"InfinityAero" (infinityaero) 04/12/2016 at 13:07 • Filed to: Rust, tin worm, weight reduction, welding, fiat 124 spider

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Took off the Chrome Rocker Spears on my Fiat 124 spider to finish up welding some new panels in behind the doors.

It looks just lovely behind the panel!

So....yah.... that’d definitely going to need to be cut out, and will require welding in a whole new panel.

On the plus side, I was able to weld in the 19ga sheet metal quite nicely. Had a couple needle-sized pinholes after I grinded down the excess, but had already returned the wire-welder to Home Depot, so I just filled those two holes with some JB-weld.

Don’t feel too bad for me, after all, it was already a sub-2200 lb car, now it’s even lighter!

Urambo Tauro > InfinityAero 04/12/2016 at 13:15

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How many layers are under that blue? I lost count.

InfinityAero > Urambo Tauro 04/12/2016 at 13:25

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Haha, I’ve had many friends telling me I should leave it unpainted because “the patterns are cool”. As best I can tell:

Bare Metal

Factory Primer

Factory Paint

Respray Primer #1

Non-factory respray

Respray Primer #2

Factory-color respray

Respray primer #3

Factory-color respray #2.

It also depends on the area. Where the paint was pristine, without any bubbling, I tended to find only a couple layers. Where there was bubbling, you see the layer-after-layer approach here. I would guess there was one full respray and a couple sections that were touched up.

Still a lot of good sheet metal, thankfully! I’ve already lost one future classic to tin worm (325iX), I’ll do everything I can to save this one from that fate!

Urambo Tauro > InfinityAero 04/12/2016 at 13:29

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Hey, there ya go, the “folded steel blade” look!

InfinityAero > Urambo Tauro 04/12/2016 at 14:02

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Definitely! That’d be a cool approach, I also like the “intentional patina” thing you can accomplish with the old sheet metal from the 50s and earlier: