Preventative maintenance on Alfetta GTV Chassis

[Cintos]

Greetings:

With all the great threads here on how to return a heavily rusted car to structural integrity, I just thought I'd attempt to motivate others to get ahead of the cancer with some preventative maintenance. My 1976 Alfetta GTV is relatively rust free. but I have found looming problems. Lift the floor rugs and attend to the floor, and remove the splash shields at the rear of the front wheel wells and tidy things up.

On both front floor sections I found some surface rust, but thankfully no perforations.. After removing as much as possible with 3" surface-prep 3M pads on an air grinder, I coated it with a rust converter product. That surface was then covered with a good chassis paint. Body holes that are sealed with the rubber caps are treated and the caps are re-inserted with the addition of some silicone sealant. Then a thin butyl/foil barrier was applied, which aggressively bonds to the floor. Finally, a heavy sound deadening and moisture barrier sheet is applied.

In this post I have added a few photos of the process. Note that on the driver's side there is a 2nd body hole slightly up on the firewall. The rubber plug here was slightly dislodged and I assume it was the source of the moisture entering the footwell. That, along with the failed door seals, which was the sole contributor on the passenger's side.

None of this requires advanced degrees or equipment, but having a few days to let each application set up is helpful.

[Cintos]

Greetings:

Now, let's remove the splash shields at the rear of the front wheel wells and see what we find.

The splash shields at the rear of the front wheel wells had been previously repaired, as was the lower fender area on both sides. Water and debris is thrown against this area by the front wheels, and it is imperative that that does not drive agents into the cavity. Critical to that attaining that goal is having a good seal between the shield and the fender, which in practice is hard to attain.

After removing the shields I found that the PO had applied some heavy blobs of putty between the chassis and the outer fender in attempt to keep the water away. Unfortunately, this stuff simply shrunk, separated from the metal, and became a water trap in itself.

The rubber gasket attached to the shield left a 1/4" gap over its range, allowing much water, dirt and leaves (mostly pine from the great north west, it seems) in the cavity. To address that, I added a 1/2" extension to the shield along the fender line.

The areas were cleaned out, surface rust sealed with rust-converter, covered with chassis paint, and the entire cavity sprayed with cavity wax for good measure.

After applying the shield, I further sealed the lower area with 3M Strip Calk, which is amazingly flexible, yet clings and molds beautifully. Wear vinyl gloves!!! Everything gets a coat of rubberized undercoating to seal the deal. While I spot-welded on the shield extension, that could be accomplished with pop rivets. So all this can be done over a weekend without requiring advanced degrees or equipment.

Get out there and save our Alfettas!

Photos, starting with the "gap":

[Cintos]

Here are more photos from the splash shield preventative maintenance.

For rubber refurbishment, as in the case of the splash shield / fender seal here, I apply an rather exotic liquid "Rubber Renue" manufactured by MG Chemicals. Again, use chemical-proof gloves! A bit hard to find. I buy mine at "DYI Electronics" in the Boston area. It's primary job there is to restore the suppleness of rubber capstan surfaces. I applied that to the round body-hole seals in the floor pans, btw.

The surfaces I spot welded together were prepped with weld-thru primer and sealed after assembly. Normally overlapped welds is not best practice, but this is not a structural area and hardly worthy of butt welding. Same should go if you pop rivets were used.

First photo here shows the collection of debris found behind the driver's side shield, an the second one shows the ugly caulk masses that were extracted.

- Michael

[azzaob]

Hi Michael

Thanks for those pics and the very straight-forward descriptions of what you are doing. Looks very nice and its quite helpful to see exactly what is behind those panels on the GTV.

Regards, Aaron

[Cintos]

Quote:

Originally Posted by azzaob ..its quite helpful to see exactly what is behind those panels on the GTV. Regards, Aaron

[racingswim2006]

Nicely done. Excellent resource.