As a start for 2013 the "Alfachirurg" has found some new inspiration to continue the seemingly never ending welding work. This time the boot will be target to get back into a good condition. The blue coloured spare boot which was brought to the welder when picking up the body in February 2012 is chosen to restore instead of the original boot that came with my car. The original boot had an accident which made the geometry not straight and there is the damage caused by several rusted portions and additionally the holes made for the Alfasud Sprint licence plate lighting. That made the decision between these 2 boots apparently easy. It is kind of frustrating that after all the effort I put into removing the paint and sometimes milimeters thick filler material the choice is made for the other boot, but I trust the welders craftsmanship for more than 100% so this is the way it is going to be for the best end result. Although the spare boot has some severe rust damage near the riveted handle and at a position where the licence plate once used to be the rest of the boot is straight and seems not to have any further rust damage. The riveted handle area seems to be a common sensative area for rust when looking at the Giardinetta's I have seen so far.

20-Jan-13: Cutting out severe rust damage at the handle area .	20-Jan-13: Handle area rust affected material cut-out.
20-Jan-13: Rust affected section at previous licence plate attachment marked for removal.	20-Jan-13: All edges of boot paint removed to check for possible hidden rust.
20-Jan-13: Hand made repair piece for previous licence plate area dry-fit. Fits nicely!	20-Jan-13: The removed material is clearly severely rusted.

The handle area is beyond repair and is cut out as a rectangular section. With the corroded material removed the extent of the corrosion severity can be clearly seen. It is quite amazing how the corrosion can affect local areas of the metal. There are 3 holes in the boot which were apparently used to attached the rectangular shaped Dutch licence plate in the past. The hole on the left hand side and its surrounding area is another severely rusted area. It is almost unbelievable that once a licence plate was fastened here. The areas around the holes are cleaned by removing the paint to check how far surrounding material has to be removed to come to healthy metal material. The area around the left hand side hole is cut out. Now the tough task is to recreate a repair piece with the same curve as in the original material. Luckily the "Alfachirurg" is working on my car and he is able to manufacture such a piece of metal that fits snug in the cut-out hole. Those are the activities for January 2013. Very nice to see activities again after a well deserved break for the welder.