Projects

Projects - GTV6 Right front wing repair & right + left front longitudinal chassis beam reinforcement

September 2015: A sick patient with two different symptoms was brought to the hospital. This GTV6 has some metal decay at the right hand front wing. In addition a quite common issue is present. To enhance the road holding many owners are tempted to assemble a stabiliser with a bigger diameter than the factory one. This reduces body roll and has a positive effect on the dynamic behaviour of the car, however what is often forgotten when applying this after market feature is that the reaction forces going to the chassis longitudinal beams significantly increase. As can be clearly seen on this patient the stabiliser attachment on the longitudinal chassis beams is heavily deformed and even completely torn off in some positions. My ample surgical experience will come in handy on this patient ;-)

GTV6 on the operation table to do an examination.

After removing the plastic skirt and mud flap the metal decay becomes clearly visible.

The right hand front wing is as can be seen affected by corrosion, but this is nothing which can't be solved. A repair piece has to be hand made since no repair pieces are available. I always aim for zero filler application and this project is of course no exception. The first item to do is to cut away the rust affected material.

Hand made repair piece together with quite crispy original material.

Section behind cut away area treated with orange coloured anti-corrosive coating.

Hand made repair piece together welded in position resulting in completely flush area.

Right hand front wing repaired and treated with anti-corrosive coating.

The next task to fix the damaged and torn front stabiliser connection. I start with the right hand side, but in the end have to do both sides of course. As the pictures evidently show the deformation is pretty serious. I've seen this issue several times on the Alfetta series and the countermeasure is to increase the material thickness for the section that connects the stabiliser to the longitudinal chassis beams. Also for this repair the sections need to be hand made especially since the material thickness needs to be increased to improve the durability performance.

Right hand stabilizer attachment completely deformed and torn off.

Cleaned up by cutting away deformed material.

Hand made repair piece in preparation.

Hand made repair piece trial fit to car.

Added holes for weld nuts and butt welding reinforcements.

Hand made repair piece welded stabiliser bracket attachment features to base plate.

Hand made repair piece trial fit of stabiliser bracket.

Added holes for butt welding to front section of body.

Hand made repair piece butt welded to body.

Hand made repair piece welded in position and treated with anti-corrosive coating.

Now the right hand stabiliser attachment is ready so it's time to start on the left hand side. The same/similar problems have to be resolved.

Left hand side is less damaged than right, but still improvements have to be made.

Lh-side hand made repair piece in progress.

Lh-side hand made repair piece in progress.

Lh-side hand made repair piece in progress.

Lh-side original material cut away.

Lh-side original material cut away and cleaned for welding.

Lh-side repair piece welded in position and treated with anti-corrosive coating.

Rh & lh-side renewed and reinforced, good for many kilometres to come.

After completing these three items the GTV6 is ready and is released from the hospital for many kilometres to come. All in all a satisfactory end result in my opinion.

Last update: January 8th 2017