Chassis repairs

I have recently found some Rot in the cross member under the Passenger side, and also the Chassis Rail leading to it from the Front of the Car. (1750 GTV). I had a friend who has all the welding tackle etc look at it with a view to costing out a repair I assumed I could get replacement parts. We agreed a figure and I set off to find the chassis parts. I am quite suprised to find that EB Spares don't stock them, not made apparently.
So what are people doing when restoring, is it normal to cut out and weld in new areas, or are people reconstructing members from scratch?.
Looking at it from an Engineering point of view, my gut feeling is to cut out and replace, we are not talking massive areas, say 75mm x 100mm, on the cross member, about 50mm by say 250mm on the rail.
Any experiance gratefully recieved.

From the restorations I've seen "in progress", I think people just make up the sections as required.
You can get whole parts for some areas such as sills, floors etc., but not just bits.
Worth checking http://www.classicalfa.com/shop/category31_1.htm just on the off chance though.

Thanks Rick, I looked on ClassicAlfas site, but they don't seem to list chassis bits just floor panels, and the Jacking points. I will drop them an E-Mail to check, but it looks like I will have to improvise.

The chassis rails and cross members are not available any more but all types of floors (as they are different on early and late cars) and jacking points etc are available at www.alfaholics.com, take a look, the website is very comprehensive. Richard Banks has owned, restored and raced the cars for nearly 30 years so has huge resources of technical knowledge and help available with regard to the cars and who is best to use to have your car sorted!

Thanks Max, Richard Norris seems to be able to get the cross member, perhaps he makes them up himself. I don't think it would be that hard if you had a pattern. The long rails are a different story tho, pretty complex shape.
Heres a Pic by the way hope it works.

Richard Norris won't make them himself, if he can get them then it is more than likely to come from the continent, be careful, there is a big difference between buying a cross member and buying a good one that fits, getting a bad one to fit may be more time consuming than having one made, its only a bit of box section! Check out the full list of panels available from Alfaholics- http://www.alfaholics.com/car_parts/...d=3&part_id=16

Alfaholics tried and tested all the different panels available by going all the metal work on a complete rot-box and found huge variation in the quality of reproduction panels available, this test can be seen at - http://www.alfaholics.com/news/document_6_7.php

Check out all the latest news at - http://www.alfaholics.com/news/

Good luck with it!

Thanks Max, I think it may be better to make it up then, I do find out the correct dimensions tho, thickness in particular?.

Re-Originals in the US lists both inner and outer front chassis rails.

Originally Posted by papajam

Re-Originals in the US lists both inner and outer front chassis rails.

Thanks Jim, are these the ones you mean?

'BE2460SX Inner rail chassis part, front, under engine compartment fender well, new manufacture stamping $150.00 each '

The description seems a little vague, it might mean the part is too far forward. It's a long way to ship if it turns out I can't fit it it.
My limited funds will probably not permit the cost of all the cutting and re welding that would be necessery to replace the whole assembly, I will more than likely have to weld some small areas in, untill I can afford to replace it properly. Probably do the front floors as well at that time.

Welcome to AO, BTW I have noticed a lot of your Posts on the BB, a mine of info for us newcomers to the classic's world, I appreciate it.

Thanks for the welcome, Ian.
Yes, the description is vague but they sound promising. Perhaps asking Matt to send you a pic or two of the part will save a bunch of time and money.

Pajama perhaps...

Call me anything you'd like........except late for an Alfa event!

Pajama. Cute one, Ian.