Appia furgoncino - A fettler's voyage

[the.cern]

That sounds rather tough !!!  Seems they got to the problem in time, but only just.

Take care and a chance to put in some forward research to complete the furgoncino ................ and also have a look for the next project as the rate at which you are tackling things means you you will have time on your hands in the not too distant future!!!!

Best wishes,

           Andy 

[fay66]

Simon,
you don't believe in doing things by half! get well soon.

Brian
8227

[St Volumex]

No progress here, just out of hospital after 2 weeks !

Appendicitis/peritonitis/abscess means I will be off my feet for a while yet so I am going to have to find a lightweight fiddly job to do .......

Not allowed to drive the Apriliia either 

Sorry to hear that - get well soon!

[chriswgawne]

And most importantly your grape harvest must be near - rotten timing but at least its sorted. Your health is the main thing. My neighbour in Italy bust his left ankle badly and everyone around mucked in and helped with the various tasks he was unable to do - mind you he did manage to jury rig the clutch pedals on all his tractors with long levers which meant he could operate it with his left hand!! Highly illegal but effective.
Chris

[ColinMarr]

Simon, I have only just caught up with this. Let me also offer you commiserations. Might you be allowed to enjoy sampling last year's vintage to help get you through?

Colin

[simonandjuliet]

Thanks everyone,

Not allowed to drink for another couple of weeks (metronidazol causes severe reactions with alcohol) but I can surf the net ! - I found a new set of headlight bulb holders for the Aprilia .......

Due to inclement weather this year the vendanges are at least 2 weeks late , so hopefully I will be up and running in time (mid Sept)

I can also do some homework on the engine bay before I start putting it back together and also think about making the mounting bolts for the back bumper - nice lightweight job !

[simonandjuliet]

A couple of photos to show what Dog was up to whilst I was off my feet. He has made  a lovely job of redefining the line along the sill.

The headlamp surround has also been pulled out to get the rim to fit properly as well as welding in a small disk to fill in the non original wing repeaters.

Hopefully I can start to do a few bits this week - unfortunately no joy on the request for LHD engine bay photos.

[chugga boom]

looking good 

[simonandjuliet]

A la recherche de la teinte perdue ......

I have been trying to work out the colour scheme for the furgoncino. They were all two-tone, either greys or greens. Unfortunately the colours and codes suggested by the Appia club in Italy appear to be incorrect for the "green" cars. I cannot find a match for one of the references and apparently "Verde Ardea " is not a true colour according to another source.

Photos taken around 2001 show the colour scheme that I want to find

Consequently, I am trying to match the original colours on the car. The darker green should not be too difficult since there is enough to polish and spectrograph, but the lighter green (cream ?) is proving more troublesome .....

Most of the lower body (lighter green) had been sanded, filled and primed by Alan, so the original colour was no longer visible, however today we prepared one of the doors and sanded through several layers of paint and MAY have found the original lighter green. It appears that the whole body was painted in the lighter colour and then the darker colour overlaid , following a second, darker primer. Further investigation on the roof may help us

I also cleaned the passenger side floor prior to painting, fortunately nothing more than surface rust under the felt

Rear wings and doors prep'ed and etched ready for undercoat - hopefully next week

 

[Sliding Pillar]

Here's a picture of one in the green colour scheme, and slightly off topic one that is for sale in the U.K.

[simonandjuliet]

Thanks Ade

Would love the paint codes for the green car .....

Bottom car should tempt someone, they are seriously pretty in the flesh, photos just don't do them justice !

[lancialulu]

Great initial article in VL today. Thank you Simon!!!

[simonandjuliet]

Got my copy of VL today, wasn't expecting such an Appia spread, Jack used full sized photos ! Hopefully will pen a second part once there's more to tell .....

Today we 2-pack primed the sides, rear wings, rear doors, front doors and 1 front wing. Just the roof, bonnet and other front wing to prep and paint.
Haven't posted any photos because it looks just like the etch primer !

I took the rest of the underseal off the sills and we have cleaned up all the door shuts so that we can join the paint behind the trim and rubbers - It took us a while to mask up the car because I hate overspray and I am not touching the interior - boot or cabin.

Next job is the roof, but that may have to wait until vendanges are over

Picture is of a roof rack I would like to copy ......

[simonandjuliet]

I had a couple of hours this afternoon and since I am still in pursuit of the paint colours, I polished up the partition between the cabin and boot.

I hope to take this to a friendly bodyshop and a spectroanalysis on it. Since it has spent its life in the shade it should be pretty close to the original. Whilst at it I started cleaning up the bars and the rubber seal

The first photo shows the rubber around the partition as "before and after". LHS is cleaned if you can't tell ! The bar on the left shows how they will look once polished up. They are quite tarnished so first course of action was to clean them up with 000 wire wool, then metal polish and then a coat of resin polish to protect them .

The next couple of photos show the body stamps - one on the partition (bottom right on above photo), the other above the radiator at the front. I don't know how many of the panels were stamped , but I can keep a look out.

Next thing is to find the correct Philips type self tappers because some are missing. They are countersunk and domed

Finally, I couldn't resist the carrot picture - I thought I'd share it with you before it went in the pot ........

[DavidLaver]

Does Autoglym regular resin polish stop ali tarnishing?

David