Lancia Motor Club

Forum stalwart  Frank Tierney gets an honourable mention in the rescue of a 1961/2 Flaminia berlina, hoping Mr Buckley does indeed carry out its restoration and not stick it straight on to ebay!

P

Martin has been in touch with me asking about replacement panels as it is partially stripped for welding so I am hopeful. It is a car I very much wanted to see restored because of its history of surviving but which I thought too far gone to be a sensible proposition. Martin seems as  attached to it as I was so my fingers are crossed.

Which page is it on please? Richard

Sadly Martin Buckley seems to have come to the same conclusion as me, that EJJ is no longer a viable project except for someone with a pathological love of welding. The biggest problem is that the front sub frame is completely rotted out on its lower surface and replacements, if traceable, are very expensive. He has offered it for sale and says he is sourcing a better one from Italy. EJJ may sadly end up as a parts car.

I hope no one scraps a rescuable Flamina Berlina because a bad subframe, there be tons of those laying around. I think I know a few people who have scrapped Flamina Berlinas but kept a descent subframe with the engine assembly

Any decent subframe would be welcome here if it fits a PF coupe. Tons of them not required as I do have a repaired subframe fitted to my car but a really good one must be a nice thing to have available. Any leads welcome. Richard

I suspect the amount of space a subframe takes up mitigates against them being casually saved.

Might this be the same EJJ that I was involved in transporting from London to Cardiff on a freezing day in April 1995? Snaps attached.

It is the very same. The chap in Cardiff closed his business when his premises were compulsorily purchased for the Cardiff Bay development. It sat on his drive for a few years till he sold it through Malcolm Elder who were somewhere in the north east at the time. I bought it as a restoration project but increasingly heavy work commitments prevented it progressing beyond collecting useful parts. I then came across a better one which took over my garage and EJJ sat under a tarp for a few more years till Martin persuaded me to swap it for the remains of a Beta Spider.

Whilst a replacement sub frame would be ideal I would have considered having the underside of the existing one repaired. I have contact with a professional hot rod builder and having seen the work he does on chassis frames I would have thought a repair was eminently doable.

I supplied a decent set of replacement doors with it and if someone really was restoring it I would provide all the help I can with information any spares that became available from my new project. . I would say it is in a condition where a serious enthusiast could resurrect it but it wouldn't be a viable commercial venture.

This is condition as EJJ left me and EJJ wrapped up next to the Birmingham Berlina that usurped her garage space.