I finished spraying the doors and air intakes with epoxy primer. It’s cooling off in my area so I’m taking a break from the exterior body and will begin working on the chassis wiring and the engine fuel injection. Continue reading Update 10/2/20
I found a solution to the front quarter panel body pieces. I’m building the pieces out of steel sheet metal and square tube that is welded to the Lancia chassis. These pieces will be skinned in thin steel as shown in the second picture below but represented by a manila folder that I am using as a template. I’ll use easy to shape polyurethane foam blocks on the leading edge to continue the contour of the wheel arch down to the bottom rocker panel. With the foam blocks in place I’ll cover the whole assembly in fiberglass, including the outside … Continue reading Update 10/8/17
I took a week of vacation to work full time on the bodywork. My hope was to get the body filled and in primer back to the rear quarter panels. So after a week how was the progress? Almost zero progress. I spent almost the entire time working on the front fender pieces that mount to the chassis just ahead of the doors. The good news is that I decided to stop and cut my losses and rethink these parts because the pieces are poorly formed and there is just no way forward using the pieces I received. If you … Continue reading Update 9/24/17
I worked on the Lancia bodywork yesterday. I used a chemical stripper on the passenger side door jamb and A/B-pillars but the original Lancia paint doesn’t want to come off even with stripper. It took four applications of heavy duty stripper to get down to the metal. I’ll strip the paint on the corresponding areas on the driver side but on the doors themselves I’ll just scuff the original paint and paint over it with urethane primer because the factory paint is really solid and I don’t want to deal with the mess. I feathered in the fiberglass I applied … Continue reading Update 9/5/2017
I stripped all the red paint on the A/B/C pillars and around the windshield using a wire wheel and applied POR-15 white chassis paint. The paint isn’t a bright white, more of an ivory color, but it dries very hard and holds the surface well. I bonded the quarter panels to the car with 3M panel adhesive. Surface prep is important so I scuffed the steel chassis really well and sanded down the panels to the glass fibers on the inside edges. I cleaned the steel surface with left over enamel reducer until the paper towels came back clean. It … Continue reading Update 8/18/17
A new throttle cable bracket bolted to the engine at one of the hoisting points. All the bolts are secure with Loctite. It’s very simple and strong. The picture makes it look like the cable is coming out of the bracket at an angle, but it is exiting perpendicular to the bracket. I made my own throttle cable using 1.5mm wire rope and a thimble on the end at the pedal. Unfortunately there is no off the shelf solution that is the right length, diameter and cable end. The routing has a few bends but I lubed the cable really … Continue reading Update 8/13/17
I solved the throttle cable problem that resulted from the new throttle body. I made a simple bracket that will allow me to run the throttle cable so it pulls down on the throttle lever. It means a little longer cable with a few turns around the engine but nothing too drastic that should cause the cable to wear out. I’m going to run the new cable tonight. I will grease the cable really well so that it doesn’t wear and to keep the drag down. I still plan to add a second return spring on the throttle arm so … Continue reading Update 8/7/17
In the pictures below I’m fitting the rear quarter panels. I’ve aligned the panels with the door skin and they are fastened temporarily to the body with clecos and to the bottom support bracket with bolts. The bottom support bracket is adjustable which is visible in the third picture. I bought adjustable body braces for the front and rear. One is visible on the front of the car in the bottom picture. The curve of the fiberglass panels is not symmetrical between the right and left sides but the braces push or pull the fiberglass into position. Interestingly I found … Continue reading Update 7/28/17
My Stradale 