Hi all,

I was just wondering , as my coop is basically a shell at the moment that is there be any point in trying to seem weld/reinforce areas of it , as this would be the ideal time to do it, before it gets painted.
or is it a pointless task , would be interested to hear peoples opnions , has any one done it - the car is not really going be tracked though.

thanks

Hey Genic.... I seem to remember you back in the "old" days. Was your Coupe the one parked on the side of the road outside Llandod?

No idea about the welding... a bit of stiffening in certain areas could be an idea. Perhaps under the sills, and the box section under the rear seat. Will add weight though.

I know the nova crowd seam weld the engine bay, that maybe worth doing?

I have a welded front sub frame, I'm not entirely sure it makes much difference for normal road driving.

If the car isn't going to be tracked, why would you want to look at making the chassis stiffer?

Perhaps he has a loose tooth that he want's to drop out.

The chassis is a very saggy one, have you ever jacked the car up and tried to open and close the door?

Hi mate , wasnt my coop, there used to be one the same colour as mine parked in newbridge but have not seen that around for a few years. had my coop 13 years now so was around in the old days.

As phil says the chassis is saggy on these cars, I know bar a roll cage or maybe strengthning plates it wont improve it that much, but I am considering having it acid dipped or media blasted and it would be an ideal time to run a welder around the shell with fresh metal, but I suppose what I am trying to ask basically is it worth doing ??? and which areas to do etc.. or wether to just leave well alone.

I also have a loose tooth ironically..

if your dipping, your going far enough that doing it wont cost much more

on a selfish note, the rest of the forum might get to learn something from your work

Thats true Zig, but I suppose if no one has done it on a coop then I may aswell have a go, I dont know if there are any negative effects, maybe the welding could distort panels ??

also not 100% sure on dipping, but i suppose media blasting would remove all paint/sealer to.

sorry rambling now..

Dip over blast for me. Blasting doesn't get inside the sills and other box section seams.
Dipping isn't cheap though. Both courses and the zinc coating is around £1400 plus trailering the car there and back twice to have repairs / seam welding done in between.
But it will last far longer this time round.

Other ones I've looked at:
http://www.surfaceprocessing.co.uk/paint-stripping-fiat.html
http://www.summitblasting.co.uk/gallery/

There is much debate about whether the acid dip is a good thing or a bad thing... and just as much debate about blasting!

£1400 for the dipping process! I know we all spend too much on our coupes, but that plus a respray makes an expensive proposition.

You you will be preserving your shell for another 20 years or so and also find out how much rot you have or haven't got.

My vote is for dipping and seam welding

Very true, but what will the car be worth in the future. Having a family background in classic car restoration, unless you really love that coupe for some reason, budget has to come into it.

If we don't do stuff like this there won't be any left in the future. Or what will be left are just patchwork sheds needing total restoration at huge cost.
The value isn't really going to change till there are hardly any left.

Yes this would be really interesting to do and i would certainly be looking at getting a project car just to do this if i had a garage with the space! but sadly i don't so these are just dreams for me as i could not justify paying somebody to do it for me!

Best do the Lottery whilst i remeber

But for somebody with the space, time and mechanical ability surely this is the next step for these cars if anyones after a keeper!
There are not going to be many left in 5-10 years time due to the rust!

Is there anybody who has methodically stripped a complete coupe panel by panel and photographed it, to benefit fellow members (i know that the rust points are fairly well known) but this could also be useful to understand how the shell is put together so to aid repairs/ restorations
Just an idea!

The body repair manual is amongst the manuals. That gives pictures and procedures.

Thanks for the responses guys , I really do like the idea of dipping, but the stories of cars being rotted from the inside out where the acid was left , or shells being dented by fork lift trucks is niggling at me...

I do intend to keep this car for ever,if I can, even after all the money spent and heart ache I have had with it, I just cant let it go.

I have just read a book "The unfair advantage" by Mark Donahue. In he talks often about acid dipping bodyshells to cut wait on race cars. Indeed there was one car which had been so dipped the roof had buckled so they put a vinyl skin on it. The also acid dipped some engine blocks but they were lost and ended up in production cars. My guess would be that the advantage of wieght saving would be at the cost of a more fragile body restiffened with a cage. Could some unsprung wieght be lost by acid dipping?

The dipping removes all traces of sean sealant, sound proofing and of course rust.
How much material removed from the steel is mostly down to the man operating the process.

I think they've gotten to the bottom of the horror stories.
Where shells were not washed thoroughly after dipping.
Or where the optional zinc dip wasnt carried out (to save money)

Or where a shell was sat too long berween.

I am definitely going to get my shell done this year.
It will be stripped, dipped, repaired and stitch welded.
Then lightly dipped again before a zinc coating applied and then fully resprayed inside and out and fully cavity waxed.

Its not going to be cheap but I want this car to last.
I'll be fully covering the whole build in my project thread.

Also worth looking at is Dax's project thread.
Great build.