Report on (slow) S2 Coupe rebuild progress

[lancialulu]

Norm has I suspect a full S2 Tavola (parts manual). These come up from time to t8me on ebay, or are on cd  from  viva lancia . Com.... also 1600HF info is available in the Red concise repaire manual. Owning and maintaining a Lancia is great fun if only for the quest for information....

[nthomas1]

Hi Norm
Sorry to hijack your thread but how come you have descriptions of the parts in your TAV (even though they`re in Italian) The one I got from Omicron, Yellow cover, Fulvia 2nd Series is as much use as a chocolate fireguard! It has no part numbers and no descriptions. The same goes for the Orange repair manual. Nothing concerning 1600HF. Total waste of money! Is there any decent information anywhere?

Hi John - As Tim suggests I do have a full parts manual and it did indeed come on a CD I bought from Viva Lancia.  If there are any specific pages you need send me a PM and I can send to you.

[Jaydub]

Hi Tim and Norm thanks for your kind offers. I will pm you both

John

[nthomas1]

I collected my wheels and I am delighted with them.  I had the old tyres and tubes removed and then I wire brushed and rust-treated (Jennolite) the wells and areas around the valve holes.  Then I took them to the specialist for shot blasting and powder coat.  They now look like new wheels!  Next, I'm off to Wrexham on Tuesday for James Parry to fit new inner tubes and Falken tyres and balance them. Those following this post may recall that I sold my Cromodoras when I decided to keep my car as close to factory spec as possible.  I'm still happy with that decision.

[nthomas1]

I've been busy decorating so haven't made much progress on the car.  I rolled it out of the garage yesterday on its freshly powder-coated wheels and new tyres.  Its good to have it mobile again even if not under its own steam.  Will hopefully  get back to the reassembly process in a few weeks.  Fitting the new headliner is on the critical path so I need to do some research on that.  If anybody has hints and tips or can point to any useful reference material I would appreciate it!

[nthomas1]

Back in the UK and working on the car.

A question for you all:  I think I read somewhere that it's a good idea to put a protective coating of some sort on brightwork.  I've got these chrome-on-plastic grilles and badge, and I also have the metal bonnet badge and rectangular rear "LANCIA" and "FULVIA" badges.  Any suggestions as to what to use? 

[lancialulu]

Autoglym Resin polish has maintained mine for the last 13 years....

[simonandjuliet]

Autoglym is my fav as well

For bare metal (steel, alloy etc) I use Eastwood Diamond coat (?) an acrylic spray

[nthomas1]

Autoglym Resin polish has maintained mine for the last 13 years....

Tim, do you use it on all brightwork: chrome-on-plastic and metal (such as badges and stainless steel trim)?

[lancialulu]

Autoglym Resin polish has maintained mine for the last 13 years....

Tim, do you use it on all brightwork: chrome-on-plastic and metal (such as badges and stainless steel trim)?

everything paint included!

[nthomas1]

While waiting for materials to arrive for the headliner install I thought I'd make working in the engine bay and boot a bit easier by fitting the bonnet prop and boot stay mechanism.  The parts cleaned up well, and I also de-rusted and painted the handbrake lever support plate. Nice to be working on the car again after so long away!

[stanley sweet]

Always love to see how many individual parts Lancia could fit into a simple piece like a boot stay. To think this is probably the type of job a young engineer would be given as he gained experience. Today it would be a bought in gas strut. Looks very good Norman. You'll be scared to take it out when it's finished.

[nthomas1]

I Tiger-sealed the seams in the boot yesterday and painted the boot interior with smooth black Hammerite today.  I’ve been refurbishing the headlamps and rear lights.  The headlamp outer bowls were quite rusty around the edges so I’ve de-rusted them and applied black Hammerite.  I’ve bought new stainless machine screws for retaining the glass units and have cleaned up the stainless steel cowls with Autoglym Metal Polish and the rubber seals with Autoglym Vinyl and Rubber Care - both are excellent products that I’ve been introduced to by other Forum participants. 

I’ve been using epoxy putty to repair the rear lights (more on that in a later post) but while I had the putty out I had a go at repairing one of my horn units which had been damaged. I repaired it in two stages.  Firstly I moulded putty into the gap covering about half the missing area.  Before it was fully set I shaved the surface down with a sharp blade.  I was perhaps too forceful with this as the shaped piece came away.  I replaced it using Araldite to secure it.  Then a day later I moulded putty into the rest of the gap and again shaved it to shape with a sharp blade.  When fully set I’ll sand it and paint the horn in an appropriate black paint.

I’m waiting for the headliner materials to arrive as that’s my highest priority.  While waiting I’ll continue working on the lights. 

[nthomas1]

I’ve finished working on the rear lights.  The first picture below shows where a section had broken away on the left side base unit.  I asked on the forum a while back for advice on this and was advised to look for replacement units rather than attempt repair. 

I have looked for replacements but to no avail.  I can find full light assemblies but my lenses are good so it would have been an extravagant approach, so I decided to attempt repair.   I guess there are no bases because they are the things that break first!

The second picture shows the base after repair.  The process was:
- built up the screw mounting pillar and missing base section in three stages with metal putty
- strengthened the repair with Araldite
- inserted a threaded Rivnut into the putty (while still soft) to take the retaining screw
- attached the lens to the base unit while the putty was setting to ensure correct alignment
- finally added a touch of beige enamel paint

I also set Rivnuts with Araldite into the other two places where the aluminium threaded sleeves had come away, and to strengthen them I wrapped a small circle of metal putty under each one.
 
Finally, for mounting the bulb holders to the car I Araldited in some hex headed machine screws where three of the six original embedded screws had come away. You can see one of these on the right hand base unit in the second picture. 

Many thanks to John Whyatt for suggesting Rivnuts, and to Guy Mayers for giving me a batch to use.

[DavidLaver]

Love it.