Projects

Projects - 1998 Tipo 916 Spider 3.0 V6 wheel well, sill & floor repair

June 2016: The Tipo 916 GTV & Spider showed a quite different design from the previously known GTV & Spider vehicles. The wedge shaped body was designed by the renowned Enrico Fumia as head designer of Pininfarina. Enrico Fumia was also responsible for the design of the Alfa 164 during his period at Pininfarina. This particular 916 Spider vehicle equipped with the wonderful Busso 3.0 V6 is suffering from some excessive corrosion. Several areas need repairs to become healthy.

As a starter the right hand side front inner wheel well will be targeted. The corrosion found in this area near the brake hose bracket is not uncommon. The Alfa 145 / 146 and Alfa 155 from the same era regularly show similar / same issues. When cleaning this section some more corrosion damage appears. The only effective way will be to cut out a larger area and replace the cut out section with a hand made repair piece.

Section at right hand side front inner wheel well with some rust damage.

Rust affected material in right hand side front inner wheel well cut out.

Handmade repair piece welded in position, created factory original shape.

Small section near jacking point which also requires some mending.

Section near jacking point reconstructed into factory original shape.

The second item to take a look at is a section of the left hand side sill which clearly shows rust damage. No other way then to replace it with some fresh material. The rust is available on the inside of the sill as well as on the outside. Since there's no repair material available and if available from a fit point of view not the best option I will make the repair pieces by hand by myself.

Left hand side sill seen from underneath the car, quite crispy.

Left hand side sill seen from outside, not looking very much better.

Pealing infected material from left hand side sill, seen from the outside.

During pealing operation of left hand side sill extent of damage becomes clear, seen from the inside.

Hole in sill after rusted material removal, seem from the outside.

Hole in sill after rusted material removal, seem from the inside.

Vertical wall of left hand side sill repaired.

Hand made repair piece for sill, rectangular hole for skirt and round holes for plug welding purpose.

Hand made repair piece welded into position and excess weld material removed.

Sill with nice flush surface looking healthy again.

The third and final item to attack is the floor. When looking at the car from underneath several clearly visible sections are present which require repair activities. In order to make a decent judgment on the extent of the damage the under body coating needs to be removed at those sections which show evident damage. That's a nasty job I can do without, but there's no way around it unfortunately. In addition there's also a section on the right hand side sill which requires some attention. Lets start and see what appears during the repair activities.

Floor section in need of attention & potentially sill as well.

After cleaning sill appears okay, rusted floor section cut out.

Hand made repair piece for floor. Holes are for plug welding purpose.

Repair activities in progress.

This particular floor section solid again.

Detail of repaired floor section, factory original shape reconstructed, only a bit more solid ;-)

Another section of the floor looking just as crispy as my cornflakes at breakfast.

Seen from the other side it doesn't look any better.

No other way then to remove a quite large section from the floor.

Removed section of floor will serve as a sample for the repair section which is to be hand made.

Trial fit of hand made repair piece for floor, no adjustments required.

Another repair piece welded into position.

End of sill in decay.

After cutting away the inner wall the corrosion damage is even more clear.

Rust affected material at end of sill cut away.

End of sill vertical wall reconstructed.

End of sill as solid as a rock again in factory original shape.

At the rear end of the sill a very similar looking rust damage pattern.

Rust affected material removed seen from inside the right hand side rear wheel well.

Rust affected material most removed seen from underneath the car.

And yet another section of the sill repaired.

After poking around with a screw driver yet another questionable section on the right sill.

Rust affected material removed and trial fit of hand made repair piece.

Front end of right hand side sill sick material removed.

Removed material along with newly made section, which one do you prefer??

Add text.

After completing these sections the car is ready for releasing from the operation table. It will probably not return for these issues for the rest of its lifetime.

Last update: August xxnd 2017