Aprilia Cabrio - here we go again

[DavidLaver]

I'm admiring the "classic" B&D work mate

[simonandjuliet]

Andy - good suggestion but it is actually a hidden piece - it is the spacer between the double skin in the front valance where the steering box is mounted ! I had never noticed it before , anyway another part correctly boxed !

David, no surprise, but I picked it up fro 20 euros in a vide-grenier, couldn't resist because it is one of the originals

Just back from a mammoth tour of Southern France (more in Appia section) so not had a chance to do much until today. Stripping and cleaning continues.

The floor has been prepped and painted (using a small roller which gives very nice finish), the rest of the tunnel has been stripped of the fuel line, brake pipe , rear loom and handbrake cables and can now be cleaned and painted

With the rear subframe removed I need to mock up an axle to keep her "rolling" so a spare cross-member and trailing arms have appeared from stores, a couple of blocks of wood between the bump stops should give enough ground clearance for us to be able to move her around

Because she is pre-war, I am going to fit Michelin "Super-Conforts" instead of Michelin "X"s  - these have been sourced (BIG thank you to Mic in Portugal !)

Finally, I have removed all the silent-blocs on the rear subframe and steering, measured them up to see what I have and what I need to buy. Email sent to Robush ......

Dog back in tomorrow so hopefully more progress

[simonandjuliet]

Lots going on this week, the girls have been away on various "colonies de vacances" or summer camps, so the mouse can get his hands dirty

Dog has finished and I painted the floor and it looked excellent, but the new panel looked too new. So we cleaned the paint off again and then welded some "blobs" onto the floor frames because we had ground them off, then we beat it up a bit with a hammer so it looks more like the rest of the floor

Another coat of paint and it looks great !

The area under the rear subframe has been cleaned, rubbed down and painted as well, we have also started cleaning up the front valance and tunnel. The plan is to get the chassis fully finished so it can go to Dog's new workshop in September to be painted. Once done, I can start the rebuild whilst he gets the panels done

The car has a second series front axle fitted which I have decided to change. I have a couple of spare 1st series units, but have no idea of their condition so have started to pull them apart.

Having never touched a sliding pillar unit before, I have now dismantled 5 upper shock-absorber units in 2 days ....... I will write it up at some time, but suffice to say, the 1st and 2nd series are completely different. I don't think any parts are inter-changeable, but I will do more research. The later 2nd series unit is much more "Aurelia" and simpler to dismantle

The 2nd ser came apart with standard tools (including a 50-80 mm "C" spanner), whereas I had to make a castle-ated nut socket from an old socket for the 1st series. And I have another one to make tomorrow

I have yet to attack the main spring and bottom guide, but need to make some special tools and realistically the axle needs to be on the car unless I make a monster tool , like the one Koen made for his Aurelia

[DavidLaver]

Is that double ended spanner as big as it looks?

[simonandjuliet]

Probably not quite as big as it looks , but pretty impressive anyway ! Found it on eBay a couple of years ago but never knew what it was for ..... also fits furgoncino rear hub nuts

Another really useful tool is the hub puller that has also seen a lot of action this week

The second axle was a lot more difficult to take apart, a couple of the castle-ated nuts had been cross threaded at some time in the past, so I had to make another tool , heat the inner sleeve to red hot and slowly unthread the nut, as soon as the temperature dropped it blocked again, needing more heat to get it moving .

[simonandjuliet]

Having come up with the brilliant idea to jury-rig a rear axle for moving the car around I came across a problem ......

The cross member for a Cabrio is completely different to a standard one, it is wider and flatter (approx 10x6 cm cf 6x8cm) and there is no way it will fit , so it means that I have to dismantle the original subframe and fit bits of that again

Once the unit was on the bench I took off the spring - which can be quite scary, but a few years ago we made a very solid spring clamp. Then I started to dismantle the rest. The position of the torsion bars has been noted and now need to make a puller to remove them carefully

The subframe had apparently been rebuilt, so some nice surprises and others less so !

[Dikappa]

Simon, it's a Lancia: did you really think they would use the same subframe given a chance to design a slightly different new one....?

Love the lool, looks solid indeed, the curvature of the onloaded spring is unbelievable!

[DavidLaver]

Must of been such a pleasure to pull that tool out and get another use from in.  "Dilute the investment".

[davidwheeler]

Andy - good suggestion but it is actually a hidden piece - it is the spacer between the double skin in the front valance where the steering box is mounted ! I had never noticed it before , anyway another part correctly boxed !

David, no surprise, but I picked it up fro 20 euros in a vide-grenier, couldn't resist because it is one of the originals

Just back from a mammoth tour of Southern France (more in Appia section) so not had a chance to do much until today. Stripping and cleaning continues.

