Fulvia 1200 coupe

After my bonnet/windscreen and sh** scary dice with death. I'm now just needing new pair of brown undies.  
fitted a new fibreglass bonnet with clips so the wind would have to be a hurricane to rip it off. I already had this in the pile of fulvia bits.




 
it doesn't fit too bad but is a bit wobbly
I think good enough as a temporary fix. 


 second hand windscreen (nicked out of the spares car) as a temporary fix too. It came out really easily and with the help of no.1 son we did the "washing line cord through the rubber trick" to fit the gasket to the lip of the windscreen hole.



Its full of embedded bits of metal from a grinder and I recon this corner got too hot when welding??

but hey I can still use the car and it was one I already had. The poor old spares car is getting robbed mercilessly.

Then once in,  the trim was a head wreck to fit into the rubber.

          


I used a small piece of copper pipe to make an angled tool to part the rubber to fit the stainless trim which actually holds the whole lot together.
          

I had a surprise visit from Fulvia1436 and although Id fitted the screen his moral support was much appreciated. We found that the spare screen was from a series 2/3 car and so is a different shape to the series 1 that I had in the car. It is not a perfect fit "but beggars....etc."

heres a few shots of the dash board for reference if anyone else is interested.

      the air vents are taken out by removing a small clip inside with lugs on the ends. I never knew that these vents actually swivelled and also found why not much air comes out of them. They were full of bits of paper and leaves and junk behind the dash probably when the mouse was living in there eating the wiring. 


 

Some pictures of stuff that Ive been up to. 
Lights on the dashboard now working ...more earthing faults fixed. 
electric blower just needed a nudge after about two hours of fiddling with wiring and trying to get it apart. Sometimes a poke with your finger is a it needs!!

      
    

   

New central bonnet strip for the fiberglass bonnet to stiffen it up a bit 


I just went out for a drive and found some old cassette tapes and played some real old retro tunes. Robert Cray (don't be afraid of the dark) Don Henley. The Who, and various Blues stuff by John Lee Hooker,  Muddy Waters, the Pretenders ( Chrissy Hynde ) and then a bit of my favourite Ian Dury and the Blockheads .

The car ran well and it was cool to drive on fairly empty roads in the dark and the stereo and all the lights worked. !!!

What colour will you car be when it's done?

Makes me want to check the ducts to those vents on dads Fulvia, it's fresh air ventilation is useless enough to wonder about a hole in the firewall to supply the vent more directly.

The series 1 fulvias ventilation was never that good. But have a check for the operation of the lever and flap in the air box in the engine bay.  There was a mouse nest in mine and "Little Mickey" ate a whole load of the wiring in that area which is mostly why I had so many electrical problems. The top dash board isnt too tricky to take off and then you can see in there quite well. There are two nuts that are a bit difficult to see but once they are off you remove the two vents and the whole lot comes off.

The fulvia, according to the owners operating manual,  has "air conditioning" but it more of a "lost in translation" situation in reality. Its definitely not air conditioning in any way.

good work on the little bits and pieces that will make a big difference in how it behaves....and make it just that much more enjoyable to drive....

JP

it makes me smile very time I go out in it. I'm slowly ironing out the niggles

the fulvia is off the road again . The voltage regulator badly overheated and after a thorough check through the electrics found that the dynamo was failing which is why theres been a few troubles with batteries and the like.

soooo....after a long trawl through the depths of the net ive jumped into the world of alternators and ditched the dynamo and its regulator. Ive bought a dynamator.

its quite a bit bigger and as I couldnt afford the one thats made for the series one (over £400 + VAT) ive got a more readily available one.( at a quarter of the price)
having had a good measure up and plenty of head scratching I think I can make it fit.

I think I should have just bought a fulvia series 2 alternator. That would fit. But hey who wants an easy life.


 from this to this...



ive got to get this mounting point to hold the whole thing in the right place.



then this lot goes over it.


Errrm thats not a straight swap.



so I managed to get the pulley off the dynamo without ruining it but its not the same size shaft on the dynamator. Ive ordered some steel tube and a few bits to make up some kind of bracket and convert the shaft to fit the pulley. 
                                        

For reference to anyone else the voltage regulator is the same one thats on a early Beetle and the T2 van. So don't pay for one for a Lancia (£140 ish quid) , the Beetle one will do ( £35 ish quid) and there are modern Bosch ones without the stupid mechanical points etc that " I'm going to catch you out one day, and possibly get so hot to catch fire."

The dynamator should be able to output up to 45 amps is much lighter and I can ditch the voltage regulator too. I do need to alter the wiring a bit too. Hopefully the whole exercise will give me more stable electrics and most importantly safer.