1964 Lancia Flavia Coupé

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

They're lovely things but I prefer the later 2000 Coupes. One of these or an Alfa 2600 Sprint - but they're going mental now. 

[Junkman]

If the k00p has anything like the saloon headlining, it should be of this perforated type:

 

http://www.fabricuk.com/fabrics/434-perforated-headliner-leatherette.html

 

If not, send a sample to this company and I bet they are able to match it very closely.

[vulgalour]

Thank you for the tip off there, shall give them a try.  If it were perforated vinyl I'd have an easy job, it's more of a close-pattern stipple, I'll have to see if I can get the macro setting on the camera to work well enough to photograph it.

[vulgalour]

Mike and I got to the unit this weekend and we had a few hours of dry skies so I could crack on with more defillering.  This is very much an outdoor job, I've made a right mess of the place doing the first stage indoors.  First thing was to finish off that front wing I'd got most of the way through.  I need to drop the front bumper to finish off the job fully.  It's not too bad overall, the arch is at least in good order, but I'm under no illusion that there's a lot of work to put this right properly, there will be as little filler going back in as possible.

 

Started on the bubbles on the front door.  I was hoping this would just be rust needing a repair but no, it's more filler and a tacked on repair that is undoubtedly running the whole length of the door and hiding more bodges.  The other door is going to be just the same.  This is hidden from the other side of the door skin by the soundproofing so I'm not sure exactly what I'm going to discover when I've dug out the rest and removed the repair.

 

Got underway on the other front wing and was pleasantly surprised that there was, on the whole, much less filler and a better quality of repair work.  It's more that the weld is proud of the panel than the step between the pieces is too severe on this side.

 

Still, it hadn't stopped them trowelling enough filler in to try and eliminate the shape of the wheel arch flare so that has taken a while to dig out.

 

The mangled rear wing did get some dressing out on the worst of the dents.  This needs a lot of work, ideally I could do with cutting it off, smoothing it out on an English Wheel, repairing the missing bits and welding it back on.  That's not true, ideally I could do with a replacement rear wing but that's not really an option, so I have to do it the difficult way.

 

Some filler on this back corner is inevitable, though that repair has to be cut out and replaced properly, the profile of it currently is an absolute mess.

 

All of the bashing around on this panel dislodged a good amount of debris and revealed more repair work needed in the boot.  Nice flat piece to let in at least, cutting it out for repair might give me better access for repairing the rear wing.

 

By the time I'd finished digging all this filler out the light was starting to go.  Swept up, gave the car a proper dusting off and put it away for the day.  I may get some more done tomorrow, we'll have to see.

[danthecapriman]

That must only weigh half as much now all that filler has been removed! Some pretty crappy bodges under it all too.

Still a nice looking car though!

[vulgalour]

The filler in the door only seems to go halfway up the pale grey, which is a relief providing the other is only that bad.  That leaves the tidemark around the back end to clear up and to discover what's left of the front valance when I take the bumper off.  Honestly, with the work involved, this should be a parts car rather than be restored, it needs so much cost in labour to put it all to rights.  Thankfully, because the goal isn't to sell it we don't need to consider financial viability.

[purplebargeken]

Been a long time since I saw anything like the crapiness of those so called 'repairs'. 

[sierraman]

Reading this reminded me I sold a factory workshop manual for one of these about 3 months ago on t'ebay. It had the old MOTs for the car from 1970's in between the pages

[flat4alfa]

Caught-up with this thread and what Barrett had to say about the interior cloth dilemma is spot-on

[vulgalour]

I know that, you know that.  All I can do at this point is refuse to retrim in red, if the man providing the funds decides he wants it in red leather he can pay someone 5 times what I'd charge to do it in biscuit cloth, his choice.

[Albert Ross]

I was given the news last month, that I have been selected to help mechanically/structurally refurbish my Corsican friends' Daughter's Flavia Saloon. Their daughter is called Flavia.

[lisbon_road]

Fantastic thread, this sort of stuff really encourages me to get on with my own stuff.  Many thanks for sharing.

[MikeKnight]

I'm really looking forward to working on the engine! When this was bought the engine ran fine and smooth, though smoked like it was a Hollywood fx machine for a Victorian London set. If these have valve stem seals, it's probably those. Or the head gaskets. Easy peasy fix.

 

The brakes are fooked and will need completely rebuilding, might get away with just rebuilding the servo as I highly suspect from just a quick inspection it's just that which has failed. It's covered in gunk from a pretty catastrophic ancient leak.

 

Hopefully no damage has been done to the engine, as the same person (now fired from JMP for gross misconduct and negligence) who ripped out the headlining like an enraged monkey was found pouring an entire can of Easy Start into the carburettor trying to get the engine to fire up, despite the fact I'd already dumped all the fuel out the tank. He emptied the entire can before I stopped him.

 

Fired... wish I could've fired him out a fucking cannon..

[michael1703]

The sad thing about the wings is that you're going to have to put about 97% of that filler back in.

 

I restore cars as a job also, my heart sinks when I have to re do someone's cock up

 

Rather than DA it out, I use polystrip discs to get the worse out and then finish with the DA to save time (sanity)

[Taff]

I know that, you know that.  All I can do at this point is refuse to retrim in red, if the man providing the funds decides he wants it in red leather he can pay someone 5 times what I'd charge to do it in biscuit cloth, his choice.

 

Is it your boss's car, vulg?

[vulgalour]

Technically, I'm not sure who owns the car but if a label was to be put on it 'my boss' at the unit would be most accurate.  It either belongs to Mike or his Dad, I can't remember.

 

Was at a loose end for half an hour or so today and had nothing I could do on the other cars so got a teensy bit of time in on this one for the first time in forever.  Decided to make a start removing one of the wheel arches that are an over-sized panel put in from the back.  I've not removed panels that have been fitted this way before and at first I tried to cut through the outer layer by the weld, this was difficult and fiddly and didn't feel right so instead I got the flapwheel out and patiently worked through the weld until a seam was visible.  Usually you get a little bloom of blue just before the seam appears.  Then carefully prise it apart as you go.

 

 

This method is actually very quick and, I hope, least damaging to the panels.  It doesn't generate a lot of heat apart from right on the seam and since I'll need to cut back beyond that to effect a good repair anyway it shouldn't be a problem.  As I've been unpicking the seam the original wing has been springing back to a more correct profile, loosing that valley that was creating the need to apply so much filler.  I stopped when I hit the filler I'd not yet removed on this side.  I'm going to concentrate on repairing one area at a time and the new repair will be butt welded rather than overlapped.  This is a very time and labour intensive job, just as well there's no plan to make a profit on this car.

 

 

The scale of the job will only be apparent once I've completely unpicked this and discovered just how big the repair panel really is.  I have to salvage as much as I can.

[vulgalour]

Just dredging this one up from the depths. Sod all has happened with it since the last update in August and it's sat covered up waiting for some love.