Lancia Motor Club

Is this getting boring?  Not to me!

I just couldn't resist it, so to join the superjolly there is now a beautiful appia furgone.
As the pictures show, it is in reasonable condition, but sadly not good enough to keep it as it is.
It will need partial replacement of the floor, one sill (left) part of the front wing, and the bottom of the spare wheel well.
But it is largely complete, the engine starts (on start pilot) and as far as I checked the braking system is in good serviceable order, this will be my first point of 'attack' toghether with the fuel tank.
Just to be able to move it around more easily.

Missing parts are the rear bumper and rear lights (lights already sourced) and the plate lights.
I have the Original steering wheel, but seen the condition replaced temporarily with a 3rd series item.

I'm sure I won't be able to catch up with Simons high speed restoration, (although he seems a tad diverted for the moment so thats surely to my advantage) but I still plan a healthy progress on this one. (which can't be said for some projects i must admit....)

Will keep you posted on the progress.  Aim is the 2015 European sliding pillar. (whoo what a bold statement....)

Lovely......looking forward to all your adventures, good to see another one being added to LMC's fleet!

P

At this rate we can do a "Sliding Pillar furgoncino rally" !

Looks great, I am looking forward to seeing progress and sharing ideas/experiences

Well done !

I cant quite work out why these light vans are so appealing to so mkany people including me - we don't feel the same about Morris Minor vans or Ford Thames vans do we? They are very seductive for a utilitarian vehicle. Is it the body shape which has many of the characteristics of Aurelias or is there another reason?
They are also very popular and sought after in Italy by the way.
Chris

Well, to start with I was quite non-plused, actually didn't appeal at all. Then I saw one, then a two in the flesh; having then witnessed them being restored by several members on the forum, they've slowly become more and more delightful.

Why the makers of THE GT of its era and a coupe that set the design and mechanical standards for the decade, choose to make delivery vans of the same standard components ( maybe not so much design) is bizarre and fascinating at the same time. In effect you're driving around in a Q van, modest un-assuming exterior with those beautifully crafted internals and engine. Only aficionados will have any idea what they represent, so I suppose they are the best kept Lancia secrets out there!

P


PS Do we have a psychologist on the forum by any chance?!!

I'm going to go completely off topic and offer a different viewpoint. My other interest is music, and I've been known to do the odd gig now and again. My only claim to fame has been to sit in with a country singer of repute (from the 70's). At the moment I'm trying to get to grips with a few tunes for a new venture. One is a song by Bill Withers called 'Use me'. The drummer is James Gadson, and possibly in a few weeks practise I'll have the drum pattern mastered (kind of). But the one thing I'll never get, is the sheer level of 'coolness' that he displays. And that my friends, is the difference between Lancia Vans and everything else, and if you don't get it, you quite possibly never will.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3hBYTkI-sE

They are nice. Simple chunky lines but with a cute 'face'. Only needs Snowy hanging out the window. They are almost what every van should look like. What is the meaning of the diagonal red stripes I always see on Italian commercial vehicles?

...its a warning sign to Ferrari drivers that they are about to be be over taken by a superior Lancia made vehicle.......;)


P

Aurelia's are ridiculously over engineered and built to an extravagant standard.  Seeing the same quality in an Appia just makes me chortle.  Seeing that in a VAN all the more.  Combine that with the insider's knowledge of Aurelia front axle and a five speed gear box...and then having had a ride in one...  So refined, such a ride, flat cornering, plenty of grip, spritely through the gears.  They are a marvel.

However these call me all the more:

http://www.finecars.cc/en/detail/car/248955/index.html

The twin callipers on the front and pair of boosters are the "on paper" highlight.  The "Richard Thorne camper" was quite a thing to behold, for all too gone and too big for me to contemplate even at that stage of life.  I'd love to see another, better still to have a ride.

David

My understanding from other members who know in more detail than me, the red line denotes the goods carried are owned by the vehicle's owner, there is I think a blue diagonal line variation, for goods not owned by the vehicle owner. A better explanation is sure to come from those who know the full details.

Keon, great to see that you have bought that Appia Furgoncino.
They are indeed getting very common, as you will see from the photo below, look carefully and you will see two Camioncinos one Giardinetta and a Furgoncino in the foreground!

....Good Lord...they are reproducing.............cloned....mini factory.......just how many are there about??!!


P

Hey ade,

That picture is made where I bought the furgone!.  Have you been there as well?
Quite an impressive collection indeed!

@David: Sadly the superjolly will now again have to wait a bit.  But at least they keep each other company!

Time for a little update and the little progress, but little progress is still progress!

In the mean time time I removed all four wings (and the front doors had to make way in the process)
I removed kilo's of dirt and underseal, just to start with some of the less pleasant jobs.

