So the car is now SORN for the winter, and yesterday I took the opportunity to strip out the interior to expose the inner floorpan

Check the google drive link for photos and a video https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1bv_IyVF6GCa8Iy3VzYooOsIdeRZLHG4R


Anyway the floorpan has bumps in the middle due to being incorrectly jacked at some point, hence my desire to fix it cosmetically

So next steps will be to drill from underneath the car to get datum points and cut out the inner floor

Then from here I can then straighten the bent box sections and also prep the are for fitting the Alfa GTA subframe struts

The idea will be to drill holes in the outer floor box section that’s currently bent, weld in a couple of nuts to make them ‘captive’

Fit the subframe braces at the new mounting and also through the existing subframe fixing points

Check the security of the nuts I’ve welded in, then weld the letterbox of inner floorpan back into place

Then clean the welds up, apply some paint, and no one would ever know!

Then refit the interior, and it’s job done

Cheers Jamie

Looking good! The Alfa braces are in the to do list for mine too. Way down the list behind fixing a solid amount of rust mind. And likewise I've got the obligatory floor humps from various tyre shops.

My plan of attack is similar except I planned to fabricate a pair of plates with captive nuts on the bench. Cut the corresponding hole into the lower rail, edge set the surrounding panel and the weld in the new plate. I thought that'd give a good hard point to bolt to

I have bought the tool for doing captive nuts, but as the floor isn’t flat where it would need mounting, I thought it wouldn’t be a good fit

So I’ve bit the bullet and will do as described

The only thing I might do is weld additional piece of plate inside the box section, just to be sure the mounting point is 100% solid

Cheers Jamie

Apologies I wasn't clear I used captive to mean retained; I didn't mean the rivnut type of fasteners. I tried some of those on the rear for the exhaust hanger that had a snapped bolt and they pulled very quickly through the chassis. I think it definitely needs plating to hold. I have 3mm in mind. I think the question is if you want that plate semi floating or not. If you do, you could consider using a captive stud (welded bolt dropped through from the top). But which ever way it all needs to clamp up flat with good amounts of land around the fasteners that is also flat ( something like 4 x fastener diameter for example)

No problem Szkom, regarding the plate, I will weld it into the box section rather than being just a sandwich plate

Cheers Jamie

Not done much in the last few weeks, as the weather has been bad

Anyway gave the coupe a quick start up, and with the interior stripped out I noticed a small amount of coolant in the passenger footwell

A quick check confirmed a leak from the heater matrix area, so another job to investigate and fix

Cheers Jamie

Made a start on the passenger side footwell….

So drilled 4 pilot holes from underneath the car the get the datum points to then disc cut the inner floor out

This then exposed the crushed floor that you can’t get access to

2 minutes with a hammer fixed the crushed floor sections to make it as ‘new’

Then as I’m going to fit the Alfa GTA subframe braces, with this are open I can then eventually weld nuts into the floor void to become captive, in case I need to remove the braces in the future

As the braces are made of a decent gauge material I’ve welded an additional piece of metal plate on the inside of the once crushed floor area

My thinking is to simply strengthen this part of the assembly

During the coming week I need to get some high tensile bolts to ensure that everything is secure

I’ll upload a couple of videos that shows what I’ve done

Cheers Jamie

Nice job Jamie

Couple of videos uploaded that show what I’m doing

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1bv_IyVF6GCa8Iy3VzYooOsIdeRZLHG4R

Cheers Jamie

Been a long time without doing much, but now it’s almost ready for its MOT

Some videos and photos in the link

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1bv_IyVF6GCa8Iy3VzYooOsIdeRZLHG4R

So I’ve fitted a complete set of OEM fuel lines as I had to make a repair after the fuel pump saga a while ago, albeit the line that goes from the tank to the fuel filter is leaking from the fitting, which is irritating but I’ll have another pipe to try next week

I’ve fitted the Alfa GTA sub frame braces and made good the floor area that gets damaged when people jack the car in the wrong place

Also changed the heater matrix and seals, as I had a small leak. This is a crap job to do just because of the location and getting comfortable access to it, but it’s done now

When I had the interior out for the subframe work, I’ve stripped the old sound deadening and put some fresh stuff in

Then sagging headliner has been replaced with a new fabric. Again whilst the seats etc are out, this was pretty straightforward to do

When I had the cambelt drama I took Joes advice and changed the big end shells, however the sump is fiddly to do and I had a small leak, so I’ve just redone the sump, so fingers crossed I’ve done it right now

I’m working on a couple of mods to improve the interior bits and also exploring making a custom lower subframe brace, to really make the front end rigid

I have driven the car briefly to test work done and can confirm the GTA braces do make a difference, but it’s a fair bit of work to do correctly and serviceable for the future

Cheers Jamie