Classic Alfa Forums

Hi guys,
I thought I would share with you a lovely project I have the pleasure of doing.
I want to point out that I can take no credit for the panel work, and the company I work for are only responsible for the preparation of the repairs , bodywork and paint work.
As the photos show, major floor and boot areas along with sill sections have been replaced, but the rest of the body is very good. It came to me on the frame with the use of rotisserie (never had use of one before, and it is fantastic).
The shell had been blasted and etched to protect while the metalwork was carried out but this was removed by me prior to my start.

After sanding off the blue etch, I first shaped up some of the repair areas as they were buckled from heat and the new hand made door skins were in need of a bit of shaping along the bottom and corners.
As the car will be stone chipped and body colour underneath, I have also done some prettying up on the floor.

After the first prime up, the doors were re-fitted and adjusted so that I can shape the car so the body light lines flow as best as possible.
Using a long sanding block the shaping starts and low areas are built up with stopper.
I have also primed inside the body tub as some of the body will be visible inside as well.
Underneath, the body has been prepped and etch, seam sealed and stonechipped.

Looks really great. With that kind of attention to detail it is no wonder that your Alfasud looks so good. The Giulietta is such a pretty car - who would have thought that it was an austerity model, intended to sell in volume to generate some much-needed revenue for the cash-strapped company?

Here you can see where the low areas have been built up with stopper.
I have left the doors fitted at this stage so the adjustment isn't altered.
The car is then re-primed and blocked a second time with finer grade paper to continue the smoothing process. Again, any low areas are addressed with stopper.
Finally the third prime up was carried out and now the shape is about there.
We then did a dry fit of the bright work to satisfy ourselves that the critical points looked good.

Thanks Lauren, yes pretty is the perfect word to describe the car.
Lots of water traps when you look at the underneath, so you can see why they rotted away in the day as protection would not have been that good.
Looking forward to the next stage as I will start throwing colour about soon.
I will do it in a few hits to keep dirt to a minimum. I will probably do the underneath first as the inner front valance is visible from the engine bay. Then the interior and boot, so that can be masked out to do outside. If the engine bay picks up any bad dirt, I can flat and re paint it. It is almost impossible to blow all the dust out and not cover everything in overspray.

Keith your work is outstanding! I am really happy you are carrying out the paint process to the Giulietta.

A quick introduction of myself my name ia Gad Maltz and my small restoration company (four leaf clover classics) has been entrusted to restore this Giulietta to its former glory.
The car was very rotten and the lower 6 inches have been replaced with new metal.
There have been a few challenges to this job, making the door skins from flat sheet on our English wheel was one of them.
I shall post some pictures of the metalwork process soon, although some pictures can be seen on my Instagram page.

Once again it is such a privilege to have Keith to carry out the paint process, as car people, we all know that there are many levels of paint work.
Keith your work is at the highest level!

Hi Gad,
Thanks for your kind words
Glad you have joined the forum and hope you find some good reads, not that you have much spare time .
As I said to you, there are some helpful people on here and contacts who may be of use and help to you in the future.
We are a good, friendly crowd that Shrew and Kev have brought together.
Don't forget to check out the racing section.

Great car to have on here guys, looking forward to seeing the paint going on Keith
Attention to detail as always, an inspiration to all of us to try to get a fraction close to

I'd love to see some pictures from the metalwork stages too Gad so please do find the time!
Great to see a project at this stage guys, thanks for sharing

I thought it would be of interest Kev.
I spoke to Gad about putting up pictures of the car and he said his customer would not mind. I will let him tell you anything else.
He is based in the Leeds area and has done a really nice job of all the metalwork and fabrication, and it had a lot ! He also appreciates attention to detail.
We hope that when we finish the project, our customer will have one, if not the best Giulietta around.

Beautiful car, what colour will it be ? I can only dream of driving across Europe in a giulietta spider, such a pretty design.

Top work as ever Keith, I've still got pics of the 'champagne cocktail' masterpiece which says it all about your skills.

