Classic Alfa Forums

Hi All......
Well done Shrew & Kev & anyone else involved in getting this great site up and running, fantastic....
Some of you will remember the user name.......
After leaving AO and taking a break from the car due to a house renovation and then an overseas project (still ongoing!) I am now back on the job....
One good thing that has come from leaving the car in primer is that any areas of the bodywork that would be going to have a reoccurring rust problem would show up.
One area showed this, the R/H rear wheelarch. - but everywhere else proved to be ok having cut away all other areas with any sign of corrosion.
Those of you who remember my old thread on AO will remember that I replaced the L/H rear w/arch but as the R/H one 'appeared' to be not to bad I decided to just let in some new metal where it needed it mostly due to the amount of time involved to do the rear arches on these cars (anyone that has done this to a high standard will know what I mean!). Anyway over the last few weeks I have found out that the whole arch, inner & outer needed cutting out and starting again, a right pain in the arse but hey ho...

The early stage photos are on my other computer so photos will pick up towards the end but I ended up cutting both inner and outer arches back with the dremmel tool and rebuilding from there taking measurements as key points so the original shape and profile was restored. It took days.... as anyone who has done this type of work will appreciate. I used 2 of those aftermarket wheelarch panels, one for the inner lip and another for the outer arch. All turned out well in the end and it only needed a small skim of filler (mostly due to the poor quality of the panel on the arch profile TBH).
Anyway here are some pictures taken today of the final stages.....

Took hours to get the profile to this stage

All sealed from behind....

Then zinc phosphate primer.....

Job done (well that one anyway )

My next job is to have another look at the rear valance, the reason for this is that I repaired this with some new metal in a few areas and filled over it. I have now found a new genuine panel which I couldn't find initially so the plan is to replace the whole lower panel now and get a good look at the inner cavity, A job for next week....
Here is a photo of the genuine Alfa panel, with original paint over surface rust!! nice, the first job is to get all this surface rust off!

nice to see you again mate, glad you've come back to the sud fold.

the standard of work you put in is superb, said it before on the old site and worth saying again.

seamless blending of that arch, really impressive. can see why it would take so long. but worth the effort.

be nice to see a few S1 ti's surfacing over the next year or so

KevJTD wrote:nice to see you again mate, glad you've come back to the sud fold.

the standard of work you put in is superb, said it before on the old site and worth saying again.

seamless blending of that arch, really impressive. can see why it would take so long. but worth the effort.

be nice to see a few S1 ti's surfacing over the next year or so

Yes mate, nice to hear from you as well.....
I see you have a SI Ti now as well
Been having a look at your thread, looks good mate, if you get stuck on any early SI bits give me a shout I might be able to help as I have a few bits n'bobs about .....

vecchioalfa wrote:

KevJTD wrote:nice to see you again mate, glad you've come back to the sud fold.

the standard of work you put in is superb, said it before on the old site and worth saying again.

seamless blending of that arch, really impressive. can see why it would take so long. but worth the effort.

be nice to see a few S1 ti's surfacing over the next year or so

Yes mate, nice to hear from you as well.....
I see you have a SI Ti now as well
Been having a look at your thread, looks good mate, if you get stuck on any early SI bits give me a shout I might be able to help as I have a few bits n'bobs about .....

will do mate, thanks

bound to be stuff i need but don't know yet. will find that stuff out as i go along.

know i do need a carper though, of some sort

My carpet is not great either, I was planning to get it re-carpeted by a trimmer as the original item as you know is not the best quality item, sort of a one piece moulded thing.

Agree with Kev, outstanding work chap looks great
Welcome aboard

great to see you on board Vecchio,

and straight in with a brilliant project rebuild too, i like your style!


fantastic work, that looks in amazing condition now mate, top marks!

Thanks chaps....
Nice to see some friendly faces on here like before....

vecchioalfa wrote:Thanks chaps....
Nice to see some friendly faces on here like before....

that's the aim mate, friendly mixed with common sense

Ok, I have been doing some more work on the sud so I thought I would run an update...
As I meantioned in a previous post I was never happy with the rear valance repair I did at the beginning of this bodyshell restoration, which was a long time ago now!! so I decided to redo the job. I originally let in new metal where it needed it but I was always concerned about what was actually going on inside so here we go....

Outer Panel cut off leaving the early series 1 exhaust cut out from the previous repair...

Then clean up the inner panel which turned out to be in excellent condition and add some etch primer...

Next I repaired the R/H side and added some sealant to over the carefully ground back welds

that inner panel looks incredibly good mate, but at least now you know it's good

....and then the L/H side, panel made up from a pattern rear valance and all painted with etch primer, I knew some of this would burn off when welding but still worth doing to get as much protection in there as you can, obviously it was cleaned off at the actual welding positions as its not weld through primer,

.....

This next picture shows the problems of owning a series 1 car with regards build quality.... the inner and outer valance lips are suppose to be in line

KevJTD wrote:that inner panel looks incredibly good mate, but at least now you know it's good

Yes Kev, now I am sure...

The next photos show it all in high build primer after many hours or filling, shaping etc. its a complex shape this rear valance...

After a few days to harden off I blocked this all down, again took hours to get it right....

A bit of etch primer over any bare exposed metal....

and finally some primer.....

I decided to close off the ends of the rear valance box section with some foam as original and then add some sealant as leaving it open for any water to get in would not be a good idea...

Perfect work!
Wow!