Fulvia S2 rebuild

[Dave Gee]

I am in the process of rebuilding a S2 Fulvia, from scratch. Can anyone out there suggest a supplier of polybushes for the front suspension? I have spoken to Superflex at the NEC, and they do not have any Lancia bits. Any other suggestions?

Dave

[phil-m]

Hi David, I have a contact in Holland who supplies them. I was going to get a set for my Fulvia. When I return to work tommorow I will send the details on.

[Richard Fridd]

Graham Bates engineering.Graham has these at reasonable cost also Richard had some on this forum last week for sale.best regards richard

[Dave Gee]

As the weather leaves a little to be desired, and is definitely not enticing me out to work on the car, I thought I would add some pictures of the progress so far; the work started in November 11, when I bought what can only be described as 'a challenging project'! On stripping down the car, there have been few surprises, which is a relief, but it is clear that she will need rebuilding from scratch. The strip down took about a month, so Christmas was spent poring over a parts manual between 'duties', and then searching the net for a wide variety of new/reconditioned parts. I have found some good suppliers on the continent, using the German and Italian Ebay sites.

The first job was to design and build an undercarriage to support the body - see the first two photos, attached.

At this point things changed - our son told us he was getting married .........bearing in mind the last 'challenging project' took 12 years of my spare time.......it must have been a sunny day and all was well with the world - I opened my big mouth and said I would complete it for them to use on their honeymoon. A month later we were told it would be March 2013. No pressure there! Will add some more news as progress is made.  Dave:)

[rodney3010]

Good luck with the rebuild Dave, look forward to reading the updates!
Does anyone have a contact number for Graham Bates Enginnering?
Rodders

[andyc]

Just googled Graham Bates and came up with:
Low Barn workshop
Pond View
Long Lane
Odiham
Hook
01256 862001

[Dave Gee]

Just thought of a bit more progress, and a useful finding:
having braced the body sufficiently, I hope, decided to chop off one of the sills to have a look at the level of corrosion - and ultimately the work needed to restore the Fulvia. This is the first time I have used a 1mm thick cutting disc for a 4 1/4" angle grinder. This proved to be exceedingly useful for removing the bulk of the sill, leaving me to just drill out the spot welds, where required. Photos are attached.

Dave

[roddy]

Hello Dave

Good to see restoration of the body-shell progressing.  Just a reminder in case the shell is factory original :-  I would strongly suggest that you weld in linings to all four arches between the inner wheel arch and the outer wing, where Zagato simply fitted in the foam fillet.  Best done in sections, using a card-board template, which can be reversed for the opposite side.  Adds a bit of strength, particularly to the front, and keeps muck out from where is shouldn't be!

Regards - Roddy

[lancialulu]

Hi Dave

Strongly agree with Roddy on inner wheel arches being extended and welded to the outers. If you have not replaced the wings the outer wing may be thin and distort on welding. I did not do my bodywork as I found an excellent metal man in deepest Essex who was RR trained and knew how to weld be it gas or mig. He seam welded all my wings (having replaced the half wing sections with new courtesy of Bill Lewis) and the car feels very strong now and still so after 5 years of use.

Tim

[Dave Gee]

It's a Rollover!

Finally got my spit finished and attached the car body to it. Pleasantly surprised by the condition of the main floor.

Thanks for the suggestion of putting metal fillets in, to replace the rubber/foam sealing strips in the wheel arches. Have cut out templates and ordered some more steel to make replacements for the sealing strips. Any other suggestions very welcome, as this is the first Fulvia I have restored, having done Flavia and Flaminia before.

[LanciAlan]

Have you any pictures of how/where your spit attaches? It looks like it makes working down under very easy indeed.

[LanciAlan]

And,erm, where's the rest of your subframe!

[davidwheeler]

And don't let Harry Manning see you with that hammer!

[Dave Gee]

I've attached pictures of the spit and fixing - hope this helps. The subframe was as rotten as a pear, so I have cut it down and used part of it to reinforce the front end when I rolled it over. The spit is bolted to the front and rear bumper mountings. I manufactured two new studs to replace the old rear bumper mountings as these were very corroded.

The hammer was just being used to gently tap the floor to gauge an idea of its condition! Unfortunately I never met Harry.

Dave

[LanciAlan]

Thanks Dave

That satisfies my curiosity about whether you used the obvious mounting points and what precautions you took to ensure they were strong enough! Even a bare Fulvia shell can be surprisingly heavy.

Alan