Owning and driving a European Spider myself, I feel both admiring and frightened by the extent of the work on this poor specimen. Fascinating, bravo and thank you!
The sills provide the structural strength for Spiders. You might find that you need to temporarily brace the door openings (weld in the braces) to prevent the car literally folding in on itself.
I agree, I tested to see if the car is bending and if I need to create additional supports so the car does not break in half. I found that the inner sill is solid and the main structural member of the inner sill is present and doing Its job to keep the car rigid, no need for additional supports at the moment. Thank you.
Yes. As a convertible, you want to check the body is on a flat plane so to speak. It would be a rude awakening to weld in all the new rockets to find the doors won’t fit back in.
Don’t worry about the amount of work , it’s gonna turn out really good and it’s gonna be really full filling and satisfying for you once you realise all the energy and love your are putting into this project ! So keep up the good work . From another Alfa owner this is great
Sad that a car ~10 years old when stored had seen that much abuse, but welcome to the ‘70’s. That’s the way it was prior to modern rust proofing and build quality. Glad it’s not worse!
Didn't anyone tell you; Alfa 105s rust for fun. In fact most of them started to rust before they were even delivered 😀 I have one myself and we are always finding more bits to repair. I'm really looking forward to see this project unfold. Please be generous with all the detail. It's great to learn from each other. Best of luck.
I know this is a small channel but I just wanted to say I love it, great content, very few people do this sort of thing with old classic Alfas and it’s nice to see :)
Brave man love the cutting and ripping out rusty panels......I have a similar issue but not half as bad with a P1800s maybe when I retire I will have time to do the same.....I will check out your next video.....removing is always easier then repairing...
Fortunately, there are a lot of good new panels available now. I restore Giulia, Duetto and GTV's as well as GTV6 in my shop Heavy Metal Alfa in Maine. The new rockers and floors from Classic Alfa and EB Spares are Excellent quality!!
Did you brace the car before removing all of those rocker panels? Those are structural elements and the car will sag I think unless it's braced before you cut. I guess you can put the car on a frame machine afterwards to twist it back into shape though.
Oh no, that’s even worse than my Volvo 1800ES. When I bought mine, it looked good, but got worse and worse as I tore deeper into it. Same crap as on yours with scraps of steel brazed in. And covered with an inch of tar undercoat. I’m cleaning out the rust from inside the rockers now. Hey, since yours is a convertible, shouldn’t it be braced with a welded in support so the frame stays strait when you weld in new rockers?
Every car, made by Pininfarina: they all hide more rust, than you can see or expect, even if they look great. This spider isn`t the worst car. pininfarina build the Peugeot 504 Coupe and Cabriolet. My father bought one new in 1979. In 1983, this car had so much rust really everywere, it couldn`t be saved at reasonable price.
Alfa are bad for rust. I had a 74 GTV 2000 in 1987 and rather than chicken wire in yours, the previous owner used the beer cans he was drinking to fill and bog the holes.....
Bro. Please stop saying you bought the cheapest Spider in the USA. I picked up a ‘79 today for $250 (38,000 miles). Last month I got a running, titled ’79 for $1,000 and a couple of months ago I got a Graduate in great shape for $1,000. My average buy price for a running Spider is below $1,000. You paid too much, and you’re making my life hard!! 😋. Can you just say you bought the worst Spider in the US instead? Please?
