March 2014 - Continued door repair

 
     

The repair operations of February 2014 to the door showed that although a first impression of the lower sections of the lh & rh door appeared quite solid a more careful look results into some rather typical "virus" issues. Luckily for me the "Chirurg" is a person who doesn't get discouraged when such items pop up, he just continues his excellent work.

 

11 & 12 March-2014: The problems are on the inside of the door where the outer shell of the door is folded around the inner frame of the door. Just above the folding edged the drainage holes of the door are located so it's more or less to be expected that issues will occur there. Painting over these particular sections and applying rust prevention materials would be an option, but not the one I prefer so the decision is made to properly repair it. Such detail work is of course time consuming because all repair section have to be hand made. In the middle of the door and at the end of the door this problem is present for both the lh & rh door.

Lh-door lower section, folded metal material below a drainage hole is asking for trouble.

 

Lh-door lower section, rust affected material cut-out in middle of door.

 

Lh-door lower section, hand made repair piece positioned to check fit.

 

Lh-door, at the door end more drainage holes therefore same corrosion problems.

 

Rh-door, at the door similar problems as for the lh-door.

 

Rh-door, hand made repair piece for door end held into position to check geometry.

 

Rh-door, hand made repair piece tack welded into position.

 

Rh-door, wonderful craftsmanship completed. Looks fantastic.

 

Lh-door, fine tuning before welding repair piece.

 

Lh-door, hand made repair piece tack welded into position.

 

Lh-door, welding & finishing work completed.

Lh-door, final touch by creating new drainage holes in their original position.

As clearly evident from the pictures shown above the welder is a person who only delivers good quality and has eye for detail. The repair is done to a level that it's invisible afterwards that repair has been made. Putting back he origonal drainage holes at the some location with the original size is the cherry on top of this work.

Besides the lower section where the corrosion near the drainage holes is present a typical 2-door Alfasud issue needs to be addressed. The 2-door Alfasud vehicles (Alfasud TI & Alfasud Giardinetta) all suffer from the same issue. The window frame connection to the door sheel near the B-Pillar tends to crack due to the long lever arm this frame has in comparison to the Alfasud Berlina. The 2-door construction is significantly weaker in this area than the 4-door version. My Giardinetta had some repair done by its previous owner. I asked the welder whether this typical weak spot can be reinforced somehow and of course he knows a solution. An additional plate is welded in this section. Unfortunately there is no weld torch access on the inside of the door so the reinforcement needs to be welded from the outside. The welder reduces the visible material as much as possible. The end result is a geometry that most probably will last a bit longer than the original one.

Lh-door, window frame connection to door frame typical weak point.

Lh-door, window frame connection to door frame reinforced, almost invisible.