Well amazing, this car is an archaeological study of bad repairs. As I said above, I decided to dig-in and redo the rear left fender which was bulging too much and was completely the wrong shape. We cut off the outer lip and suddenly appeared the original, completely rusted fender. Instead of cutting and adding a new piece, the then would be restorers hammered in both outer and inner fenders and welded another piece on top. This reminds me when we did the sills where exactly the same thing was done. A new skin had been welded on top of rusted metal which had previously been hammered in. We had to make a whole new sill including the door jam, and this on both sides. Jeffrey's car came in very handy at the time. This should be a good warning to people buying supposedly restored vintage cars which can look good on the outside and end up being junk. If this had been a lesser car, it surely would have ended up in the junk yard or as a Cobra replica.
Ten years ago, I may have done that myself. When I bought it, it looked pretty good. Although, I knew it probably had some corrosion because my magnet did not stick in many places. In my mind at the time, if I was going to get a Frua roadster, this was it.
One day, I decided to tighten the side mirror which was loose and opened the panel behind the left front wheel. I nearly had a heart attack! Gaping holes in the foot box, completely rotten struts etc. What was I gonna do, resale it immediately or fix it.
Then a friend of mine told me he knew this Eastern European fellow who did amazing things with a torch. The rest is history, it's been a labor of love. We have replaced close to half the bottom of the car including floors, outriggers, seals, inner and outer and the list goes on. Yet, when one compares the work with Jeffrey's car, everything looks as if it came out of the factory. I will post photos of the infamous fender tomorrow.
Emmanuel [xx(]