Aprilia Cabrio - here we go again

[JohnMillham]

You could also hide contraband in the floor cavity for smuggling! On one Registro Aurelia trip some years ago, a thoroughly respectable  Italian gentleman who shall remain nameless told me wonderful stories about smuggling cigarettes in a 2nd Series B20 which was considerably faster than the police cars of the day and so when chased, he was never caught!
Early B20s use a sprocket and bicycle chain window winding mechanism which is unbreakable and thoroughly over engineered in true Lancia fashion.

. . . and you had to wind it a million times to raise or lower it!
Regards, John

[Sebastien]

Plus, I dismantled a door panel, so as not to set light to it. Similarly, there is enough of the original to copy and return to an authentic look. The window winding mechanism is amazing .....

The mechanism looks exactly like the one in my Aurelia Pinin Farina cabriolet (1950). It screws inside the door panel.
I assume that Pinin Farina had developped a standard mechanism, which they tried to use in all their carbodies.

[simonandjuliet]

It does look very similar ...... the plates have slightly different cutouts for the lock etc. The little, loose plate at the top locates the rollers that run along the glass

I am missing one of these if anyone can help

[Sebastien]

This is the roller in the Aurelia cabriolet. We had one missing when we did the car many years ago.
Do you need only the roller, or the whole assembly?

[the.cern]

That window cog isn't going to wear out any time soon - look at the size of those teeth. Is there anywhere that you are able to see inside the floor sandwich to check the interior condition? From the diagram it looks as though you couldn't see all the way across if you removed a sill, you would have to look from front to back - is that right? Do the floor supports run all the way from front to back? I don't think I've ever seen a floor like this. You could use it as a long range fuel tank.

Stan
I would have thought that Simon would have one of these probes with a camera on the end, and if no suitable hole available would only need one smallish hole to be drilled rather that removing the sill.

Brian
8227

I bought an endoscope, 8.1mm diameter if I remember correctly. Not as flexible or as controllable as I had hoped, but still very useful. I used it to view the box sections that frame the door opening on the Gussie to check for rust. It did the job admirably because I did not need to view every last bit, but just get an idea of the general condition ....... and the answer .... much better than expected. Not an answer that you get very often!!! I have also looked inside the sills which, of course, were excellent as they had been repaired. I will use it to check for effectiveness of the Waxoyl spray, to see if every surface is covered as that process gets underway.

I would imagine there are relatively open voids between the floor skins of your latest acquisition Simon, so it would be ideal to check those areas .... it is just difficult to manoeuvre it in smaller areas such as the small box sections mentioned above.

                                        Andy

[lancianut666]

saw these....

[lancianut666]

oops

[lancialulu]

Thats Simons cab! (the first one - built on a hybrid chassis with independant rear suspension as standard berlina not the factory chassis shown in this article). Does it give a clue to who built the cabriolet?

[Parisien]

Thats Simons cab! (the first one - built on a hybrid chassis with independant rear suspension as standard berlina not the factory chassis shown in this article). Does it give a clue to who built the cabriolet?

Great sleuthing Tim.......hope the forum can answer a few more questions for Simon over the coming weeks and months!


P

[simonandjuliet]

Thank you everyone !

I bought a nice period ESSO advert from Italy last week which also shows a similar looking cabrio. It is just about possible to make out some of the detail, so it is beginning to add up (the photo posted by Norm on the "Frostick" thread adds to it all as well)

I am starting to collect the necessary bits for the eventual rebuild, this weeks purchase was some lovely reproduction wire with the correct woven outside and some spiral trunking .... not cheap but very nice !

Now need to find the correct ends and tabs

[Lapsed Cesare Ferrari]

The 1936 Autocar article describes the chassis version as having independent rear suspension. The Autocar photograph shows chassis members rising over the rear axle area, but I do not see any trace of leaf springs, as fitted to later chassis-only Aprilias. I believe that Wim Oude Weernink in "La Lancia" also states that the Aprilia chassis for coachbuilders was first made with the standard rear springs.

Ciao a tutti

Cesare

[simonandjuliet]

Sebastian, the roller setup is a bit different, so unfortunately your kind offer won't help, thanks

Re chassis suspension, it appears that it was only the last, post war cars that had the live axle with leaf springs. The majority had IRS

I will dig out the numbers later

[BlueSky]

Attached are the Aprilia production numbers, there were just 957 live axle chassis, 707 post war Tipo 539 chassis and the 250 Torpedo Militare 659s also.
Noel

[Kari]

Found in my father's archive the picture of an Aprilia drophead in a ditch. The second picture shows the same car in the yard of Capitol Garage, Zurich, Switzerland for repair.

regards Karl

[GG]

The mechanism looks exactly like the one in my Aurelia Pinin Farina cabriolet (1950). It screws inside the door panel.
I assume that Pinin Farina had developped a standard mechanism, which they tried to use in all their carbodies.

Nice thought, but not quite. Practically each series of B20 features a different answer to the window cranking mechanism....  consider it "on-line" development as they were trying to figure out how to raise a frameless window. Needless to say, the answer is in the s.6, with a nice vertical track in the front to stabilize and direct the simpler glass.

Not surprisingly, a similar solution was used in the Fulvia coupe, track in the front, frameless in back. And in the Fulvia Sport... frame all around. Hmm. One senses a trend here.