Classic Alfa Forums

managed to sneak an hour down the shed tonight to start on the door bottom repairs

the inside of the skin and bottom plate have a little more corrosion than i'd like to see in there. a clean up and treat might see it last a few more years but why bother when replacing the metal should see it last another 20 years?

making and replacing the door bottom without the car is a concern as alignment is crucial to keep things in line, ok to measure it up with a tape but a mm or two out and it'll look awful.

I came up with the plan of making some alignment brackets for the original skin bottom edge which will then be easy enough to reuse when the new skin is offered up
so the steps were to weld a couple of brackets parallel to the bottom edge on the skin higher up than will be cut off then weld a pair of brackets that align with the bottom edge, differing lengths to each other to prevent a mix up
now when the old skin is cut off I can ensure the new one will go back in exactly the same place......fingers crossed!

started to make and shape the bottom skin which luckily the back edge isn't too curved at the point where it will be cut off so that will make life easier

little steps over the evenings this week should see it all welded up

grabbed a bit more time on the door tonight.

once the bottom plate was cut away the hidden rust became evident, well worth the extra effort at this stage to chop it all out.

patch made up and welded into place.

thought better of getting the grinder out seeing as it'd gone past 10pm....can't annoy the neighbours too much! easier to keep working late down the unit without anyone to annoy

steady progress......will make more of an effort tomorrow night, I promise

fixed the inside face at the rear corner

then cut off the outer skin ready to accept the new bottom section

I've made up a few plywood templates before cutting things off to make sure it's all aligned.....fingers crossed

Just a small repair then !!!
Think I would try it back on the car after just to be sure just cover door shuts in masking tape to protect paint

it will get a trial fit on the car before I get carried away with any paint or anything simon mate, with plenty of protection to the door shuts too!

it is just a case that I knew I wouldn't get up to the unit in the week so doing some work at home keeps things ticking...

repaired the other corner as it looked a bit crusty

the curvature of the skin I tried to keep in check with a template I made from some plywood

the depth was kept in check via the little brackets I made up earlier

once happy that decent alignment was achievable a tack weld was done at each end then the folds peened over to clamp the skin to the frame, with a good dose of sealant to help with the bonding and to keep water out

when it was all folded over the alignment was checked again, and noted that it was about a mm shy of where it needed to be, clearly shown up by the little brackets I made. was simply then a case of tapping it up to where it wanted to be then welding to the original skin and door frame.

Awesome job Kev

alignment test fit done, happy days.

the theory on the measurements was sound, just a relief to see it actually worked!

also managed to block sand the bonnet and front doors in the quick afternoon visit. doors have come out nice so are about ready for paint, bonnet i'll prime again as it took a bit of work to get rid of all the marks



an early finish this afternoon as we went to our annual visit to east Kirkby aviation centre for the Lancaster night-time taxi run (looks mega ion the dark sky spitting flames from the exhaust stubs) and the following fireworks show

Lancia and "Just Jane" both looking good Kev.

far too damp last Saturday down at the unit to do any painting, not having a pro oven to bake the paint in means I have to be mindful of the weather conditions.
with today off work though and it being very mild for the time of year I got stuck in first off and got the heaters going whilst masking up the doors

usual process of cleaning and going over the panels with a tack rag then on with the painting.

dust coat followed by 3 further coats, the last one being as wet as I dared!

finish on the bootlid has come out really well, doors will need a going over with the wet & dry to rid the slight peel. being on a less flat plane I was worried about runs so it was hard to get it on thick enough without going overboard..

Superb work Kev. Really looking forward to seeing this car one day at a meet.

Nice work and finish chap

I can't get over the shine across those panels Kev... Nice work.

the rear doors weren't too bad, i'd done the bottom on the drivers side one but the passenger one was ok once all the paint etc was removed. treated with some rust remover just for the added protection
there was a couple of dents that i'd not spotted before which I wondered if i'd done whilst in storage, but the bottom of one dent where a crease was had some rust so it had been there for a while. my method is to use a combination of knotted wheel, sanding disc, wire attachment on a drill and a hand held sandblaster. once all signs of rust are gone you know you're safe to continue

Coming on a treat mate, well done.


