I did it again ... this time it's a 1972 Lancia Fulvia Coupe

[Cees Klumper]

This popped up on Los Angeles Craigslist a few days ago and I just could not resist - one of my all-time favorite elegant cars, rare in Europe and rarer still in the US. It needs a lot of work, body as well as mechanical and interior, but it's basically all there and in decent shape. 5-speed, narrow-V 4 cylinder 1,298 cc and around 1,000 kg, 'quick and nimble'. Well it should be once I finish the restoration, hopefully in the next year. Parts are scarce!

[Jordan]

Cees, I picked up mine last August from a guy that was moving back to Scotland.  Mine is a '69.  I am getting it repainted back to its original Jamaica Blue and restoring the interior.  Hopefully by the fall.  Most parts can be had in the UK and Italy.

[Benz Dr.]

Kind of looks like a Alfa-Romeo  GTV.

[Garry]

You used to see them occasionally here in Australia.  Cool little car but had a bad reputation for rust here even though we dont use salt on our road.


Nice buy Cees

[Cees Klumper]

Yeah Dan, my very first car ever actually was an Alfa Romeo 1750 GTV, great little car. Paid $300 for it when it was only maybe 10 years old. Nowadays they go for tens of thousands of course.

Actually I just hit a snag on the transaction: the seller realized the title has a transposition error in the VIN ('63' instead of '36'). Title is from New Jersey - bills of sale from dealer (with the incorrect VIN) to 'my' seller. I went to the DMV to ask how this would play out, but at 3.30 PM they were already closing down for new 'walk ups'. Appointments are apparently months into the future. I am not too optimistic about this as these kinds of bureaucratic issues can become a headache (as I think we saw with a recent thread here, of someone trying to import a Pagoda into France from Ireland, with paperwork issues). They might say the car needs to go back to New Jersey to have them correct their title before California will get involved. Who knows. I think I will ask the seller to sort all of this out first, I have no appetite to spend hours and hours in line with the DMV, only to get non-committal information.

[MikeSimon]

There was a "Wheelers and Dealers" (not my favorite) episode a while ago where they flipped one of these. Did some minor resto and repaint. Looked quite cool at the end.
Regarding the Alfa GTV, there was a pristine one in racing trim at the Vintage Grand Prix at Mid-Ohio two weeks ago. I talked to the proprietor. 40k could not have bought it.

[Benz Dr.]

There was a "Wheelers and Dealers" (not my favorite) episode a while ago where they flipped one of these. Did some minor resto and repaint. Looked quite cool at the end.
Regarding the Alfa GTV, there was a pristine one in racing trim at the Vintage Grand Prix at Mid-Ohio two weeks ago. I talked to the proprietor. 40k could not have bought it.

Wow.  I remember a time when you could barely get a bid on one. Most of them were fixed up but still rough cars.

[Peter van Es]

- one of my all-time favorite elegant cars, rare in Europe and rarer still in the US

I'm not surprised. The roofline and thin A and B pillars have some similarity to a Pagoda with hardtop. By the way, I would love to own one too...

Peter

[PSB]

Hi Cees ,

Great cars , good luck . Rust can be an issue .
There are always a handful for sale in portugal ( just checked a few listed now)mostly in the 20k euro range .  Spares are also frequently  advertised here as often  these cars were parted out rather restored but prices started to go up in recent years .
So if you see any spares down this way and need any help with contacts or language let me know.

Regards
Pedro

[Raymond]

When I bought my Pagoda and had it shipped from Washington state to Florida, the Washington title and registration actually listed the serial number as 280SL- other numbers similar to the VIN.  I took the car to our local Tax Collector's office.  The fellow came out and looked at the car, read the number off of the plate and changed it to the correct number when issuing the new title.  It was not a big deal and that's a bigger difference than your transposition.  New Jersey must have seen mistakes before.  The seller should, for a small fee, be able to get his DMV to fix it.  Good luck!

