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

[chugga boom]

the colour is actually darker in real life than in the photo's, i think it must be the lighting in the booth making it look the colour you can see, its more like what you can see under the bonnet but again for some reason that looks a little dark 

[chugga boom]

bit more done today, prima was hard enough to rub down locally around the welded areas so that i could spray seal over them, engine bay was a nightmare as i had to mask up all the edges to make it look pretty when painted over, anyway its taken me from 9.30 am until 3 pm to do it , little jobs always seem to take the longest 

[chugga boom]

with moving the axle up over an inch and chopping out the engine mountings yet again and putting new inner wings etc in i thought it would be really stupid not to check that the engine still fits in lines up and still clears the axle, anyway heypresto it still fits 100% and clears the axle by approx 10mm

[DavidLaver]

Are the hoses going to match that paint 

Good to know it still all fits, and lovely to see the progress.

David

[the.cern]

James, that is so impressive.

What is so great is that you really seem to be enjoying every minute of this (well, I guess there have been maybe a couple of not so good times) and now completion does seem to be in sight.

Do keep up the good work and keep us posted as well.

                     Andy

[chugga boom]

thankyou both, yes andy i'm really enjoying this project especially all its quirks and problems, anyway next problem is a fuel tank, i think its far safer to put a tank in the spare wheel well than over my legs , anyone know if tanks are made for spare wheel wells?? i can find lpg tanks readily but not really for petrol, my spare wheel area is approx 28inch diameter 6 inches height , any help appriciated

[thecolonel]

There's this one..... (bit pricey)

http://www.alfaholics.com/2010/07/25-litre-sprint-race-fuel-tank-149/

I'm sure demon tweaks will have something similar or check with alloy fuel tank suppliers.

Geoff

[chugga boom]

well after stressfull couple of months, a fuel tank has been sourced out of a tvr, finally moved house and almost straight there ( garages are sorted  ) hopefully going to make a start back on the truck between christmas and new yr , my aim is to get it into paint by march now which i think is possible as long as nothing else takes me off it 

[fay66]

well after stressfull couple of months, a fuel tank has been sourced out of a tvr, finally moved house and almost straight there ( garages are sorted  ) hopefully going to make a start back on the truck between christmas and new yr , my aim is to get it into paint by march now which i think is possible as long as nothing else takes me off it 

I feel a New Years Reselution in the offing
Keep up the good work, we all await the final result with bated breath and much anticipation!

Brian
8227

[chugga boom]

front end fitted up , straightened , lead loaded, filled, petrol tank moved to rear bulkhead and rear scuttle extended to cover it, filler work nearly finished , hopefully prima this week 

[chugga boom]

Thing is really starting to take shape, doors wings and bonnet hopefully into prima this afternoon and late night tonight so the shell can be into prima in the morning, next decision is colour, after much argueing with Lee the painter next door I hate to say this to purists on here but its going to be far from standard in colour, my case is that the vehicle was more or less scrap and is now FAR from origional, Its main purpose is as an advert for both of my businesses , I need something that people notice and dont want something that people say "look at that" I want something that people say WOW LOOK AT THAT!!!!! and then say to their friends "have you seen Minera tyres pickup?? , one thing i hated about my grale when i owned it was all the attention it got, i felt like a goldfish in a bowl , however this is not being built for posing its being built as a genuine advert, colour is going to be an Aprilia motorbike colour which is a candy red (pearlecent), so i apologise to those who will hate it

[sparehead3]

is it going to the only Lancia company vehicle in GB ?

[chugga boom]

certainly looks that way! made good progress again today, stayed late last night (11pm) and managed to get the insides of both front doors primered and all the edges and pin holes in the filler sorted, started again at 8am this morning and re hung the doors, finished the outside of the doors , pushed it into the oven masked it up and let Dave and Lee leather it with prima, this prima is mearly a high build sealer which will be blocked back by hand and all imperfections rectified then re-primered again before colour, because of the HUGE repairs this process needs to be carried out to make sure there is no shrinkage or sinkage of the paint leaving filler marks or rubbing down marks, even though its been baked it will now stand for atleast a few weeks to cure through propperly before being blocked

[chugga boom]

finally......

[simonandjuliet]

Looking forward to the the final 'Cerise fondante' colour !