The Portuguese Aurelia B12 .....and so the journey begins..........

[williamcorke]

Up-date on the colour.........its Bordeaux red...discovered under the rear lights!

Also , some advice, we aren't sure if seller tried and or failed to start engine last year, hoping to turn it by hand, then if it turns check its compression, or should we just assume it needs a rebuild?

Secondly, the inner rubber seal between body and doors with aluminium groove, is there a tool to use to replace the new one?

P

Are you sure that Red is the colour?  The wings could have been changed... colour in hidden parts of the base unit is probably a more reliable indication.

The replacement of the long door seal into the aluminium channel (or the polypropylene replacement if the Al section isn't salvageable) is, according to some experts, the single hardest part of an Aurelia saloon restoration.  Most advise sliding the seal in using washing-up liquid as a lubricant and preferably have an assistant to help as you do it: the seal gets thinner as you stretch it, which helps!

[Parisien]

Good point Will, the green colour could have been the undercoat....but I must check on original log book if it states the colour also

Will check though I think it was in the door jambs too.

I think one or two fractures occured on part removal, will check later this week


P

[Parisien]

Chris, I will take your sage advice on board.....and go down the rebuild route.

P

[Parisien]

I spoke to Bill Lewis again today, hes only to happy to make replacement panels for the B12 ( he hasn't made any for a B12 before apparently), hes not far from Crewe Hall and is going along anyways to the event in September and I wondered if anyone knows of a B12 making an appearance so he can take some measurements/profiles off a correct car?

If would make life a lot easier and more reliable if he could get an eyeful of a B12 in the flesh than a series of remote measurements from across the Irish sea.

Thanks in advance


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[Parisien]

Ok....so last night my man decided to remove the radiator to start the engine removal, I'm still removing the bitumen off the last inner wing, proved a toughy as the old red wrench had to be used. Never mind having to use the fire extinguisher a few times! As he removed the radiator, he noticed a rather different colour than expected to come out of the bottom hose....ie it was of an oily constituency, so  engine rebuild it is!

Any general tips or foibles of removing an Aurelia engine .....gratefully recieved.

I will post up some pics tomorrow night as promised.


P


PS Still convinced it was a Bordeaux red colour originally, spotted the colour in stripped doors, door jamb and under rear lights!

[Parisien]

As promised some photos, they aren't for the faint hearted.......if you are look away  now!


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[Parisien]

.......and......

[Parisien]

....my jack......plus......

[the.cern]

Well, I looked and, although its a B12 not a B20, it looks sort of familiar.

Take it one (rusty) bit at a time and plod on through.

Jim and I reckon we're on about 120 man days, most of those were Jim's, but I did do some, honestly !!!  Its just that Jim knows what he's doing ...........

Good luck Frank, just get stuck in. Oh, and get it on a rotisserie as soon as you are satisfied that the main structure and mounting points can take it.

                         Andy

[Parisien]

We might just put it up on high stands Andy, I don't mind doing the scraping stuff......when my guy has removed the engine,suspension, drivetrain etc ...I will be back from Italy, then spend a couple of weeks doing that, sand/media blast and let a couple of decent welders run their eye over it. Give it to them for 4/5/6/7 months to straighten out.

Bill Lewis will make up a number of panels.......


Thats the plan!

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[williamcorke]

I'm glad the plan is restoration.  From what you'd been saying Frank I was expecting worse than what I can see in these pictures.  At least you're dealing with honest rust, not bodgery. 

Assuming that the construction is the same as my B10, you need to watch out for - and fully repair - rust within the A pillar / bulkhead area (and yours is rusted out at the base of this section, at the front of the sill).  The flange that the rear of the front wings mount to is a rust trap that encourages corrosion in the body base-unit at this point.

The reversing light mounted on 4th Series B20s seems to make an appearance on your car!  I hadn't realised that.  Should increase the available supply considerably!

[Parisien]

A picture is only worth about 239 words Will... ...it is pretty bad in places, but the sand blasting will tell the tale.

Yeah, the double skinned areas plus complex areas like pillar base meeting sills etc......

Oh.......does it have a reversing light.......lost re......Should increase the available supply considerably!

Am getting lots of support and info from all the guys on the forum and elsewhere......only for it, it would be considerably more difficult!

P

[Parisien]

Slight delay in proceeding, my guy took the opportunity to get rid of one nuisance project in his garage when I was off on holidays and also will get rid of a second this week so space is freed up; so a fortnights delay then engine out etc end of next week and off I go doing more scraping.

Might have some interesting news for the Aurelia fans on the forum next week......or could be a false alarm!


P

[Parisien]

So...where were we......oh yes....the B12...after a break for hols, courses and bad timing the car is finally inside, up on stands, exhaust and manifolds removed, lots of non-original exhaust hangers and a missing nut or two.

We hope to have engine out this week, then endless scraping for a week or two.

On further examining the underside we discovered a full depth "crack" running across the base of the nearside front engine horn...a bit concerning, any comments on this guys? Photos to follow plus hoping to get one of the potential welders to view it next week before getting it blasted later in November.



P

[Parisien]

This evening I got underneath her and did a couple of hours scrapping, the area under the corroded boot floor isn't too bad at all. My photos appear to be very "orange" maybe its just the colour balance being skewed, but with the worklight helping it gives a more balanced colour range in that photo!

Bonnet off, engine mounts loosen, brakes disconnected, radiator out, horn out, numerous small bits dismounted and labelled.

Tomorrow, more scrapping and templating and sectioning the best part/most crucial part of the sills and then floor pan.

The front end pics look just a little scary!


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