Lancia Motor Club

Dear All

I am hoping I can draw on your collective knowledge for a few task I need to undertake.

I live in London and am hoping to find local/nearby garages/specialists who can do the following on my Flaminia Zagato  at a reasonable cost. I'm happy to do things stage by stage and it doesn't all need to be under on roof. Your personal recommendations would be great and if you can't think of someone in my area, don't worry, I'll be grateful for the recommendations all the same!

1. Installing seat-belts

2. Re-upholstering the interior (basically, a new interior).

3. New paint job (with possibly some body work required)

4. General engine works or annual services.

Many thanks!

Oh, and...

5.I also want to refurbish the gauges!

So basically a full restoration then?
The bodies on these lovely cars are complex and often the outer skin really needs to be removed from the underpinnings to see the extent of the various types of corrosion.
Thornley Kelham have fully restored two or three  of these recently and so must be worth a visit, even if its just to get an idea of the work and potential costs involved.
Chris

If you want a workshop closer to London, try contacting Adam Redding Classic cars in Farnham Common near Slough. Mobile Number 07949 246827
I recently inspected and accredited a Flaminia Touring there which had received a full mechanical and bodywork restoration including trimming  (and I had also seen the car before restoration) and it looked pretty good to me.
I have no idea of the cost and no other connection to Adam Redding.
Chris

Seems like you are looking at two different things:
 
- maintenance and refurbishment of some limited assemblies (engine tune up, gauges, etc)
- major projects - like the body and interior

Each of these takes different skill sets. Not likely to find a workshop (except for a major Lancia restoration shop) who can credibly do all this. There will be some who say they can, but Lancias are a bit tricky and Flaminia Zagatos even more so.

Why not get the maintenance work done locally, and then once you've enjoyed the car for a while, then look into more major work with the shops that know these cars well and have done it before (and cost appropriately)?

Thanks to both of you for your replies.

I don't expect to find all the expertise under one roof. What I will do is search the forum to see if any of these elements have been discussed before.

Depending on where in London you live, I can recommend you have a look at Proietti who are just north of Kings Cross off the Caledonian Road. They specialise in Fiats, but also look after a range of Lancia and Alfa – see: http://www.fiat500.cc/store/r-proietti-limited.asp

Colin

With a car like that my priority wouldn't be to find someone local, but someone experienced.

Omicron is the longstanding "all under one roof" specialist.  Elizabeth has a Touring Flamina herself and they'd have seen a great many cars go through over the years.  Everyone loves to have a pop at how expensive they are, but for parts and one off jobs they're competitive.  I think where ever you end up if you open a can of worms its going to get expensive very quickly... 

I don't have need of Omicron at the moment.  When I was running an Aurelia I had a lot of parts from them and one small bit of work done and was very happy.

When it came to getting larger jobs done the rewire was from John Savage in Guildford, I doubt he's taking work on any more but he's great company so well worth a phone call or visit.  He used to work from home.  I got some work done by Tanc Barratt but the day to day servicing pushed my project to the back and I got frustrated. He's a "village garage" sort of setup with an Italian specialism.  He was always a very competitive parts importer. Bernie Fisher in Reading was working from a double garage at home such that the car went in, was worked on, and came back which suited us both for a couple of rounds of work.  He moved to a unit but I think stepped away from the Lancia world.  Anyone heard anything from him of late?

There aren't so many people with Flaminias.  I'd try and talk to a few.  Once you have a long list visit them all, see who you get on with, try them for a bit of work of limited scope and take it on from there.

"Happy to do things stage by stage".   A friend is doing up a house.  The architect wants her to move out, rent somewhere and store everything, gut the place and do the lot at once.  "Much more efficient".  She's doing as much as she can stage by stage using local craftsman direct who she knows and trusts.  She's not paying the architect an overhead, or a project manager, or foreman, and isn't risking the work being done by any old day rate builders.

HOWEVER - she is having to manage the work, carry risk, put up with disruption, wait for people to have time clear to come it.  She has a number of jobs so at times is working from home which makes things easier, at other times she's juggling too much and gets overwhelmed and a rash of decisions and issues is the last thing she needs. 

With a car many would say "do it once, do it well" and have it stripped, dipped, painted so it will really last.  I didn't take that advice but had the car on the road as much as possible and managed to do a lot of raod miles and several competitive events with it until children started arriving.  "Once and well" would have taken longer than it turned out I had.  I passed it on to Jason and Louise Kennedy who also do things "stage by stage" - a bit of paintwork before Goodwood, a gearbox upgrade before a rally etc.

"Rolling restoration" is possible, but it will always be a car that "shows its history" rather than looking "factory fresh and correct".

The other question is what standard you set.   I had a very original bench seat with period loose covers.  I rather liked the covers and they were always of interest and people remembered them "as a thing" from back in the day.  I had some scruffy race seats and some "every day" Fulvia seats for running about on the road.  Things like door cards were fine, but it wasn't going to win prizes or be featured in a book.  The difference between "fine for now" and "as it should be" is absolutely huge in terms of time and money.  Mine was "fine for then" and it had various mods like extra jacking points and brake lights and indicators in the rear window, it had a heated rear window, two speed wipers, electric washers.  Jason and Louise have added all sorts of other trick bits and convinces, the means to mount a dog bed being one.

So much depends on the sort of person you are, what your use will be, the standard you want to set.

One day that Aurelia will end up somewhere driving a restorer CRAZY at how nothing is correct, everything has been hacked about and bodged.  Meanwhile its given a lot of pleasure to a succession of owners who've put big and heavy miles on the old girl.  The one previous to me is a regular on this forum and NOW spends his time getting sheen levels correct and researching the correct hose clips.  Back in the day he didn't bother locking it up street parked in Liverpool and would cram five (or more?) in it back from the pub.  I bought it from him with hand fabricated sills, a moon crater roof, incorrect lights all round in five shades of red, two of those red oxide. 

Perhaps at the end of the day it depends if your car is a family pet or a show piece.  Anthony Hussey rallied his for decades until a big smash and THEN did the "once and well".  I bought that car as a "forever" and anticipated a similar path, but situations change.  Am very glad I took "the bird in the hand" option.

I can recommend these guys for seatbelts - they did a very tidy job on my Touring

https://www.quickfitsbs.com/classic_cars_seatbelts.php

Cheers
Dave

Thank you all for your very helpful posts. Coincidentally, I had decided to see Pawel about the seatbelts in any event, so great to have a vote of confidence.

The car has just had a full engine rebuild, suspension and brake overhaul and is now in good mechanical condition. I just want to fine-tune a couple of bits, hence want to find some local talent. Thank you all for the help and suggestions.