ALFA ROMEO METAL WORK

Center cross member replacement on a 101 series Giulia

As she arrived to our shop with just a little staining of road mud. This reminds me of the favorite seller's statement, "no visible rust".

Close-up of the affected area (driver's side cross member). Still looks pretty good.

When shot from the rear forward, just a small bit of a rust hole is revealed.

As one might imagine, with a void at the top and no drain hole at the bottom, this component might collect moisture.

Stripping the undercoating off reveals a perforated bottom section.

Starting to cut out the affected panel (view is from front to back).

View from the back forward shows more perforations

Packed nearly solid with debris

As predicted, over the years mud filled the hollow section.

After this step it was deemed prudent to cut away the whole member back to solid metal.

After fabrication the new piece is test fit.

Initially tack welded in place

Notice above that we added a bottom drain hole. Also, we did not duplicate the design flaw of the hole at top.

All of the seams were sealed before applying the undercoat to blend the look of the new piece with the original floorboard.