looking for some opinions.

I'm not sure how I want to handle the rear of the car... I am thinking about making the rear lower panel removable. Let me explain:

the lower red panel here


is spot welded into place. Once the car is together it makes a sealed chamber behind the panel that is a couple inches wide. I see no real drain holes for the panel, yet there are three large vents on the underside of the car that enter this chamber.

If i weld a flat sheet of metal across the large gap above this (the image above) i will have no way to clean and cote the underside of the metal... so it will rust out in a few years. If I make the panel removable, I can weld it up, take the panel off to clean and coat it, then re-install using screws/bolts to make for easy removal if ever needed. To do this, I would need to add a body seam.

I made a crude photoshop of this to show what I mean: its not straight, but you get the picture


if I just weld it all up and there is no seam... I am afraid it will look kinda... flat and not right. I even thought about making the whole rear lower section (2 pieces on the sides and the lower part here) into one big piece that could be easily removed and cleaned/checked for rust.

I have reached the point where I am too freakin tired of dealing with this. Next month I am ordering new sheet metal for both rear inner fenders and the rear valance between the tail lights.

Casaba/Mark, you guys don't have these do you?

If they don't have what you're looking for you can always try these guys:

http://alfaparts.net

I've heard a few guys who have had good luck with their stuff.

Here is what mine looks like in primer. Do you have rust issues with the way it is currently? If not I would really think before putting in a bunch of screw holes which all provide a possible leak point. If you would like a different view please let me know and I will get the picture for you so you get an idea how the oem panels look without the seam.

Took a break from the inner fenders...

Got all the brake calipers off the car (a story for another day) and started on the rear end. Figured I'd just weld in all the repair panels I had already made and see what was left after.









As you can see, the upper lip is rotten and will need some fancy metal work... but overall I am pretty pleased with a couple days work. Once I patch in all the rust it should be good for filler. There was just a little warping near the middle (towards passenger side) but i was able to hammer on it a bit and it should smooth out well with filler. After I get the top lip done I will put the sanding disk to it and smooth it out... and see where touchup welding needs to be done.

Going to be Very fun cleaning the backside of the welds and painting them...

Also, here is an image of my brake lines


This is the only area that looks a little corroded. I do not want to pull and replace the brake lines this summer.., would rather get the car back together and do the brake lines and rear end rebuild next year. I'm tempted to spray some rust killing paint over the corrosion, and truckbedcoat over that... and let it ride for a while. Opinion?

The only thing more important than a good running car is a good stopping car!! Get it while it is readily open.....just my opinion.

hi guys. one of m rockers is in terrible shape. If i buy a new rocker... steel or plastic?

JD,
If you are doing all this work with that Lincoln bang box, you are a true genius!!

I prefer steel over plastic, the cost is not that much different....now a set of carbon fiber panels however would be very cool!!....damn wish I had thought of that earlier!?

I'll tell you this much, whatever I order I'm not ordering it from Mr.Fiat. I ordered some inner fenders (freakin expensive) from them wednesday of last week (i called to make sure they were in stock before i ordered) and they have STILL not shipped. Talk about irritating. I just don't know if its worth $100 to order a new rocker... I could fix mine, it'll just be a huge PITA, lol. I'll likely just fix mine... I'm super cheap after all.

Yea, I love my little welder. I bought it YEARS ago to do some small detail work on other non-car projects. Now it works quite well for what I'm doing. Very easy to adjust, low maintenance. Only problem is it takes 1 pound spools only... so I have to replace them pretty often.

Inner fenders, fixing the rockers, finishing the back end... then body work time.

I am seriously thinking about spending up and finding a group 4 rally body kit... just the sides. Would make the car pretty unique.

I had said i wasn't going to update this till i got an inner fender in. So, here we go.

Since my last post I have completely disassembled my brakes at all 4 corners and rebuilt them. What a task this was... I had zero trouble doing the rear brakes. One of my front calipers had a stuck piston though. The amount of pressure and work i put into removing it was astounding. BUT, i got it out. I cleaned the calipers very well, coated them, and put them back together. Brakes are ready to go on the car.







inner fender waiting to be installed. Both sides came from Mr. Fiat. It came to me with a white coating of some form.... I sanded that down a bit and hit it with primer. Before installing i coated the whole thing with truck bed coating.


rear inner rockers, and one new outer rocker came from wolf body panels. I'm happy with what I got, but I had to cut up about 50% of the rear panels to fit them to the car while the rear quarter panel was also installed. If i had it to do over again, I'd save the money and make these panels myself. The rocker, however, is great.

rear panel and the new rocker... with an old rocker laying in it to show the fit. they are VERY similar and it will be easy to work with.


The inner rocker on the passenger side is a real issue on my car.


Replacement from wolf was only $45.


drivers side rear panel and rear inner fender mostly installed. Still some work to do on them. I filled the whole inner fender margin with seam sealer, pressed and clamped the inner fender in place, then spot welded it to hold it in while the seam sealer hardened. I'll go back in and finish weld parts of it, and seal off the rest.

btw, fresh quality seam sealer burns Great. just an fyi for future reference...






This will give you an idea of where the inner fenders attach on the inside. The new ones eliminate the body seam that appeared to be a major corrosion source


Also finally got some doors!


I rebuilt the other door card also, so now they are ready to go in the car when its done.


Oh, and remember my door issue? They just brazed the skin on and filled it with primer that cracked and made it look terrible



I cleaned all that crap out, spot and stitch welded the whole thing into one single unit.


then rubbed seam sealer into it (with the surface will be brushed clean later) to seal any small openings i missed


I then backcoated the whole inside of this with a good anti-rust primer, then truck bed coating. Should be good to go now, but I will also be hitting it with Eastwood internal frame coat once the car is totally together.

Great to see some progress!!
We all love pictures and progress, even baby steps!! Keep at it!

Maybe crappy door seams are contagious in red Fiats...here us what mine looked like.

how's it coming.. haven't talked to you in a while... making any new progress since the last pics?

i wish... wife has me doing things every weekend now... and im doing 12 hour days most of the time right now at work.