Fulvia Sport Zagato body repairs - inner arch to inner wing seal

[libbyvic]

Hi, has anybody any advise on the join between the inner front arch and the inner wing? I have removed the rubber strips that are in place and am left with a raggy edge which can be fixed. Question is, shall just new seals be fitted or join with metal to the inner wings?
Also, if anyone has any pictures of a Fulvia sport restoration so that I xan use for reference as I will be replacing thew rear valance, rear wing mud slash panels and both door bottoms.

Thanks

Michael

[ncundy]

On coupes this joint is welded (inner to outer wing), its always been a mystery to me why Zagato did not. If you can weld them I'm sure it would considerably stiffen up the front end. I know Neal Shepherd has some ideas in this direction - he may be worth contacting.

[Philm]

The gap was created by the fact that Zagato used the standard lower Coupe structure (body in white but no roof). The Zagato body panels did not match the profile of the standard coupe inner wings so the resulting gap was simply tapped over with the foam. To weld the inner wings would have been very time consuming and to add extensions in metal to allow the wings to meet the zagato panels would have been similarly costly, remember they did not plan on the cars being around 30 years later!. I have used aerospace grade Viton rubber sheet and flexible adhesive to create a water tight seal in the style of the original I do know some people have welded extension on and then welded the outer wings to these extensions though. I am just finishing the bodywork on an S2 Zagato and you would be welcome to come and have a look at both that and my running Zagato, I am in Warwick. Regarding the arears you mention, the rear valance is tricky as there are several pieces of metal that all converge around the back of the car both external and structural. The doors are harder than the look, how good are the wings either side of the doors? you need to align any repair panels with the door in place. I have attached some general images and am happy to supply more, I have repaired everything below the swage line except for the front valance.

[lancialulu]

Hi

I restored my 1600 sport 18months ago, and as the inner arches (rear and front) were in such an awful state due to water ingress and a replacement rubber seal some 15 years earlier (looked like conveyor belt!) I took the decision to have new inner arches made to join to the (new) outer arches.

Very tricky and you need to have a good metal man with a gas torch skill that will not distort the outer arches (I can obviously recommend one!). Result is a very strong shell like the coupe.

I had both door skins replaced (for the second time it seems!) and Philm is quite correct that you need to spend a lot of time on swage line alignment to get the beautiful sweep through the whole body.

The restoration also included all front floors (and double skin areas on the bulk head), the Apost where it joins the front wing (a tricky construction that looked like it was bodged at the factory - and when we tore it back consisted of mainly 3 inches of filler!).

I am in Essex if you want to see my sport.

Tim

[zagatoman]

Hi Michael

Did you manage to get all the panels you needed?

Sounds like to are laying into that car with gusto, good luck.

Found a good site with some good pics of someone restoring a Zagato, I found it very helpful.

http://www.forum-auto.com/automobiles-mythiques-exception/section5/sujet385230.htm

All the best,

Paul

[ColinMarr]

Another thought on the origins of the gap between inner arch and wing, and why it was originally filled by foam rubber. My Sport is one of the early cars with an all-aluminium alloy body and I came across this problem when the bodywork was done on my car in the mid 1990s.

When originally built it would have been impractical to weld the steel inner structure to the aluminium wing, as was done with the all steel coupe. And I guess this is why the rubber ‘seal’ was used, and because it worked reasonably well Zagato simply continued with it when the all-steel Sports came along.

With my car the solution was to make up lengths of “L” section plastic pieces that were stuck to the inner wing with some semi-flexible adhesive. It seems to have worked.

Colin

[Philm]

I think the other thing to bear in mind was that this was Zagato's first car with pressed panel work and they would have almost certainly tried to keep the pressings to a minimum so no reworking of the orginal Fulvia base. I think the fact that the original car had aluminium bodywork and it would not be feasible to weld these to the steel inners is very valid this in conjunction with the car being a semi production line based build is the reason I suspect.

[libbyvic]

Thanks all for the great advise. This forum really is excellent! I think I will try to keep the seal flexible as I guess I will need to spray some good waxoyl type into the cavity behind the arch. The plastic L sections fixed with a good bond will do I think.
On the metal welding front, I had a guy lined up and ordered the full set of panels from David Ashworth which should be with me second week September. If anyone can recommend a good metalworking guy to put the panels on in the Northamptonshire area, that would be great.
The car is really solid other than that though, floors, sills, front valance, boot all great. It had had about £5000 at Omicron in 2004 on bodywork so think that took care of the main areas.....
I have taken all the lights, trim and tailgate and bonnet off so its quite clear for bodywork.
Has anyone tried a DIY soda blaster from Frost? Seems a good bit of kit..
Thanks again to all,

Michael

[Philm]

The only trouble I have found with 'use at home' blasters is having a compressor powerful to drive them efficiently. Most home compressors are fine for spot blasting but blasting a panel is not practical. What size compressor have you got?