 Reconstructing the boot pan Click on thumbnails below for larger pictures. One Achilles heel in the body-structure of the Zagato is the rear section: Firstly because it is due to the lack of a rear bumper extremely vulnerable to bumps in daily traffic and secondly because three layers of steel meet in the rear and are spot welded - an ideal place for trapped moisture starting to rust. After sandblasting the whole section consisted of more holes than steel and was also heavily damaged because of an accident. The decision was clear - act like a surgeon and cut out the complete pan starting right behind the rear shock-absorber domes. After doing so the car looked very awkward without outer body panels and nearly a quarter of the platform missing. New boot pans ex Alfa Romeo factory were sold out in 1978 so I had to rebuild the whole thing myself. First thing I did was seeing my steel supplier: I bought a sheet metal 2m x 1.5m and edged the sheet where neccessary. In order to strengthen the whole section there are grooves to the left of the spare wheel well and L-shaped grooves next to the rails holding the fuel tank. The question was how to stamp the grooves into the panel without having a press. Well I went to a carpenter shop and asked for some surplus MDF-wood (high density woodchip sheet). During that time I had a second Zagato standing in my garage and this allowed me to measure where the grooves are located and what dimensions they have. With the help of a wood milling machine I made models out of MDF-wood for the grooves. I screwed the models on the panel and started to hammer the contours out.
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