Josh's FIAT 1500 Cabrio

5/26/2004: Rocker Panel Rebuild 2

Well, i’ve been out of town for a while, and haven’t really done any work on the car. However, there has been some progress at Enfield Auto Restoration on my car.

I stopped by today to check it out. They’ve opened one side up to get a feel for what kind of repair will be needed.

The good news first- the top part of the inner panel is solid, as is the jacking point. The bad (though not unexpected) news though, is that the rust perferation extends along the whole bottom surface of the inner panel. It will have to be cut partway up and separated from the seam on the bottom, then a replacement fabricated and welded in.

Here are some photos I snapped:

As you can see, the whole bottom surface is full of holes.

They’ll probably start repairs on this side in the next week or two. I’ll try to get more photos as it progresses. The other side will be used as a template to form new outer panels. Once it’s complete, the passenger’s side can be rebuilt in the same way.

I imagine this will take some time, but I’m not in a huge rush- I still need to paint and reassemble the new subframe, and I have plenty of engine work that could be started.

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