Giulia Spider 1962. Norwegian re-restoration.

[ESjaavik]

Hi!

My name is Einar. I'm located 20Km south of Oslo, the capitol of Norway.

Here are some pictures of my Spider from 2 years back when I just bought it:

[ESjaavik]

This winter I took it into the warm and cosy workshop to begin restoring it to it's former glory. It's been "restored" before by someone that were in somewhat of a hurry. One thing that alerted me something was not quite OK was that the trunk lid was heavy as a Chevy of the same age! And I found the reason: lots of bondo, the rust was still there just with a new skin on top. Oh well... anyway he saved the car from the crusher. At least that's some comfort when finding such half-azzed work.

This is how the trunk frame looks:




As I could not find a new bootlid anywhere I made new pieces to weld in replacing the rotten areas.




Here the first part is welded in:

[ESjaavik]

Then I welded in the left front corner and tack welded the front edge. There was rust all around the edges of the bootlid going further in at the corners and a lot further at the rear edge.





This work does take some time as I don't like bondo and would like to stay away from using it.

In the last picture you can see how I do it. The part is first tacked on. Then if filler rod is used during welding (sloppy fit) it needs to be ground so it does not stand much proud. And so the tacks and HAZ (Heat Affected Zone = blue) are hammered until the shrink caused by welding is stretched back out. This is not easy until you learn to read what the panel tries to tell you with it's buckles and "oil-cans".

Then the lid is offered up to the trunk opening to check the fit. In this case that was OK on first try.

After this the weld is finished between the tacks and the shrink is hammered out of it again. Finally it will be planished, but I'll leave that until all the patches are in. If you look carefully at the last picture you can see the weld seam of the front left corner in the light of the lamp. And it's pretty close. No bondo should be within reach.

[ESjaavik]

My next dilemma is how to shape the rear lip. If I keep it horizontal the gap will be quite large at the rear. If I go for minimum gap it must be bent quite sharply and create a "gutter" along the lower edge. Can you say "rust trap"?

I'd like to know how they were originally. The best picture I could find is from Gordon Raymond in Pathung's excellent thread. Let's see if I can steal the link:



This should be a link to the place where I stole it from:
'63 Giulia Spider Normale Restoration (Euro)

It seems from this that space is left for the lip to slope down slightly. Can someone with an unrestored car tell me how it was originally?

[Gordon Raymond]

Great job ESjaavik! I cannot imagine forming that, you have an excellent eye! Should you need any other photos of any hidden areas, send me a PM with your E-Mail address and I will get you all the pictures you need! Keep your pictures coming. It does help those that wonder if great work as you have done, is really possible!
Gordon Raymond

[lgbalfa]

looks great.

looking forward to seeing more photos!

[Peter]

very impressive work!!

[john.harrill]

Outstanding work!
That kind of attention to detail is rare these days.

[ESjaavik]

Then the rear right corner is in. First checking the shape before welding. The strange bits in the picture are hard disk magnets. They are very strong and nice for this purpose. But I do not use them while welding! Magnets makes it nearly impossible to control the (TIG) arc as the magnetism pulls it all over the place.


And here it's in place and straightened. Final shaping and planishing will be done when all the parts are in place as the next part welded in will impart some shrink in the part it's welded onto. But the shape must be very close to correct, or the final straightening will be time consuming. Stretching part of a panel is quick and easy, but shrinking is time consuming if it's not along the edge.


The gap between bootlid and opening came out as I wanted: somewhat better that it was. Making the lid follow the exact shape of the opening will be fairly easy. It's just a matter of adjusting the lip using a shrinker/stretcher. Assuming of course that it's close to start with.

[Subtle]

Amazing metal work. + + +

[soccersimon]

damn! I find it challenging to change the oil! amazing work

[ESjaavik]

Thanks guys! I'm doing my best. And it's actually quite fun doing it.

I just think I found out why the front of my car does not look right. I thought maybe the PO put in some non-original parts and/or sculpted it from bondo.

But having looked at a lot of pictures here on AlfaBB I think the fault is just that the front bumpers are mounted too low! That explains why the stance of the car and the front view does not look right. I'll try to lift them so the top is level with the bottom of the side openings of the grille. That seems to be the right height.

Any opinions on this?

[Gordon Raymond]

Einar,
Here's some more photo's that may help. The top edge of the bumpers are very close to the same height as the air intake opening. They are adjusted to appear level. Did you get the other photo's in my E-mail? Gordon Raymond

[ESjaavik]

Thanks a lot Gordon!

Yes, I did get your pictures. Very helpful they were too.

I just sent you an email, but hten the forum was down. I checked in again, and now it's up.

Yes, it is obvious that the fault is my front bumpers are too low!
I need to move the support tubes up, and make a cutout in the front panel to fit the corrected height. I will not post pictures of the measurements I made, as they are not correct. And for those (hopefully) benefiting from the photos in this thread, they will not if what they see is wrong.

The pictures in your post also shows my bumper have too much distance from the front panel. I also suspected that.

This is nothing short of amazing, having the refernce car almost half a world away!

After helping out putting up a video projector and screen in the relaxation dept. of our workshop I still got some real work done:


Yes, our workshop is a "dream garage" if I may say so. It just lacks a real amplifier/speaker system before we can start dreaming out the next gadget.

[pathung]

Einar, how in the world did your bumper supports drop so low?! The supports extend and is welded to the chassis; unless someone did some re-welding, these couldn't have moved on their own!