ardea pickup.........THING!

[DavidLaver]

...so the lesson is....next time even MORE ambitious?

[chugga boom]

got it in 1 david, i have got a really ambitious project in the pipeline, well 2 actually , got the welding finished on the front end last night at 11.45pm, shattered this morning but atleast i met my target 

[chugga boom]

bolted the front back together and pushed it out for a look before turning it around to start on the tailgate , definatly lower, itsgot no weight in it yet its still a bare shell but measures the same hieght as an aprilia now , well the front does!!

[fay66]

  Front wings look Ginormous
But looking good.

Brian
8227

[the.cern]

James, will you slow down a little please, you are making me feel exhausted and guilty about my slow progress just reading about it all !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But what a brilliant project, I hope to pop in to see it again soon, I doubt I'll recognise it !!! 

I might have missed the explanation, but why has it proved necessary to do that impressive strengthening work on the front wheel arches? Is this a weak point on the car or is it due to you transforming it into the THING? Some Fulvias also appear to have needed similar work in the same area' are they just the racing/rallying cars?

Keep going and look forward to seeing you soon,

                       Andy

[chugga boom]

andy aprilias are weak around the front end and do suffer with stress cracks and ardea's seem to be the same, however this looked like it had had a really big whallop on the front which was then badly repaired (i'm guessing when it was still a van), this then amplified the stress cracking problem and i found there was very little holding the axle mounts to the body, also the O/S mount was twisted in the chassis so with a straight axle on it the bolt holes didn't line up by nearly 10mm  , so i chopped it all out and started afresh using the n/s as a guide as it was basically straight, also i lowered it as its having 15" wheels instead of 400mm or 16" as it will now be too high geared to run standard 650x16 tyres or 400mm, its now been dropped just over an inch which is standard aprilia height, its now turned around to start on the back again, wont be any more progress this week as i have to clean the augusta and appia to use them for a wedding on saturday, but sunday onwards .....WATCH OUT, SHRINKER STRETCHER IS OUT 

[chugga boom]

I've still been chipping away at the truck, theres been a few modifications done to the o/s engine mount as an error of judgement on my part made it virtually impossible to fit the master cylender  however that is now solved and i'm glad i checked before painting it!! i decided that the front inner wings looked to scruffy to be painted body colour so they have now been filled up and straightened out more, the engine bay was the next target and that is underway making it look tidy before paint, unsure of colour for under the bonnet, origionally it should be satin black but i prefere body colour, to me the satin black (even though origional) looks as if its hiding something or as if its not been painted propperly, my dad and owen are both saying stick with the black , i'm 50/50 not really sure yet  , whilst all this was going on i've finished the gear box tunnel cover that hides the floor change linkage off, its taken me months to decide how to do it so that it will look factory when covered with carpet, fairly happy with the end result, my dad came down today to help asses the tailgait hinges, we know where were going with that now however i think i'm going to be modifying the lower hatch  by making it smaller (side to side) to clear the hinges, the hinges have to drop down nearly 5 inches from the floor height to make the tail gate level with the deck floor when its down, this would make it impossible to remove the lower spare wheel cover when the hinges are in situe, we have a plan that we shall try to execute this week and hopefully next weekend i will have a hinged frame on the back

[DavidLaver]

My vote is body colour.  Both as a personal preferance and as its so far off standard, and as you'll never please everyone, just please yourself...

Loving the progress !!

David

[rogerelias]

Being as its not going to be original, why go for original

[chugga boom]

so far we have been working on the tailgate and hinges, probably one of the toughest jobs so far, its very simple to make it hinge downwards but to get it at the same level as the deck floor when down and to clear the rear floor as its coming down was a nightmare, due to the size of the hinges now i've decided to make the rear hatch for the spare wheel smaller, there was no hatch origionally it would have been hidden by the rear doors, the hinges are heavily modified origional rear door hinges so atleast some of it is period

[chugga boom]

finally....

[DavidLaver]

What about the spring that j-u-s-t balances the weight at each point?   Then again it would keep popping up again if you parked on a hill...

Well done - that's a BIG step forwards.

David

[chugga boom]

started to make the lower tailgate, thinking of leaving it with a recess for the number plate ,

[chugga boom]

a little more progress this afternoon, masked up the inner wings, etch primed then antis stone chip painted them, de masked and the 2k primed the inner wings inside the cab and the engine bay, after this was done i painted the inner wings in body colour wet on wet then used what was left in the gun as a guide coat on the engine bay before flatting back, next job is to flat it all back and spray seal the seams and welds in the cab and engine bay then hopefully they can go into colour in the next week or so, back on the tail gate tomorrow 

[chugga boom]

more..........