Everyday Appia

[simonandjuliet]

And now a very clean wheel cylinder !

Final bits have arrived and everything cleaned, prepped and painted. Ready for refit , hopefully tomorrow.

New linings have been riveted , new seals and flexi's. The shocks appear OK, good resistance and no leaks - just needed a clean and paint. They were originally a nice burgundy colour but they are satin black now ! Axle cleaned as best I can in situ and a coat of paint, drums wire brushed, braking surface scotchbrite'd and then the outside painted with High temp paint, hubs stripped and painted etc etc
 
As always, a few lines of text , actually took a couple of weeks to do. But then I have been gaining "brownie points" by building a new wine cellar for herself as well .....

[DavidLaver]

Reline yourself?

[simonandjuliet]

Yes, a punch was held in the vice and used to hold the brass rivet in place while you carefully peen the rivet with a round/coned punch from the inside - started in the middle and worked out

Very satisfying

[simonandjuliet]

Brakes back together this afternoon, will try and bleed it all tomorrow.

Not trying to teach my grandmother to suck eggs, but there were a couple of things I learnt - it is the first time I have worked on Appia rear brakes, so I thought I'd share ...

Firstly, for the springs, done in 2 stages. 1) block the shoes in place with wood working clamp and then stretch the spring across to the other shoe with a large screwdriver pivoting on the (protected) splines. Insert a small screwdriver to hold it in place temporarily. 2) Use a tyre lever pivoted on the hub (and much more stable) and onto the spring lug, then very easy to stretch the final 1/4 inch and fit the pin

With new linings, the drum was very tight going back on, I took it all to pieces again to see if I'd done something wrong, but seemed OK. The shoes were nowhere near the adjusters and the pistons were not fully retracted suggesting a block somewhere.

After a bit more looking and some thought it appears that the cup on the handbrake lever fouled the socket (for the handbrake connecting bar). With only a tiny bit of filing, 2-3mm at most, it then allows the cup to move back that little bit further and takes the shoes away from the drum. Then it was really easy to slide the drum on.

Before refitting the drum to the hub, I cleaned and sanded all the oxidation on the drum's centre hole, smeared with copperslip so that it will be much easier to remove in the future and means the hub can stay in place and not drip oil everywhere

Indeed, it will probably be me that takes it to pieces in the future, so everything gets a smear of copperslip !

The seal where the handbrake lever goes through the backplate had disintegrated and I don't have any new ones so I made a cuff from a section of bicycle rubber inner tube, stretched over the flange and cable-tied. Quite difficult and reminded me of my youth ......

Finally, don't forget - rubber seal behind the hubnut for any oil that does make it down the splines

[simonandjuliet]

Happy New Year Everyone !

Not a lot of Appia news, brakes are all back together and no leaks - but .... can't get a pedal, front circuit is working , but nothing to the rear, so further investigation required. Probably means the master cylinder needs to come off again, but hey ho !

Not an Appia, but I bought a "stick" welder last year and never got round to using it until now. It is a 130 inverter arc welder and is very easy to use and gives some excellent welds even for a first-timer like me (using 2.5 mm sticks)

The project was a mobile garden rubbish burner - 5 speeds and even has a bell

[John B]

Obviously not an Appia.......this must be the Y10 Fire.

[ben]

You must have a king-size tin-opener!

[simonandjuliet]

Whilst the girls were watching "Harry Potter" last night I decided to try out one of my new Christmas presents - "The Speedy Stitcher" from Frosts (no connection with seller !)

Handy-tip - I gave the "Frosts" catalogue to Juliet and my mother in case they wanted surprise Christmas ideas ....

The driver's seat on the Appia was badly split and roughly resewn across one side, just the stitching so a repair was feasible. Firstly I snipped the metal circlips holding the cover on to the frame, cut the upholstery stitching holding it all together and then attacked the seam. The tool is very easy to use and takes 5 mins to learn and the result is very satisfactory, small tight stitches.

Re-sewed the structural stuff, pulled the cover back over and then re-attached to the frame using cable ties instead of the metal clips. Not original, but works well .....

It isn't that speedy, it took me about 15 mins/inch, but I did have half an eye on the film as well

[Parisien]

Great piece of kit in very able hands.......brill result


P

[Parisien]

I will let J decide !

A few minutes this morning before the girls got up, petrol tank out and cleaned. What a mess ! The bag of rust/silt must weigh 2lbs. The float mechanism may be beyond renovation, it is rusty and seized and the aluminium is very corroded.

I degreased the tank and then cleaned inside and out using the pressure washer, pushing water through until it ran clean. The inside is lovely and clean now, but I will further degrease and "Slosh" it. Not everyone likes doing this, but I have done several and have always been happy. The Aprilia is now on its 3rd year following the treatment.

Everything is quite sane under the back of the car and with the tank out I have access to try out the towbar .......

Simon, just reading through your petrol tank clean out/restoration......"sloshing" is simply swilling and shaking about a fluid inside of tank or a completely different activity?

What then did you use to resin seal same, technique used?

Cheers


P

[DavidLaver]

This is the one that's been recommended to me:

http://www.frost.co.uk/por15-basic-car-tank-repair-kit.html

[williamcorke]

This is the one that's been recommended to me:

http://www.frost.co.uk/por15-basic-car-tank-repair-kit.html

I tried that Frost kit recently on an Alfa Giulietta Spider tank (Pinin Farina, 1958). Much the same construction as a B20's tank. Sadly the 3 stage process was not suitable, mainly due to the baffles in the tank which make it nearly impossible to flush out the remaining liquid from each stage. The other problem was that surface corrosion within the tank was not shifted by by the chemicals (needed abrasion). In the end I gave up and shipped it off to a company that has cut the tank open to sandblast the interior. Not cheap (£250 incl. VAT) but a lot cheaper than a repro tank.

[Parisien]

Cheers for that guys, also noting Ive seen another tank restoration ( Andys B20?) where the tank was opened up and various twirly things used to clean up the inside, might go down that route.


P

[Parisien]

Noel, Andy and Simon!

http://www.lancia.myzen.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=7239.0

P

[westernlancia]

Last Thurs/Fri we got around to painting the body. As always it was a nightmare ..... everything set up and organised; van booked, shed borrowed, paint bought etc etc.

Wow! I'm gob-smacked! I've been a bit 'out of it' the last few months because of the ongoing move to France, and I hadn't seen this (also it's a bit painful to look at the stories about this and the van, because it hurt so much to have to sell my 'toys', so I have had my head in the sand for a while).

But what fantastic work. Simon does the jobs to a level I've always wanted to but never managed, except on customers' cars (Juliet must be a saint - if I spent this amount of time in the shed I'd be in the divorce courts!). I take my hat off to you, Sir. And in the near future I shall come and see you in my Appia and bring round the remaining things I promised you (and pick up my watch!).