Steel quality

[weekend warrior]

Thought i'd start a new thread on this rather than continue to hijack the bumper one.
Is there any hard evidence that the steel used by Fiat sourced from Russia was inferior?

[djape1977]

something did happen with fiat's bodywork in the beggining of the 80's.

i currently have one 131 from 1982 and one from 1975. older one is in much better shape. no rust on doors, fenders, bonnets, while one from 1982 had rust in all of these spots. i also went to see another 1982 131, exactly the same car as mine apart from colour, garaged all it's life, 55k kms on the clock and it had rust in exactly the same places.

i also had several ritmo's (strada for US market) over the years, and one that was the worst concerning rust, from 1984, actually had zinc plated body. it was a parts car i bought for pennies, 300k on the odometer, it was so horribly rotten that drivers seat was poking tru the floor and if you'd put a spare wheel in the trunk it would soon end up back on the road. paint was peeling on roof and bonnet and you could clearly see zinc uderneath it.

i imagine it had something to do with manufacturing process, rather than russian steel. fiat had made a deal with USSR to sell licence to make a 124 sedan back in 1968, and making of Lada had begun in 1970. i think that it would have shown from the beggining on fiats of the era, serious rust issues would have started right away, not on cars made 10-12 years later.
or maybe russian steel was good in first several years and then detiriorated in quality? who knows?
also, from owning 5 ladas over the years, i can tell you that ones from 70's and early 80's were superior to fiats when it came to rust, or better said, a lack of it. i currently have a lada 2103 from 1979 (google it, pretty much a clone of 124 special) with 160k on the odometer, and it's in far better shape than my 131 from 1982 with 136k. maybe russkies kept the good stuff for themselves?

one thing you immediately notice while working on those cars is that paint layer is very thin and there's no paint, sealant, wax or any kind of coating on inner surfaces. if they were rustproofed from the factory as we do now when we restore them, there wouldn't be a need to weld anything.

all in all, if there's anyone willing to do serious analisys of steel used in fiats, i'll supply samples from pre-ruskies era and during it free of charge

[weekend warrior]

So all those comments blaming russian steel are heresay?
Is it a USA vs USSR thing??

[djape1977]

i don't see what does USA have to do with it. very few fiats were ever sold in northern america. less than 10% of production definately. 124 spider was popular in US, but the same story is told for 131, 132, argenta etc, of which some have never been sold in US.

IMHO, it's a story that fiat fans like to believe rather than to blame the rust problems on manufacturing process or technical solutions of their favourite brand.