The Portuguese Aurelia .........the Phoenix has arisen......

[Parisien]

Before the archeological "dig"

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[simonandjuliet]

I've been playing with colours for my B20 which was originally Amaranto - I sprayed up an Appia wing and left it in the kitchen for the girls to look at

I was keen to go "original" but even after living with the wing next to the breakfast table for 3 weeks, the girls were not convinced unfortunately ....

It is a beautiful colour to my mind, it will look fab on your Aurelia berlina

[Parisien]

These Thornley Kelham pics might persuade you .......

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[Parisien]

Eventually sample panels were painted in Amaranto, the colour was as expected, but on closer examination an  "orange peel" finish was easily visible, I was disappointed, he could tell by what I didn't say that the work carried out wasn't up to standard.

The issue with the doors hadn't been resolved either.

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[Parisien]

I was delighted with the colour, but not the execution.

Awaiting a further update that the remainder of car would be in paint, plus the required alignment and reviewed paint of the three panels.

The weeks passed, but wasn't invited out to workshop for a look-see.

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[Parisien]

Then one morning we heard a lorry slowly approaching our address, glanced up when near to see the B12 on the back of a recovery truck!

His brother in law (owner of said lorry), then proceeded to unload my B12 onto the drive, no explanation, no offer to in anyway mitigate why he decided to end his involvement.

Nada!

The brother in law did say that he wasn't looking for any further payment from me ( I'm sure he'd done much more than I'd already paid him for!)

I was flabbergasted.

Car dually pushed into my garage, and so ended another chapter in the eventful life of the Portuguese Aurelia!

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[Parisien]

And so another period of being laid up, doing the rounds of asking/re-asking body paint guys far and near, but drew a blank.

Enquiring off another mechanic, he told me he'd met a guy near Belfast who more or less specialized in restoring older cars.

Contact was made, turned out his wife was from the town, so he was up and down regularly. A visit was arranged.

A few weeks later he inspected the car, had a chat, cup of tea and agreed to take it on. However it would be in a queue so I'd have to wait 3/4 months before he could start

I kept in contact, narrowed the week down to last week of July 2023.

But on the week concerned, radio silence, no answers to Whatsapp or phone, totally ghosted.

I was a tad put out.

F

[impaw]

so many obstacles!
Very impressed by your stamina!

[Parisien]

I always try to get to both the Annual weekend and NEC event, to meet fellow members, admire their respective cars and occasionally make a contact or two.

They are my bi-annual fix!

Believe it or not I've never owned or driven a Lancia of any kind before I bought my B12 off eBay in 2011.

Indeed the first Lancia I drove was the B12 owned by The Automobile magazine in 2013.......I now digress


I'd been accumulating parts over years, had my engine completely restored but realized the transaxle would be a big task also, both it's complexity and cost.

So at the Annual weekend in 2022, and having read lots of Tim Burretts articles and pieces in Viva Lancia, I asked some one to point Tim out.

Introductions made and knowing he used his B22 on an almost daily basis, plus he'd raced his B20 over many years, and noted he'd advertised refurbished transaxles in VL, I thought I might inquire if he'd be interested in doing mine.

After a few minutes chatting I put the question to Tim, he said he'd do it but in a few months time, I was one very pleased B12 owner on that warm July afternoon!

Things were looking up

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[Parisien]

So January of 2023, I did an inventory of all my transaxle parts, I'd nearly all the wear and tear parts gathered up, plus several gears and a host of other parts, just in case!

After a bit of research I reckoned putting it all on a pallet was the sensible thing to do plus insuring it for a substantial amount.

Finally it was delivered to Tims for the full works!

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[Parisien]

You can catch glimpses of the extremities of my cleaned up transaxle (cleaned  in 2012) , I thought it was more than respectable to send off to Tim.

However Tim was not impressed at all and complained bitterly at how filthy it was , indeed probably the filthiest transaxle he'd ever had the displeasure to work on!!! He spent further hours cleaning it before opening the casing.

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PS It's a good job I didn't dispatch as first dismounted!

[Parisien]

Continuing in the same vein today, thought I'd clean up the steering box, initial impressions were that this was part of a booster rocket off a Saturn V that had fallen into the Atlantic!

But a scrape, then cleaning as best  could without dismantling it was indeed the steering box!

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[Parisien]

A bit of scraping ....

[Parisien]

Et voila!

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[Parisien]

Having had a forensic examination of my steering box the number on it was indeed as originally left the factory....No 470

Thanks to the kind member who supplied me with build data

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