Practically Classics Forum

Saw the weather forcast for the weekend so slipped home early to make sure a bit of progress was made this week.

Passenger rear light area was next on list. I had left my mobile at the pub last night so did not get my early fab pictures , but grab a camera later and took some pics.

So the bodged area that was bubbling rot





Basically I used the old masking tape trick on the drivers side to copy the area.
Its got a few complex curves but I did not want to use a load of little panels to make the shape up and it would increase risk of moisture getting in there later. So I resticted it to 2 panels, the upper section with the triangle section and then the flat section at the bottom.
I used plier to bend the curve and hammered it out more with litle hammer and doly set.

I weld the 2 sections together and then tack welded into the hole and fully welded in with a series of short high setting spot welds to avoid distortion.



This was ground down with a flap wheel then the dremmel to get in the tight section. Then added lead to cover any pin holes and reduce filler application. Lead was then shaved down to a smoother finish. And then heavily zinc'd front and back. And light trial fitted to check, and it looked ok.






It needs some filler now and smoothing and will then get a temporary coat of primer and red before final fettling.

So next it will be the other side!

A busy and wet weekend mean't no work on the Alfa so I only did a half day int he offic eon Monday and took advantage of the sun.

After puting this back together for a happy camper (I did not win the batle of painting it Alfa red versus pink )



I got onto a proper car starting with finishing the drivers corner. I'm not grinding back at the moment just getting everything welded in and will then work my way back round.
The gassless mig did not like the dirtier metal of the bottom corner, it tends to insiist on clean metal both sides for nic elow welds, but I couldnot access some areas as well as others. Im basically spot welding in short bursts as the gassless loves to burn through the thin sheet. At some point I will put aside soem readies for a proper gas welder!





Started building out the bottom from the inner skins out starting with a small repair to boot floor first









I then has to recreate the curve section that the bolts run through for the bumper. I did not have a hole saw to hand so went for square holes not round as it makes no real difference especially as its all goign to be closed in.





Thats as far as I got before I was called in (had the village darts comp to attend!)

Just to to close that ouff with the outer skin and then get started on the drivers rear arch and that should be the rear welding compelted. Then just tons of grinding leading and sanding and painting and polishing etc etc etc and I might be able to look to put the running gear back in ,where this all started

Today I started to close off the area , but I only had an hour spare so I just did the flat sections as where it curves in to allow for the bumper mountings will take more time to fabricate.

75nut wrote:A busy and wet weekend mean't no work on the Alfa so I only did a half day int he offic eon Monday and took advantage of the sun.

After puting this back together for a happy camper (I did not win the batle of painting it Alfa red versus pink )

At least that one ain't going to need welding up in a few years time

Fantastic work on the Alfa , I'd imagine the V6 is quite a rare beast nowadays .

Mark

Not really had alot of time to do any work with the waether the way it has been recently , but sneaked a couple of hours in today in between family commitments.

With short time I decided to focus on closing off the rear corner where the bumper brace fits. If you remember it was rotton right through to the boot here so I have been working my way back out after cutting it all out.

I tried several times to make a curve piece with the correct indentation to match the other side but simply could not get it riught , it was too complex for my skills so I split it into 3 sections.

The main centre where the bumper bolts come through as part one that sits the lowest the the outer section that meet both the low section and the higher areas as 2 parts.

Was going to plan but ran out of cored wire for the gassless. You can see the amount of slag gassless makes versus gass here as I have not cleaned it off. So I will have to rob some time in the week to finish welding and tidying up with a dremmel.

I also stone chip arch I have completed and then waxoyled, going over the lip as well for added protection as its behind the bodykit anyhow.
The bit of fluff on the left is where the car cover stuck to the temporary red paint I put on, but Im goign back and resanding and painting all this once all the welding on the car is complete so no biggy.

bxzx16v wrote:Fantastic work on the Alfa , I'd imagine the V6 is quite a rare beast nowadays .

Mark

They are still about and amazingly cheap, I got a second one for £300 that was going to be a spares bu is in really good condition (bar the same rusty arches lol!)

MOT passed - clear - today.....YaY!!

alfaSleep

Which motor mate?

75nut wrote:Which motor mate?

Y'know.....

alfaSleep