Ready for spray........ nor not ?
We got this Fulvia S1 car form the steel worker, who did some major repairs to the body. Now the car is supposed to go the the spray painter to be covered in Lancia blu. I am supposed to do the final checkup. The client has a simple requirement: he is happy if I am happy. Now lets have a look what is missing for my happiness:
One of my main worries was the dent in the rear panel. Did the car some some accident ? but how was the panel dented like that. it did not make sense. Now we take the tape measure and what do we find ?
As you can see, one side is 26mm high, the other 27mm high. The at some point the body was squeezed down. There we are we just have to reverse the process:
and all is well again
But now I can to deal with he shape of the llip of the bootlid which also had taken a knock. A few cuts wiht the grinder will allow to reshapoe this again.
>Now we fit all the beadings to make sure it all fits together fine. then it all has to be re-welded
An often overlooked part of the car are the hinges, of which the car has got 8. Non of them has been serviced int he last 60 years, so they do get rusty, especially the boot hinge. But you will not notice it, and you have a large leaver. The force will dissipate into the boot frame, which will gradually weaken and finally crack, letting the water in which will speed up further cracking. Eventually the whole thing comes off as it has happened with this car. Now all 8 hinges have been disassembled, cleaned and greased. The offending boot-hinge had to be opened with an air chisel, a real butchers toy.
Now the fitting holding the right wiper assembly was rusted away. it was solidly put back into place, but sadly way too low
We bought a fancy metal hole-saw in the right diameter to cut the piece out again. The tube did get damaged and needed repair
Then we got all the bits together and but the whole assembly together. Now all fits well, the tube is in the right place, but stop...... we cant weld it on as it is covered by the bezel.
Here it needed a plan. We had to sacrifice a bezel, and cut in 2 windows though which the welding could be done.
And voila, it is all back together and is guaranteed to fit in the final assembly
The battery tray was rebuild very solidly, but with a solid floor, which did not look nice. To make the cutouts with the jigsaw was however a bit tricky.
The bonnet is from aluminum, we dont have the means to weld that. The repair for the front section was problematic as it was not possible to fit the cage nut. To go in with the dremmel was not pretty,l but he only way to do it.
Next, the left door, yes we know, the door is always the worst in terms of fitting. The door line was not acceptable, so out comes the door. if we look with the straight edge, the bottom of the door is not straight. For the sake of sanity, I had to employ a cowboy repair. All in all the door had to be removed twice and refitted, which takes forever every time, but in the wend the door fitted well and I am happy.