[Cees Klumper]

Many thanks Pedro, for the kind offer of assistance with finding parts. I will gladly take you up on it once I figure out what I need. Most obvious for now are two correct front seats (it has one non-original driver's seat now).

@ Ray, yes, I think it you are right, that it should be ok when I present the car to the DMV here, it is clearly a simple transposition. Moreover, I can show the inspector that these cars' prefixes always started with the VIN on the car, never with the prefix that is on the title.
The seller meanwhile is working with who he bought the car from, to try and get this rectified that way, but in the meantime I agreed with him I am buying it irrespectively - so it's my gamble now but I am confident this will be sorted out one way or another. Worst case scenario I will need to take it back to New Jersey to get the title corrected - a cross-country road trip with my son (21), that he is already looking forward to (me too)!

Here's a few more pictures:

[hauser]

One recently sold on BAT for 25K.

[JamesL]

Cees,
You are not alone. Lovey cars and this one is v nice > https://www.ddk-online.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=66866

[Cees Klumper]

Thanks James, that one is nice indeed.
Funny thing is my car has those same steel wheels that the owner in the linked thread immediately replaced. I am looking at doing the same.
Meanwhile I sourced two seats. These are not correct for the car, but at least they are black leather Lancia seats in great condition, from a '79-'84 Lancia Beta, that I think will look o.k. Longer term, I plan to take this car to France where spares are more plentiful, and I hope to be able to source two original seats and sell these. There are reproductions of the original seats available, but those are offered here in the US for a bit shy of $4K. I'd rather have originals.
The car is being transported to me from Santa Monica to our house here in Long Beach tomorrow afternoon. Can't wait!

[WRe]

Wheeler Dealers Lancia Fulvia: https://www.dplay.co.uk/show/wheeler-dealers/video/1972-lancia-fulvia/EHD_178267C.
...WRe

[Jordan]

Cees, finally had some time to sit down and put this together.  Here are a number of suppliers for parts:

In the US, https://www.lalancia.com/

In the UK, https://www.omicron.uk.com/parts/fulvia/  This one you need to e-mail for prices.  They will often have new or used parts that can't be had anywhere else.

In Italy, https://www.elvezio.com/it/lancia/lancia-fulvia-coupe.html, https://www.oldlanciaspares.com/fulvia/carrozzeria.php, https://www.ricambilanciafulvia.it/en/76-accessories-body-lancia-fulvia, http://www.cicognaniguarnizioni.it/Lancia-132/fulvia-coupe.-132-g70

In France, https://www.pieces-fulvia.com/spares-fulvia-1300.htm

You really need to shop around as prices can vary quite a bit fom one supplier to another.  From Italy I have ordered from the first and third one as well as the one in France and the UK.  The last one listed in Italy makes most of the rubber gaskets and seals and supplies the other suppliers but is not always the cheapest oddly enough.

Two forums to look at are:

http://lancisti.net/index.php?login/&url=http%3A%2F%2Flancisti.net%2F and
http://www.lancia.myzen.co.uk/forum/index.php?PHPSESSID=ukfkfkef39huju7fr2sahthnp1&board=10.0

The first one seems to be more active but either will generally get you a response if you have a question or problem to sort out.

Good luck with your purchase.  Lots of fun to drive.

[Cees Klumper]

Many thanks for all this valuable information Marcus!
The car arrived yesterday. Started tearing it down a few hours ago. There's a lot to do. It seems the car was imported from Sweden some time ago, as there are stickers in Swedish on some of the controls (e.g. on the lights and wiper stalks), a Swedish make fire extinguisher, and a Bosch wiper fluid bag with Swedish text. Would love to know the history of the car, but there was 0 paperwork with it. It was repainted it seems once in its life. Someone had a go at making it driveable again recently, as there are new tires, brake hoses, coolant hoses and also the coolant and brake fluids are fresh, according to my little test strips. But, just about everything else needs attention. The plan is to take out the engine, tear it down to check all key components and also replace all gaskets (oil leaks ....), inspect all other components such as starter, generator, suspension, brakes, wiring, do the necessary bodywork, and repaint in original color, within the next 9 months, so it can be back on the road end of Q1 2021. We'll see. I will do the repaint myself here in my garage.
I like the access to everything and the relatively straightforward construction and mechanicals. The seller had purchased a reprint factory shop manual and, combined with the help from the communities you pointed me to, I should be able to work it all out. Yesterday I started the engine and it does run, but not too well. This morning I already saw the intake manifold rubber gasket is torn, so false air is coming in - no wonder it doesn't run right. Also the engine and ignition timing may be off. Well, to be continued.

