Ardea Project

[Robert]

Hello everyone.
I'm now the proud owner of a beautiful little Ardea and was hoping for a little advice if possible.

20140718_191207.jpg

My initial idea before I picked it up it was to build a little prewar/mille miglia type special using the engine and all the running gear, something like the Lancia Ardea Barchetta recently for sale, however, although it really is in poor shape, it's simple, elegant charms are rubbing off on me and I'm starting to think about restoring it.  I could possibly manage the main shell, floors, sills etc (dependant on further inspection) but couldn't do the wings and was wondering what the chance of coming across a decent set of wings for an Ardea are and would they fit?
Are there are any particular areas or traps in the bodyshell that I should check for excessive corrosion before I go to the trouble of stripping the shell?

[nistri]

Unfortunately I could not see your picture and I don't know what series your Ardea is. Body panels are available through internet. Likewise for interior trim. There are no special issues about shell structure except to remember that these cars are all more than 60 y old and that they rust like anything else of the same age. Mechanically they are a bit complex but not too difficult. I am very happy with my Ardea that I bought about 4 y ago. Andrea

[the.cern]

Robert, you are a lucky man, have fun!!

                                    Andy

[Parisien]

No photo showing Robert........click on additional options below dialogue box to left and follow instructions


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[Robert]

Thanks for the replies!  Mine is a very late one with a 5 speed gearbox.

I had a few problems with my first post and hopefully have attached a pic now.  Alas not quite as fine as yours Nistri.

I also somehow failed to send the second half of my post regarding shot blasting.  I'm after some advice from someone (probably Chugga!) that's had some shot blasting done before:
Is normal shot blasting a bit harsh on the shell and is soda blasting any safer?
Have you ever done it yourself and was it difficult to pick up?
When you strip the shell down do you use braces across the suspension points to keep the shell straight?

[Robert]

A few more pics...

[Parisien]

Hi Robert....see my B12 restoration thread, it was pretty bad, for me sandblasting was the only option. The aluminium doors etc will be treated with kid gloves though.


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[Parisien]

Take a deep breath Robert....


http://www.lancia.myzen.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=5254.150

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[Robert]

Thanks Frank.  Quite a challenge!  I look forward to seeing how it turns out

[simonandjuliet]

Lovely - well done

Looking forward to seeing the rebuild

[the.cern]

I was browsing in Geoff Goldberg's blog (http://blog.lanciainfo.com/?p=1851) when I came across this mention of an Ardea. Geoff is one of the topmost Lancia buffs in America and his blog is brilliant. He is GG on here. Thank you Geoff for sharing so freely your huge knowledge and experience.

In it there is a mention of an ardent Ardea group in Italy. If you have not yet found them it may be worth while approaching them. This is the link in case the one above does not work.

 ‎www.lancia-ardea.it/index.htm

Good luck and please do keep us posted, especially with photographs.

                                  Andy

[chugga boom]

PLEEEEEEEAAASSE RESTORE IT!!!! there are so few of these in the uk and to be fair most of its there, any advice I can give I'm happy to do so , been away for a week hence late reply , as encouragement I've done worse , doing worse at the moment and have plenty more worse to do!
I'm totally against acid stripping as I have seen where cars have been dipped and the acid gets trapped between seems , later on it corrodes and bursts through which is not what anyone wants, once its in there you cant get it out! we always tend to strip the car to a bare shell, paint strip it by hand with chemicals then sandblast the rust, the big problem with blasting is distortion of panels, this is caused by 2 things, 1: a gorilla who doesn't know what hes doing using too much pressure 2: trying to take too much off ie thick paint filler etc which generates heat into the panels , low pressure onto bare steel creates minimal damage and the surface is generally a good key for etch prima and filler, if I get permission from one of my customers I will post some pictures of a car that we have just done this to which imo looks great , j

[chugga boom]

a few pictures of Tony Stephens Aprilia we are doing, he's kindly said it was ok to put some pictures up to "spur you on"  , paint stripped

[chugga boom]

blasted, you can see whats blasted and whats just paint stripped

[chugga boom]

etch prime