New Flaminia owner

[Richard Fridd]

My PF was the distinguished grey, then was changed to 'Bleu Lancia' many years ago, which is now somewhat patinated. Red interior also patinated. Black not so much a favourite but looks better in photos.

  Richard

[Mitka]

Congrats! I know of the car, looked at it before it got its resale red! Best of luck making it nice again!

[DavidG]

Wish I had seen it then but I wasn't looking for a project at the time. Having looked at cars at the higher end of the price range I decided I could only get what I wanted by doing it myself.

[DavidG]

Here are pictures of 1970 Lancia colour flitches which possibly cover the end of Flaminia production. I don't have the actual item so what you can see in the pictures is all the information I have. I had a Berlina which had a dark grey metalic as its original colour which I thought must have looked very distinguished.

Thanks for these. The colours I keep seeing referred to are grigio doncaster, cascine and brighton, but not really sure how these compare. I may consider a metallic.

[lancialulu]

Here are pictures of 1970 Lancia colour flitches which possibly cover the end of Flaminia production. I don't have the actual item so what you can see in the pictures is all the information I have. I had a Berlina which had a dark grey metalic as its original colour which I thought must have looked very distinguished.

Thanks for these. The colours I keep seeing referred to are grigio doncaster, cascine and brighton, but not really sure how these compare. I may consider a metallic.

Grigio Newmarket is the one I think best suits

[Sliding Pillar]

According to Win Oude Weernink's book Lancia Flaminia - Details of the collection, the original Grey colours for the Coupe were Grigio Marones, Brighton and Albani.
The Berlina was available in Grigio Newmarket, Cascine and Epsom.

The Max Myer codes are in the book.

[DavidG]

Thanks, I have that book, I should have looked.

Think at some stage I will get some samples of Grigio Brighton and Albani (i have seen it spelt Albany as well) and apply them to a panel.
Hurt my back at the weekend so taking it easy for a bit now. I did get a rollover jig so looking forward to trying that out once I have made the necessary brackets to attach it to the shell.

In the workshop manual there is a strut used to keep the leaf springs spread open when removing. I have never had a car with leaf springs before - does the strut need to be adjustable in order to get the spring eyes to line up? Could it just have a slight wedge shape to it? Does anybody have any dimensions for it?

David

[Richard Fridd]

From my own thread,  image supplied by Alan Murphy .

  Richard

[DavidG]

Thank you for that  Richard.

Well, the inlet manifold finally gave in after quite a battle. I will now re purpose the same plate I made for it  to use on the cylinder heads.

[lancianut666]

very interested in how you will get the heads off as I have a very stuck one and due to moving house have not got round to finishing my removal plate.
Clarkey

[Richard Fridd]

I have Flaminia heads to remove imminently. Does anyone have the tools to do this? These are on my smokey spare engine which is in transit to a nearby workshop.
  I will start a new forum thread once this job begins.

  Richard

[DavidG]

I have removed the rocker carriers and used an impact wrench to undo the head nuts. A couple of studs, with particularly rusted nuts, unscrewed from the block, revealing quite a bit of corrosion along their length. I think they only came out because of the impact wrench.  It made me wonder if all the studs could be removed in this way by welding nuts to them - I can't get any of my stud extractors to fit. The heads would then hopefully come off quite easily. Anybody done anything like this?

[DavidG]

I have been taking a break from the heavier work and have been spending time with my boxes of bits. I will pretty much have to put the whole car back together to check everything fits, and that I have a full compliment of parts, before stripping down again for painting.

First up is the dashboard. I have only had more mass produced cars in the past and it is a surprise to me to see how crude some of the parts of the flaminia are, and how they were clearly adjusted to fit during assembly. Refitting seems to require the same adjustments and finding which of the, seemingly random, screw holes is for which screw. This is particularly true for the dashboard area. I have to say though that I am loving this automotive archaeology/puzzle.

I have fitted the heaters and demist vents, the wiper mechanism and the dashboard structure - firstly with, and then without, top and bottom vinyl covered parts and instruments/switches etc. I have a wiring loom but I think it is beyond saving as it has been cut to remove it. I will probably piece it back together, to confirm it reaches where it should, before reproducing it off the car.

The wiper motor was not good and the park contacts were completely burned out. I have chosen to replace it with a more modern alternative from VAG which fits nicely and has the same spindle dimensions.

It is my intention to fit air conditioning to this car, for the trips to southern Europe that I hope to make. I am not a fan of the ugly under dash evaporator units that are probably more correct for this era of car (i believe pininfarina offered one) so I have sourced a compact unit that fits behind the dashboard - I will duct it to the dashboard vents and to a discrete outlet below the centre of the dash. I have designed a plenum to connect the ducts  (including a small one to the glovebox to keep the  emergency bottle of Champagne cool) and I will 3D print this in ABS this week.

I will need to have the engine in position before I can work on the compressor bracket. If anybody here has a Flaminia with aircon, would it be possible to have some photos of your compressor and mount? I have found a few but they are general engine bay views and the design of the bracket is not entirely visible.
Wanting to make sure that when all is painted it will simply be a matter of bolting it all back together again, I have also been looking at the fitting of a radio - the majority of space available for this has been taken up by the new evaporator. I have bought a classic style radio from retro sounds, which has the very neat feature that it can be broken down into components for mounting. The front panel can be removed from the radio body so that the body can be placed remotely. Currently not sure where I will hide the speakers.

David

[DavidG]

I am puzzled by the adjustable strut that supports the centre of the dashboard. I don't have one and, whilst I can see where it should attach to the dashboard, the body attachment is a mystery. There is a bracket behind the wiper mechanism that looks ideal but doesn't line up (not too much of a surprise) but, more importantly, would mean the rod itself pasing right through the mechanism. Could anybody let me have a photo of this?

Thanks
David

[DavidG]

Evaporator plenum in position and radio location sorted, only the support strut to resolve. If I have a spare moment I will make Y pieces to connect the aircon hose into the dash outlets but this can wait. These parts will go back into their boxes to await their individual restoration and I will start on the doors next.