I rolled my pagoda last night...

[johnk]

John,

Was at Mid Ohio on Sunday and Joe, Mike Simon and I were wondering when you were going to smash that bottle of Champagne over your front bumper?  You gotta be getting close.

Hope you are well.

Mike

Thanks for thinking about me Mike and Joe! Unfortunately I haven't had too much time the last 9 months, but hope to have it done later this fall. I had the interior almost completely finished until I put the radio in and noticed there were gaps on the sides. Don't know why we didn't notice it before. I had to remove most of the dash components and interior again, weld in a small filler piece and repaint it. That's done now so its back to reassembly. Also still waiting on my AC vents that have been out for refinishing since March.

I will post some pics of the progress soon.

Take care
John

[johnk]

I regards to refinishing I first tried a do-it yourself kit called Easy Chrome.  I was interested in this method as I will be helping my brother with the restoration of his 1970 Mach 1 that has a lot of plastic chrome needing refinishing. Easy chrome sent me bad product a few times and after 2 1/2 months I gave up and sent the vents out to be replated professionally. That took another 2 1/2 months due to some of residue from when I tested the Easy Chrome on one. Anyways they came back this week looking great and I quickly reassembled them with a little bit of crazy glue for re-attaching the control lever.

Now I can finally finish the interior and will post more updates then.

[Norm]

They look pretty good.

Could you share the vendor / contact information for the professional that did the replating?

Thanks,

Norm

[johnk]

They look pretty good.

Could you share the vendor / contact information for the professional that did the replating?

Thanks,
Norm

Sure it was Vacucoat technologies in Clinton Michigan. Turnaround time originally was to be five days but that’s before they ran into the problems caused by my testing the easy chrome on them at first. The cost was $85 per vent  and the original turnaround time was scheduled for five days. However the problems caused them to get set aside for a while and I had to call him a few times. nice guys though and I would recommend them.

The Easy Chrome kit was $150 and that was without the clear that they eventually sent me for free. Better kits start at 300 and go much higher than that so $85 a vent to have them done right  ended up seeming pretty cheap

[johnk]

Back to the interior after boating season. To me it’s the most frustrating part of the restoration. Seems each step requires another part that you don’t have or something needs to be repaired like my clock or the Speedo and you have to Waite.

[johnk]

Exterior trim question

I am starting to install the exterior trim and want to make sure I put all of the correct rubber trim in place. I have the obvious pieces such as the mirror and door handle plastic grommet. I know I need a rubber seal around the tail lights and under the trunk lock, and of course the gas tank neck, but what else is needed? Authentic classics lists 8.75m of Trim/Seal for the rear panel chrome trim and I have no idea what that is for.

Any help is appreciated.

John

[MikeSimon]

Is it a rubber seal that goes under the trim strip on the rear fender behind the wheel?

[johnk]

Is it a rubber seal that goes under the trim strip on the rear fender behind the wheel?

That’s what I wondered but why would that strip be different than the same strip on the rest of the car amd why would in one place would they list 8.75 m?

[johnk]

Ok Authentic Classics just confirmed that particular rubber is only needed for the trunk trim.

[m300cab]

Nice Work, Enjoy!

[lreppond]

I knew that parchment leather with grey-beige metallic paint would look awesome but WOW!  The stain on the wood trim is the perfect brown too.  You should be so proud. 

[johnk]

Thanks Len and Michael!

[mmizesko]

when is the coming out party for that beautiful debutante?

Mike

[johnk]

Hi mike. Unfortunately the honey-do lists have been a bit demanding lately to say the least and I’m not afforded much time until they are all done.

Actually next I will be starting on restoring the hard top, making sure I have all the weather strips and window rubber. Back window is out and I need to pull the side windows in order to replace the leather strip under the windows. Will also stain the headliner and them put it all back together.

I thought I could do the hard top last but I can’t put the inside door panels on until
I adjust the windows and I can’t adjust the windows until I have my hard top on.  Realized it all when I was trying to get the car weather tight to take it to Joes to get It running right.

Sorry long answer. It takes a lot longer to put things back together right than I could ever have imagined.

I do appreciate you asking though!

John.

