La Tempesta

The ruins of the rocker panels, that is …

Friday (August 6) I went to see Frode (calling Frode “the body man” conjures up images of a dubious, oiled-up male model with no shirt on, so I won’t do that anymore) and inspect the remains of the rockers and B-pillars. The rust had taken a pretty good hold on everything from the sills down between the wheels. The rear jack points were well on their way to simply disintegrate, but despite their sorry state they held the car up on jack stands for almost a year without buckling.

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Time for a little monthly update again, this time with all the things that have almost happened in July. The rust repairs have been underway for quite some time, but since Norway more or less shuts down in July, things happen very very slowly.

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The body repair man called after the initial inspection was done and asked for money up front and … well … replacement rocker panels. All six of them. The outer rocker panel cover was in pretty good condition and could be repaired instead of replaced. I’ve been looking at the usual suppliers and asked on the ever so knowledgeable Montreal mailing list, and I found rockers two, maybe three, places: Bertelsbeck Automotive (€885 for all six) and Häckner (€975 for all six). The third supplier is Jimmy Cornet from Montreal since he reportedly had some repros made a few years ago, but I couldn’t reach him by email.

Contrary to what you might believe, I ordered the six parts (TAV. 118, parts 9, 10 and 11) from Häckner despite their higher price. My garage neighbour weren’t too pleased with some parts he bought for his Series 1 1750 GTV from them, and I’ve received the wrong part from Bertelsbeck before. I’ve had nothing but good experiences with Häckner.

Hannelore and Dirk Nehme bought their rockers from a place called Rist + Schäfer in the 90′s, but I failed to find them in any of the German yellow pages.

In addition to the rocker panels order I paid some money up front to the body man. So, over the course of half an hour, I dispensed of over half my bodywork budget and the car have yet to be touched with anything resembling an angle grinder The body man is currently on a three week vacation and is back around July 12th. With a little bit of luck It’ll be ready some time in August.

UPDATE June 25: Häckner actually billed me €899 including shipping for the rocker panels. Considering the shipping cost is a whopping €80 from Germany, they took a fair bit off compared to the advertised price. Cheaper when exporting perhaps? In any case, I’ll have to pay customs fees and VAT when the parts arrive … which will make them way more than the original €975 anyway.

UPDATE July 2: the customs and VAT bill arrived yesterday: €382. That means the total sum for the six rocker panels is a slightly off-putting  €1281. The VAT is of course happening because Norway isn’t an EU member, but to make amends there are apparently no customs fee for car parts like these. The rocker panels have yet to arrive physically.

Here’s a picture of the panels I bought:

I called Frode (the bodyshop man) today and asked if he would be able to get started on La Tempesta before leaving for his three weeks of holiday. If not, I thought, I’d fetch the car and do some initial injection and ignition work while he was off with his family. He’s starting the preparation tonight after doing the finishing touches on a 1750 GTV, which is very good news! He’s supposed to call me later tonight to discuss an initial payment so he can get started for real. This, of course, also means that not much will happen to La Tempesta in July, but at least the work is underway!