Appia furgoncino - A fettler's voyage

[simonandjuliet]

Finally !

Furgoncino painted and looks fab ...... panels brought home, waiting to borrow the low-loader again for the body

Once vendanges are finished I can start putting everything back together again, which may take a while. The paint is too shiny at the moment so we anticipate a very light flatting to matt it down a bit.

The picture of the rear doors gives a good idea of the colours, they are as close to the original that I can get. No colour refs were available from any of the sources I tried, so I spectro'd 2 clean and unfaded sections from the original and copied them.

Once that's done and we have finished our new wine name/logo (more later !!!) , then I will get some signs made up for the sides .......

[Parisien]

Simon, great news, what a wonderful journey you've given us all and indeed at the same time brought back to life a fabulous little Lancia, hope to see you opening a very nice bottle of bubbly and spraying some over the grille emblem in the not too distant future.

P

[the.cern]

Brilliant Simon, such great progress. Interesting that you think the paint is too shiny, I know Chugga likes to flat two pack back a little to take the shallow gloss off of it.

How is the 2CV loom going, it was looking well on the way in the photograph!

                                               Andy

[Dikappa]

Looking gooooooooooooood Simon!  Very motivating....but I promised the kids to get the superjolly going first so the furgone is on hold, but not forgotten.
But this is a major step forward!

[lancialulu]

Looks better than new! You must be a happy bunny and itching to stop picking grapes and pressing wine. When do you start this year?

[stanley sweet]

That's a beautiful paint finish - looks great. I take your point though to knock it back a little to give it some 'age'. Must be really satisfying to complete a project like this.

[stanley sweet]

.....................meant to ask - what's the soft top in the background of the first photo?

[lancialulu]

By the way does Juliet know you have the living room carpet....

[simonandjuliet]

Thanks for your comments !

Now the difficult bit starts, especially since most of it arrived in boxes, but hopefully she will be ready for a road trip to the UK next year (wine promo tour .....) so there will be a few more posts yet

Andy, the loom went back into the HY van and all works, I added a couple of extra circuits to bring it up to date - indicators and separate earth. Van should be going for MOT this week - first time in 40 years

Stan , the car next to the furgoncino is a Riley, I will take a better picture when I collect the van and before I clean the carpet ....

[tzf60]

Well done, Simon! It looks fantastic in the two-tone scheme.....love the colour!! keep the pictures coming.....!!!
 
Tim

[simonandjuliet]

Home at last .....

[stanley sweet]

Just read your first entry again. For a 'conservation' project and not a 'restoration' project it's looking pretty sharp! I'd like to see a restoration project.........

[lancialulu]

Just read your first entry again. For a 'conservation' project and not a 'restoration' project it's looking pretty sharp! I'd like to see a restoration project.........

Its amazing how one can get sucked in....Lovely but leave it out in the sun to matt off....

[simonandjuliet]

Thanks Gents !

You are right about the conservation/restoration project. It is a difficult one, I am still aiming to retain as much of the original as poss but obviously the body had already been stripped so needed a complete repaint, but using next to no filler and keeping the original and visible welding lines on the roof, for example.

The interior is not going to be touched, other than a good clean.   

The bit that I find difficult is the suspension/underbody/steering etc , where, once it is cleaned and made good, it is often badly chipped or surface rusted. So, when to keep as is and when to strip and paint ?

Today was brakes, obviously you have to replace the rubber bits, but I also decided to make new pipes as well. There was some surface pitting on one pipe and they were all hard/brittle as anything, so new it was. I have sanded down the tube though to remove the "standards" and batch numbers etc. But they also have new unions and olives.

Plus I have followed the original routing. If you look carefully there are extra tabs that were spot-welded to the body to take the pipes (and not used), but in the main it was routed with the suspension oil pipes, and sometimes outside those as well, so I have kept to that !

A new master cyl had been fitted, but many years ago.That has been stripped and new seals ordered from Omicron because the brakes on the furgoncino are largely Aurelia

I plan to get the brakes working before fitting the engine and 'box because as I found with the S3 it is a right-royal-pain-in-the-bum to change the master cylinder once everything is in place !

Next is the gear linkage and trial gearbox fit

[frankxhv773t]

Perhaps on the underside you could just wire brush the surface rust then use rust converter and cover it all over with waxoyle or similar. That way it gets the protection it needs but retains something of the patina.