What do you do? The Alfa Romeo 75 Twinspark - a car that was beyond your teenage dreams back in 1989 and which you are now carefully, lovingly, restoring to former glory has a part that’s no longer available (NLA) and is no longer serviceable.

This was the dilemma that Fabriworks sorted for one Alfa fan.

The Alfa 8v Twinspark motor was the first production engine to enjoy variable valve timing. The solenoid actuator screws into a threaded mount which has a rubber insulator to keep the worst of the vibrations at bay. The rubber insulator also attaches to the mounting plate and acts as part of the gasket for the valve cover. As you can clearly see from the pictures, our version was badly damaged and no longer serviceable.

First, the original and heavily deteriorated part was examined, measured and cleaned.

Then, a Solidworks CAD version was created making sure that the original design intent was kept unchanged while also ensuring the chamfer angles and overhangs were compatible with 3d printing.

A TPU (thermoplastic polyurethane) material with a 70 Shore-A hardness and a high heat deflection temperature was selected for its high chemical resistance, as well as its wear qualities and great elastic properties which we judged to be similar to the original part.

Once the file was sliced and prepared for printing, the printer was fired up and the first prototype was ready about 40 minutes later. We printed this on one of our Raise3D N2+ machines which we have modified slightly for outstanding results with flexible materials.

After a small tweak to the CAD file (the angle of the gasket flange was altered slightly) the file went back on the printer for a final version.

Finally, the metal parts were prepped and re-assembled with the new, printed, insulator with some high-temperature silicone-based adhesive.

Don’t hesitate to get in touch if you need any classic car parts remanufactured.