body work - seamless

Danno · Post by **Danno** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 9:49 am

Has anybody actually bondo'd up all these seams on their Fiat? I've decided to go bumperless and I think it'll require smoothing everything up. Will there be a problem with doing that? like how much independent movement is there between those pieces? and that place on the rear, i'm assuming it's a route for water, think I'd have any problems if I smooth that out too?

mdrburchette · Post by **mdrburchette** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 12:42 pm

The ones on top of the quarter panels will crack if they are filled, due to body flex. It also routes the water into the trunk channel. The bottom quarter panel can be easily removed by removing bolts so it wouldn't be a good idea to bondo them together.

Danno · Post by **Danno** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 12:59 pm

mdrburchette wrote:The ones on top of the quarter panels will crack if they are filled, due to body flex. It also routes the water into the trunk channel. The bottom quarter panel can be easily removed by removing bolts so it wouldn't be a good idea to bondo them together.

Darn, that's what i figured. anyway. it just looks bad (IMO) to have all those stupid seams everywhere. functional I realize, but ugly nonetheless. I wonder if there is a good way yo incorporate the seam, like some racing theme with color on top and black on bottom or something like that.... I just know that when my bumpers are gone it's gonna look 10 times worse unless I do something about it. and I have to make these decisions before i paint. and i'm starting on fixing all the yucky damage this weekend....

Joe Clemente · Post by **Joe Clemente** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 11:14 pm

Dan,

Those factory panels and their seams have a specific function, as stated already. Eliminating them wouldn't be a good idea for practical reasons. I suspect you'll find though that once you've finished the body work, cleaned the car, given it a proper paint job, a nice set of wheels and maybe lower it, those seams will hardly matter.

Cheers,

Joe

Mad-Machine · Post by **Mad-Machine** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 8:34 am

I agree with Joe. If you stand back and look at your spider as a whole, you will discover that those seams run from nose to tail as part of the design.

They start at the front valance, under the bumper, run up past the grill and onto the hood/fender seam. They then travel where the cowl meets the fender, flow along the chome trim on the doors, and then down over the rear panal of the body, the trunk/fender seam, and down into the lower rear valance.

If you ever look at the abarth 124 spider, the black sections followed that seam

Danno · Post by **Danno** » Mon Feb 13, 2006 1:10 pm

Mad-Machine wrote:If you ever look at the abarth 124 spider, the black sections followed that seam

And i've kinda been trying to decide if that paint scheme might be cool....still not sure about that yet.

v6spider · Post by **v6spider** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 4:23 pm

I would not use bondo to fill the seams as it will crack over time. I have MIG welded the seams on the first incarnation of V6spider and have found from personal experiance that this is something I regretted later because it makes it difficult to remove a panel or to repair damage that could occur during a wreck. The only other function they serve in my opinion is that they were necessary evil during the manufacturing process. Weld them if you want but realize later that they will only complicate disassembly if needed when making repairs.

Danno · Post by **Danno** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 5:04 pm

well, now I'm working on making it badgeless. Got all the badges removed and the front is smooth as can be already. need to get the rear trunk all fixed up and the little holes from the side badges taken care of.

What do i take care of those little holes on the sides with? Bondo will take care of the indents on the hood and trunk, but I'm not comfortable with trying to bondo those little holes. I don't have welding supplies here, so I was wondering if it would be a good solution to fill with solder or maybe someone has a better idea for a DIY soluiton that doesn't involve welding.

spiderblood · Post by **spiderblood** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 12:15 pm

Hi, I have closed those seems before and theyhave lasted for 4 yrs now without cracking. The surface has to be prepped well.

Danno · Post by **Danno** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 1:11 pm

spiderblood wrote:Hi, I have closed those seems before and theyhave lasted for 4 yrs now without cracking. The surface has to be prepped well.

I'd love to see pictures! you have any?

spiderrey · Post by **spiderrey** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 1:23 pm

a guy over here had them all welded begore he painted his 73. looked great but i told him repairs would now be a pain.he has been trying to sell it for a long time. price keeps going down. thing is his wheels are brand new, but the r ugly. and he painted it flouresent yellow, bad idea. besides being an awful color. the suns already fading it. it rarely ever gets driven. has a 1608 with webers and a beautiful interior. i should really go look him up.

brad131a4 · Post by **brad131a4** » Wed May 17, 2006 12:54 am

I'm not to sure but this might work. If you look at the seam in the back there is seam sealer in there . Its like thick glue that gets hard but is still plyable and will take paint as you can see. I was doing some work on a scout and found that you can sand it smooth after its dried and when you prep it for paint the seam disappears. I don't know how well it would hold up as it was just a experiment to see if it would work on a piece that had been taken off the scout. I was going to try it out on my car as I'm going to repaint this winter if given the time to do it.

racydave · Post by **racydave** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 6:05 pm

one thing is if you heat up the sheetmetal with mig, tig, or torch, you will probably attract rust to these areas. I thought a neat approach few people do is lead, but then you have heat, probably less than other methods. would a front spoiler help?

ICF · Post by **ICF** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 8:11 pm

I too have had a few of the seams filled- rear cowl & front verticle seams under the grill. And the lower air intake is filled too. (Yes, I'll be paying extra attention to the temp. gauge!) Pic.s soon.
-Jerry

North Texas
white '81 Fiat Spider
tomato red '76 Fiat Spider (converted to FI)

jerryleephillips@yahoo.com

emlo · Post by **emlo** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 4:14 am

I was intending on welding up the seam on the last one of your pictures. This was done on the original racing Abarths (to strengthen the body I assume). However, when I started sanding the area around the seam I found there was a lot of lead there, which I suppose is the way the car was build originally. Anyway, the lead would have made it hard to weld so I decided against it. Then my friendly auto-painter decided to bondo the seam without telling me and though it looked nice right after the paint job was done, the seam started cracking the second season after painting and now it looks pretty bad..
Good luck!
Emil

body work - seamless

body work - seamless

Seams are gone