So what started out as a wheel refurb as you'll see in my last post, turned into something rather more involved.
With the wheels off everything behind the wheel looked really grotty and rusty. The main concern was the subframe given italians tendency to build them out of rust which just crumbles in our UK weather, I was also concerned about the state of what was behind the wheel arch liners and if the fronts of the sills where rusty.
So without any real plan I started stripping everything down. Off came the lower arms. Steering joints. the drive shafts. struts and wheel arch liners. It wasn't long before there was nothing left in the wheel arch but a brake caliper hanging on its pipe. (that eventually came off too)
Soon the car was dangling in the air without any of its important bits that connect it with the ground.
The subframe was not just in a surprisingly good condition, aside from some very mild surface rust, it was basically completely untouched.
A quick clean up with a wire brush to clean up any loose dirt and rust, and then a damn good blast with the pressure washer and it was as good as new.
I layed down a coat of Etch Primer, then some gloss black to make it actually look as good as new.
These three pictures show the subframe before paint.
This picture shows the subframe before removal from the car and you can only see any real rust behind where the exhaust bracket mounter. this was just from the bracket and the metal under the rust was basically unmarked and still painted.
What then followed was a lot of sanding, wire brushing and cleaning. over the course of the last 3 or so weeks in the evenings. Then the application of a lot of paint. Some colour coding of parts to make it a little more visually appealing rather than just painting everything black. So anything springy (springs and roll bar) got painted red. Anything structural got painted black, and anything else was either painted silver or nickel plated to add contrast. The steering joints for example were painted silver as everything attached to them was painted black. Finally because the brakes would be visible through the wheels and the car being red I panted the calipers a nice bright Yellow.
The drive shafts have also been fully refurbished and painted. new grease and checked for wear.
Everything was properly prepped and painted with high quality paints.
I have installed all new parts where needed or essential for safety. So new brake discs and pads. New shocks, new antiroll bar bushings. New ball joint covers, new clips and bolts where needed. New boots and gaiters where needed.
I am super happy with how it has all turned out. Everything looks shiny and new and is better than when it left the factory. I am just waiting on a set of bump stops for the shocks (the old ones had ceased to exist) and then I can start bolting everything back on the car. The one thing that has really surprised me is the insane amount of weight in all these components for such a little car, I would estimate probably more than 75 KG in everything bolted to the subframe. I think I may have to find a way to weight it to see for sure, and that is without wheels.
Anyhow I hope you can enjoy all the shiny bits before they get bolted back on never to be seen again. I would like to thank
@ben for not only allowing me to host the pictures from the build here but for also providing a really good set of tools to format all these pictures and text to lay it out so its easy to read and navigate having been here >10 years I can appreciate just how much the forum has changed and improved over the years,
