Well, lets do this again!

[alfie1750]

Daron,

I've only just found your thread + the one for the '67. Looks like we have some shared experiences. Here's some before, during & after pics of my 1750. I remember well the pain and agony of unzipping the rocker/sill panel and watching a ton of rust drop out and discovering the bottom of the A, B & C pillars were thin air. The car had had a front end smack at sometime and had been repaired in the frankenstein/agricultural way your clients blue car looked

I was lucky enough to be able to fly in a mates panel beater buddy from England for a 'busman's' holiday to do all the serious stuff in an eight day slog on my drive way.

I sourced all the panels from Kevin at EB Spares in the U.K. They shipped and arrived in Seattle in 4 days. Richard at Classic Alfa in Dulwich is just as responsive. The exchange rate isn't in our favor, but these guys seem to have panels that you just can't source here in the U.S.

Give me a call, the number's in Iniezione, if you want to look at some more of these for reference.

Dave K
"Alfie" '69 GTV
NWARC, Kenmore, WA

[akitaman]

I think we've reached stable steel on the front end of this project. The plan was to finish it today but I need a few tools that I didn't bring home this weekend. So, here's where we are.

parts of this section were cut off so I can't use it as a template. but it need to come out so I can fab in all three sides of it. The outer, middle(bottom) and the inner sides.



Once it was out you can see how all three sections tie together. See where my thumb is, this should be curved and about another 5 inches (125 mm)longer. That would be where the sway bar mounts.



It should kind of look like this. This is from the bottom.



And this is from the top.



The edges still needed to be bent. But this must be very accurate fit so we don't have moisture trapped here in the future. This is where the bends should be. Putting an inside curved bend to steel like this is not easy. If you try it be patient with it.

Bottom:


Top:


I had to remove the upper "A" arm as to get more of the rust out.

Before:


After:


At this point the car is on jack stands and the rotisserie, because I have removed a lot of structural steel and the body can shift and throw a lot of the measurements off.

To make this look factory I will be using my resistance welder (a.k.a spot welder) and my mig.



Thanks for looking!

[akitaman]

So I went and did a little more work on the area. Of the inside there is three sections of metal that had to be tide together. Not including the under-center section.

Here I made the first piece (of three) that gets tide to the under-center.


Most important tool in this section is that beer in the back ground!


A good spot welder is worth it's weight in gold.


Here, I'm double checking the fitting of the newly bonded piece.


The old control arm cover plate will be reused. The third piece is a transitional piece between the cover and the new vertical section. Once I repair the upper control arm mount (due to rust) I'll welded all the inside pieces in place. When it's done you'll never know it was repaired.

[81gtv6]

Oh so beautiful work.

[akitaman]

Thanks Jacob, that's very kind of you to say.

[akitaman]

At this point, I'm still in mock up mode, but what you see is welded together. It's not welded to the car yet, but we are getting closer.

[endel]

I am just simply amazed when I see this kind of work being done. I really appreciate all the time you are taking to photograph all the progress. Keep up the great work.

[akitaman]

Hi endel, you know it's funny, when I graduated from college (many years ago). I knew, I was not going to do building mechanical design work for long. That worked to pay the bills, but I was going crazy. When I was home I was in the garage working on painting and metal fab'ing skills. I went back to college to get the fundamentals down to a science. I'm saying all this because, I believe anybody could do this stuff, it just take the passion for it. It makes me happy to know others appreciate it as well. Thanks for the kind words.

[arvorio 105]

G'day Akitaman,


Ditto Endels sentiments. I've seen many shots of resto work in UK classic car mags. where they often replace the lower 8 inches of every panel but of course you guys in the frosty parts of the US have exactly the same problems

Here in Australia we're really fortunate that the only corrosion our cars suffer from (apart from old age) is as a result of Alfa's dubious choice of steel supplier in the 60's, 70's and 80's. Even so, I've seen a few examples where one side of the car is sound and the other side has a hole in every panel The joke then used to be "well that depended on which way the salt spray was blowing when it came over as deck cargo" Hmmmmmm.

So again, keep up the amazing work and thanks for your always polite and attentive posts, they make a great read.

P.S. Does your user name hint at a four legged member of your family?

[akitaman]

Love your Avatar arvorio. I've had/have Alfa's from the dry Arizona desert, mild California weather and from very wet Seattle, Washington. The rust from Arizona was worst then Seattle cars? Go figure? The two from California were rust free, and it rains pretty good there. And in those cars neither were ever garaged. I did read something on the issue of levels of rust in these cars.
An Alfa management team went to Russia (the steel provider) to find out why sometimes the rust would be so heavy before the car even left the factory. And at other times it seemed almost bullet proof. It turned out that sometimes the steel would get treated for protection, and sometimes it would not. In either case the factory knew the condition of the steel and shipped it. When the steel didn't get treated it was because, as things were in Russia, there was a shortage on the etching solution. The steel used for military products had priority. The rest would get sent to the standard steel manufactures. I almost challenge this because, when I was in the Army, my troops and I captured an Iraqi tank squad (first gulf war) of three tanks. We had the tanks loaded on a couple of trucks to ship back to the states and in all three cases these tanks had lots of rust. I dare say a 50 cal. machine gun could have turned it to swiss cheese.

And you are correct, my wife and I rescue Akita's from bad situations and the name came from that. Hope to here from you again!

[VeloceOne]

Hi Akitaman,
Do quite enjoy this thread. I am in the process of replacing a small amount of metal at the bottom of the rear quarters on my old Maserati, and at the present time to not want to get into a full paint job. (other work to do in future) Can you suggest a coating or etch that I could brush on to hold the metal in the meantime? (am using coated steel, but need to hold the weld area)
TIA Regards Ian

[akitaman]

Go to a auto parts store and get a rattle can of etch primer and a rattle can of what ever color is close to your cars color. Lightly sand the damaged area plus 6 inches in all directions away from the damaged area. 180 grit on the damaged and 400 grit on the painted areas. shoot the etch primer on the damaged area only, it doesn't stick to paint very well. Shoot two good coats of the etch primer and let it set for a few days.......yes days. Next, lightly scuff the primer and shoot one more coat. Allow it to flash out for 30 minutes. After that, apply a few good coats of color. The first coat just over the primed area only. The next coat over the primer and an inch or two pasted the first coat. The third and final coat repeat the last step and another inch or two past the last. It won't look pretty but it should hold for a while.

Good luck with the task.

[VeloceOne]

Hi Akitaman,
Many thanks for the excellent reply, will do as you suggest.
Regards Ian.

[akitaman]

Okay key point to be made here. The area around the shock tower is doubled up steel. So just replacing the outer skin would not be providing the customer a good service. Another point, steel in this country has tripled in cost over the last five years. Due to the economic boom in china. I say this because anytime something goes up in cost there will be someone cutting corners in repair. This is a structural area, corner cutting is not an option. The inner plate is cut from 18Ga high straight steel$$$. The outer sheet metal is 22ga. in-fact just about all the steel used so far is 22ga. It's thicker then original but better in the long run.


And here it is again with the inner parts in place to check clearance.


And here we have the outer stock in place. Again it's just a ruff in at this point.


Thanks for looking!

[endel]

22 ga. sounds a little thin. 16 ga. is about .062" thick, or about 1/16". 20 ga. is very common and I can't see using 22 ga. being sufficient. BUT, as has been proven once before... I can be wrong. :-)