A week or so ago I went to collect a book from Richard Fridd and came sooooo close to coming home with the Berlina he has for sale as well. What a delightful machine!!
Most, and I'll confess some previous guilt here myself, don't get passed the looks. I think time has done them a lot of favours in that a three box saloon is now a very unusual sight. It is also a fact that in the metal there's a lot more shape to it than in a photo and the details are lovely. Alas I didn't take the photo to show it but the wing line has quite a rise and fall. The doors roll in below the glass, the upsweep to those crisp front and rear wing lines is cute, the chrome just right.
Inside its huge. They're proper five seaters with really decent rear legroom. Seats are great, everything to a really high quality. Its a lovely place to sit. The boot is massive.
Underway the ride is remarkable. Three leaf springs? We went in a mid 1980s Mercedes estate and no friends have a more comfortable car than ours but that Fulvia was a wonder. Not only did it ride well but very little roll and great grip. Very quiet and refined.
As to this example its just a bit too scruffy for us and I really can't have another car I look at and see a to-do-list. For me it has GOT to be a jump-in-and-use car. However Richard has done a supreme job at UNDERselling its condition and the work he's done... Aside from sills and floors he's also done the front footwells / rear mounts of the front subframe and beefed up and cleaned out the subframe. The suspension bushes we knew about but not the CV boots and rear handbrake and a new exhaust - and he's done the rear springs and the shocks are all fresh. It starts easily, ticks over at about 400rpm with no clatters or rattles, quite the most refined Fulvia engine I've ever stuck my head into.
So what does it need?
Richard's own plans were to wait for some doors to turn up. I came straight home and found several on Subito in Italy including a set of four in the same colour (I did say I came close to buying it...) All the same I'd have a go at reskinning them myself. Its never going to be a perfect car and those door skins have to be the easiest bit of classic car panel work ever. The frames need a bit of work but not as bad as expected. The doors hang well and fit nicely and open and shut perfectly.
He'd considered getting the rear arches done locally but having seen the quality of rear arches on Alan Murphey's car his thought was to see how much a pair of those would cost. Maybe they're not quite the same on the earlier car but they'd be close. I'd do the same, but I also wouldn't be ashamed to get it close with what panel beating I could do and make up the difference in filler.
The original paint isn't bad at all. It was dirty when I saw it and everyone has their own standards but to me good enough. The new paint on the new-old-stock wings he's fitted is a good match but I'd rub it back again on the wing tops and bring it to a better finish. As it stands its orange peel and random orbit sander marks. That would just be time and elbow grease.
The front seats are thought to be ex-Rover and match very well. All the same I'd chase the front seats in the spares car that supplied the back seats to have it correct. To me the car deserves that. Other than a window winder needing a circlip and clean out one rear winder mechanism to get it running smoother nothing else to do.
It's got budget tyres on the back and old ones on the front. The MOT man was happy but given funds Richard would buy another budget pair to match. The 155 Michelins XAS is about 150 each but I think there's a decent 145 Bridgestone people put on the S1 Coupes at fifty quid a corner and that would be my instinct.
So there it is - almost a year left on the ticket - tight and on the button - you just need to accept the condition or have the resources to sort.
Alas just a bit beyond me time-wise at the moment
David
PS - The one at Richard Thorne's has sold...
