Body Building (Post # 35)

With so many sub-assemblies like the brakes, wheels, lights, instruments, wiring, steering wheel, and running gear already complete or nearing completion, the four 800-pound gorillas still in the room with the Alfatross are body/frame work, interior work, paint, and engine. These are tasks I do not have the tools or experience to tackle so they will have to be done by someone else, somewhere else.  Because I want to reassemble the Alfatross myself, it will be necessary to find a competent shop willing to restore and paint the Alfatross, then ship it back to me.

Young Guns Designs, Phoenix AZ.  Young Guns.

Last week Tyler Tibbits, CEO of Young Guns Designs, flew up to Santa Fe to see the Alfatross for himself.  Wheel man Randy Davis and I met Tyler back in March while on a trip to Phoenix to check up on the Alfatross' engine (see "The Alfatross Meets the Phoenix" April 23rd post and www.younggunsdesigns.com)  Tyler and John Pollock, his business partner, gave us a quick tour of their facility which included an upholstery section, woodworking shop, design studio, metal fabrication area, body shop, and paint booth.  I was immediately impressed by how clean and orderly everything was kept.



The Young Guns fabrication area, see from the mezzanine.
 Young Guns.

We also saw examples of what their painter, Frank Bennett, could do: everything from ghost-striped and flamed resto-mod hot rods to electric guitar bodies to motorcycle tanks and fenders to gas pumps and even refrigerators (the 1950s refrigerator in the lobby painted in flawless Gulf Racing Team Powder Blue and Marigold Orange stole the show!).

The Aluminum Body

Of particular interest to me was Tyler's training and experience in shaping aluminum and steel. The Alfatross' hand-made aluminum Zagato body is what makes it rare and valuable.  Fortunately, it is in pretty good shape, but during soda blasting I discovered there are problem areas that will require the touch of an expert.  So I watched with great interest  while Tyler poured over the Alfatross for hours from stem to stern, locating problem areas, photographing them, and making notes.

Tyler checks the symmetry of the driver's door against the flat plane of the floor.  The body work gorilla looks on, suspiciously.



Tyler examines one of the trouble spots on the Alfatross' bum: the place where
the bodywork comes closest to the road--and consequently takes a beating!



A long crease in the aluminum body just behind the left front wheel well.  The
 cavity behind it is for the dual exhaust pipes.

The aluminum body has numerous flaws, some of them from the day it was built!  There are small cracks, shallow dents, little dimples, scratches, and weld scars, but fortunately very little corrosion.  The restoration work needed is not extensive, but it will be tedious!  The body is what most people will appreciate and judge the restoration by, so it has to be right!








From the bottom side of the hood it is easy to see the
welds in the 6 separate pieces used to make the
aluminum skin.  The steel frame around the perimeter
and under the openings for the scoops shows as
dark gray.




Removal of paint and filler during soda blasting revealed this
crack in one corner of the square-section tubing framing the
hood.

The Steel Chassis

Of greater concern to me than the aluminum is the condition of the steel chassis, particularly the floor pan under the rear seat where there are numerous pinholes, and one spot in the lower rear corner of the left front wheel arch where there is corrosion on the frame.  Whereas aluminum corrodes lightly, steel eagerly turns back into its natural state: iron ore. Like cancer, it has to be cut out and replaced.  This is easy enough when the affected panel is just a flat sheet spot-welded around the edges, but if you add stiffening corrugations ("beads" in body-shop speak) and weld a bunch of other pieces to it top and bottom, repair can get really complicated!


Repair of rust damage to the Alfatross' steel frame is one of the larger gorillas in the room.

Trouble spots on the Alfatross' soft underbelly.  The three upper and one lower circles draw attention to areas where the floor pan has rusted through.  The two central circles are brackets that will need straightening and re-welding.  

The corrosion area at the lower back corner of the left front wheel well is one
of those difficult repairs: it involves several different pieces of steel, difficult
access, cutting, fabrication of new panels, bead rolling, and welding. 

At the end of the 12-hour day, Tyler "did not see anything that is outside our skill set."  Which I took to mean he wasn't scared, yet.   Young Guns appears to have the expertise, facilities, and enthusiasm to tackle three of the Alfatross' most formidable gorillas: body (and chassis), paint, and interior.  And they just added another 5,000 sq ft of workshop space!  And they are not that far away--about a day's drive and only an hour's flight time.  Could we have a match?  We'll soon know . . . .



The rotisserie enabled Tyler to check the Alfatross' frame and body, interior
and exterior, in detail.  If we agree to do business we will have to figure out
 a way to ship the Alfatross to Phoenix while still mounted on the rotisserie,
which is 19 ft 2 in long!