Flight of the Fulvia

[crackfox]

Jul 15, 2020 13:18:17 GMT biturbo228 said:

Isn't it a great feeling when something is less rusty than you'd expected!

Rare, but great

A true rarity with my experience so far but I have to say it does sadden me when Lancia get a such a bad reputation for rot which in some cases is justified with certain models but this Fulvia although testing at times has surprised me from now and then. I’ve shown my old man pictures and he used to work on this era of car and said a Mk2 escort would not be in half as good shape.

[biturbo228]

Oh don't get me started on that! The reputation German cars seem to have picked up for not rusting when every E46 I've seen for the past 5 years has had crustier arches than my 80s Jag (and the Bimmer's supposed to be galvanised!).

The Beta had issues, but most were only exacerbated beyond what everyone else was like by the fact the official UK importer kept them in a field for a year before they got to the showroom floor.

Similar story with British stuff really. Upper end of the market like Lancia, Alfa and Rover built really rather well up until the 60s-ish, followed by a tough time during the late 70s where rusty reputations were forged that have never really gone away.

[fulvia1436]

Sadly, Chris, the car is on a back burner for a bit.
I was called by some muso friends to record some live drums for their album project.
They realise that their drum programming efforts will NEVER replace the real thing! 
So the garage is now a studio, for a while anyway.. 

[crackfox]

Jul 15, 2020 16:00:45 GMT fulvia1436 said:

Sadly, Chris, the car is on a back burner for a bit.
I was called by some muso friends to record some live drums for their album project.
They realise that their drum programming efforts will NEVER replace the real thing! 
So the garage is now a studio, for a while anyway.. 

What! You can’t replace actual drumming talent with a programmes. Glad they saw sense. I suppose work comes first unfortunately. How else do we find these love affairs. It will be a special Fulvia so no rush I guess.

[crackfox]

Stone-chipped underside finally done. Two days of looking like a coal miner to clean up and 20mins of painting. Hard crawling around on your back all day. Remind me to sort a spit next time...no remind me not to do a next time.

[crackfox]

Images always rotating or flipping...oh well you get the idea. Maybe it’s mocking me for not having a spit! 😕

[fulvia1436]

Jul 21, 2020 17:29:21 GMT crackfox said:

Stone-chipped underside finally done. Two days of looking like a coal miner to clean up and 20mins of painting. Hard crawling around on your back all day. Remind me to sort a spit next time...no remind me not to do a next time.

Hopefully I'll be off my spit by then, and you can borrow that!

[crackfox]

I’m incredibly envious of your garage space (although drums seem to have taken president) and that spit is just spot on!

[fulvia1436]

Jul 21, 2020 17:47:31 GMT crackfox said:

I’m incredibly envious of your garage space (although drums seem to have taken president) and that spit is just spot on!

The garage is 20sqft (6m² for the younger reader), and cost about half a million quid.
The drums setting a precedent is something that's happened to me for 50 years, and there's nothing I can do about it!
The spit cost money, but has paid me back at least 12 times over. With luck, it'll be available for friends to enjoy later this year :-)

[crackfox]

Early finish at work so onto the Fulvia to keep the ball rolling. Subframe all mounted up and new outrigger arms squared up and tacked on...well when I say tack I mean decent seam welds put down. When I drop the frame with new arms in place I don’t want them to move an inch. Can’t access the top side so will do that once removed. There really is very little welding to do once I’m done here. Desperate to get rubbing down the old paintwork now and move on.

[fulvia1436]

You're welding mine next! :-D

[crackfox]

Jul 29, 2020 18:42:47 GMT fulvia1436 said:

You're welding mine next! :-D

A trip to the seaside it is then! 😊

[crackfox]

Subframe now off and completed now I have access to the areas I couldn’t seam weld while in situ. I took my time as to not apply copious amounts of heat to avoid any sort of movement at all. Fingers crossed that the welding on the Fulvia done!!! 😳




Started rubbing down some of the heavier filled areas from past paint jobs. This will be a long process on the Fulvia I can see. 





Made a start on reupholstering bits of trim because I bloody hate vinyl plus mine was in a shocking state and has about 4 different colours going on so I’ve bought some material similar to alcantara in a dark grey to tidy things up. These are jobs you do at the end but I was fed up of grinding for 3 years so have myself a break from it.

[crackfox]

I think Goldenrust was so on the money when I whinged about doing years of welding to hold back any complaints until I started bodywork. Almost full back to bare metal on the entire body. A job I don’t really want to repeat in a hurry. Now only a few more sections to key back and start on final bodywork/filling. Ooooof.

[crackfox]

About 25 hours of body work with fine filler applied in areas that were very slightly warped from heat absorption. No more than a few mm deep as I hate filler and wanted to avoid using it all but unfortunately I’ve needed to iron a few bits out. Hammer and dolly as much as possible beforehand of course.

Getting close to paint now. A few weeks of fettling I think.

[biturbo228]

Great work there's nothing wrong with a bit of filler to level out repairs and get nice lines. It's inevitable a lot of the time with repairs.

The only issue comes when there's a low quality repair made to look ok with 10-20mm of filler. Props to them for doing the repair in the first place, and everything's good for learning, but it's not exactly nice to find.

[crackfox]

Aug 24, 2020 10:51:11 GMT biturbo228 said:

Great work there's nothing wrong with a bit of filler to level out repairs and get nice lines. It's inevitable a lot of the time with repairs.

The only issue comes when there's a low quality repair made to look ok with 10-20mm of filler. Props to them for doing the repair in the first place, and everything's good for learning, but it's not exactly nice to find.

Cheers.

10 - 20mm - ouch. Yes i've literlly just had my doors back from sand blasters. I didn't want the shell doing as i don't like the idea of left over debris hidden in sills etc but treated myself to a few days without noise and one of my door has enough filler to make a few bricks. Was't expecting it so will either have to try and planish out as best as i can or partially weld in a new skin. curse word.

[crackfox]

Just when I thought the welder was put away for a while. Nope. Door was just too far gone for me to just throw some filler at it. Especially when I’ve avoided filler almost everywhere else. Most of the door skin replaced with fresh steel. I also have to weld in some new seat rails so sadly more self inflicted skin burns to come. 😄

[crackfox]

Door cards in grey Alcantara finished. Something a bit different. Need to get sorted with painting the car. Will do it myself. Try and set up a bit of a poor mans mini booth in the garage. If you are patient and don’t mind doing ‘a bit’ of polishing you can do a half decent job at home...well we’ll see.

Engine bay first and then full inside blow over before doing the whole exterior / doors, boot, bonnet etc.

[crackfox]