Giulia Spider 1962. Norwegian re-restoration.

[ESjaavik]

Those pictures are fine Gordon. It seems the underpan just clears the swaybar. Which is also how I believed it to be.

And thanks Pat! I got the picture and it's fine. The best I have so far.

Today I went hunting for the Sky Blue color that the car was supposed to have from the factory. Armed with a newly calibrated Minolta CR-200b Chroma Meter I found readings to be very consistent on those places where blue could be found. The meter says it is 22.78 / - 0.23 / -5.2 on the Lab scale (D65). 22.78 means it's very dark. -0.23 means it's neither green nor magenta. -5.2 means it's slightly blue, not yellow. The most interesting here is that it's not very blue, rather a dark grey with a hint of blue.

You can check it out here: The Coloring Pages: Java applet for L*a*b* graphic display and conversions. But of course since our screens are not calibrated it will just give a hint. Actually on the car it looks a very dark blue.

Armed with these numbers I expect the color cooks to brew something that should look Sky Blue to anyone with good memory of old Alfa colors. ;-)

Another interesting observation is that the readings taken from under the right door hinge and behind the side cover behind the door (protected from the sun) were the same as the one found after carefully removing the red color and grey filler from around the instrument cluster. The differences being no more that between several reading in the same place. (Numbers above are the mean values of many readings). I take it as proof that the color found is fairly correct. All places were thoroughly cleaned with Autoglym cleaner before measuring.

I hope this ranting is of interest to some.

[AlfistiSA]

Hello Einar

The colour you are looking for is Celeste AR 301, also known as Sky Blue, both of our '60 Spiders were originally this colour.

I've got lots of pictures of 'Baby Blue" Giulietta's, the colour is quite deceptive as it changes from dark to light depending on the sunlight and what camera is used.

I've sent you pictures via email

Ciao
Greig

[ESjaavik]

Finally I call it winter and start working on the car again.

One of the nose pieces I made was welded in yesterday and today I bumped the weld seam straight. It came out good, actually better than the pictures suggests. But that is as usual since it's not filed down. That will not be possible since there are fairly deep scratches from previous work. No problem though, as long as the bondo can be kept in its box where it belongs.

The piece over the headlight is just held on by ViseGrips since there are a couple of thigs to take care of. When folding down the edge I had only the non-original headlight rim as a pattern. It may not have the correct outer diameter. But I have one original here, just have to remember to bring it to the workshop and it will be easy to do any correction. Also there is a bit too much curve in it about where it meets the original panel. This is not difficult to correct either, but a bit time consuming (and noisy).

[ESjaavik]

Then that part is welded in place and looking good.

I was hoping to get patterns made for the lower front corner during the holidays. But we've had the longest cold period in years here. Down to below -20 Centigrade for almost 2 weeks. And in that cold weather it's not possible to do a tape pattern on a car residing in an uninsulated garage. And the only one I can get access to for that purpose is in such a place.

I will not try a new year promise of getting a lot more work into the car this year. But welding in that bit was done in the last day of 2009, so hopefully it will be a good sign of time to come.

May you all have a Happy New Year.

[ESjaavik]

Since I'm stalled on getting a pattern for the front, focus have turned to the trunk floor instead. A pattern is taken from the gaping hole that is there now. I want to make a pattern that will do a trunk floor as exact as possible to original. Then the width is one important measure. If it's not correct it will either not fit or worse it will pull the side of the car out of shape behind the wheel arch. Could someone with an original and straight trunk floor pull a measurement for me?

What I want is the distance from the inner side of the rear fender to the other side at the widest point. That is just behind the wheel tub. I don't know if the original floor have the flange going up or down. If it goes up, I need the measure to be just above the flange. That means the measure will be from the outside of the flange. Otherwise my pattern will come out a bit more than 2 metal thicknesses too small. Also tell me which way the flange should go. Mine was welded all around so I really don't know.

The easiest way to do it is to use 2 rulers each less than 135cm (53") long. Lay them on the trunk floor with the end of each pushed against the mentioned points. Make sure they are parallel and pick a point where the readings on the 2 rulers are added. It should come out close to 139cm (54 3/4").

I made a die set for the Pullmax [1] to make the beads in the trunk floor. It looks a bit odd that the beads face up and not down. Please correct me if this is wrong, but mine does look like it's the original one, rust and all. Doing a couple of test runs it came as a surprise that it could be made quite flat. Usually putting beads in that does not go all the way across the sheet will make it anyting but flat. The metal that is formed up in a bead will need to be stretched, or the metal between the beads must be shrunk. But it seems the Pullmax is pretty violent in forming the bead so it stretches the metal. It will be interesting to see if that also happens with the full size floor. If not, I have a plan B.

What's a Pullmax? some may ask. This handy little tool is a Pullmax.

[Gordon Raymond]

Twenty five (25!) photos e-mailed for your inspection Einar. Enjoy!

[user459]

The original floor, at least in my '65 Spider, was not flanged, but sandwiched between the fender piece and the lower valance. The trunk floor panel is the meat in the sanwich between flanges on the fender and valance that, together, make the ridge that the welting strip goes on behind the bumper.

We had no success with a bead roller, though we did not have such an excellent machine as you! We ended up stretching the metal where the beads are and using a Yoder hammer and die to form them. Yes, they do face upwards and are more "Twinkie" shaped than semi-circular. The top is rounded, but the sides and angled.

Pictures and story at http://alfamagic.shutterfly.com/trunkfloor

Keep us posted on your progress. You are an inspiration to us.

[ESjaavik]

@Gordon: Thak you! I'll check my email.

@Terry: Yours look very good! And so it should. If Fay Butler could not do it I would be seriously worried! I know stretching is the key. But it seems the Pullmax will do that. The dies I made now did not stretch much and did make a "regular" bead. So this evening I modified the top die to be like a chisel with a rounded edge. That made it stretch and also do the shape you're talking about, rounded top and bottom but almost straight sides.

My plan B was also tried out. That is to run the bead straight across the sheet and shrink it back down where it is supposed to be flat. It works fine using heat and patience. But if plan A works i feel it is less "cheating".

[Gordon Raymond]

Don't you love this stuff?