Jealous of your ability to use those tools without killing yourself currently! lol!

the rear doors and underside of the bonnet were prepped for etch primer next, the repaired door having been filled to get things nice and straight

petrolhead wrote:Coming on a treat mate, well done.


Jealous of your ability to use those tools without killing yourself currently! lol!

been close mate

all went quiet in the unit when I was about to start priming, compressor kicked in and the lights dimmed just before all going silent.

guess the combination of an electric blower heater, electric storage heater, compressor & 2x 500W spotlamps was too much for the 16A fuse!

struggled to find anything to "mend" it so resorted to some mig wire, one on it's own though blew straight away.
3 in combination though got me the compressor going again though

i'm legendary for my electrical "skills".....

Hey Kev, try one of these.

yeah thats a bit much for a 16amp bs3036 fire-starter to cope with!

first job today, rewire the fuses with the correct wire rather then the mig strands
even with 3 strands it showed signs of reaching it's limit just using the compressor...

once we had some stable electricity again I set about making 3 legs to stand the bonnet on. it'd been bugging me about how to paint both sides of the bonnet in one go without hanging it from the roof, that prevents you from going full on with the paint as it's so easy to get runs in it...

so I came up with the idea of balancing it on 3 legs high enough so I could get underneath to paint the underside but still comfortably paint the top.
a few odd bits and bobs welded to 3 axle stand legs sorted the job out nicely.

another area i'd overlooked when doing the shell was the top edge inside the boot and a repair to the rear panel which was still bare on the inside.
so whilst I was at it I set about that too

had myself a little washing line of small items that needed priming too
rear doors and bonnet got a good few coats of the high build primer so once that is flatted off on Thursday i'll paint it all, fingers crossed that will be all the paintwork done...

got a couple of hours yesterday evening to flat off the primed panels so this morning it was the simple task of masking up, cleaning and prepping the panels for paint.

doors and loose parts have gone ok but the bonnet has some overspray dust in it due I think to where I had stuff, the extractor fan drawing the spray towards the bonnet but not lifting it off it.
i'll flat it off and do the bonnet again if it looks like the dust won't disappear. doing just the bonnet will mean the fan will work ok, no spray from the doors.
if only I had more space these little things wouldn't happen but it's better than doing it outside!

pleased again with the results of the new door bottoms which have blended in really well, no wavy lines where the joins were.

feels like a big hurdle has been cleared now with all the painting done, the refit can begin soon. just in time too, snow forecast for the coming days....

Great work as ever Kev!

Looking good Kev. If it's light overspray , you could mop it

Hi Kev, as JB says it will probably polish.
If you are giving it a bit of a flat and mop up that will cut through the nasty's.
Worst case scenario, if you break through a bit it is ready to re paint.
Nothing to loose trying a flat and polish first.

yes, plan is to give it a flat with 1500 wet & dry then if it looks like it's coming clear i'll mop it over.
i'll go up tomorrow and have a dabble, hoping it's gone off enough, not exactly balmy weather today!
got over 1/2 litre in the tin left over so a few passes won't hurt if it's still not up to scratch..

took some flatting out, gave up with the 1500 paper as was too tedious and used some 320 pads like I did with the primer...then 1500 after that.
all the dust came out nicely but with so much taken off there was only one thing to do, mix up some more paint.
4 more coats and it's come out much better this time, still got some dust but it'll come out with a light flat so happy with that.

as it was still pretty chilly out and I wanted to keep going anyway I decided to flat off the front doors and bootlid that i'd painted a while back, once the dust had cleared of course

fair bit of orange peel in the doors but it all came out pretty well, machine polished with G3 but forgot to use the pad on the DA so that meant more hard work than was necessary!

now, finally the painting is done.....until I find some small pieces of trim I've probably forgotten about