Gad - keep the pics coming, and anything else interesting.

Veesix75 wrote:Beautiful car, what colour will it be ? I can only dream of driving across Europe in a giulietta spider, such a pretty design.

Top work as ever Keith, I've still got pics of the 'champagne cocktail' masterpiece which says it all about your skills.

Gad - keep the pics coming, and anything else interesting.

I'm guessing it will be the baby blue colour like this.

Sorry Tony, wrong colour but that is a nice blue.

Thanks for the praise Tim, you do like the Champagne cocktail Griffo don't you?
No the car will be grey, I can not remember the exact name, I have it at work and will post later on. I will be spraying the interior , boot and floor tomorrow, then start on the outside and panels.
This is the sort of colour, but I think Gad has said that the trim will be tan leather not red.

Evening peeps
Stunning Alfa . Just been looking at the photos on your Instagram page and started following you . Brilliant work guys

Kegsti66 wrote:Thanks for the praise Tim, you do like the Champagne cocktail Grifo don't you?

That was your work?

We are not worthy!
We are not worthy!

OMG !

Lauren, just looked up when I did that Griffo. Tail end of 1999. Barry got it back Jan 2000.

always like to see the metalwork stages mate as I know how much time and effort goes into making the sections, not that I get anywhere near that accurate, but does give me an insight into the lengths and detail you guys go to

Thanks for your interest guys, And thanks Keith for your kind words re the metal work.
This lovely Giulietta s2 came in to us as a driver looking like this. So what did we do to this lovely patinated thing- take it apart.
But not before a test drive.

The test drive enables assessment of the car, and by driving it first you can pick up on all the inoperative features, gauges, electrical items, pull cables and levers etc. although everything will get attention, it helps if you are aware of its as found condition, especially if the repro replacement is poor, it helps with decisions further down the line.
Right- metalwork.
So after blasting - and a coat of blue etch (our blaster is known for his blue..)

That looks so sharp in grey. Impressed. Not a choice I would have made , but then I would have been wrong.

Although as u can see above the first section I made was for the mid chassis outrigger.
It is made to land to the old floor, but is only screwed to it. It will also help on gauging the fit and positioning of later lower sill sections.

Please accept my apologies I am still learning the interface, and struggling to edit etc.
It took me less time to remove cut and replace the footwell than it takes me to tell you about it

In your own time - this isn't in the race section.

Fascinating to see the start of the progress, there is a real art to metal fabrication.
I for one will be keen to see as much detail as you can stomach in giving us, please
Pictures often speak a 1000 words so don't worry too much, just keep them coming

Cheers Gad, it is nice to see the car when you started it. It was in a poor way underneath and around the edges.
I can also see how the dash top rail goes now.
You really did have a mass of work there. Top job.

This looks better. Sorry it is a bit blurred

Bet that's a nice change to stand and spray the underneath mate, looking nice with the stoneguard

Thanks Keith, I noticed you posted a picture of the radius arm mounting area, i found a few pictures of the area while it was worked on
This repair has to happen before sills are removed as the old sill gives an indication to where the crossmember needs to come to and there is better access to the whole area as u can chop out sections of old sill wheras if u chose to do these peices after letting the sill sections in cutting the new one for access is not an option.
Thanks for the interest, i will try to keep the pictures coming in

That is a massive amount of structure building mate.
As Kev has said it is great to see how you went about this restoration. I didn't notice quite how thick the sill sections were, but as this is a spider I suppose it has to be to keep the car solid. You can see it has a double, triangular strengthener running through it.
I can not wait to see her all finished.

Incredible how bad the metal was after the stripping process, first class work Gad and Keith to bring back to life, very impressive.

Thanks guys for your interest and kind words.
As Keith pointed out the sills are very substantial on this car (as on any car without a fixed head) and comprise 6 sections per side ( above are the sections less the outermost shaped section, and the boot floor is doing a first appearance too)
To make it even more entertaining the floor is sandwiched between the various sections.
The repro sections are of 18swg as opposed to the original 20swg, and galvanised too.