[1750GT]

Michael and Will...my sentiments exactly!...I've always found the chassis structure to be more interesting than some of the other aspects of the vehicle. This is why I opted to do a restoration rather than buy a car with nice paint but poor chassis. At first my wife couldn't understand this decision but as I'm fixing all the problems areas on the car, she's finally coming around and seeing my point.

Vytas, this is a golden opportunity to fix these things now so I might as well do it right! Hope to see you at the next cruise night (I missed a few this year).

This past weekend I've been practising MIG welding the quarter panels for some rust repairs on my wife's Nisssan. I was using a new wire called "Twenty Gauge" which is a .030 in powder cored wire and found it it too be much easier to use than the solid .025 wire. I never had one burn through with this stuff and I was able to weld upside down and on the vertical quite successfully (at least for my experience level). It is a little pricier (10 lb spool @ $70.00) but I was very happy with this wire and recommend it highly.

 

[PSk]

Tack, tack and more tacks (or spots) with the MIG. Ensure you walk away and let the area cool, etc. Hammer if necessary to keep flat/straight. Then spot inbetween the previous spots and repeat until no gaps. Sometimes it takes me a couple of days to butt weld a seam ... with the MIG.

That is how I butt weld thin panel steel.
Pete

 

[1750GT]

Thanks for the tips Pete, and I need to have some of your patience as well (sometimes I tend to rush because I want to complete a mini project in the time I allotted myself for it).

Now on this outer sill the previous repair had this cut-out on the top and when I removed the 4 or so tack welds holding it on I had a pretty good idea at this point that I'll be replacing this sill.

The inner rocker structure looks pretty solid (some surface rust around the top)...but the rest looks in good shape. The outer sill however....

..has a bit too much bondo for my liking (again another rushed insurance job I bet)..

 

[1750GT]

I finally got around to bringing the quarter panel (and a few other pieces) to TECHNOSTRIP for de-rusting and it came out looking real nice.

The lower aft corner however had some heavier rust and with the acid cleaning these holes appeared. I'm going to cut this area out and replace with new metal....If I screw it up, I'll get a patch repair panel piece that seems to be readily available from a few sources.

 

[1750GT]

I also received these rear floor panels from Richard Norris @ ClassicAlfa. They are the correct replacements for the series I 1969 GTV's and are excellent quality. I received these and the a front half section floor panel in less than two weeks via regular postal service at a very reasonable cost of around $100...are you listening Mr.Biondi? ClassicAlfa are excellent to deal with and do all the leg work...are you listening Mr.Biondi?

The inside seat belt mount has the correct reinforcing...

...the forward seat mountings have the correct reinforcement as well..

...most of the seat mounting points are all there. This will make the job of replacing the floors much easier for me.

I'm really happy with these panels and glad I waited for these. Initially I was going to go use the later series 2 style floor panels that I bought a few months ago (Alfaholics supplied via AKITAMAN) but I just couldn't bring myself to install them because they just weren't 100% correct for my car.

 

[GTD]

Rossano
It's nice to have the correct panels to use with the proper tools and talent.
Congratulazioni!

 

[1750GT]

So these are the series 2 GTV floor panels (the difference being in the seat mount point areas) and came from Alfaholics. I'd say they look like they came from the same supplier (although I can't be certain for sure) but they are of identical workmanship quality as the ClassicAlfa ones. To be more correct for the year, they really should be used on the 71 and later GTV's. Notice that these don't have the reinforcing for the seat mount points (I'm guessing that the suppliers are only getting around to adding these in now).

As for the front floor panels, the one on the left is an Alfaholic supplied one and the right is the ClassicAlfa one. Again both of identical quality and are dead ringers to the original floor panels on th 69 GTV. I will finally get to work on this area of the car.....not sure when but soon.

 

[1750GT]

GTD ...I think talent in the case of body work is a part of it...but finding the desire to want to do it probably plays the bigger role. I don't know why, but I always liked doing this work myself.....plus it does save a lot of money in the long run.

Thanks

 

[rafael]

In my case the upper side of the middle sills looked OK. However the lower side was completely rusted. I hope this is not the case in your car, otherwise you have to replace the middle sills as well.

