Lancia Motor Club

I have decided to start work on the unplanned Ardenna i bought.
Just to be in the spirit of things I thought this time round might be better to post some pictures on here.
let see how it goes.

Just a question.
does any one now or made a  new wiring loom for aprilias before i start making one up.
Christo

Christo, the man to ask currently, is Chugga boom(James), hes done quite a bit of work restoring Aprilias over the last year, so  he could well have rewired one or two...will pm his phone number as hes not on the forum much in the last few months,


P

Update:
What started as a strip and repaint job has now evolved on another full on restoration. This was definitely not planned and my financial budget is on a real stretch.
Having removed all the paint the car now revealed the not so nice side of it.
Everything that looked sound was either covered with filler or was hiding behind poor repairs that seemed okay.
My metal man texted the other night and commented on the can of worms I bought in which my reply was fishing might be a lot easier.
However I am not going to give up.
After a conversation with James Perry earlier this week I have ordered new floor section from Bill Lewis who seem a great guy, we have cut the car open on the outer front wings as I was concerned over cracks and previous horrible looking plates however  luck is in sight as the beams are actually still good and all the metal is more than strong  enough .
The boot is now cleaned up and I was contemplating replacing the whole boot section but after further investigation we can fix it with smaller repairs.
The floors currently in the car are not original in the front foot well so we will be replacing them and making new bottom sections for the a post as they had also had very poor earlier repairs.
So making progress.
We have repaired the back wing and they are in primer and so the 4 doors too although they will need refitting once all the welding is done.
One of the part I am looking for is front bumper brackets I thought I had a pair but alas no.
My other concern too at the moment is the current wheels on the car are they Aprilia /Ardenna ?
There is nothing to fix the hubcaps too looking at pictures I wonder it they were aftermarket wheels.
Maybe a set of rims would come in handy if any has a spare set or can give me a indication if these are correct.
Attached is a few pictures.
If of any use to someone else I bought a stainless exhaust of the internet of a company in Devon they seemed to be well made and very reasonably priced.

Update.
Left hand side of car is now completely repaired new floor section in Tunnel repaired round gearlever.
Left hand inner oute wing repiared.
Right outer wing open up to check all seem okay
engine bay cleaned up .
Slow but progressing.

floor pic

Great efforts Christo.......hoping it all goes to plan regardless of disappointments and extra expenditure....I know what it feels like!


P

wheels are correct ardennes type

Hi James thanks for comments on wheels. Just means I got to find a spare not sure how hubcaps should fit.
Yep car will be very nice when done .

Will be selling it once done as money needs to go towards the farm I bought in Wales

I have your spare! PM me and I will tell you how...

More progress,
The left side of car is now done and we are busy re-hanging the wings.
The boot floor has been very carefully repaired with only certain section removed and replaced it looking very good.( We remade the whole back section were the lock fits and the two bumps in boot for shock absorbers were cut out cracks repaired and refitted)
We are now moving onto the right hand side the first big gremlin was a plate on the back seat it looks nice from above  but on further investigation it was left with open ends underneath and  really not strong at all so we have removed it and in the process of remaking it.
We have also cut the whole side beam open at the bottom to check for strengtheners as on the left side they were half there rest rotted away. I have found on the Aurelia it stiffens the car back up and makes it solid you never see this as the beams seem okay but nothing left they are crucial on these non pillar  cars
More pictures  to follow soon
I know for some its fun taking these projects on but I must admit I much rather enjoy just driving them. 

The rate you are going, you will be driving it soon !

Some more pics taken today. (need to get a better camera) floor on underside starting to look good.
better pictures of the boot.
Simon I was hoping it was running already but maybe end of january.

Progress update:
Most of the metal work is now finally done on car bar, left front wing and boot lid so probably another week I hope.
All the wheels are now present after collecting spare from Wiliam Corke they are now sandblasted and in etch primer. Ready for cream and black paint soon I hope.
All the holes on dash has been filled in and is now in etch primer.
Most of the body is now filled with filler and straighten up ready for primer just amused by how much filler we still had to use even after all the panels seems okay I guess the car is 75 years old to get it perfect you got to get it right on the base layers.
Let hope it going to see some primer and top coat soon
I am paying someone £25 an hour to professionally do all the work and the car has now been there 3 months with one guy working full  time on it  , money seems to go like water into an endless pit
Hopefully it will be a very nice car once done in its original black.

Not far now !

Re filler, as you say 75 years of stones and car parking dings mean you end up filling a lot of defects (some one said of my wings that it looked as if if somebody had taken a shotgun to it ) but once painted all will be forgotten ......

Looking good though - you will be loathe to sell her though ??

Shaping up very nicely. :)

The last of the metal work now.
Bootlid is repaired and I think it looks very good knowing how bad it was.
Left front wing is the worse part on the whole car but even that is now shaping up very nicely my metal man not cheap but his bloody good.
We are now on the home run for primer and topcoat.

All the metal work is now at last done and a big section is now in primer too. Hopefully next week the whole car will be in its final primer ready for topcoat. Wheels are done new tyres are on.
Big question now, the car was orginally black do I paint it black again or should I choose a different colour? or do i just try and sell it as it is now.

more pics

Looking a lot smarter...I suspect the finished product will fetch a lot more then a part finished one


P

It will also cost a little bit more!!!...

They look nice in Lancia blue...

Dark blue is nice but originally it was black is it more important to keep it black or just to make it a colour of choice . I do need to sell it at some stage.
Difficult one.

What colour to paint one's Aprilia, or rather Ardennes is an agreeable dilemma. The Ardennes may have had its own colours and interior materials of course, but colours of series 1 and 2 Aprilias are listed, whether reliably or not I do not know, in the Italian Aprilia Wikipedia article in the first paragraph of each of the sections "berlina prima serie" and "berlina seconda serie":

http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lancia_Aprilia     .

Meanwhile the Ardea website has a whole large section of photographs of paint colours, with some discussion attached, which might be useful, particularly the "colori certi", that is the ones that are certain:

http://www.lancia-ardea.it/ColoriAbbinamenti.htm    .

Cesare

Its  about high time I put some more pics on here.
Progress has been very slow with way too much on and the house in Wales seem to take my life over.
however a great deal has been done  since the last post.
The car is now 98% black which was its original colour.
The seats are back from the trimmers they are good but doorcards are wrong and I am not happy with roof lining fit or stitching but maybe I can improve that still.
I have managed to polish all the aluminium trim up which all came up very well bar some of the scratch marks of 75years of use and I have sourced a back bumper on ebay which is now on and a new front one on order with Ron Francis.
I have started putting the doors back together had new glass made for the whole car plus glass for the vents. front screen and back screen already in with new rubbers. I also found in a box of my spares 4 new complete outer door handles so they are now on too.
the next job is all the felt bits in doors and then glass and then remaking of doorcards.
I have bought a good engine and gearbox which is now also back in the car.
Great progress but still miles off from being on the road and loads more polishing to be done.