Stuff I bought to do my floors. ~$22 total

Decided to take a little break.

Some images from so far today.

Terrible convertible top is out. One of the screws holding it in was stripped out. That was fun...


Getting ready to clean and look for damage








whoever "fixed" it last, welded on the other side and didn't bother re-coating and seam sealing this side. Now I get to fix their mistakes...




see the seam where they welded in new metal? Terrible


As I mentioned earlier, I thought someone had replaced the driver side rear quarter panel. This is now confirmed! THEY LEFT THE PACKAGE SLIP ON THE PANEL!



There was a nice rusty spot underneath after removal. I wonder how long they warranty their work? Wish there was some way I could date the slip. I assume it is simply 1979-1985 though. Funny that a fiat dealer did such a half ass job!

Funny that a FIAT dealer did a half ass job? I'm laughing... if the dealer network had been worth a s**t they would have never left the country.

Am I correct in saying this should be pre-85 Brad? Or did Fiat still have a parts distributor around past that point?

Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't that say Ford?
As in the part was shipped to a ford dealer?

My understanding was that Fiat dealers were a part of other major dealers at the time... and this is from Fiat North America to a car dealership. I have to assume this is a dealer that serviced fiats?

Dombrockt wrote:FYI, Rockauto.com has replacement sheetmetal for these cars. I picked up a drivers side floor pan for $50, shipped. Not the most beautiful piece I have ever seen, but should do the job.

Rockauto shows floor pans for "Fiat 124" - doesn't say Spider anywhere. Are they Spider floor pans? Did Fiat import the 124 or only the spider version of the 124?

Dealership body shops will fix anything; e.g. the best Mercedes paint job you can get here is at the Honda dealer's body shop. So having a Ford place do a FIAT panel isn't uncommon. And yes the Ford dealer could have been the FIAT dealer. FIAT had few dedicated dealerships, most were shared with a major brand. A huge mistake along with Peugeot, Citroen, Triumph, Alfa Romeo...

But I digress. Body shops then and now don't have much incentive to do anything right or show quality, etc. They get paid to do things quickly and cover up the problems. Most repairs outlive the person who fixed it, so what do they care?

That style of label started showing up in the middle 1970's when FIAT went to the block style in all of their literature. Contrast a 1969-1973 shop manual with a 1976 shop manual and you'll see what I mean, or look at the service letters I have on my website. You'll see that CAD style block starting around '75. The only way to date a fender is the cutouts, because FIAT used the same fender from 1969 - 1985. Spider 2000's, for example, had cutouts as you can see in the picture in the FIatSpider.com banner; Euro cars had round cut outs. Some years the bumper holes moved. And so on.

And don't forget this was not the age of just-in-time inventories; FIAT made a few zillion panels as spares and they lasted as long as they lasted. Once they ran out and some demand started, they'd start another run. Hence people waiting months for parts back in the day; FIAT had no concept of inventory management or quality control. They have to be the only car brand to ever have better service and parts AFTER they left the country and sold all of the parts to independents and parts dealers. Well, except for Peugeot, Citroen, Triumph, Alfa....

And don't forget this was not the age of just-in-time inventories

Ain't that the truth.

My brand new 3 month old 72 Spider sat in the dealership's yard for 30 days waiting for a new brake booster. And this was in NJ a few miles from their headquarters. They said it had to come from Italy. Finally, after daily phone calls to the owner, they promised to take one off a new car in the lot if it didn't show up in a week. It finally arrived.

And that was my only car.

Some images from today:









nasty,... Thanks ford dealer


Cleaned up a bit


making some panels




There will be another panel replacing some of the inner wheel lining here, thus why it is just flat.


This will go over the hole, and be welded together on all sides. I'll hammer the part that sticks out on the bottom flat and weld it in also. Got to tack it together and test fit the rocker first though... and repair the big hold you can see underneath it.


So whoever had the car before me overtightened the lug bolts on the wheels. Took several feet of bar to get them loose. Look where the wheel was bolted to the hub Hope nothing internal was damaged....



Check out the epic brake disk!
up to a couple mm of depth on those ridges! (this is the wheel that barely turns.)

Worked on the car a bit more today. Cut out more bad panel in the unibody, and started welding in bracing. Found a few more surprises also...

First body repair done. Btw, THIN metal here.



Cut out the rotten section here, and just welded in a flat plate to keep it strong (plate not shown). I don't care how it looks, just want it functionl.


inner subframe... trying to figure out how to clean this. I know I'll be coating it with eastwood internal frame coating though


discovered that the ford dealer also had the bright idea to pump what appears to be silicon of some form into the HUGE gap they left when repairing the fender... NICE rusty mess found behind it.


Opened up the inner fender to see what was going on... its not pretty. Not sure what I am going to do here.


Other side is as bad or worse. Trying to decide how to handle this...

a: I could pull the whole rear quarter panel off and clean it up. BUT, I am really nervous about this... and feel like I'd do more harm than good. I doubt I could line it up right after it comes off.


b: I could cut out a large section of the inner fender lining and clean everything up from there... then weld the inner fender lining back in.

Anyone have comments or suggestions?

Kinda discouraged...

I went with option B personally...depending on how big the inner fender section is you could ind a replacement inner fender from IAP or elsewhere and either replace the whole thing (LOTS of work and being very careful with alignment) or cut out the section you need and replace. You may also find it easier to buy a new outer fender rather than cut the rust out and patch (it's a tricky shape to make up a new panel for from scratch).

I feel your pain - don't give up though!

JD,
You have been doing amazing work! Don't get discouraged now! Take a break if you have to, or redirect to a task that is equally important but not as daunting, and come back to the rust in a day or two. I have had to do that many times.
Keep up the good work!!

Yea, I basically decided to order one of the new texas heat aluminum radiators at the beginning of next month. That will let me take down the whole engine bay, re-spray it, and rebuild it to "new" look. I'll also be installing the 34adf when that happens.

I've got rust all in my actual rocker panels and the rear lower panels also. That is pretty easy patch work, and I can go ahead and start getting them ready for paint.

On my body rust: I've basically decided to cut out large sections of the inner fender lining. Having it out will make life MUCH easier... and allow me to kill all the rust hiding in there.

Funny, after I did my floors I said to myself: "No More welding while laying on my back."

Wrong.

cut out the inner fender today. In all honesty, its not as bad as I thought. There is rust, but its not super deep and won't be terrible to fix.

Funny, the guys that installed the parts only welded the lip on in 3 places. Made it easy to take off, but I predict this is the reason for all the water damage.



the reason it didn't fit right, is because they wedged the wiring loom into it when putting it all together. You can see where it sat here


some rust, but not that bad in reality.


Will be needing some new metal here


upper lip looks solid