AFrench Blue '69 GTV Restoration

[1750GT]

..end result is on the left ...on the right the original...



Always take a lot of pictures.......for the left side rad panel I only have this photo below showing the but weld I did with the MIG. The donor piece had a good top end but a rusted out bottom half...the original lower piece had surface rust on the lower edge but it's upper end was mangled....I cut the two pieces in half and voila! I derusted them with a drill mounted wire wheel ....and etch primered them.




...next the welding...

[1750GT]

...I repositioned the old angle and used the aluminum bar stock for the former as a locator. I positioned and clamped the new angle to the panel....flipped it over......



...marked the hole locations on the angle......paint was removed down to bare metal in these areas in preparation for MIG welding.

[1750GT]

...I've found that plug welding in the 3/8 holes works out nicely...especially when working horizontally. The photo on the right shows the backside penetraion.



...all welds completed.....



...cleaned and primed...and ready to install.



...more forming and welding to come...

[mfroble]

Very nice mate, good stuff

[gprocket]

Bump! Any progress you can share with us?

[braino]

What a great thread. I'm really impressed with the quality of work fellow restorers are doing - it's really encouraging. I'm just waiting to get into a new shop and plan on getting into welding - and between akitaman's posts, and these I'm already getting a feel for it.

Looking forward to more posts.

cheers,
Braino

[1750GT]

....up date time?...you may recall that I obtained from parts car a replacement front diaphragm panel only to find out later that there was more rust on it than I had hoped. As a result I had to disassemble the entire assembly, cut out the rusty bits and fabricate new ones as well. This is the upper cross piece that was made from a former that I fab'd up.




..I formed the Z section first..clamped the former to the lower flange and formed a return flange and lip on the bottom edge..


...former made similair to the other one I posted previously....this time I attached a flat aluminum piece to the square section using countersunk screws....aluminum is real easy to work with and this took no time at all...

[1750GT]

..the side pieces derusted , solvent cleaned, and etch primered...



...I positioned the replacement hood in it's opening and made sure that I had even gaps all around. I bolted the the side pieces to the hinges and clamped all these pieces down to the forward flanges of the inner fenders. I opened and closed the hood a few times and checked the contours with the fenders and the windscreen valence before tacking these pieces in place. From what I could tell, this hood came off of a car that received at least 2 previous paint jobs...the last being the red (of course) and a dripping ocra before that...

[GTD]

RE: dripping ocra (Ochre/Ochra) paint

If you can't spray it smooth, spray it thick!

[1750GT]

...with the upper cross member now in I was finally able to put the lower cross member back in. The previous repair done to the car left out the rear lower closing member (black piece in pic below).....this is not quite the correct piece for a 69 GTV but was the only style that was available on the market (I believe it's a series 2 style...distinguished by the 45 deg angle at the aft rear corner). The forward lower piece was the original one that I derusted, etch primered and sprayed with some blue enamel (I was experimenting with the rattle can paint). All pieces are shown clamped up and ready to MIG.



Next I located the side rad closure pieces and welded them in....things were moving along pretty quickly at this point since most the checking, locating, measuring and gapping was completed.



The horn brackets and forward brake booster support brackets were re-welded back in. The only thing missing at this stage is the battery shelf (I'll have to see if AKITAMAN can fab one up for me).



Overall I was very happy with this stage of the work completed seeing straight panels pieces and knowing that there is no rust whatsoever on the front of the car now.



Next I will be removing and replacing the right front quarter panel or wing (I was not happy with the repair work that was done on it by the PO).

[PSk]

Good stuff. The upper cross member piece with the angled face like the one you installed is not used at all on GTV's (yes it's not a series 2 panel) but much later Spiders, like 80's on (see: http://www.alfabb.com/bb/forums/show...2&postcount=12). As you say fits perfectly and is probably stronger.

I bought that piece and then modified it (here: http://www.alfabb.com/bb/forums/show...77&postcount=2) into the more correct shape for my car ... but thats an individuals choice .
Pete

[1750GT]

Pete, I opted to leave this lower piece as is at the time so as to put the front end back together a little more quickly...(I may decide to put it right later on in the project....if it bothers me enough that is)...for now I can live with it...but thanks for the feedback....

The front wing was another spot that was not repaired as well as it could have been. Such as can be seen in this pic, quite a bit of bondo was used to fill the indentation in this outer sill area.





The gas welding done on this seam caused quite a bit of sagging and as a result it needed a lot of filler to bring the contour up it's proper location (another example of what you get when things are rushed I guess).



It seems that they didn't have time to apply any additional protection to the underside...only a single coat of primer was visible. Now one big benefit of removing the panel completely is being able to get the whole panel acid dipped. Removing this rust would have been a real pain to do in situ. ..

[papajam]

Looks fabulous! GREAT job!!

[GTV4EVR]

Rossano,
You display an amazing amount of patience. Can I borrow some?

[1750GT]

Thanks Jim.....Ken as you've seen, the car has been taken down to the shell, so if I don't take the opportunity now to fix things right it would seem like a real wasted opportunity....but more importantly it would bug me forever knowing I didn't take the time to fix it at this stage.