Classic Alfa Forums

I'm very impressed with your bead roller, that is a neat bit of kit!

Were you tempted to flare the wheel arch lip a bit?

Spacenut wrote:I'm very impressed with your bead roller, that is a neat bit of kit!

Were you tempted to flare the wheel arch lip a bit?

not sure lauren, on one hand a little flare wouldn't be out of place. on the other it means making another one for the other side. you gave me some debate today thinking about it....still haven't decided

...Plus you might need wider wheels and tyres to fill them!

Think they already have them Lauren.

Of course!

yes, some suitably wide minilite's are already purchased...bet you can't guess where from
they will though fit under standard arches...

so this afternoon I set to and chopped out the remaining rot from the curved section of the wing arch, a simple enough patch but curves in 3 directions so takes a little manipulating to get right. butt w3elded in to try and stop getting multiple layers
both sections cut out and welded up then the old arch lip removed
new arch being tacked into place, extra length at each end will be tidied later
extremely slowly it got seam welded, done in a series of spot welds.
then all ground back smooth
quite pleased with the results, shouldn't take a lot of filler to get right
welded the underside then a coat of etch, next time i'll sort out the edge to sill and make some repair sections fro the bottom of the wing to front panel

Stunning work kev . Can't think where you got the wheels form tho

thanks JB.....and no prizes available for guessing the wheel supplier

Hi Kev,

just spotted a late entry for the Kings Lynn Classic Car auction you'd probably like, though not sure about the wheels:
http://www.angliacarauctions.co.uk/en/c ... rlina-rhd/

also a couple of Fulvias and Beta coupe on there too

cheers, Ian

wouldn't mind any of those Ian, although agree fully that the wheels look properly out of place on the berlina

my car collection is full to bursting at the moment though, enough projects on the go to keep me busy for a good few years

Yep, nice car, but wrong wheels.

Amazing work kev, truly fantastic. Not just the great skills to be applauded, but the motivation too. Good on yer, and keep it up!

last Wednesday afternoon I did a bit,

sill end of the arch got a repair patch made up and welded in, as near to what it should be like as I could do
bowl at the front needed a bit more fabricating, luckily i'd been paying attention enough on the course to remember how to make a multiple curved patch from a flat plate!
drivers wing about done now save for a bit around the headlight opening
passenger wing I didn't think was as bad, well damage pretty much restricted to the arch anyway...
a few gaps at the front edge..
rear not much better..
doesn't look pretty....

today I set about making another arch repair section

same process as before, start with a straight folded section then make the curve to suit the arch
it then got the return flange put in it and welded to the remainder of the wing.

a repair section was also let in covering a large portion of the back edge.
where it's not yet been welded at the front I will chop that out and make a new section.

Very nice kev .That's going to look great when it's done

Great going Kev,

What colour are you planning to paint it?

jobeed wrote:Amazing work kev, truly fantastic. Not just the great skills to be applauded, but the motivation too. Good on yer, and keep it up!

Couldn't agree more !

Maybe his next client is the one in the spot the Alfa post!

. No I'm doing her ...I mean her car

Johnboy wrote: . No I'm doing her ...I mean her car

bugger, missed out again

car is going to be red Ian, according to Rob anyway. most likely rosso red...

So something a bit like this, perhaps?

http://www.imps.me.uk/images/Shows_2010 ... mp2010.jpg

yep

did a little in the week but just so crazy busy with other distractions...

passenger wing almost done

decided i'd tackle one of the jobs that's been niggling me for some time, the shelf under the back window which was covered in thick underseal material
once it was all chiselled out and ground down with the knotted wheel it showed up all the small pin holes, nigh on impossible to repair satisfactorily
decided the best course of action is to treat all the rust with a preservative
once that had cured a good dose of etch would do for now..

hardly had time to go up there this afternoon but some stuff needed moving from my shed up to the unit so thought i'd better at least get an hour or two of work done.

after sorting some dodgy light wiring in the unit that is...had been tripping out on Wednesday but settled itself down after a bit, the smoke coming out of a strip light though soon saw things go dark! isolated that light so best get something done...

eagle eyed will have noticed in the last picture the corrosion at the bottom which is the drivers side rear shock absorber mount where it joins the shelf and inner wheel arch...
inner arch section made and welded in first
a smaller link section then made up to join the inner arch to the shock mount plate before a new cover for the shelf was made up and plug welded into place
the shelf has now had the small pin holes covered over with seam sealer. these will get a few coats of stoneguard from inside and out then a new shelf will be fitted over the top. I already have a zinc coated sheet ready for this so the cavity will get the best protection possible.

Wednesday coming I promise to make more of an effort

new plan with pauls 33 coming in a few weeks is to get the welding done asap then concentrate on painting the underside and wheel arches etc which will then allow the suspension to go back on meaning the car can be moved out when end of march comes along. the idea of it all being painted by then has been shelved, just too much to do before mid march

Kev I'd love to have 10% of your dedication. Excellent commitment as always.

Hear hear - I just don't know how you do it. And then apologise for not having made more progress...

think it's just being stubborn and not wanting to quit

believe me, motivation is sorely tested at times....

but very kind of you for the support

ticking along still...

chopped out some more rot from the rear shelf corner, had to be welded in 3 different planes but solid again
plan is to fit a new shelf over the top of the original so a new one needed making.
first job to make a template of the curve around the wheel arch so the panel could be cut to shape, a few sheets of card taped together is the easiest way to do it
the front edge follows the line of the original panel so it can be transposed onto the new steel
the back lip needs a 3/4" fold but being 4 foot long it wouldn't go in my folder, so trapping it between 2 lengths of wood would have to do

as often happens when manually folding an edge like this you end up getting a curve where the outer edge gets stretched as you fold it over, it can be avoided a bit more than I inflicted on this panel with more care of where you knock the fold over but I thought i'd show how to straighten it back out without resorting to the shrinker

only a bit of a curve but still it's not straight
the method to straighten it is to lay it flat then with a flat faced hammer (a proper panel beating one, the regular ones are too curved) hit directly against the folded edge, forcing it back down in the direction of the fold. this thickens the edge which causes it to shrink. it really doesn't take too much work to straighten it out, you don't have to hammer ten bells out of it. hit it like this...
with half a minute of hammering you end up with a perfect straight fold

the finished repair panel will go here...
before it goes on though a couple of coats of stoneguard will help keep it watertight in the cavity and stop a bit of the sound, the repair sheet is zinc coated from new so the underside should be fine for many years
still debating whether to weld in the panel or use the bonding agent that's used for fixing body panels, probably the latter


bit of time left so made up a repair section for the wing bottom to sill area, along with tidying up some of the inner arch