't count my time, don't transfer into money, just record it and other expenses in this post.

Bumper, bonnet I will reuse, I don't expect it to look as new cause zero f.. and cause what I need from this car.

Gearbox is out already.

Broken gears on the left (3-5 I believe), OK gears (1-2) on the right.

Pressure plate f..ed up, probably bearing got stuck. EDIT: nope it's not a bearing, it's usual stuff of this design pleasure plates. Cause of friction surface design, those plate tips break off after they become too thin to compensate wider section strength.

Gear fork lost plastique covering, cleaner metal area, shiny area shouldn't be there in the first place, it's was just scrubbing into gear switch ring.

 And here comes plastique particles from the fork.

Clutch is also done.

Because of accident inter-cooler has a hole, inter-cooler hose has a hole, inter-cooler duct is broken. Getting all these parts from other vehicle for 100euros, which is what I want to spend to get car running. Next would come time for bumper, bonnet fix and underneath support metal linkage.

All this I am planning to fix with zero f.. methodology at home, using straps and thick tree, maybe some cutting and welding. Anyhow exited to see how this gamble will turn out.