Spanish Aurelia Project

[williamcorke]

Suspense over.  Car in the barn, and a cursory inspection made inside and out, above and below.

As predicted, a mixed bag of pros and cons.  The bad first; missing parts.  As well as the absent engine which I obviously knew about the car is without (in no particular order):
 - Radiator and all cooling system (cow horn etc.)
 - Gearbox!
 - Interior door handles
 - Most switches
 - central panel and mechanism of the tachometer
 - Key (but all 3 locks are present, so a simple job to replace)
 - Bumpers (all)
 - Dynamo / Starter / all engine ancilliaries.
 
I knew - or thought I did - that all the lights and exterior trim was missing, but actually things are not that bad:
 - the Al sill trims are both there and in good condition
 - the Al finishing strips from the top of the two rectangular air intakes on the front of the car are there
 - both headlight bowls
 - body for both front indicators
 - bodies for both fog lights, and one front glass and lens.

Other things to note:
 - the bonnet is Al, with a centre strip.  It is 'factory' but probably not originally from this car?  (According to the seller, the man he bought the car from had 3 1/2 Aurelias.  I can believe it...).
 - The cloth interior, is entirely present under the red/blue vinyl re-trim, but will mainly only be useful as a pattern to a trimmer.
 - It looks as if most of the black ribbed rubber mats are there.

These lists are undoubtedly not comprehensive!

There are lots of fascinating differences to my 6th series... the rollers against the door glass on the inside of the glass to help it run up and down; the central reversing light etc.

Finally the main event... what state is the body really in.  Well it is 95% good news.  It is fabulously unmolested and without corrosion.  The shut-lines of the doors are so even and narrow that it looks more to me like a hand-made early Bertone bodied Giulietta Sprint than anything else I've seen.  Did I read somewhere that Bertone built some of the 4th Series?  Or perhaps B20s were all like this from new, but few have kept their lines as well...  

There is some surface rust on the floorpan.  Clearly water must have sat between the sound-deadening material and the metal at some point; but I don't think the metal is holed or thinned to the point it will need replacing.  I'll see when the car's stripped down, and in any case it's a relatively easy area to repair.

Will post some more photos when I've got them.

[the.cern]

Well William, it seems you have  a real winner there. I regret I am not in a position to help with any spares, I have a nearly complete car but no spares at all. I've e mailed Ron Francis to see if he has the few bits that I am missing, everyone seems to think it's the best starting point !!!

With regard to the body, you are so so fortunate, I won't say lucky, you have what you paid for !!!  The bodywork I am doing and that I've seen in other restoration tales is is either extremely slow and time consuming or expensive, or, sometimes, both !!!!

Good luck with getting the parts, you have the foundation for a great car.

Regards,

               Andy

[williamcorke]

I decided to document the restoration of this car on a blog.  It's easier to do this with a blog publishing platform than a forum like this one (as well as allowing wider access - possibly a mixed blessing), and I'll post here when the blog's updated.

Let me know what you think, suggest what I might change, is it a good idea to publish in this way?, etc.

http://b20no2959.wordpress.com/

[peteracs]

Hi William

I am enjoying reading about the progress, nothing like a challenge...

My comment on the Blog is that it is a pain to have to keep going up and down to read each section, personally I prefer the forum format which lists entries chronologically. Maybe there is an option on the Wordpress site as to how they are shown?

Peter

[williamcorke]

My comment on the Blog is that it is a pain to have to keep going up and down to read each section, personally I prefer the forum format which lists entries chronologically. Maybe there is an option on the Wordpress site as to how they are shown?

Peter

I agree to some extent about the 'most recent at the top' blog layout.  It definitely doesn't work for a forum, which is after all really a conversation between two or more people.  My thinking was that I don't want (need?) just one thread, so an easy way of indexing notes on specific assemblies for my own (and possibly others) future use would be useful.

