WANTED: 850 Spider sheetmetal piece

Jeff Stich

True Classic
Need a passenger-side rear fender bottom panel from any year Fiat 850 Spider (or 850 Racer). This is the horizontal sheetmetal piece that basically caps off the bottom opening of the lower rear corner of the rear fender area, between the outer fender & the inner (engine bay side) fender, & it has a water drain vent in the center of it. As luck would have it, I have a spare used fender section with this panel, but it's for the opposite side of the car vs. what I need. :doh:

The sheetmetal piece I need looks like this one, but is for the passenger-side of the car (panel shown below is my spare driver-side panel):







Anybody have an 850 Spider parts car sitting around that could donate this panel? :help:

For anyone with NOS sheetmetal, it is Fiat part #4131146.
 
Nevermind...

Need a passenger-side rear fender bottom panel from any year Fiat 850 Spider (or 850 Racer)...<edit>As luck would have it, I have a spare used fender section with this panel, but it's for the opposite side of the car vs. what I need. :doh:


With nobody coming forward with a donor panel, I was sitting in the shop contemplating the best way to go about fabricating a new replacement panel by hand. After various ideas came & went, it dawned on me that my solution was sitting there staring me right in the face the whole time - my driver-side spare tail section:



Since this is basically just a flat steel panel with a sunken center section (with another sunken sub-section), I can create the mirror-image panel I need by simply drilling out the spot welds around the perimeter of this one, removing the small panel from the donor tail section, then pushing the center triangular & circular sections "inside-out" (in the opposite direction) with basic body/metal-working tools (hammer & dolly, wood blocks, beanbag, etc.). Push the small drain flap out the other way, & I'm back in business! :woot:

 
And here we go...Part I

Had a little "Me time" to spend in the shop last night, so I figured starting on this panel removal & re-fabrication would help clear my head of the daily BS. :)

Step 1, drilling out the OEM spot welds. Slow & methodical, this was a bit time-consuming, but otherwise easy work. All welds drilled out smoothly except for one near a corner, which had a bit of rust/corrosion on the backside so the metal around the hole I was drilling blew out sideways as it came down to the last mm of metal left - oh, well. No harm, no foul.

Welds drilled out:




Pulling the panel free of the donor tail section:




Comparison of old donor section "framework" & the panel removed:




The panel itself after removal:





As you can see, there's a bit of surface rust on the dished top surface of the panel, understandably since this basically served as the sole left rear fender drain for 30+ years on the car it came from! A quick run through the sandblasting cabinet will have the panel clean & ready for the hammer-&-dolly work.

It was a bit late in the evening last night to run the (big/loud) air compressor & filter-stack/blower that power the blasting cabinet, let alone to be hammering away on the anvil (to re-shape the panel), so I just called it a night after the drill-work was completed. Though the workshop has decent sound insulation, it's not perfect & sound travels well at night in this rural setting, so I always try to be mindful of the shop noise for the neighbors. :wink2:

Hopefully I'll get some time to sandblast & re-shape the panel later this afternoon or tomorrow... :excited:
 
And more...Part 2

After flattening the donor panel, I was then able to (crudely) reshape it outwards in the opposite direction (mirror image) as needed. The large central "dished" area I did by hand with a hammer & dolly, while the smaller/deeper round inset (around the triangular drain hole) was done using a simple hydraulic press, a large socket & a steel ring. Not the best-looking work by any means, but good enough for this small panel that will never really be seen once installed. :whistle:

850panel7.jpg


850panel8.jpg


Unfortunately, the small triangle-shaped drain flap didn't take too kindly to being pushed 90° the other way, & broke clean off at the fold-joint. No worries, I'll likely just solder/braze it back in place before the panel gets primered & installed onto the car. :)
 
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