aprilia project

[chugga boom]

anyway what you can see is only a small portion of the cowboy work done, the only things that are good are most of the roof and the rear valance/boot floor(which has been cut out of another car, look at every photo carefully and you get the impression the guy who repaired it was either a tank or ship builder looking at the amount of rivits,

[DavidLaver]

What's going on in photo 28?

Can you date the repairs?   When and how and who did it?

David

[chugga boom]

david its no where near robust, its honestly shocking!! i'm glad we had it blasted though as its revieled the true extent of lassoo lashing this cars had  

[chugga boom]

28 is the n/s sill !!! a series of patches and a tonne of filler

[fay66]

so come on what do you think??

James, sorry to see this after the time you've already spent on it, real gruesome, work carried out by an expert bodger, and even more pop rivets.

Brian
8227

[neil-yaj396]

I had a Frogeye that had had the popular modification of cutting out the rear deck rectified at some point. It looked fine, but when I restored the car I sanded two bin bags of filler off the shell. I think there was a time when filler was seen as a miracle cure all - tack weld, braize, pop rivet then cover it all up and sand down to a nice finish. You could buy it in paint tins. A friend once took the filler off the cross member of a Mini and found a suitable sized piece of wood wrapped in newspaper!

[Scarpia]

sadly, i wonder how many of our treasures might reveal similar lurking horrors if they were blasted..there aren't many wartime cars that have not rotted on someones drive at some point and then been quickly refurbished en got running.......

[chugga boom]

sadly, i wonder how many of our treasures might reveal similar lurking horrors if they were blasted..there aren't many wartime cars that have not rotted on someones drive at some point and then been quickly refurbished en got running.......

too true, i've seen plenty of bodges in my time but unfortunatly not on this scale, the pictures honestly only show about 50% of the mess thats been done, the rear shelf, rear firewall , rear chassis legs , front bulkhead and front chassis legs are absolutly awefull, even the rear end has been fitted 5mm too low on 1 side and 10mm too high on the opposite side, all of this can be rectified with alot of work however we do have another shell that looks far more origional except for 3 layers of floor, my dad is going to have a good look at it today and measure it all up and i'm going along with his verdict , this is honestly far worse than the appia camioncino that i bought, atleast thats just rotten, its far easier to repair plain rot than undo someone elses mess and then repair it , will let you know the outcome tomorrow, james

[apriliadriver]

That's a horror story ! I cannot see  how you will be able to hang the doors and boot lid straight. The integrity of the shell looks shot. Although I am normally reluctant to suggest this, you ought to try the other shell and write that one off.

I can see your dilemma (money spent etc.) but if you have the option, go for it.

Thanks for posting the pictures !
Nick

[ncundy]

I take back what I said earlier. Looks a real mess.

About 20 years ago my brother bought a Frogeye that was an abandoned project. Bodyshell had been done as had the engine. There were bills for £+ for the engine as the previous owner had had it rebuilt to a fast spec by David Vizard, and the 'shell looked good. Anyway after a year or so and Alex was fitting the gearbox, he couldn't get it to fit. A bit of investigation showed the 'shell had been thrown together (I guess the owner had run out of money and patience) around a bent transmission tunnel.

The whole lot had to come to pieces again - it's soul destroying really.

[DavidLaver]

To put the other side of it - without those repairs it would be long gone.

Our everyday Merc 300TE has just had six very visible patches on the sills - it looks like Frankenstein and when I first saw them thought "just a little bit more effort and they would have been flush and hidden".  However when the bill came for everything else and they told me how much the welder had wanted to replace the sills each side I was more than happy with the compromise.

Looking at the values of Dedras and Themas - what does a really good wheel arch repair cost?   You've got to sympathise with the guy who gets the red goop and an aerosol and does his best to smarten it up.

People do what they have to do to keep rolling...

Its perverse - but I look at the extent of the work on that and am full of admiration for the pluck.  Maybe its an "underdog" thing.   Hey ho - one day they'll be someone even crazier (or more desperate) than you who'll take that shell on.

David

[the.cern]

Ye gods James, what a mess, I thought I'd seen some dire bodges in my time but that one beats them all !!!!!!  I reckon the guy who did it must have been a plasterer to get any sort of finish on the amount of filler needed to cover that lot !!!

Good luck with the other shell, just cut the good bits (the few good bits) off that one and then do your bit for the recycling industry.

Please do keep us posted,

                              Andy

[GG]

Its certainly not happy, to be sure. I would stand back, get a price on what it would be to fix what there is. Its cleran enough, and there is about 85% good shell, maybe more. The repairs are terrible, but they are not hard to get at, and to take out. Sure, if you had a good clean shell, this wouldn't be option #1.... but it may not be as bad as you think.

Treat the previous repairs as "tacking strips" to hold the shell together, and now is the time to remove them.....

Maybe....?

[DavidLaver]

I'm also impressed that he/they managed to hide all this from eyes as experianced as yours and your dad's.  Were there cracks and so on?

Perhaps as a challange to you - is now the time to learn how to wheel repair panels?   Starting again you've got to factor in the time, trouble, and money stripping another shell that (who knows...is it possible?) could be worse.

Be a shame to see "one good one from two bad ones" when so many Aprilias have returned to the ground and mechanical parts are still relatively common - and there's few others than you ready willing and able to take something like that on at all...

Last shot to save it - one Aprilia for weddings and the other as a rally car?

David

[chugga boom]

getting the other shell out tonight to have a quick look  initially doesnt look as good as the other did look however theres no signs of rivits