[mmizesko]

I've heard how hard the hardtop job is.

A hardbody like you will make it easy.

Can't wait to see the finished product.

Mike

[johnk]

Thanks mike. I am not removing the liner though. Dying it in place so hopefully it won’t be so hard.

[Cees Klumper]

Yesterday I dyed the headliner in my Lancia Fulvia, was easy and came out looking new. I used the 3 SEM products: soap, another cleaner/adherance promotor and dye/paint. Just mask off and cover everything around because it 'mists' around.

[johnk]

Yesterday I dyed the headliner in my Lancia Fulvia, was easy and came out looking new. I used the 3 SEM products: soap, another cleaner/adherance promotor and dye/paint. Just mask off and cover everything around because it 'mists' around.

Thanks Cees. Doing it myself would be a lot easier than hauling the top to a shop. Can I ask where you got the die and were you able to use an original color?

[Cees Klumper]

I got the SEM products off Amazon. They have a range of colors, I just chose the lightest white ('Carver white') since that is my personal preference. The whole process took less than an hour:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073T6VQQM?ref=ppx_yo2_tab_ap_product_details&th=1

Here's some photos in my Lancia forum thread (post #365):

http://lancisti.net/wbb/index.php?thread/11303-1972-fulvia-1-3-coupe-in-long-beach-ca-restoration/&pageNo=19

[doitwright]

Thanks mike. I am not removing the liner though. Dying it in place so hopefully it won’t be so hard.

Hmm

If you plan to dye the headliner that must mean it is stained. When I removed mine, I believe some of the staining was from the 90% disintegrated foam behind the liner. To go as far as removing the window seals and not replacing the headliner should be considered carefully.

[johnk]

Hi frank. It has water stains from a leak. Perhaps I will take a look at replacing the headliner while it’s all apart. I have not read much on that process yet other than hearing it’s a real PITA.

[johnk]

Hmm

If you plan to dye the headliner that must mean it is stained. When I removed mine, I believe some of the staining was from the 90% disintegrated foam behind the liner. To go as far as removing the window seals and not replacing the headliner should be considered carefully.

Great input Frank thank you. Reading the info available on this forum more closely I realize replacing the headliner itself it’s not the big part of the job. Ordering a new one from GAT today.  Only $200 including shipping.

Any additional tips from members who have done this themselves is greatly appreciated.

John.

John

[johnk]

I took Mr. Doitwright’s (frank) advice and replaced the headliner before I completed the assembly of my hard top. For those of you that have not done that before  you can see below how digesting it can be behind the original headliners.

[johnk]

Below is the new headliner  before the rear window install.  I went through two new headliners as on the first attempt I started gluing everything per Gernald’s instructions and I could not get all of the wrinkles out when gluing the last parts. What I found that works is to completely clip the headliner in place with office binder clips so you can continue to adjust the material in all areas until the wrinkles go away. Don’t glue anything until you have it down exactly like you want it.

A second mistake causing me to go through two headliners was spraying the glue on. The glue should only go on the very sides of the top where the chrome trim covers the headliner. The first time around I got some of the glue on the foam beneath the headliner which causes the headliner to stick down in those spots rather than stretching across to the other sides. This leaves an unsightly indent in the headliner where it sticks to the foam. I corrected this the second time around by taping off the foam around the edges when I sprayed the glue. I must admit I did see a few of these bad indents on some of the pics of professional installs on this site. I think Dr. Benz said it earlier that a good restoration requires the patience (and time) to walk away and do something over again when it isn't right. I've had to walk away a lot lately!

[johnk]

My first attempt at installing the quarter windows in the hard top did not go well as I was following a more recent advice on this site to install the windows with the hard top right side up. I don’t know what I was doing wrong but I just could not get the windows down enough in the bottom Chanel to push the rest of the window in.

When I flipped the top upside down it only took about 15 minutes per side to install the windows by myself. I used my hands to pull the window up into the bottom Chanel and was almost able to push the rest in with my hands. I used very thin metal scrapers to wedge the top of the windows into the Chanel’s. Using thin scrapers as wedges gave the windows more room to slide past the wedge and into the channels. see side view of the scrapers below.