1958 Alfa 750B Sprint
 

Good morning, I hope everybody had a good weekend. New member here I thought I’d get started by posting a picture of the car that is in route to me and should be arriving end of this week.

It is an original California Car that was Lester up in 1974 and has been neglected sense. It isn’t quite at the donor level of degradation but it’s not that far off, with the exterior body being intact but the inner trunk and chassis rails being pretty much totally rotted out.

There is a replacement floor panel that more/less fits but the chassis rails and all of that are going to have to be hand formed.
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What the trunk should look like and how it actually does.

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Some more details, with the section in yellow being one of my key challenges. Need to figure out how to form that in a U-shape.

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Fun project.
Antoine and his Karmann project would be very instructive, as the vintage, type of const. and process to duplicate and repair = harmonious. :):)


Channel shapes in arches, curves around trunk openings, and around engine compartments are best done as two shaped angles, scribed, trimmed, clamped, and butt welded. I've also made press dies and shaped the U channels that way but only for polished stainless. (BTW, I think your bumper faces are stainless ...)
Alloy bodies of these are "Quattrofoglio" and I've only seen a couple. :):)


Best to mock up that missing trunk floor with poster board and thin cheap flashing metal that you can snip, fold, bend, beadform and pop rivet to get a real good stiff working floor pattern to work with, so you can add the sides and misc. details onto.

Good morning Kent, thank you for the detailed and helpful reply. I’ve never attempted to make a repair section like that so will get going through the other bill threads in archives, looking forward to learning a new set of metal fabrication skills here.

Hi Tom. Find the thread where the paper templates are. You will probably need it first. Good project.
Watch out for electrocorrosion. Aluminum + steel.

Tom, help us out by reading this thread. https://www.allmetalshaping.com/showthread.php?t=115

Somewhere I have already seen such a lack of floor in the trunk. Several failed filler fireplaces (?) have recently been thrown away. I got the impression that the sheets for the Alfa were made in the inch system.

What a cool project! Love the shape of this car:cool:
For the rust.. Well looks like you took the same strategy as I.. Buying a totally rusted out car as a great exercice to learn the metalshaping art ! Go for it, I am loving it!
For your U-shape: I am no expert, especially seeing the level here, but I would do it in two parts butt welded, just as Kent said!

Keep us updated !

Antoine

Good morning and thanks for the the encouragement.

Hopefully you can see the test picture now - actually showing what I think is being suggested. I found this here, looks like the left/right side of the channel is butt welded in the middle. Is that an example of what is being suggested?

Thanks,

Tom

https://www.allmetalshaping.com/atta...1&d=1617717387