From a little research I did last night, it does seem that there are ways to make wordpress publish the blog posts in non-reversed chronological order - oldest at the top.  This does make things easier for a new reader, but potentially is a pain for 'followers' who are only interested in the most recent posting.

Hum...

[Aurelia Adam]

William

A question about wheels if I may.

In an earlier post you mentioned that you have a mix of rolled and non-rolled rims, so are you looking to fit a complete new matching set?

Although I have a complete set of 5 original rolled rims on my 4th, I'm looking to source a newer alternative.  I've tried fitting a set of Tecno's but they require either spacing or filing down of the sliding pillar - both of which I do not want to do.

There is the Borrani Bi-Metal available new but they are the best part of £1,000 a corner!

So if you do come across another option, I'd be very interested in hearing the news.

Best of Luck

Adam

[the.cern]

Adam, if you are successful in sourcing wheels please let me know if there are any more available !!!  If you source only sufficient for your car, would you be interested in selling your current set as I may be interested. Presently I have a mixture of wheels and am not sure which are appropriate for the car (4th series) and, more importantly, which are serviceable !!!!!

It seems wheels are an ongoing problem, unless you have funds for a set of new Borranis, which I most definitely don't !!!  Any help in finding a new source would be greatly appreciated, does anyone have any ideas 

In the meantime, I'll just push on with the thousand and one tasks that are always necessary in a restoration.

                            Andy

[williamcorke]

I'm not planning to source a full set of wheels.  There are 3 good rolled-rim wheels on the car, so I reckon I can use the non-rolled one as a spare and thus only need to find one more.  Perhaps the.cern and I should compare what we've got and see if there's two good sets of four matching wheels between us.  I do have some other Aurelia wheels - 5 spare rolled rims B10 wheels, 2 6th series B20 - but none of the 'correct' type for the SIV.

Now that I have a list of the main parts to track down I'm going to take a day off to visit Ron.

[GG]

I believe Cavalitto has made s. 5/6 wheels from new, and is going to make s. 4 ones next. These are steel wheels, simple type. Cheaper than the Borranis.

[Kevin MacBride]

I priced the steel wheels from Cavalitto, 1500 Euro a set. I have a good rolled rimmed wheel (with tyre), I could do a swap for your 6th if you are interested.

[GG]

Enrico at Cavalitto also told me that the center web is reinforced on his wheels, somewhat. While many of us are in denial, there is an issue with web distortion (and runout) in these wheels as they are getting older. I've been able to solve with some careful balancing, and don't like the price any more than the next person. But the newer wheels (if they look the same) might be better way.... assuming funds are there.

[Kevin MacBride]

There is a photo on the Cavalitto Website.

[ColinMarr]

There is a story about Aurelia wheels that might be worth remembering. The late Harry Manning was once driving a B20 through the city of Guildford when the rolled rim of a front wheel flew off and shed the tyre. Apparently the car mounted the pavement and ended up in a shop doorway. Fortunately, no one was hurt. Harry’s explanation was that the hollow inside of the rolled rim had corroded badly, although there was no sign of deterioration on the outside, and it just gave way. This was probably 40 years ago – what has happened to rolled rims since then I wonder?

It is odd that early Aprilias had rolled rims and the later ones didn’t. Yet Lancia went back to rolled rims for the early Aurelias and then moved on again. I was glad my 6th Series B20 had conventional rims.

Colin

[j886atv]

Is there an ability on Wordpress to allow it as an RSS feed?

If there is - it means people can 'subscribe' and get a notification when a new post is made

Good site though - really interesting

[williamcorke]

Is there an ability on Wordpress to allow it as an RSS feed?

If there is - it means people can 'subscribe' and get a notification when a new post is made

Good site though - really interesting

I'm not sure about all RSS readers, but with Google Reader all you have to do click 'add a subscription' and paste the url of the blog into the box (http://b20no2959.wordpress.com/).  In other words WordPress does allow RSS...

Thanks for the encouraging comment.  There's quite a lot of work done on the car already that I need to photograph and write up...