Re: rusted sills/floor on GTV6

[trenner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Tim Renner)]

Sebastian Toomey wrote:

>I recently aquired my first alfa, a beautiful (looking) GTV6, about a
>month ago.....

>I began to jack up the front drivers side, my jack carefully placed under
the >jack point behind the front wheel. As I began to raise the car, I heard
a
>funny sound and looked under to notice the jack point slowly pressing
>itself up into my floor pan. Closer inspection revealed that the jack
>point, and in fact the floor pan, was tearing away from the rocker panel
>(sill?)....

The most difficult thing is establishing exactly how much work may be
required, as a reasonable coat of paint hides all manner of sins.In both my
own experience and that of several other people I have spoken to in a similar
situation, once the jacking point has rusted through in an alfetta, there is
a chance that a number of other key places are also rotten: around the front
suspension posts, inside front guards, floor, bottom of the firewall, cawl /
scuttle, A pillars, sills and definitely the hatch. Take the carpets up in
the front to check the floor, run a magnet over the other areas to check for
metal as opposed to excessive body filler, take the car to a club meeting and
scrutinize it (with as much knowledgable help as you can muster) alongside a
good example. For myself, I would not pay a shop to undertake body work on an
Alfetta with significant rust as the cost in New Zealand would far outweigh
buying a good example, but sometimes I have a cold-hearted, accountant-like
approach (which has little place around classics.) I would not be comfortable
driving a car that may be short of metal in some of the places I listed
though. 
Regards
Tim Renner
1967 Super
1971 1750 GT Veloce
erstwhile owner of expensively repaired 1976 Alfetta GTV

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