Squashed, nearly fixed,...

[wetminkey]

Off to the frameshop this morning without difficulty!


(my bodywork on the 'new to me' hood looks pretty good, huh? 'before' pics in "Squashed,...." thread)

I'll get some pics of the 'stretch' and both repairs in progress,...
NOW we're getting somewhere!
I'll have a GREAT day today! Hope you all do the same.
Todd.

[dinghyguy]

Hi Todd,

nice beauty rings......
How about a spoiler and bumper delete.....or maybe that is not a good idea!
i trust you are putting those orange flames you have always wanted on the car too!
Good luck with "the rack" make sure they don't make it limo length!

cheers
dinghyguy

[focodave]

Best of luck getting her all put back in shape.
Is that an infamous Colorado crack I see in the windshield?

[wetminkey]

Absolutely! 'Colorado Crack' all over that windshield! Ever since I bought it 18 years ago.
Me, and the Fiat,...we got brakes, front suspension, and engine done, and then things kinda came to a halt. So not much cosmetic work (oh, and a Caribou canvas top too,...anybody recall that company?). That was about 2005.
Then lots of hours at work for me, and lots of storage for the Spider,...
As awful as it might sound, I have a whole thread on mouse-proofing the Fiat Spider on this forum (luckily, I was succesful!), due to my poor storage conditions,...
Brady called this morning so that I could come in for some pics. Rear is roughed, and front was ready to pull:



If you blinked, you could miss the whole thing. Took five seconds.
Rear looks really nice. Brady will work the metal a bit more, and leave me the finishing, as per my request.
He expects to have the passenger fender cut, and the new piece jigged up this afternoon, for MIG in the morning.
Compared bodywork 'notes', got a lot of great advice, and saw some wonderful body tools/supplies while I was there!
And (this is the kind of friend he is) he called on a windshield quote from Pro Glass (Greeley),...$185. FORGET Safelite's $334 quote! Friends are a wonderful thing!
I expect we'll be on the way back home tomorrow/Friday. Long wait, but WELL worth it!
YAHOO again!
Todd.

[wetminkey]

Gosh,...first time it's been out on it's own for SO long in eighteen years!

[phaetn]

Congrats, I hope it works well. I've always wondered about straightening on our old cars and how it was done.

Chains through the headlight aperture, apparently.

Hope you're back on the road soon and to your taste with body work and deletes/add-ons.

Cheers,
phaetn

[wetminkey]

The passenger front fender-connector area was 'toast' anyway,...easy to use as a pulling point without damaging anything that we needed to use. And the load can be sustained for a long period to allow the metal panels to return as much as possible to their original shape.
Pull can be accomplished at the hood hinge attachments also. I'll find out where else Brady pulled,...
Brady told me that he was able to reduce the rippling in the upper inner fender apron by about 95%. I hope that he was able to straighten the slight arch in the upper fender rail in addition,...
The 'half a fender' is to be butt welded on with a strap backing plate,...seam sealed and undercoated. I'll complete the finish bodywork.
Touch-up body putty, sanded, primed and painted the spoiler yesterday.
Never had the Spider gone so long,...I'll be relieved to have it back!
Any of you that had a holiday, I hope it was a good one!
Todd.

[wetminkey]

How very nice,...the wizard did good:



And the rear panel contour nicely matches the round edge of the trunk lip again.
The Spider comes home tomorrow,...not that it was missed in the meantime!
Relieved, Todd.

[wetminkey]

Somehow, despite body straightening, the new hinges still placed the 'new to me' hood too far to the rear for a good gap.
I'm going to assume that it has something to do with the used hood and the tight hinges that we had to torch off of it - I'd guess that it's front edge (and hinges) were tweeked upward from it's original shape through use, lengthening it slightly. Remember to lube your hood hinges as necessary!
Anyway, with my two sets of old and new hinges, Brady fabricated a set of hinges with extended mounting plates to set the hinges farther forward. Perfect fit with an equal gap all around the hood!
He'll seam seal the repair this eve, and undercoat the fender. Brady will call me in the AM so that I can arrange with my hauler (a buddy up the road with a trailer) to help me pick up the car.
I'm kinda looking forward to having my Spider home,...
Todd.

[wetminkey]

Brady's MIG repair is so smooth that I don't think I'll need to body solder, I'll touchup with body putty,...it won't be more than a 1/16",...
Nice work.

[wetminkey]

Back home!
None of the old parts fit easily. Arrrgg. But I'm able to 'work' them in,...
Trunk scared me when I couldn't find the release through my cheater hole (lock and release lever not hooked up yet), but I finally got it,...whew! Rear does not need any bodywork, just primer. Brady finished it pretty nicely.
Installed and aligned the hood latch,...it opens and latches closed without difficulty now. Alignment is great.
Stainless steel grill trim appears to fit properly, but the lower front sheet metal needs some tweeks to straighten it a bit for looks and to align it so that the front spoiler can be attached along the bottom. I worked on that for awhile this evening.
I had to do quite a bit of work to get the old headlight bucket into the new 'half a fender'. Those two parts were designed with a very tight fit! Too tight.
I need to raise the front edge of my passenger side cowl slightly (to match the hood edge), and lower the back edge of the same area just a bit too. But this area needed some work before all of this.
Headlight differences side to side, old pics showing an inner fender apron 'ripple' on the passenger side, and the known drivers' side body damage that I'm re-doing right now,...I'd guess that the old hood and my present driver's door were replacements due to an old accident. Maybe even one of the front fender connectors, or a whole fender.
Anyway, soon to be back on the road again.
Todd.

[dinghyguy]

Hi Todd,

glad you're having fun.....must say that the red contrasts nicely with the silver, I look forward to when you are finished and the red goes all the way across! Then you can call the car Rudolph with the red nose......

keep up the good work
dinghyguy

[wetminkey]

That's funny,...
A customer at the bodyshop mentioned the same thing, and I've had a couple of others comment that it looks kinda cool with the red corner. Perhaps for now,...
Brady did his part of the frame/bodywork, and it was time for me to complete my part,...matching the two sides. Spent a good number of hours altering the front lowers.
Here's my complement of highly technical, state of the art, bodytools and equipment:

Turns out, this Spider has been hit a couple of times. I find evidence of pass. inner fender rippling in 2014 photos, when I check them out carefully. That was damage done prior to my purchase in 2000, and not in this, most recent accident. In addition, the driver's side has been damaged (I suspect door replacement), with a serious hit just behind the driver's door - that I have been reworking.
In all, the Spider will now be straighter than it has ever been since before I bought it.
Todd.

[wetminkey]

And here's the final result of the rough bodywork:

Best I could do.
I think my repaired fender is going to give me a little bit of a star-gazer headlight. I think I can shim so it will function fine, but the trim bezel will always look a bit off,...if you look really carefully.

[wetminkey]

Better name for the thread,...