On Saturday Chugga & Warby made their way to the wilds of Bedfordshire in search of Flaminia parts for a secret new project, which will be revealed at a later date
Sometime ago Frank Tierney & myself went to Bury St Edmunds to have a look at a Flaminia Berlina that had been advertised for parts, Frank wanted to see if it was worth buying for parts for his restoration.
On arriving the Flaminia had nearly joined forces with the ground it was embedded in
The original owner was the author Alistar Mclean but was now owned by a retired Naval Officer who was once the Naval Attache in Cairo, but at one time had used the Flaminia to commute from the Faslaine Submarine Base to his home at weekends then all the way back in time for monday morning.
Frank bought it, and with great trepidation managed to get it on one piece onto a trailer and home.
Knowing Frank had bits left over and that Chugga was on the hunt, I met up with Chugga and Warby near to my home and led them over to Franks, where after an expedition to get in the garage
it was soon apparent that a Flaminia transaxle, attached to the De Dion and springs was too heavy and too large to move in one piece, so with much grunting, mild swearing (it wasn't that bad) the De Dion and the springs were detached from the transaxle, a task much easier said than done.
When eventually a pot joint was persuaded part from the diff a beautifully engineered cush drive was revealed with whacking great wedges of rubber in between cast segments, what workmanship, no wonder Lancia eventually went bust.
Anyway, it was all removed out of the garage and into Frank's back yard where Matty, Aka Warby, Did his November Calander pose.
The last photo is of the donor car and that is probably the best photo, you should see the rest!
Brian
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