My Sud Super restoration project

[Alfasam]

The removed section of inner wing has the ugly welds and corroded metal ground back. The damaged flanges are re made and welded back to this piece. The section of outer wing is also repaired with a new flange added. The boot floor is also repaired before everything can be welded back into place:

[Alfasam]

The flange on the rear wing section is reinstated. Then the various pieces are welded back into place to complete the repair:

[Alfasam]

The finished repair to the lower near side rear wing and valance seen right way up on the rotisserie. The fabricator has done a good job in sorting out the many problems this section of the shell presented him with. A very thin coat of filler is all that is required to get a perfect surface for stone chip application and final painting:

Whilst finishing this area the fabricator took the opportunity to remove all the surface filler from the rear valence panel and pull out the dents which were underneath.

[Alfa_Japan]

looking very good. Also cool that you (or the fabricator) takes the effort of removing the filler and pulling small dents out. The less filler the better. Looking forward to your next update.

[Kegsti66]

Superb work, thanks for putting up the photos.
What a class job this car is going to be. Love it.

[its_welshy]

Looks amazing! that is going to be better than when it left the factory!!

[Alfasam]

Thank you for all the positive commentary and feedback everyone.

The fabricator has finished the shell now and it has been put back into storage whilst I am trying to move house this Spring.

A last set of pictures the fabricator sent me before Easter showing some rust around the drain hole in the front passenger side foot well being repaired.

This was the only part of the shell where the fabricator found some problems with welding the metal due to excessive impurities in the steel. Everywhere else there was no problem and all welds were completed normally as with the new metal the fabricator was using to make repair panels. Interesting how different parts of the car seem to vary so much in terms of the quality of the metal. This may go some way to explaining why some parts of these cars corrode so badly whilst other parts are relatively durable, and how the degree of corrosion varies so much car to car both in terms of location and extent.

[Alfasam]

The fabricator has also repaired a number of mechanical parts for this car.

The rear axle beam was found to be corrosion damaged when sent for blast cleaning. The spring pan support had corroded away on one side due to water sitting inside the spring cup of the axle beam. Not a good design as the drain holes are small and easily blocked with road dirt over time, added to which the cup is impossible to get at to clean when the axle is on the car. That's old school Italian design for you - wonderful simplicity and functionality in a nice dry warm climate, but zero durability everywhere else

The fabricator removed the old spring pan and copied the shape to make a new piece that could be welded back into the spring cup. This was a complicated piece to make accurately and took several hours of trial and error to get the right construction. This is the problem with fixing old cars where parts are hard to find. The otherwise sound axle was useless with the rusted spring pan, now it will have a new lease of life and I do not have the trouble and expense of finding a replacement axle.

[Alfasam]

More mechanical parts are being repaired in this posting, we are now onto the front leading arms where the fork end plates have been reinforced with plug welds and the addition of seam welds top and bottom.

As many on the forum will know (some from bitter experience) the end of the arms where the reinforcing plates are spot welded on are notorious for corroding between the back of the plate and the arm, where no paint was probably present, allowing dirt and road salt to build up - making a nasty corrosive cocktail to rot away the most structurally critical part of the arm. Potentially leading to catastrophic failure when the arm suddenly snaps off mid corner, causing the front strut to collapse and the driver to loose control of his car.

One person I know had this happen many years ago to a series 3 Sud hatch which suddenly lurched to the right and veered across to the other side of the road at 30 mph, luckily running onto a wide verge where it came to an abrupt stop in the long grass and weeds. Just seconds earlier he had been passed by a bus going in the opposite direction. An inch is as good as a mile - as they used to say.

The arms on my car where quite good, surface corrosion only as they had been coated in Dinotrol when the car was new. Maybe this happened accidently when the rust proofing fluid dripped down onto the top of the arms and filled the void at the back of the plates, but whether by accident or design it did the job and saved the arms. I had them blast cleaned so I could see what condition they were really in, before asking the fabricator to strengthen them as they few small spot welds that are put in place when they are new do look very convincing.

This is probably the one part of their Alfasud/Sprinnt/33 that every owner should check very carefully, if they have not already done so. Look for bulging on the corner of the plate where it tucks in against the body of the arm, level with the back edge of the forked cut-out that attaches to the trailing arm bush. When this happens the metal is blowing out from the corrosive action of the trapped dirt and moisture at the back of the plate. If you are lucky the plate is the part that will be the most badly corroded and the arm may well be saveable. But only if the damage is slight - but be very careful, this part is under a lot of load and is I.M.O. definitely the worst designed component I have seen on the 900 series cars

[Alfasam]

The front sub frame had the ends where the anti roll bar brackets bolt in repaired. I have a new old stock sub frame for the car acquired in Italy last year, but asked the fabricator to repair the old one as it was generally in good condition and then I can keep it as a spare, or use it on my white series 2 Ti restoration - if I ever get that far.

[Alfamet]

Looking good!

[Alfasam]

The rear axle stubs were both quite badly corroded on the reverse side. Like the problem with the front leading arm plates Alfa cleverly left a gap between the back of the stub axle bracket and the attachment point on the axle beam. This fills with dirt and road salt to create the ideal conditions to corrode out the back of the bracket around the axle mounting point. The metal in this area on my brackets was quite thin and not structurally sound enough to safely carry the weight of a fully loaded car according to an MOT tester friend who examined them. Frightening really, as an MOT tester would never have seen the problem hidden between the axle and the bracket. Just like the front leading arms they could have failed suddenly leading to a loss of control of the vehicle.