[Jordan]

The engine will come out with the front axle.  There is a rebuild thread in the forum from the first link I posted.

Are you sanding it down to bare metal for the repaint?  The original colour should be evident when you remove the dash or the door cards.  That is how I found mine.  Or if you are lucky there will be a colour code in the glove box.  My interior was in pretty rough shape so I'm in the process of replacing it.  You should be able to find just about everything you might need.  There are a number of other suppliers in Italy but some don't have much of a selection.

[Cees Klumper]

Thanks again - there is in fact a label with the color code in the glovebox, it's hard to read but now I am extra-motivated to figure that out.
According to the shop manual the engine can also be removed from the top, unbolted from the subframe + transmission, which is how I am going to attemt it first. Already took off the carburetors and intake manifolds. Fun to work on for sure.

[Cees Klumper]

Update on the Fulvia project. The original color is in fact Rosso Corsa (racing red).
I took out the engine from below, complete with the subframe, and complete drivetrain (it's front wheel drive and essentially everything bolts onto the subframe).
Have proceeded to take everything apart and it's now mostly a pile of metal parts waiting to go to the powdercoater's. Only thing left to disassemble are the driveshafts from the hubs. They are secured with a large proprietary nut for which I have fashioned a socket, by grinding down a 35 mm one, but I need a large impact gun to pursuade it loose. Transmission is out and am working on that, taking off a few pounds of accumulated grease from over the years. The subframe had been reinforced by a PO on the left side, and on the right had a crack in it that I have addressed by cutting and shaping some 16 gauge metal plates to size and welding them on (yes, I bought a MIG welder at Harbor Freight and have started to teach myselfm it's going ok but will require more practice before getting into the sheet metal). Yesterday I welded up a small crack in the otherwise in-good-shape exhaust system - $450 saved for the time being. I dressed up the brake calipers, the rears will need new seals and cups but the front ones had already been rebuilt recently by a PO.  I have dropped the rear axle but, in order to remove it, will need to either buy or make another special large socket to remove the brake discs so I can get to the handbrake mechanism.
Lots of work to do, but it's progressing well, and I am enjoying it!

[Cees Klumper]

The 'divorce' (opposite of what we call when the engine and chassis are mated together)

[Cees Klumper]

Here's a link to the ongoing project on the Lancia forums in case anyone is interested:

http://lancisti.net/wbb/index.php?thread/11303-1972-fulvia-coupe-in-long-beach-ca-restoration-thread/

Some more photos of what I've done so far / am up against (rust - no worries, I am confident I will tackle it just fine):

[zak]

Wow very impressive Cees. Lancia's are very well engineered cars and always ahead of their time with their engines, suspensions and handling.
Good article on the Lancia big six cyl coupes in this months Classic and Sports Car mag.
I recall seeing many Fulvias bombing around Italy back in 83/84/85.
I dated a girl in college named Fulvia too.

jz

[Cees Klumper]

Thanks for the encouragement. Some more pictures, tackling the body issues one area at a time. Driver's front side almost done (except the fenders, have repair panels coming in for all four corners from France that I will need to cut and weld in place carefully - the job I dread doing the most) - the passenger side is in similar shape:

[franjo_66]

That's great commitment from you Cees !
Nice to see that another unique car will be back on the road soon