The floor has been prepped and painted (using a small roller which gives very nice finish), the rest of the tunnel has been stripped of the fuel line, brake pipe , rear loom and handbrake cables and can now be cleaned and painted

With the rear subframe removed I need to mock up an axle to keep her "rolling" so a spare cross-member and trailing arms have appeared from stores, a couple of blocks of wood between the bump stops should give enough ground clearance for us to be able to move her around

Because she is pre-war, I am going to fit Michelin "Super-Conforts" instead of Michelin "X"s  - these have been sourced (BIG thank you to Mic in Portugal !)

Finally, I have removed all the silent-blocs on the rear subframe and steering, measured them up to see what I have and what I need to buy. Email sent to Robush ......

Dog back in tomorrow so hopefully more progress

I hope your Super Conforts are new, not of the same age as the car!!

[simonandjuliet]

"Diluting the investment" - I like that ...... the usual problem for me is that the tools aren't available in France and so it is often cheaper to make it than getting it sent from the UK

On the same subject, does anyone have (or have photos of) a front suspension, lower spring compression tool ? Having done the top (shock absorber) I now want to dismantle the bottom. I am not sure if I will do it on or off the car at the moment - advantages to both.

Didn't get into the garage yesterday, but did get to see "La Vuelta" which came nearby - I cycled over to Mirepisset and got VERY close to the action, the photo is not zoomed - I think it is Chris Froome ......

Having decided to switch back to a 1st ser axle, I took the Cabrio axle off this morning and offered up my spares. I have been having sleepless nights about this , just in case my car was out of square or the new axles were out - or both !

Fortunately, the axle with better shocks was also straight, the other had obviously had quite a knock, it was about 1/2" short on one set of bolt holes. Then , when I put them back to back , you can see why !

Tomorrow's job is to clean up the front valance area and axle beam, paint and refit. I'll attach a couple of drums so I can fit wheels and leave it for the time being. Once I have the new tools I can come back and do the bottom springs

The area around the rear subframe has had a 3rd coat of paint and is ready for the cross beam and training arms. I dismantled the rest of it today and have cleaned up the cross beam. The other cross beam - between diff and petrol tank - is also very different to the saloon - as Koen suggests, it is a Lancia afterall .......

A few surprises:

Nice - perfect driveshafts with new cups, torsion bars that are not worn and came out easily, bolts all came apart without too many problems, all drums have been skimmed and new pistons and shoes at the back

Not so nice - no split pins or locking nuts on the driveshafts, locking wire for both front wheel bearings not fitted, one bearing retaining nut had come undone and nut became damaged and needs replacing. Took a good hour to clean up the threads and fit a new nut. Various nuts and screws missing

Robush don't have all the silentblocs at the moment - some are obsolete as well, so I am going to have to search around for the rear shock absorber bushes in particular. The most common silentblock that fits the spring mount and  both cross-bars are apparently going to be remade later in the year .......

Lastly, fortunately, the tyres are new, they had been bought for another project but not been used.

[stanley sweet]

I can't believe the curvature of the unloaded spring either. Hard to believe that the rear of an Aprilia has enough weight to bring it back to a normal shape. That's why I'm not an engineer! The painted floor looks superb. I like the attention to detail - hammering it to age it. It one of those things where not many people will ever see it but you know it's right.

[davidwheeler]

My front suspension bottom tool is just a short piece of stout tube with a pair of slots in it to fit into the "nut" and a tranverse bar but it requires the assembled car to be resting on it to act as compressor.   The weight of the car is sufficient to allow the bottom to be unscrewed without drama.

[simonandjuliet]

Thanks David, I have also had some useful correspondence with Noel in Australia who shared some photos from his brilliant website - http://www.narrywoolan.com.au - and as you say, it looks "straight-forward" on the car, problems come when the axle is on the bench

To that end I started to clean up the axle and then refitted it so that I can take it apart on the ground. The only concern is that I don't have any mechanics or interior so it will weigh a lot less, so will the springs be adequately compressed ??

The answer is probably a few sacks of cement !

In order to help fit the front axle I made a couple of locating pins from spare bolts cut  down and slotted - it made fitting the axle on my own a lot easier and reduced the risk of damaging the very fine (M10x1.00) threads. Old hubs:Drums and tie bar fitted so she can be moved around

More cleaning and painting on the chassis, this time bell housing and tunnel. The rear cross members have been stripped and painted and will be refitted today along with the trailing arms and hubs. Just cleaning the cross-members top 5hrs because of the intricacies around all the welds - the dentists drill came in handy !

Detail of the bump stops showing the rubber blocks held in place with split pins

Now the slow , laborious process of cleaning up all the bits, nuts&bolts etc for the refit ......

[simonandjuliet]

Just back from the trimmer - coming on beautifully .......

Needs some final adjustments and then the backs put on. I bought a couple of lengths of brass-covered lead for the trims behind the seats , so those need to be trimmed and fitted as well. No rush this end because Dog need to get the body done before I can fit the interior

[stanley sweet]

Very nice colour and looking very comfy.