I said I would never buy another Aurelia.........

[Mikenoangelo]

I know it is good to stick with the original but I can't say I like the trim of Lancias of that period which seems too austere and gloomy for my taste. The cream plastic wheel and instrument rims are horrid too and don't match the super elegance of the car as a whole.

Mike

[chriswgawne]

Forgive me but I think you need to imagine the early 50s, particularly in Italy. Plastics were in their infancy and wool cloth upholstery was the height of luxury only surpassed ( for some reason) by leather.
The colours of dark brown wool upholstery and cream plastic knobs, steering wheel and instrument rims were cutting edge for the time and well ahead designwise of competitors.
Chris

[Mikenoangelo]

Capsico Chris . I recall an advert from the period showing a chap in a small car being overtaken by a huge American sedan, the small car driver saying words to the effect that he didn't envy the car but did covet the wool upholstery so you are right - I still don't have to like it though!

Similarly the early Aprilias have a tasteful dash with round dials, replaced on the Lusso version and the post war Aprilias with something in the style of a juke box. It is of its time.

Mike

[the.cern]

Well Chris, what can I say but congratulations!!! I can see yet another beautiful car back on the road due to your dedication and expertise!! Wonderful!!

                                                  Andy

[chriswgawne]

A brief update on progress (or not).
I still haven't found a source of supply for dark brown wool cloth for the headlining and seats in a colour I am happy with but the headlining has been removed by the trimmer to use as a pattern.
It is interesting to see the superstructure beneath the outer bodyskin as I have always wondered about the roof rack mounting studs which all Aurelia saloons seem to have. as you will see from the photos (to follow) there is a substantial superstructure there. .

I have rebuilt the transaxle but I still have to finish off the brakes. New bearings & oil seals  were needed everywhere although all the gears & synchros were in good condition.

The body is being slowly stripped of paint and no horrors have been discovered (yet). Corrosion is minimal apart from the outer skin of the rear valance in its centre under the bumper where it has been damaged but the vertical inner metal of this section under the car which often corrodes because it gets all the weather driving along seems fine.
The eagle eyed amongst you will have probably realised that the body is being worked on in Languedoc by 'Dog'.
In the decision making as to whether to buy the B21S, each of the  body shops who I use here and in the UK were insistent upon the body being totally stripped of everything incl suspension and then being either dipped, blasted or baked in an oven to remove everything from the surface of the metal...……..and this meant the cost of refurbishing and painting the body was at odds with what the maximum the car would be worth when finished, never mind the trimming and mechanical parts costs.
Why couldn't the body (which appeared to be very sound) be done in the 'old school' way by basically just removing the paint on the outer surfaces and repainting? Particularly as I am staying with black. The wings are coming off, the inside door surfaces are OK but the dash needs painting and the underneath of the car is remarkably original and good. The engine bay which is body colour so black is a bit of an unknown at the moment but once its properly cleaned I think it will be obvious how far to go. Photos to follow.

Regarding the engine, what I didn't say in my earlier post was that I had given the work to this local engine machineshop ( who were recommended by Giuliano, my friend in a local car workshop here who I sometimes get to check my work over to see if I have missed anything) without getting a price from them...….and as the days passed I began to worry about both the cost and also whether they would ruin the block in drilling out the very hard 32 head studs.
Well, last Friday I went to collect the block, heads and inlet manifolds and I was very pleasantly surprised. The owner of the business is a very pleasant matter of fact 45yr old woman who said they were themselves pleased with the way the job had turned out. Each one of the machinists there who had done different aspects of the work came and introduced themselves and described what they had done (still no idea of the bill!!) and I loosely fitted a set of head studs myself there to check that the heads went down smoothly....which they did. They had lightly skimmed the heads and block (without touching the engine number) and repaired the frost damaged inlet manifolds and fitted extra deep helicoils as requested. The bill was about 50% of what I actually expected and certainly considerably less than I paid a UK specialist a couple of years ago for similar work.
So now I can push on with assembling the engine when I have some spare time - I have already stripped and rebuilt the water pump and distributor. 

[Parisien]

Great stuff, nice to hear of pleasant surprises plus finding/knowing of knowledgeable guys to do some of the work required.

Looking forward to some photos!

P

[chriswgawne]

Here are a couple of photos after the headlining had been removed showing the inner bracing for the roof rack and also the rear blind pull.

[chriswgawne]

Here are a few photos of the body during stripping. Its a lhd car which has spent its life in Italy so the sill and floor area of  rhs of the car will always be much worse than the lhs as its has run in the gutter with rain, stones etc. For a 67 year old car ( built in April 1952) its not bad at all.

[Parisien]

Brings back memories, yes, not too bad looking at all, plus you're working on several fronts simultaneously, must get on with mine!

P

[chriswgawne]

My experience with projects like this is that the momentum must continue. Not sure why the same photo of Dog appeared twice but here are a couple more.
Chris

[Parisien]

Mostly good, sills need doing from the first photo ( no problem for Dog I suspect!) , can't quite remember the protrusion/bolt at base of A pillar/sill area?

P

[DavidLaver]

Fascinating to see the inside of the roof - and courage rewarded with the engine specialist.

[chriswgawne]

I had a good feeling about them David based upon their attitude when I first turned up.
Chris

[chriswgawne]

No metalwork problems with the lhs underside and sill area of the car as I alluded to earlier and the perforation to the outer skin at the bottom of the rhs A post is localised so all good.
Here are a couple of photos of the stripped lhs front wing and also the repair to the aluminium  front bumper which was cracked.
I have everything here now including new pistons, liners, main bearings, big ends, camshaft, flywheel, head studs  etc to rebuild the engine  so I imagine I will make a start later this week once I have carefully extracted a broken brass water union low down on the front rhs of the block.
Chris

[Sebastien]

Chris, work done on the body looks good! Agree with you that the total stripping, dipping, etc. is not really required - however you have done quite a thorough dismantling!

Regarding the engine, out of interest, what are you going to do:

Oil filter: keep the early one, which does not have a filter cartridge, or modify to take the later one?
Big end: Will you keep the white metal or convert to shells?
Oil pump: will you keep as is, or upgrade to later one for bigger flow?
Conrods: It was written elsewhere that conrods on early engines, especially 2 l B20, are a bit weak: new more solid ones, or reuse the existing ones?

As you are going to upgrade the heads to B12, and are looking for some more power from your B21 engine, above modifications could make sense!

We all look forward to a lot of engine photos....