Projects

Projects - 1967 Giulia 1.3 sill & spare wheel well repair

December 2015: A patient from the renowned "105" series arrives to the first aid department. This particular car has some serious issues with the sill on the right hand side and additionally the spare wheel well in the luggage compartment needs some attention. Since the sill is the most labour intensive task I start with that in the hope that things will get easier when progressing the project. Lets see if that will turn out to be a fairytale or not.

The right hand side sill has corrosion issues on the front and rear end. I will start with the front end. After removing the outer skin the inner sill becomes visible, as could be expected also the inner sill is in need of some attention although the section which needs to be repaired is not too big. There are of course some pre-manufactured repair pieces for the popular 105 series but I prefer to make them myself by hand because the fit is usually more precise and I know which base material is used for the repair piece. The time you save on not remanufacturing the section will be lost with the amount of fitting work to make pre-manufactured sections fit properly.

Right hand side sill front side showing some signs of age.

Pealing away the affected section is the only solution.

When brushing clean the inner section of the sill also this requires some a hole to be filled.

Cut away material on inner and outer sill until healthy base material is reached.

Treated a section which can't be reached after welding with anti corrosive coating.

Hand made repair piece clamped in position and welded on the top side.

Sill completely welded and all excessive material removed to create a completely flush surface.

Final step treating with anti corrosive coating.

Now that the front section of the sill its time to start on the rear end of the right hand side sill. Hopefully no expected nasty surprises are lurking behind the already clearly visible rust affected outer skin. Upon removal of the outer skin the brownish looking inner sill appears. A thorough cleaning operation is insufficient to banish the corrosion ghost so a small section will be replaced. The rear end of the sill is more complicated to manufacture because the flange which is part of the wheel well needs to be made and fitting exactly to the remaining healthy material of the wheel well. That operation will be done as a final step when all other sections are completed to avoid weld distortion to affect the fit. This way the sill and wheel well can be made out of one section of material as it was on the car when it left the Alfa factory. Some additional material therefore needs to be added to repair piece to enable the operations required to reconstruct the wheel well flange.

Right hand side sill rear section with clear rust visible.

Same section after cleaning operation.

Cutting away the infected section.

Also the inner section of the sill is affected.

Also here removal is the only viable option.

A nice hole made which needs closing.

Small repair piece trail fit, looks okay.

Repaired and thoroughly cleaned inner sill treated with anti corrosive coating.

Outer sill hand made repair piece under construction.

Quite some folding lines in the zinc coated material to recreate the original curved shape.

Rear end of outer sill with triangular shape to suit cut-out in body.

Trial fit shows no need for rework.

Clamped into position for enabling the welding on top & bottom side.

Welded with nice flush surface as end result.

Next action is to make the appropriate flange shape.

This shape looks exactly as the factory original flange.

Lower section of inner wheel well checked for rot, with a negative result.

Repaired section treated with anti corrosive coating.

The third and final section to repair is the spare wheel well. This part of the car contains several unintended additional ventilation holes. After poking around with a sharp tool it becomes clear that several areas will require repair pieces. The two drainage holes which were made for the painting process in the factory have been joined by some additional holes over the years. The areas which need repair sections are not too big so there is no need to create complicated big curved sections of repair pieces, but a couple of smaller pieces.