August 3rd 2010: The welded gave his best shot at the left hand inner wing. The rust damage to the left hand inner wing was relatively limited. In order to be safe the material is cut away until a good base remains to weld. The insert which will be welded in section where the material is cut away will be hand made. As can be seen in the pictures below this "art" is mastered well by the welder. The insert is made in such a way that afterwards it can't be distinguished from the original material. After welding an orange coloured protective coating is applied.

LH inner wing hand made insert welded.	LH inner wing hand made insert welded & cleaned.
Just like the rear lights this reversing light is also from the Altissimo brand.	LH inner wing refurbished and treated with anti-rust coating, looks excellent.

August 4th 2010: After the excellent the result on the LH inner wing now the right hand inner wing will receive a treatment. Unfortunately the RH inner wing condition is much more severe than the left hand side. The right hand side is a sensitive spot for all Suds and mine is no exception. As shown in the pictures below the section in the service area is severely affected by rust. Luckily the welder has reconditioned such areas more often so I have no worries that it will be in perfect order once finished. Some material is cut away to find out what the status is. 

RH inner wing with severe rust damage.	RH inner wing with severe rust damage.
RH inner wing with severe rust damage.	RH inner wing with severe rust damage.

August 7th 2010: Today all material will be cut away until a solid base is found to attach the hand made insert to. As expected quite some material needs to be cut away. The hand made insert is started and beginning to take shape. A trial fit is made to ensure the newly made material looks like the original and fits well. Both the inner section and the outer section are hand made and have a very good fit and are in line with the original shape. To be honest this is an amazing piece of craftsmanship!

Material cut away from RH inner wing.	Quite a big hole left after all the infected material has been cut away.
Hand made rail to replace the rotten material.	The newly made rail put in position for welding.
The hand made rail spot welded in position.	Outer section rail work in progress put in position for trial fit.
Hand made rail finished for welding.	Welded rail in position, another fine results.

August 11th 2010: The newly made section for the RH inner wing can't be distinguished from the remaining original material. The welded section is treated with an anti-rust coating. In the service area near the battery several holes were made by the previous owner for the application of the huge main power switch, these will be cut away. Again a hand made insert will be made to fill this gap. The "funny" thing is that the previous owner glued a section of metal material to the section where several holes were drilled for the main power switch.

Finished and treated RH inner wing seen from the engine bay side.	Finished and treated RH inner wing seen from the vehicle outside.
RH section near battery with glued metal plate and several holes.	Glued metal plate and section of material with several holes removed.
Trial fit of new hand made plate.

August 12th 2010: The insert for the service area holes will be welded and treated with anti-rust coating. The result looks very nice.

Insert welded in position.

Insert treated with anti-rust coating.

August 13th 2010: I had a discussion with the welder about the holes in the firewall which are used to fasten the upper section of the Alfa 33 16v stiffener tubes. I wanted to keep them to improve the steering performance due to the increased power of the engine compared to the original 1.2 liter engine. I will keep the 1.5 105 BHP engine and therefore was considering to keep the stiffener rods and paint them in the body colour to make them "invisible". The welder however made a very valid comment. There is no stiff section of the firewall to support the intended function of the stiffener bars so he convinced me to weld the holes in the firewall shut. There is a gap between the firewall inner metal and outer metal so the only result of the stiffener bar in this configuration is to press metal section closest to the engine towards the metal section closest to the service area. If thick spacers would be between the metal sections on the inside and outside there would be a rigid connection and support the function of the stiffener bars. So the task for today will be to close these holes on the engine bay side and on the service area side.

Holes in firewall welded for attachment of 33 16v stiffener bar on RH side.	Holes in firewall welded for attachment of 33 16v stiffener bar on LH side.
Holes in firewall welded shut on RH side on in- & outside and treated with anti-rust coating.	Holes in firewall welded shut on LH side on in- & outside and treated with anti-rust coating.

August 15th 2010: The RH & LH front wings had to be cut loose from the sills at the lower section because the previous owner had welded these sections together. Repairing the RH wing is the next action. Fortunately the welder has an original front wing available to serve as a sample for the restoration work. The rust affected section on the inside of the wing close to the sill is cut away. What a difference already even though it's not completely finished yet.

RH wing at cut section.	RH inner wing affected by rust.
Wing brushed clean & rust affected section cut away.	New material welded in place, neatly done.

August 16th 2010: The RH front wing will be finished today. The result is superb. This wing will be able to be assemble to the to be reconstructed sill as was intended by Alfa Romeo during the desig and manufacturing of the Alfasud. Another perfect end result made by "the surgeon". As a last action the brand new front valance is compared to the current valance. As you can see in the picture below the difference is significant.

RH wing finished & treated with anti-rust coating.	RH wing finished & treated with anti-rust coating on outside.
RH wing finished & treated with anti-rust coating on inside.	Comparison between new front valance and the one fitted to the vehicle. A lot less unnecessary holes on the new one.

Quite some nice results in August. Now it's time for a well deserved summer holiday for the welder. When the project will be proceeded is not quite clear at the moment, but now the most important thing is for the welder to enjoy his summer holiday.