Beretta.net

Welding upside down sucks... I agree with the rotisserie method, that'll be much nicer/easier.

I need to make one for my projects....

you need to start your projects first... LOL

Got the body all stripped and the rotisserie from a friend. Made a couple adapters for the rear and got it in the air. It's a little higher than I was expecting, but welding with gravity on a step ladder is still a lot better than over your head. haha

I also got my spare fender DA'd and off to my painter for a color test. Volvo Code 492 and the stock Code 29 dark blue. See which one I like better.

All the loose change, bolts, and crap that you lost in your car has probably fallen out now...

Big update! Been burning more metal with the car on the rotisserie...cleaning up some ugly from the 6spd swap and the rear end through the back seat. haha

Reworked the Alston SFCs. I was amazed at how much I could flex them when I cut the ends off to remove the subframe. So I built some heavy brackets with a big gusset and put a couple braces on the SFC tubes to the floor bracing to make them stronger. Now it should be just as strong as the Rasmussen/DSE-style connectors without redoing it all. Welded in the Hotchkis plates for the rear sway bar too.





I finished the fab work on the 6spd hump and boxed in the floor bracing I had to cut for the shifter. Probably not an issue anyway given the solid SF bushings, but can't hurt. Also finished fab on the firewall for the clutch master bracket and filling/smoothing, and added an 1/8" band under the cowl seam where there was a lip. Should be a stronger spot to bolt my G-braces to and will look better when I grind & smooth it.




Cut out the metal on the front lower quarter to access the rusted bracing. The pass side was repaired by the previous guy, but they didn't do anything with the bracing. I'm going to get both of those areas blasted when it goes to the blaster next week, and try to re-fab the bracing if I can see how it should have been. I already have the patch panels to close it back up.





There is also a hint of rust at the bottom of the doors. My body guy says it might not even be worth skinning. Have a look and see what you think. The other rusty spot is the heavy gauge toe box up by the subframe mount. Not sure of the best plan to tackle that. It needs to be structurally solid in that area.

Get to it.

Sorry Boner, I don't have a plasma cutter.

Car is at the blaster right now. And I'm taking advantage of the extra room filling the hood pin holes with fiberglass. Fun stuff.

Got my epoxy primer ordered and on the way, so I can spray it after a little smoothing when the bare body comes back. Then it's time for Lizard Skin and some reassembly.

Looks good so far, be interesting to see how it all turns out when said n done

So... when are you coming down to Tennesee to help me put my 91 on a rotisserie and weld in my SFCs?? All the free food/beer you can eat! LOL

Looks very good, tho - Very jealous!

Got the car back from the sand blaster finally and I've gotta admit, I'm disappointed with the job. Looks like they half-assed it. Trying to decide if it's worth sanding it all to bare metal with my angle die grinder or priming over the paint that is there. Obviously the adhesion of the factory paint is very good.

Not much for surprises. Got down to the fiberglass patches from the PO in a couple spots so I can fix it right. Did find a new spot on the cowl to cut up though. Didn't see that one coming.

Sent the boss at the blaster some pics and they are gonna take it back and do it right. Doing a couple patches first. And cut out all the rust in the inner rocker/door jamb area of the quarter.







So I knew the PO replaced the exterior sheet metal at the lower quarter...what I did not find out until just now was they wadded the holy rocker full of bondo. So I cut all of that out too.




I also cut out the rusty part of the cowl panel. Borrowed a friend's cheapo HF spot weld cutter and it worked amazing actually. Very impressed. I put a post in the NastyZ swap meet section looking for just that part of the cowl in case someone had to use just the driver side for something. If no luck I'll just buy one and sell off the other half. haha




Finally got everything I need to finish up the underbody once I get it back from the re-blast job. I will be taking the car back over this week. I've got SPI primer and Lizardskin heat & sound coating.

I took the car back to the blaster and they did a much better job this time. Unfortunately being November in NY...it started to snow about 25 miles from home. I blasted it with air as soon as I got it in the garage and cranked the heat to 80, but I still ended up with some flash rust.

So what's the best way to get rid of it? A scotch-brite pad just gets torn up by the rough surface. I was thinking maybe steel wool? I have some "rust dissolver" and "fast etch" from Eastwood that could be an option too.

Haven't updated this in a while...

A wire wheel took care of the flash rust in no time.



I burned in some bracing in the quarter areas with 16gauge. It's not pretty, but it doesn't need to be.




I saw Kevin Tetz from TV is building a 79Z and I stole his idea where he cut out the firewall wrinkles. Patched it with some 16ga. Used a flanger and overlapped it from the inside. Simple enough to do and should be plenty strong.





Bought a whole cowl panel to replace this little piece. If I hadn't already welded the whole front edge I would have done the whole thing, but now I have 3/4 of it left to sell if someone has a bad spot on the driver side. haha



And I started the filler work. Just finished the short strand waterproof stuff first. Stuff is a bitch to sand. Next step is the rage gold...I hear it sands much better.

Looks great! Awesome job on the metal work. Any updates on your car or truck. (Im over from gmt400)

Nothing lately on the truck. It's gonna need a new set of tires soon...going with Duratracs. Thinking about doing the bottom half of the body in bedliner too.