 

[1750GT]

Floor Panel Replacement begins

I've been waiting for a long time to get to this point, and even though the rotisserrie I should have started for this part of the project is not yet done (i.e. not yet started) I just had to get my teeth into this right away. I decided to begin the process with the car on the jack stands and suffer a little with having to work on my back when underneath the car (hey I'm not that old that I can't do some of this the good old fashioned way!). I began by cutting around the perimeter with the cut-off wheel and stayed well clear of the structural bits underneath.

The trailing arm forward pick-up point support reinforcing piece will have to be removed since it sandwiches the floor panel between it and the kick panel. Plus I need to repair the rusty areas of kick panel as well.

Once the spot welds are partly drilled through with a 1/4 inch bit, it is relatively easy to pry in between the two pieces and pull them apart.

Similarily along the drive shaft tunnel. I guess I could have drilled right through at this location since I'll be plug welding from the tunnel side. I also cut extra slits along the left over floor flange to weaken it as much as possible....makes it easier to pry apart. The tunnel metal is much thinner so I was careful and tried not to be too heavy handed in this area.

 

[1750GT]

The reinforcing angle I left in place ...hopefully the new floor will come up to it perfectly (if not I'll modify it as required). I was careful in this area so as not to cut into the seat belt reinforcing plate underneath.

It's in good shape with little rust...it's completely re-usable if I need.

Kick plate area where new metal is required....inner sill is pretty solid here....

...and when I removed the outer floor flange completely ....it looks even more so.

 

[1750GT]

...I'll be removing the transverse support so that I can drop the floor half sections in without having to cut them lengthwise. Again, I used the same approach to detach the residual floor panel pieces and peel them off.

...the inboard end the transverse support is attached with spot welds to the tunnel side (which I drilled through ) and a full seam weld along the lower flange which was ground off.

...the centre was attached with 6 or so spot welds on top and along the side tab out flanges and a seam weld along the bottom..

...the outboard end...had nothing but some surface rust in between!...Now I'm really glad I decided to remove this piece completely and weld it back on properly later after it gets a proper de-rusting and paint!

 

[1750GT]

I'm really glad that the tranny support bracket to tranny tunnel spot welds are located much higher than those for the floor flange in this area. It means that the support bracket does not have to be removed and therefore it's fore\aft location will not been disturbed.

The front jack point will be removed.

This past week's effort got me to this point on the front passenger floor....

..and this point on the rear passenger floor.

 

[1750GT]

Today I just had to do a dry fit so as to get a "warm and fuzzy" on the floor progress so far. Mind you I haven't really had a chance to grind the residual spot welds down so this dry fit wasn't a straight and easy drop in.....the rear floor section seems so far to fit quite well.

..the front is not bad overall....

...however, there may be some correcting required at the front seam of the forward floor (the picture may not be showing the panel in it's correct forward position)...so I may be incorrect in saying this at this stage.

The next task will be to repair the rusty areas on the rear kick plate.

 

[1750GT]

This weekend the task was to begin repair on the 2 rusty spots on the passenger side kick panel.

..the outer corner definitely needed to be repaired....

..the inside corner looks not too bad but the thickness left was about .030 inch or about half of the .060 material. So I decided to repair it anyway.

...on the back side I cleaned off the sound deadener material by scraping followed with varsol solvent....it actally came off quite easily..

 

[1750GT]

...welded and wire wheeled it clean.

..for good measure (and practise) I welded the other side as well. Because this piece is of quite heavy gauge materilal, I was not concerned about distortion and so I ran longer beads than I would on the outer body panel sheet metal.

 

[PSk]

MAN you are having lots of fun ... impressive work as always.

Pete

 

[1750GT]

MAN you are having lots of fun ... impressive work as always.

Pete

Thanks Pete...and, coming from you that's a huge compliment.

 

[SuperFab]

Un capo lavoro my fellow Furlan!

 

[1750GT]

Fabio you're too kind!....if I can approach the quality of of work you've done on your TI Super I'll be very, very pleased. By the way, have you had a chance to post up some photos of your car on the BB? I wish other BB'ers could see the work you've done to date on your car...it sure inspired me!