Restoring a 1.2 Coupe

[FennLane]

We are just about to start the restoration of an early Series 1 Fulvia Coupe. The car was built in 1965 and is RHD.

We will fully strip the shell and remove all the paint and then set about repairing the metalwork.

I will post up photographs showing progress from time to time.

We will try to create a 1.2HF replica and any comments would be welcome.

[FennLane]

Just about to start dismantling

[Huib]

Looks like a well equipped workshop.

Since you ask for comments. Why not be happy with returning it to its original splendor as a standard 1200 coupe? These are truly superb cars as they are. Hundreds of great people worked together to make that great car for you. It deserves to be cared for as it was meant to be.

[FennLane]

My customer wants a 1.2HF Replica, hence the decision - he who pays is the boss, but I do understand your comments. the car was, I believe, originally a Slate Grey colour.

Once the paint is stripped we will put it onto one of our jigs before we start the corrosion repairs. It will be interetsing to see how much filler is present and how earlier repairs have been carried out.

We will strip the paint using a Controlled Pyrolysis Oven and then Phosphoric/Citric Acid treatment and then use a 'touch dry inhibitor' before repairs are carried out.

Once it is repaired we will e-coat the shell and panels before painting.

Once the car is restored it will be used for Historic Regularity Rallies and we will obtain the relevant FIA papers etc. and I hope it will be taken to Europe on a regular basis.

[adan figueroa]

where is the restoration taken place? I have a 1.2 shell that may come handy some parts if you need some. here is what huib referd to my 1.2 coupe 1966

[FennLane]

Dismantled (Screens will be out in the morning) and ready for paint removal.

[FennLane]

Series 1 Fulvia after thermal processing to remove paint, underseal and all sealants.

Scarey moment.

[FennLane]

Looks a bit better after a clean up.

[Huib]

Just a question.
Are you familiar with the unusual sill structure of the Fulvia coupe?

To make 100% sure that sills are solid it is necessary to cut open the four sections between doors and wheel arches. I have ALWAYS regretted the times I chose not to cut them open. That was years ago. Now I don't even think twice. I just cut them open.

If you don't know exactly what an outer sill should look like, I recommend to buy those rather than attempt to make them yourself.

[gamma a.i.]

I will have to edit this blog a few times, my hands are shaking too much:X.

John (the other one; the tall one) of Fulvia Z (the other Z) fame described this procedure to me at the Be/FR Fulvia-Fury Dash 2 yrs ago...with tears in his sparking eyes & a laff in his voice; a laff because he realized that I had stopped breathing at his wise words "I just want to show you this because someday you will need to have this done because if you don't you will be driving down the road and................"; I don't remember the rest because I passed out . When I awoke, John had been joined by Huib & several other "old-hands"...not to help me up...but to carry-on where John had left-off, in gory detail. Still, I appreciated it, since it was / is "need to know stuff".

There & then I decided I wasn't going to be "Fulvia a.i." any longer, because I was going to sell my Fulvia to the ..... ...which, of course I didn't do. I just have not driven it a lot since. Of course, I didn't drive it a lot before either ... so in the end nothing changed.

John's description of what was found when the fenders were peeled back on his car were interrupted when his wife began to discuss, with tears in her eyes, the (justified) cost. Then every one passed out.

I learned that day, slowly,,,because more & more Fulvisti had joined us (& stopped breathing as well); so that the procedure of describing what a major operation it actually is was repeated several times.

I am lucky. My Z was rebuilt in late 90's by its "wealthy Swiss owner" without sparing expenses; at about the 50,oookm mark. (It has less than 70,oookm now). After I bought it I spoke with his son; who remembered Dad's restoring every "older car" he ever had; the time it took to restore them; the cost it took to do it right, the lack of space in Dad's Museum as the collection grew.
He told me; "Dad never sold the nice cars he bought; he restored them after some time & parked them in the Museum...taking them out sometimes if the weather was nice...to drive then". There are just too many, so we had to sell some of them; you got a very good one".

So, I felt (right after purchase) that I wasn't going to regret buying my Z. It has been 6yrs & (knock on wood, salt over my shoulder) I have seen none of the "telltale signs" everyone warned me of......still, I am so happy that I learned what I learned that"Fulvia-day" & thank everyone who scared me ... after all, it is my life driving the car