The fabricator offered to try repairing the stub axles for me as they are getting hard to find as a new old stock part now and all of the used ones I have come across are just as bad, if not worse, than the ones on my car - which has only done 29K miles. Luckily, I had a new old stock pair of stub axles for my car stashed away - sourced from Italy a few years ago, so if the fabricator failed to repair the old ones all was not going to be lost.

In the event they were not as difficult to repair as the fabricator first thought and he was able to cut off the old corroded reverse side of the brackets and seam weld on new metal of the same thickness. The repairs are very strong and the parts are probably better than when they were new as the welds are larger and have penetrated the metal properly this time.

Here are the brackets being repaired and shown finished ready for powder coating:

[Alfasam]

I am fitting the Super with a series 1 Ti front spoiler because I am not really a fan of the unfinished look of the series 1-2 Berlina valence.

Here the fabricator has reproduced the brackets which support the outer edge of the spoiler because the used set I had acquired were too corroded to use again.

Once the brackets were made the fabricator test fitted the spoiler sections. I located 5 x Ti series 1-2 spoiler brackets that fit to the lower edge of the front valence as a new old stock part which the fabricator has spot welded into place at the appropriate points.

Here are the spoiler sections being test fitted:

[Alfasam]

The Super is finished and ready to be collected from the fabricators work shop.

Very lucky to get a dry day just before the Easter break in which we managed to transport the car to the storage centre where it is being kept in a condensation treated 20 foot container until I can get back to work on it later this year.

The Super shell on the trailer before being tied down with load retention straps. The workshop trolley is a bit narrow to get up the ramps onto the trailer so we have to be careful.

A small problem - the fabricator has run out of zinc primer and his delivery of new paint has not arrived in time for him to paint the rear valence where he has taken off the old paint and filler before pulling out the dents in the panel. The valence and N/S rear wing corner are just bare metal so we had to pray it stayed dry for the three hour drive back to the storage unit. Once there we can get some etch primer and give the panels a quick spray to protect them for the next few months whilst the shell will be in storage.

Like the new front spoilers:

As soon as I am able to get back on the project the first job will be to template the bitumastic panels in the foot wells, on the central tunnel/inner bulkhead and in the boot area so they can be recut to the correct shapes later. They will need to be applied before final painting as that is how Alfa did it. Once they are templated the old bitumastic can be cleaned off and the surfaces prepared for primer painting. After that I will prepare the outside of the shell for painting as it still needs some areas of old paint stripping back and areas the fabricator has repaired have only been primed roughly in zinc weld paint to protect them in storage. They will need rubbing back properly, surface filling in approx. half a dozen places and then etch priming. I have already done the underfloor and the engine compartment before the car went to the fabricator so am ahead of the game there.

Other aspects of the restoration including parts sourcing, zinc plating, blast cleaning and powder coating have been going on in parallel with the metal work stage of the body repairs. I will report further on these activities further when I have time.

[Alfasam]

Another pic of the Super side on showing the excellent panel gap consistency (for an Alfasud anyway) achieved by the fabricator. Very pleased with his work. I could not have found a better person to do this work for me. He has given me the basis of a really nice restoration of a treasured car that I have known since I was 10 years old

[Spacenut]

Another pic of the Super side on showing the excellent panel gap consistency (for an Alfasud anyway) achieved by the fabricator. Very pleased with his work. I could not have found a better person to do this work for me. He has given me the basis of a really nice restoration of a treasured car that I have known since I was 10 years old

You can say that again. I'm speechless with admiration!

[junior]

Highly impressed with his work and that he is happy to do it on a Sud where some seem to be a bit sneery.

One chap told me I had more money than sense..........

[Veesix75]

Lovely. Is it staying yellow ? I hope so.

[Alfasam]

Yes - the car will be repainted inside and out in the original colour. A Sprint Veloce was sold at auction in the UK not long ago in this colour but I do not know who bought it. It then appeared briefly for sale again but has since disappeared. With the two well known Ti 1.5's that are in this same colour there seem to be survivor examples of all three series 2 chrome bumper versions of the Sud range in Giallo Pozzuoli, which was always quite a rare colour.

[Kegsti66]

Brilliant !!

[Series 2 Missionary]

Looking fantastic, can't wait to see this car when its finished. Will be particularly evocative for me as will bring back memories of my dads 1980 1.5 Super in this colour.

This car I feel will be without question be one of the most interesting 'suds known to the forum. It's great that a Super is being restored to such a high standard. With so much attention being given to the TIs in recent years there has been a real neglect of the chrome bumpered 4 doors by comparison which has been a real pity. We do not want these cars to become extinct. It did not go unnoticed to me that at MITCAR last year of the 20 or so cars in attendance all were Ti's or Sprints.

[KevJTD]

as everyone has said, a really top effort made by the fabricator. top work.

having done a few now I can appreciate how much time has gone into it, not to mention the cost to you I guess!

top marks on saving the car

[Alfa_Japan]

Thanks for the many pictures and so on. Some items serve as a source of inspiration for others I assume. Looking very much forward to the next stage.