82 spider to restore

[snakeknuckles]

Have spent several hours steam cleaning and air-chiseling. I have found a few areas of rust mainly at the back fenders between the fender-well and the inner body and also behind the stiffener above the top of the fender-well. The plan is to sand blast and chisel to remove all the scaly stuff and then cut and weld. Are any body panels (stiffener) available:



I will sandblast the floor pan and coat with POR 15 as it is in good shape:


A little work to do at the passenger side rear cabin:

Hope to be ready for paint in March...

[SLOSpider]

Your pictures are not showing up. Did you use an image code?

[snakeknuckles]

Don't know why I'm having so much trouble with pics. Hope this one works. looking inside the fender from the tail light to where the rust problem is. I think I can get my sandblast nozzle pointed at effected area, then steam, etch P.O.R.

[RRoller123]

Make sure the pics are only 750 pixels wide, maximum, and the whole image will show. Otherwise it gets clipped off at the right.

[4uall]

there are panels here http://www.autoricambi.us/ and here http://www.alfaparts.net/fiatspider.html

[azruss]

be aware that on the newer cars, the metal is 3 layers thick. just sandblasting the top layer may not be ridding you of rust.

[snakeknuckles]

Tx azruss, 4uall. What is the best way to deal with this intersection, cut it out and sart fresh? I see new skin is available...

[azruss]

I cut mine out, but it very bad. I had a donor fender and spent a lot of time making sure the middle layer was treated as best as possible. I would not sandblast as you will get sand in there that will trap dirt and moisture that you will never get out. better to treat it with a rust converter instead. Cutting it out and replacing is a nasty job. Alot depends on how deep of a resto you want to do.

[snakeknuckles]

I poked around a little more this morning and decided the best thing to do will be to cut out the inner fender well to the standing seam:

Once that is openned up I hope I will be able to see the full extent of the rust. I called Wolf Steel who are really nice but they told to order part# 93404, 93405 from International Auto Parts-done- backordered til April, but I have plenty of other work to do.

[snakeknuckles]

In case anybody wondered what it looked like underneath that driver side stiffener:

I am glad I cut it out as if I left as-was, looks like it was on its way to rusting out the whole fender arch. As it is, the skin is in great shape except at the lower corners. once I cut the passenger side out, it will be time to sandblast the inner wells and then shoot with P.O.R. 15. Parts from IAP will be here in April. It might be time to focus on the transmission... I went to machine shop to discuss motor- He said stock parts are probably best with the turbo- I think he is going to replace head bolts w/studs. He is also going to study increased breathing out on the exhaust with a little increase in boost-target 150hp. It should be fun!

[azruss]

the issue is the wiring harness trapping and holding moisture and dirt. I am thinking of wrapping the harness in that section with flex tubing so there will be space for air flow underneath.

[SLOSpider]

Is it me or is it hard to look at that picture turned that way.

[snakeknuckles]

And now to the passenger side:


Passenger side was a little worse. I believe it all stems from water getting trapped between the little stiffener bulge and the inner fender.

[stpher]

Hi,

Fun job, I have to do the same thing to my 81, Ricambi has the fender lip repair panels for sale but I cannot find the outer inside wheel housing repair panels anywhere. Let me know where you finally get them. My e mail is ricks33@shaw.ca

Good luck with your project. I have already cleaned all the underside of my body down to bare metal, POR-15'd it and then used european texture undercoating over the whole thing. This weekend coming up, I am painting over the undercoating with POR 15 hardnose paint, a 2 part epoxy paint, in the same color as the car. I have to do the metal as soon as possible wherever I strip before rust starts. I am in Vancouver, BC where there is just too much rain and my garage is not heated.

I was lucky, there was just a little rust in the front floor that I welded in some new metal and the rear arches is the worst on the whole car.

Thanks, Rick

[snakeknuckles]

Slow going here with the '82. Just been scraping away stuck on insulation on the floors and doing some walnut shell blasting of places that I will be repainting with POR. Anybody have comments on Auto Tech rust prep? (http://autotechmfg.com/products.html). I was told by IAP that I would get my rear inner fender panels in April.(I ordered them in Feb) Today when I called they said maybe not until June... I checked around and found that Vicks (http://www.vickauto.com/) can order them from the same place as IAP, but has a different ordering policy that guarantees shipment within about 3 weeks and cheaper!