I said that I would never buy another Fulvia ....

[simonandjuliet]

Thanks for the interest - the car was originally Rosso York and I have been deliberating about returning to this colour - there are very few of them and they look great, especially when you keep the bumpers (IMHO).

Over time I have come to like the metallic blue , so it isn't a foregone conclusion !

However, I suspect that when the car was turned blue, the easiest thing to do was spray all the underbody bits black so it looked OK. This was done many years ago when HF's were less valuable and less thought was taken,  or less cost could be justified.

Now we are all into "originality" - and I am one of those seeking it - I want to undo or restore some of these previous changes.

On top of that , this HF was stored in a container for 10 years so there is a lot of superficial rust on un/poorly protected surfaces - so there is quite a lot to do in order to get it right. One part of me wants to take it to pieces (every last nut and bolt) and another wants to use it it until Dog has time to paint it properly

The "sort the basics and drive it" side is winning at the moment .....

[chriswgawne]

Rosso York or white are my favourite colours for S2 1.6 HF Fulvia although your blue one looks rather nice. Thanks for the explanation - I wasn't being rude as I am sure you realise -  but I couldn't quite understand how the outer skin of the car looked so good in comparison to the underbonnet bodywork areas. If it was in a container for some time I think you are very fortunate that the outer paintwork and body hasn't apparently suffered.
As to whether to completely dismantle the car that of course is up to you. My view is that I don't like over restored or perfect cars - after all cars are designed to be driven regularly and therefore by definition wont ever be 100% perfect.
I do however like to see all things mechanical looking clean and tidy , working well  and well maintained.....which is what you do so well. Keep up the good work and continue giving us a standard to work to.
Chris

[frankxhv773t]

You can have your cake and eat it. That blue is so pretty I would do the basics and enjoy it for a bit as it is. You can spend time getting all the mechanicals the way you want them then when it ceases to be presentable you do the nut and bolt job back to the original colour.

[DavidLaver]

On the motorway today I was flicking though magazines in WHS.  In one of the Landrover titles they were stripping "repaint" off a car to reveal the original finish. Was that brave to attempt or just lazy not taking it all off?   They said "on a budget" and with the fashion being to show some chips and blemishes it did look quite good polished up...in the photos...for a Landrover...

[SJWhite]

The Rosso York colour I would like to keep.  Except not sure if its Burgundy or Red - see pic...

[nthomas1]

On the motorway today I was flicking though magazines in WHS.  In one of the Landrover titles they were stripping "repaint" off a car to reveal the original finish. Was that brave to attempt or just lazy not taking it all off?   They said "on a budget" and with the fashion being to show some chips and blemishes it did look quite good polished up...in the photos...for a Landrover...

On the topic of "removing repaint", at Goodwood a few years ago I fell in love with an Alfa Romeo 8c 2900.  I wrote an article for the USA Alfa Romeo Owner's Club magazine about the car - entitled "The beauty of unrestored cars".  I contacted the owner, William Ainscough, who lives quite close to me in Lancashire regarding the paintwork on the car and he provided the following interesting information.   

"When I purchased the car the red paint was in poor condition, thankfully the Belgian owner must have done a cheap paint job at the time.  The red paint had flaked off in largish pieces on some areas of the body clearly showing the original grey beneath.
We took a decision to try and remove the remaining red paint by gently sanding it off. It took over 1000 man hours but we managed to salvage roughly 60% of the original grey.  The rest of the body was rubbed down to bare metal where there was no option and where there was full cohesion between the red paint and the original grey.  These areas of bare metal were then painted in grey to match the original areas to achieve the final finish.  Believe me this was a labour of love, it would have been far easier to have a simple respray!!  The rest of your article is very factual and I appreciate the interest you have in the car. Kind Regards, William Ainscough."

Apologies Simon for hijacking your post, but maybe you should "gently sand off" the blue paint from your HF!

[simonandjuliet]

SJ - Do you have more pictures of the car ?

With the HF, photos do flatter the car, and from a distance it looks great polished up. There are more than one or two blemishes though .....

I am still attacking the under-bonnet bits and have taken off the headlights, bumper etc. Once it had been cleared it enabled me to access and wire brush , then undercoat the inner wing and behind the headlights. I have also removed the loom with a view to cleaning and checking all that as well. It is not pretty at the moment !

nb the yellow rocker cover is not the correct colour - it is a spare to protect the engine whilst I paint mine

A couple of photos of the bits that have been cleaned up ready for refitting and the carbs as a reminder to me for the next job

[fay66]

Frost have a special offer of two tins of VHT crackle finish for £14.99 instead of £10.99 each. Available in Black, Blue ,Grey & Red.
Brian
8227

[simonandjuliet]

Having taken inspiration from the 8c Alfa, I spent 1.5 hours cleaning up a sticker. It had been oversprayed with the black, gloopy paint. My dentist tools have been very useful for all the cleaning

The wiring has been unthreaded and bagged up under the sheet and the wiper motor has come out as well. First side is prepped and primed

[stanley sweet]

Tidying up my heater duct and fan housing has been on my 'to do' list for years. If I keep looking at your photos it might force me. To be honest I can't remember the last time I used the fan (it's on a manual switch) so I could easily remove it for as long as I wanted. Although I've only ever seen photos of it, some of your garage shots are starting to remind me of Harry Manning's place.

[davidwheeler]

I too like Rosso York - red but not the vlgar bright colour of Italian Racing Red!

[frankxhv773t]

Lancia racing colour was a dark red not unlike Rosso York.

[simonandjuliet]

Stan, the air box is very easy to remove, just remove the ribber bungs and use a long 10 mm extension ....

In between my day job and playing taxi for our daughter I have been doing a bit more under the bonnet. It has all been stripped, sanded and primed ready for Dog to come in and paint it- hopefully next week.

Interestingly, under the engine stay it has been painted rocker-cover yellow, I presume to identify the crankcase during factory build   It is here where the casting mark is denoting 1600, S2 etc 

It will be a bit bizarre having the under-bonnet nice new shiny rosso york and the rest blue, but hey-ho ! It means that I can get used to the original colour and if I hate it, I can paint over it again in blue if I decide to go that route instead, the hard work has already been done

A couple of fun pictures, I keep getting grief from french friends for the LMC badge on the Renault 4 , plus a photo in front of the trees that have been cut and collected after the fire

[stanley sweet]

Thanks for the info on the airbox. I always thought it was more fiddly than that. Good to confirm you have actually got a 1600 engine. I remember a long time ago getting quite excited when I discovered the number on the front of my cylinder block was that of a 1300 HF. Then I discovered all 1300s have that number. That's a lot of trees! What's going to happen to them?

[SJWhite]

Hi Simon
Apologies for delay
Some more pics of Rosso York as requested
Am still a bit puzzled what shade it's actually supposed to be
I'm going to keep this one original, despite loving the Dark Metallic Blue of OMY80K
Cheers
Simon