South London Sport

[DavidLaver]

Bumpers - there's a chance of one quite good front from those two and either are in with a chance alone.

The screen went to a friend of the previous owner to store, who tracked down the owner's son, who then listed them on ebay.  It was really good to meet him.  He'd done the sums and spoken to Omicron and dismissed the idea of doing something with it a few years back.  He's got a lovely Morini 3 1/2 with drum brakes and all sorts of interesting cars so that apple didn't fall far from the tree.

Odds with the keys?  When a car is that rare the odds are quite high.  Jay Leno has a similar story about tracking down a supercharger where he searched the globe only to find the only one available was just round the corner having been removed from his car that he'd bought in LA.

David

[Jai Sharma]

You might be interested to see that in the current C & SC this car is listed as half of one of the discoveries of the year

[stanley sweet]

Just caught up with the latest here. That must have been such a satisfying day! What a strange coincidence that in the end you decided to go for the parts. If you'd just decided you couldn't buy them now they may have been lost to your car forever.

[DavidLaver]

It was a great day.  In the morning I delivered a heap of Flavia Consortium bits to Colin Clamp.  In the afternoon I met someone who remembered riding in that car.

David

[DavidLaver]

It survived the winter. 

One sunny Saturday I wiggled in the GRP console as much as somewhere to keep it, put the spare and the tank back in, and put the boot side panel in.   

I also did a trial fit of another boot lid but those photos are on another camera.  It fitted pretty well and the steel frame, while corroded along the bottom edge, is a lot better than mine where little of the bottom edge remains, the top is a long way gone and the sides far from pretty.  The collateral damage was a broken hinge so now need to be a bit careful with the boot when doing the tour - ie I have to do it rather than the tourists.

David

[DavidLaver]

I love the detail (or not!!) of how the panel is made.  A couple of rough cut laths and some pins to stiffen up a thin bit of board.  Light and functional with a flap to - ahem - inspect the rear spring mount.  Some rips, a bit warped, but with a bulldog clip up the front it sits well and raises the tone.

The front seat needs a lot more work than I pretended to myself last year...  That wire in the back rest snags clothing and the foam is gone.

The back seat was better than I remembered.  Those side panels show the "before and after" and will be a gratifying job to clean those up as well when I need something mindless to do.

Overall no regrets at the efforts to date.  The car as a whole (hole...?) is a more cheerful prospect than "as found" and the "conservation" efforts have also been an inspection and familiarisation exercise.  "As found" it was a nasty thing to touch or to be in.  Thinking about that the headlining needs to come out.  Its nasty and never going to be part of the finished car.  Getting that out, the glue and foam scraped and a look at the roof structure would be "forwards".

David

[DavidLaver]

The dash top makes big difference from "before".

David

[DavidLaver]

Back seat - so much better than before - the dents seem to have lifted out with time - BUT those persistent stains... 

Any genius ideas?  All its been so far is WD40 and Halfords bike cleaner.

"One day" it might be a re-colour or re-trim but for now I'm just wanting to get the original material as clean as I can.

David

[DavidLaver]

Another "before"...

[williamcorke]

Amazing. The car's lucky to have you, David.

[simonandjuliet]

You've been busy ......

Re. cleaning the upholstery, have you had a good scrub with a stiff nail brush and various products ? The vinyl should resist it. You could always try more vicious chemicals on an unseen bit before trying on the visible parts. I have used things like degreasers (Swarfega make a good one) and then followed up quite quickly with a vinyl polish or similar that re-moisturises the vinyl and stops it getting brittle.

Again on the back of a panel first !

[stanley sweet]

That seat is a big improvement and the floor looks so much better than those early photos. The main thing is the seat being clean enough not to spoil clothes. By the sound of it, if it is resisting hard cleaning then it's not going to mark clothing. Depends what sort of finished standard you're aiming for. As you say, 'some day' a vinyl colouring product would do the trick. I quite like the stripped out look - especially that frame work around the gearstick. You could always build a Targa Florio rep and then you woudn't have to worry about upholstery - there's only be the drivers seat! Not sure what the family would say though. i see that a Fulvia fuel tank is a Flavia tank turned 90 derees. Or is it a larger capacity?

[DavidLaver]

"Long term" for the trim I don't anticipate much more than mats, either rubber or coir.  If its noisy I'll try as I did in the Aurelia and stick some closed cell foam to the back of the mats.  The chances of this car being water tight are slim to nil so being able to pull the mats and get some air through is important.

That GRP centre console isn't a feature (looking at photos of other cars) I was all that fond of, I rather like the openness and the gear box hump (PFs and Vignales) but its growing on me.  It should have some vinyl trim but a surprising number of holes remain.  What's its begging for now is a push button radio.  Anyone an inspired idea as to which would be most appropriate?   One of the items that's come out of the car is the automatic aerial.  I'm rather fond of those going up and down on demand.

Engine degreaser is a good idea...  I've plenty of "hidden areas" on the side panels hidden by the seat cushion.

I'm itching to see the state of the roof structure.  Condensation damage?

David

[DavidLaver]

Someone else's car.  It looks like the gear box hump gets a fitted cover.

David

[phil-m]

Yes, there should be a 'carpet' over the tunnel hump. As for radio, Radiomobiles where often fitted in period and are quite cheap. The ultimate though would be a Voxson from Italy.