Squashed, nearly fixed,...

[pantera928]

Well, mine did not look that good as a red spider with a blue fender front piece. Wish I could MIG as well as your guy does. Got it done and now looks good all painted but a great welder I am not.

[wetminkey]

Lots of hours of hand sanding and an occasional layer of body putty has resulted in my completing the rear panel, getting really close on the left rear fender lip contour, and making the 'half a fender' look like it belongs to this car.
Primed and painted that rear panel this afternoon,...

And I 'refurbished' my rear emblem for re-installation:

We're getting there,...

[wetminkey]

Fashioned a metal, replacement trunk release lever (out of a part of my damaged stainless steel grille surround) to replace the broken plastic one. Installed and tested this afternoon,...works perfectly, won't break.
And, pantera928, that's why I waited FIVE months for my bodyguy to do this work! Look at that weld! And strengthened with a backing plate. Just beautiful.
Todd.

[focodave]

Coming along very nicely, Todd.
Cannot wait to see your car on the road!

[wetminkey]

Butt is done,...bodywork/primer/silver. I'll finish the re-assembly tomorrow AM. I had to deal with an area of light surface rust below the driver's tail light,...
And I'm this far with the front:

But I'm finding out very interesting things about 1979 front fenders, their different headlight mountings and their contours,...
Todd.

[wetminkey]

Yup. There's a flare to the upper edge of the headlight area that is not present in the older, pre-1979 fender,...along the "brow". There is also an addition to the outer edge of the fender, where the outer corner of an eye would be. Interesting how the Italians molded the fender into the extension that contours to the front edge of the hood (I call it the 'horn').
Anyway, the fenders 'look' the same, but are not,...
If I had not been pioneering this, perhaps I'd have used body soldering, and laid tin into the areas I needed to build up, but I think I can do this without much thickness, so I'm using polyesther putty to enhance the contours of the passenger fender.
Pics of the two different fenders (nearly side by side) can be seen in "Plastic headlamp rings" in "Fiat Spider Related". Old is red (pre-1979), silver is 1979 (factory for this car).
Coming out pretty well using a lot of very thin layers,...not an easy contour to duplicate.
More soon, Todd.

[wetminkey]

Here's where we're at right now,...nearly done.
Looking very Spidey-like!

Primer and paint soon,...if there's some improvement in the weather.
Todd.

[wetminkey]

Here's that finished butt:

Placed the new plastic grommets for the license plate screws today,...and I placed a rubber plug in the 'trunk release' hole.
Todd.

[TonyS]

Back home!
None of the old parts fit easily. Arrrgg. But I'm able to 'work' them in,...
Trunk scared me when I couldn't find the release through my cheater hole (lock and release lever not hooked up yet), but I finally got it,...whew! Rear does not need any bodywork, just primer. Brady finished it pretty nicely.
Installed and aligned the hood latch,...it opens and latches closed without difficulty now. Alignment is great.
Stainless steel grill trim appears to fit properly, but the lower front sheet metal needs some tweeks to straighten it a bit for looks and to align it so that the front spoiler can be attached along the bottom. I worked on that for awhile this evening.
I had to do quite a bit of work to get the old headlight bucket into the new 'half a fender'. Those two parts were designed with a very tight fit! Too tight.
I need to raise the front edge of my passenger side cowl slightly (to match the hood edge), and lower the back edge of the same area just a bit too. But this area needed some work before all of this.
Headlight differences side to side, old pics showing an inner fender apron 'ripple' on the passenger side, and the known drivers' side body damage that I'm re-doing right now,...I'd guess that the old hood and my present driver's door were replacements due to an old accident. Maybe even one of the front fender connectors, or a whole fender.
Anyway, soon to be back on the road again.
Todd.

Same thing just happened to me today. I haven't been able to figure it out. how did you open the trunk?

[wetminkey]

It can be searched on this forum, but the secret is to draw a line diagonally from upper license plate screw hole to opposite lower license plate screw hole. From the "X" in the center, measure up one inch. Drill a minimal hole (one you can fit a screwdriver into). Insert the screwdriver straight into the hole and sweep to the right. You'll feel the mechanism,...push down on the trunk to ease the turn of the latch.
All the best luck in repairing your Spider. I was heartbroken and sick when I saw mine, squashed. But damage was less than I expected, and repairs have gone very well. I wish the same for your car! Please keep us informed on your progress. The forum is here to help!
Todd Compton.
P.S. Check out the photo of the rear of my car, you can see the small hole in the center of the rear panel.

[wetminkey]

The front end will always be off a little bit because the old and new 'fender connector' portion of the front bumpers are slightly different.
Changed in, or around, 1979, the older fender connectors had a larger headlight area (the Fiat's "eye"), and a fuller skirt in front of the tire. In the latest pic of my Spider's front end, you can see how the passenger fender (with the older 'half a fender' repair) 'eye' has more area below the headlight than the driver's side,...
Hard to notice, bumper will hide the skirt.
Kinda like every woman I've known,...one side a little bit larger than the other.

[wetminkey]

BTW, I nearly forgot to mention the replacement trunk release 'rod' that I fashioned from my damaged grille surround stainless!
I used the old, crushed grille surround and hacksawed a strip (patterned from my old plastic replacement that broke in the accident) from a remaining straight portion of it. Added a hole to each end, and it now attaches the lock lever to the trunk release, just like the plastic piece of garbage that is sold to replace it. EXCEPT THIS WON'T BREAK!
Always engineering,...
Todd.

[wetminkey]

Here's the Spider's front, so far:

'New to me' bumper mounts (with perfect bumper shock clamps!) and pretty 'nose chrome' from Aspen Import Autos today. Perfect used parts for my car! Soon to be back on the road again,...
Todd Compton.

[focodave]

Wow!
Looking really good...

[wetminkey]

Thank you, sir! Nice to hear,...
Finalized cowl/fender/hood alignment yesterday. Primer to the hood and lower front today. Still have some minor stuff to do to the passenger headlight area before primer.
I think that Brady and I have got 'er straight. But because of the differences in the lower 'skirts' for the older and newer fenders, this Spider will always be a 'B' cup on the driver's side, and a 'C' cup on the passenger's!
Todd.