Suspense over. Car in the barn, and a cursory inspection made inside and out, above and below.
As predicted, a mixed bag of pros and cons. The bad first; missing parts. As well as the absent engine which I obviously knew about, the car is without (in no particular order):
– Radiator and all cooling system (cow horn etc.)
– Gearbox, rear brakes and drivshafts! A fairly major omission this. It’s hard to believe the the seller never bothered to look under the car… Oh well.
– Interior door handles
– Most electrical switches
– central panel and mechanism of the tachometer
– Key (but all 3 locks are present, so a simple job to replace)
– Bumpers (all)
– Dynamo / Starter / all engine ancilliaries.
I knew – or thought I did – that all the lights and exterior trim was missing, but actually things are not that bad:
– the Al sill trims are both there and in good condition
– the Al finishing strips from the top of the two rectangular air intakes on the front of the car are there
– both headlight bowls
– body for both front indicators
– bodies for both fog lights, and one front glass and lens.
Other things to note:
– the bonnet is Al, with a centre strip. It is ‘factory’ but probably not originally from this car? (According to the seller, the man he bought the car from had 3 1/2 Aurelias. I can believe it…).
– The cloth interior, is entirely present under the red/blue vinyl re-trim, but will mainly only be useful as a pattern to a trimmer.
– It looks as if most of the black ribbed rubber mats are there.
These lists are undoubtedly not comprehensive!
There are lots of fascinating differences to my 6th series… the rollers against the door glass on the inside of the glass to help it run up and down; the central reversing light etc.
Finally the main event… what state is the body really in. Well it is 95% good news. It is fabulously unmolested and without corrosion. The shut-lines of the doors are so even and narrow that it looks more to me like a hand-made early Bertone bodied Giulietta Sprint than anything else I’ve seen. Did I read somewhere that Bertone built some of the 4th Series? Or perhaps B20s were all like this from new, but few have kept their lines as well…
There is some surface rust on the floorpan. Clearly water must have sat between the sound-deadening material and the metal at some point; but I don’t think the metal is holed or thinned to the point it will need replacing. I’ll see when the car’s stripped down, and in any case it’s a relatively easy area to repair.
Will post some more photos when I’ve got them.
B20-2959 