I found out that (as more or less expected) both A pillars will need welding up.

Last week in an Obvious attack of insanity I thought it would be a nice panel beating exercise to make the A-pillar panels in one piece.
Today I started on the task by fabricating a 'mould' which I hope will serve three purposes:
1. a way to form the 'chanel' in which the wing is atached, and where the door seal is located, as this must be very accurately reproduced.
2. a check for fit of the panel as it is formed, as this won't be Obvious on the car.
3. a way of (if I succeed, which I'm not too certain of!) to fabricate more then one panel in the future without having a car here.

item 2 and 3 being the reason I extended the mould forward, instead of just making a mould for the rear channel, which was my first plan.

It took me most of the sunday to fabricate the mould, and I did some test beating on the channel.
Now feel it would be better to do some stretching and schrinking on the panel prior to beating the channel in position.

attached some pictures

Looks good.

How did you do the bending?   Any lessons if you were to do it again?

David

Looks amazing, it is a place I will be at when I start on mine. if the mould works the Appia Spares consortium would be interested in the production of further repair panels as I guess by looking at your pictures and my own car the area is a definite problem.
Clarkey

@david: I used a 'home made' bending tool (see pictures below) and a good (important) vise.  The mould is mainly made of 15x15mm steel bar, as this fits nicely in the channel by the door.
I will try to do some more testing this week, maybe by trying to get the paneel more or less into shape before driving the door side chandel.  (as on the test panel yesterday I made a small rupture in the panel by stretching it too much.)

@clarkey: well I hope to get it right, but this will take some experimenting and material loss.  But I can already confirm this mould will not fit 3rd series cars (I have one here) but I do hope it will fit 1st series cars (as I have one awaiting restoration, but did not yet persent the mould to it (will be difficult as wings and doors still attached)

But it's an interesting exercise, as indeed most appias and even aurelias suffer in that area.

some progres on the panel, it fits the mould, still have to do some planishing and the edges, but it looks promising.
I thought I could do most of the stretching and shrinking with the eckold, but ended up hamering the panel into shape on the mould, sometimes doing some corrective stretching and shrinking as the edged more and more deformed.
I used the eckold for planishing, but feel there must be better solutions for that.  Now as most of the panel will be covered with a good coat of underbody seal in the end this is maybe not so important, but still it's a nice excercise to make a properly finished panel.

Returning to a couple of earlier points;

I believe heavy commercials have a white stripe so there seems to be a graded system in there somewhere.

Its looking good.

Just looked on Google and it says that eckold do a hand former.  All the same I assume you mean their air hammer. 

David

I also meant to say that surely Lancia built commercials because they profitable. Discerning hauliers want well made durable vehicles and Lancias were some of the finest.

During WW11 in north Africa the 3RO was prized by all armies. See long range desert group below.

For David some info on the eckold.
The machine is indeed a schrinker/stretcher, not on air power but driven by an electric motor and a gigantic flywheel.  This results in enormous forces.  The one I was Lucky to get my hands on is build 1953 or 1954 and is called a 'fokker' eckold, as these machines where custom made for the Fokker airplane plant.  So the machine is even older then the appia I'm working on!
The advantage of this particular type is that it has a footpedal that can inmediately disrupt the schrinking or stretching, which is very convenient for less experienced users (like myself)
It's amazing how powerfull the schrinking or stretching works, and it needs very carefull 'tuning' or it will destroy the workpiece in a matter of seconds.  However if adjusted carefully it is a wonderfull piece of equipment.

Luckily spares for tools are still available from eckold (even for this 'aged' machine), and I recently ordered the necessary spares to get it fully operational. (quite an investment I must admit)
It will however take a lot of time (and sheet metal) to get to fully take advantage of it, so now I try to play with it every now and then..

What a beast!!!   While you may have been lucky to have found it and to have the space, I have huge respect for having got it working, tooled up, and getting some proper work from it.  There are some period "aircraft sheet metal" books, I wonder if any of those have tips.  I expect like most such things it comes down to time hands on and being willing to waste some metal with experiments.  There are some books by Timothy Remus (just checked on Amazon that I had the name right) which boil down to photo stories of visits to people, I've half a memory of something like this in one of those.

David

David,
you could always make yourself one!


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tPTLwmxsWc


Brian
8227 8)

That's quite a machine...

With bodywork - at the end of the day - all these tools are "only" time savers and it can be as basic as "hit it with a stick".  Sand bag, dished block of wood, a bit of steel plate, some body hammers and some wooden hammers.  All the machine does is help you make a mess of it all the quicker!!!

Thinking about it the big lie above is that an Eckold will do a lot of shrinking...while "hitting it with a stick" will only stretch.  The basic, hand tool, shrinking method of twisiting crimps in and then flattening is really only an option very close to the edge.

David