The pace of the welding activities is getting higher. At the end of April some significant repairs were made and the geometry is starting to look solid again. As it suits a meticulous craftsman the "Chirurg" looks at the boot in all its details to ensure a healthy part rolls out. The lower section of the window frame is a notorious weak spot for the Giardinetta's. The blue spare boot is no exception to this rule although I must say that I have clearly seen worse examples. The original boot of my car to name one. Quite some surface rust is present and at the left hand corner and approximately in the middle repair sections are required. Both the outside and even more so the inside of the window frame show quite some corrosion. On the inside some of the material quality is so poor that screwdrivers can be pushed through without applying much force. The surface rust is removed by putting a steel brush in a drill machine and applying it around the window frame. The next step is to cut out the sections with rust infected base material and prepare a hand made repair section.

1-May-13: Lower section of window frame with clear rust damage especially on inside.	1-May-13: Screwdrivers can be pushed through easily.
1-May-13: One of the rust affected sections cut out.	1-May-13: Left hand inner window frame corner surface rust.
1-May-13: Left hand inner corner cleaned with steel brush.	1-May-13: Hand made repair piece on lh-side tack welded in position.

May 4th: The repaired left hand lower section of the inner window frame is now finished by removing the excessive weld material. The end result looks very good, ready for another 35 years on my Giardinetta. Now that the left hand lower section is ready the attention is moved to the right hand side and the upper section which unfortunately doesn't look much better that the lower section a few days ago. Regarding the right hand lower section the material was is not salvageable is cut out. For the left hand and right hand upper corners of the window frame firstly the steel brush is used to clean up to be able to judge the extent of the rust damage. Although the appearance before cleaning looks quite severe the brushing activities show that the base material is relatively solid. One interesting fact of the cleaning operation is that the holes for the electrical wires for the rear window heating become clearly visible. Before cleaning the holes were barely visible. As a final operation for today a repair section is made for the right hand lower window frame section.

Excess weld material removed from restored LH lower window frame.	Rust affected section of RH lower window frame cut out.
Corrosion at LH upper window frame corner.	Surface rust removed from LH upper window frame corner.
Corrosion at RH upper window frame corner.	Surface rust removed from RH upper window frame corner.
Surface rust removed from RH lower window frame.	Hand made repair section for RH lower window frame in comparison with removed material.

May 13th: Today the left hand window frame lower section repair piece will be welded in position. As always this is done by positioning the repair piece with tack welds. After this operation the finishing of the particular section commences. Excessive weld material is removed to get an even surface just like the original geometry used to be before the rust affected the condition severely.

Repair piece on left hand window frame tack welded in position.

Left hand window frame geometry restored into proper and solid condition.

May 14th: All the repaired sections are put into grey coloured primer to check whether the surface condition is in line with the original geometry. Of course the craftsmanship of the "surgeon" is without a doubt and no additional adjustments have to be made. As a final repair operation a small section on the lower window frame in the center area on the outside needs to be replaced. Just like always the welder prepares a repair piece in line with the original geometry and tack welds it in position. The finishing touch consists out of removing excess weld material and applying the primer. This boot has been repaired properly and will be able to serve a long time to come. Again compliments to the welder for his excellent work.

Primer applied to repaired sections to check new surfaces.	Last repair section on outside lower window frame near the center position.
Repair piece tack welded in position.	Excessive weld material removed resulting in a nicely flush surface.
Primer applied to last repaired section of the lower window frame.

May 16th: As a final operation the restored blue coloured 904B boot is put in the well known orange coloured "coroles" anti-corrosive coating. The end result is as usual of a very nice quality. Additionally the original purple coloured boot that was with my car and beyond reasonable repair is also treated with the "coroles" coating. Even though this part is beyond repair according the the specialist I will keep it to be able to use the parts which can be used should it be necessary in the future. Throwing away can be done easily, but finding any spare boot for possible future repair is almost impossible. Because I removed the paint largely of this part the anti-corrosive coating is applied to take care the condition doesn't worsen due to unpainted material. The welder thinks I'm crazy for keeping this part, but I decided to keep it for safety reasons.

Anti-corrosive coating applied to nicely restored 904B boot.	Anti-corrosive coating applied to nicely restored 904B boot.
Anti-corrosive coating applied to unsalvageable original boot.	Anti-corrosive coating applied to unsalvageable original boot.
Anti-corrosive coating applied to unsalvageable original boot.