I stand at the crossroad, patchwork Duetto

[LaStregaNera]

Yep, that's exactly what I grind, it's very easy to grind the spike using the corner of the grinding wheel. Self taught from looking at one that I bought that tore a corner off on the 10th or 12th spot weld I drilled.

[LaStregaNera]

Bump?

[Craig_m67]

I got distracted by... stuff

Did a bit of digging around in the Duetto sills and have decided to replace the middle (and outer) at the very least. It's probably just as easy to replace the inner (ie. all three) at the same time, never have to think about the construction again.  Will see after Christmas.

Need to brace the car for significant surgery in anycase.





Found a really rusty 6 or 7mm ring spanner, 25cents, a bunch of gum leaves and full dustpan of rust/dust in that sill. It's quite solid in the middle but front quarter is toasty.

We can play "spot the original" metal when I'm finished. Won't be that much 


The outer sill was in better condition than the inner sill, note the perforations that the wire wheel very quickly uncovered. These cars rust from the inside out !!

This chassis has far to much rust to fix.

[Craig_m67]

Kinda stopped work on the body as I want to replace the middle sills, which I don't have at the moment. In anycase I do have all the suspension gubbins so thought I'd make a start on that.

Rear trailing arms, original (Duetto) smaller front bush. Still a pig to remove however once I committed to the path of the metal saw and cold chisel it was all over very shortly.




Most of the easy paint removed (I can confirm plasticky satin chassis black original paint)





Couple of coats of etch primer and then satin black epoxy. After all that hard work I'm not that impressed really.  I could try 2pak gloss black or get it all powder coated (wonder how much that will cost), appreciate this is a can of worms so anybody got an opinion ??

[Craig_m67]

Changed the satin black for oven baked charcol metallic epoxy.
Looks great in the sun and doesn't chip or marr.



Sills are in. Ordered Friday delivered Monday 7pm. Fantastic supplier !
Anything else now required is made of unobtanium and will have to be hand crafted by virgins (yes, it's been that long).

[Craig_m67]

It's bracing weather.. for sills.

90x8mm plate which will be bolted flat and tight to the car with 75x50x3mm wall RHS. Will do both sides and triangulate between them, perhaps drop some cross pieces to the floor rails.

There actually isn't that much holding the sills to the front of the car. The front inner side bulkhead that goes in tween the middle and inner rail is toast, as is the firewall where it connects to the sills. I'm surprised it hasn't come apart already. The back is suitably complicated being a Duetto with a double layer floor and some additional fillet bits that have all caught rust and need to come out. Hopefully the car won't fold in half, one side at a time.

Nothing welded or cut yet, still considering my bracing and perhaps welding in a jig for the inner sill height.





All comments (even in fun) welcome.

[Colin Byrne]

uprights look good, was that a home job or did you get it done professionally? did you consider powder coating?

[Craig_m67]

Cheers Colin,

Home job, I was planning to get everything done in satin black powder coat and had started to clean up and wire wheel most of the bits so they could concentrate on the details when blasting, ended up having a play with some metallic charcol epoxy spray paint (wattyl Bunnings) and baked it in the oven for a bit ... It actually looks great and is super tuff. I did one of the rear control arms too but now wonder if it's all a bit to bling (I'm over thinking it like the bracing for the sills, just need to crack on).

[Craig_m67]

More baked goods

[Craig_m67]

original NOS (blasted and repainted black for protection) front inner chassis rail and outer chassis rail/skirt. The inner (smaller) piece is an original Duetto part (apparently). In any case I only need the curve at the front as mine is rusted out and bent From under the battery forward.

.... here endith my collection of NOS parts (and reproductions from ClassicAlfa) for every last bit of twisted or rusted metal on my Duetto. I think I'm up to 33pieces. Time to re assemble so I can rock her again like EZEE and Pancho..

Merry Christmas (yay!!)

[pancho]

Great to see progress Craig - don't lose sight of the end game !

Best of luck and I look forward to seeing this metalwork back on the car !

[GG105]

Great work Craig. Don't get too despondent, we had to make all new sills, front sill braces and floors, among other things, like repairing the boot floor, so we didn't lose the Pininfarina number near the latch for my 1965 Spider Veloce.

You're right, they rust from the inside and they are all rusty.

[Craig_m67]

Holy thread resurrection Batman!

The pace is beginning to pick up, nothing like bringing in the professionals.

Car is jigged and square (within spec)
Rear (and front) clip have been removed to ensure all rust is attended to and new sills (all) are fitted and tied correctly to the body.
I'm glad we went to this extreme, even though there is nothing horrible in here we can at least blast, epoxy prime and seal everything before the outer goes back on again.
(which may mean i need to make a colour decision earlier than expected; current Misano Blue vs Farina Red)

All sills (inner, middle, and floors) go in over the next few weeks.
Then the front end gets rebuilt

..... it's only been seven years.

[GTV-074]

great to see some progress again.

Gee seeing her all naked so to speak, just emphasizes how complex that little body is!

Cheers,

Paul.

[17fitty]

I'm blown away at how good this duetto is Craig-amazing for its age.Ive been watching with keen eyes