Re: '77 spider troubles

["Paul Irvine" <pi@xxxxxxx>]

Christopher Keen wrote:

>1) Since the old top leaks, some water would run down in the inside of the
>car, down by where the sill and the floorpan meet. I just discovered a
>substantial amount of rust there (unusual place for rust in a spider!), and
>now want to have the floorpan on the driver's side replaced, so that it's
>done right once and for all! I've already got a patch on the hole under the
>gas pedal, so I figure I should look at a long-term solution. Can anybody
>recommend a place to weld this in (I found the pan from re-originals at
>$220), or tell me if you know how much it would cost, so I know what I'm in
>for?

Chris - I recently replaced both floorpans in my Spider and although I can't
recommend anyone or even give you an estimate of what it will cost I can at
least direct you to the webpage I've been developing to document the
procedure.

It's at: http://www.crl.com/~pi/project/restore/floorpan/floor1.htm

It's still a work in progress (the webpage) but it will give you a good idea
of what will be involved in the replacement of your pan. It was quite a task
for me but If you take it to someone who is competent in this type of work,
or possibly has experience with Spiders (if you can find someone) it
shouldn't be a problem. There's a lot of work involved so I wouldn't expect
it to be real cheap, if you know what I mean.

As far as knowing how to work on your Alfa goes... If you've got a place to
do it and have some tools and manuals the only other thing you need is a
bunch of oil, grease and crud all over your hands and face. We all learned
how to work on our Alfas by doing it. There ain't no other way.

When I was learning to work on my Alfa there was no alfa digest. You've got
it made with this. Any important question you might have about maintenance,
repairs or anything else will get you a lot of responses.

You'll probably still break stuff, put it together wrong and have to do it
again and then put it together wrong again - just like I did...

Paul Irvine  - Antioch CA
72 Spider - 79 Sprint Veloce - 82 GTV6
- ---------------------------------------------
Project Alfa - http://www.crl.com/~pi/project
E-Mail - mailto:pi@domain.elided

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