Rusty Italians and The Russian Steel Fallacy
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| The author's X1/9 and recently acquired 128 3P, manufactured in 1978 and 1976, respectively. |
Let's bust some myths, shall we? How about what is - in my opinion, anyway - the greatest, most persistent load of bollock-rot to have ever emerged about Italian cars and their propensity to rust: inferior Russian steel? Who amongst the classic car community hasn't heard the "great cars but a pity about the Russian steel" line, invariably offered as unquestionable fact?
It is broadly accepted that Fiat - and please note that this was before what was once the world's third largest car maker subsumed Alfa, Lancia, Ferrari and Chrysler - traded a manufacturing licence for their 124 range to the Russian government in exchange for the supply of that country's steel. The bit about the Russians manufacturing 124s is not in dispute; the Ruskies did get their beloved 124-based Ladas but whether Fiat sourced the metal they used to make make own cars from the Soviets may be apocryphal*. Sadly, though, the fact that Italian cars rust - often very badly - isn't disputed.
What is up for dispute, however, is that even IF Russian steel - having supposedly been poorly made from recycled vodka bottle caps, surplus souvenir Kremlin ashtrays or the screws from obsolete Cold War era submarine deck chairs, depending on which version of the tale is being peddled - was used to make Italian cars is if it's is any more prone to corrosion than that produced anywhere else in the world. There's actually plenty of evidence to suggest that it's not!
First, why is it that Italian cars' roofs, bonnets and boot lids tend not to rust but their doors, arches, sills and sometimes the area around their windscreens do? There are several reasons this occurs, including the fact that Italian car makers really didn't seem to understand the need for adequate-sized drainage holes. Water can't pool under horizontal surfaces but it sure as hell can get trapped in the lower sections of vertical panels, where it often persists for days - weeks, even - if whatever feeble water-letting measures that do exist become blocked. Surely inferior Russian steel would corrode no matter what part of the car it had been made into!
Second, rust-proofing used to be rubbish! Or nonexistent. And not just for the Italians, either; Aussie cars - particularly Holdens right up the the HQ series - used to corrode before your eyes, as did British and even the ever reliable Japanese marques (remember Datsun's 1600, 180B and 200B models?). The Americans seemed to do better, as did the Germans and Swedes, but it wasn't until the French started galvanising their Renaults that rust-proofing really became a thing.
Third, there's plenty of evidence that the not infrequent industrial action of 1970s' Italy often saw unpainted body shells - particularly those of infamous rust bucket Alfasuds - left in the open for weeks at a time, kicking off corrosion before the cars had even entered the assembly stage of production. Moreover, Youtube channel Roadster Life identifies that the Alfasud wasn't even made from Russian steel but instead used sheet metal from Torino, Italy! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBYnQ6i1QQs.)
Fourth, many Italian cars were exported as deck-cargo, exposed to salt spray and worse, which is the exact recipe for iron oxide! This is verified by a mechanic I know, who started his apprenticeship working for a local Fiat importer and whose duties used to include collecting cars from the docks and trying to wash the crusted salt off them!
And fifth and finally, the author's two 1970s' Fiats - pictured earlier - are no rustier than any cars of the same era that he's seen anywhere, no matter where they were made. The X1/9 was privately imported to Australia in the early '80s, from Britain, and has only the tiniest bubbles of tin worm around the nearside front mudguard where mud was trapped in recent years.
The 3P - bought recently, having been marketed as a "barn-find" but more accurately described as having been found under a tree - does have have an area of penetrating rust on its nearside sill, plus another on an internal brace, behind the offside rear wheel arch where water had accumulated. There's no other structural rot. Even the area around the hatch hinges is solid, despite the paint having flaked away and the area having an accumulation of leaves and other plant debris happily composting there for a significant period (photos below).
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| As was: damp and with trapped detritus. |
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| Brushed clean but not yet fully dry. |
So next time someone tries to sell you the Russian steel story, just take it with a grain or two of salt. Just keep it away from your classic car, though. We know what it'll do the the bodywork!
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U M P H
(uppermiddlepetrolhead.blogspot.com.au.)
Internet images, as credited, or by UMPH.
*Plenty of credible information that has emerged since this article was written now suggests that Russian steel was not used to manufacture Italian cars.
Good to see someone who knows the old 'Russian Steel' myth is not the cause of the Alfasud's reputation for terrible rust. I know that has been repeated enough times to be accepted by many as the cause of the rust problems but the fact is the steel came from the same Italian steel mills as that used in the Alfa factory in Milan. The Italsider steel plant in Taranto was built with finance from the same government bank that funded the Alfasud factory and it was a condition of the financial backing that Alfa Romeo used the steel produced there. All is explained in my book 'Alfasud - The Complete Story' published in 2021 by Crowood Press, or if you can read Italian, Achille Moroni who was the quality control engineer sent from the Milan factory to investigate the rust problems tells all in the book 'Alfa Romeo; Gli anni di Arese' by Danilo Moriero. Likewise the old 'unpainted bodies were left out in the rain' story is not quite the cause, it was poor working practices inside the factory that were to blame.
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