So here’s 2959 (the eighth 4th Series B20 built, since you ask…) installed in my workshop barn this morning.
The boot is locked, and the car has not got any keys with it, so I’m going to have to send off the ignition and driver’s door lock barrels to a locksmith to cut a key blank to fit. I briefly harboured a pleasant fantasy that the boot might contain all the missing parts – bumpers, engine!, but a squint through the rear light holes with a torch revealed a disappointing emptiness. No jack, no tools, not even the spare wheel is cluttering up the storage space within.
The photo below – of the rh rear wheelarch, give a good idea of the integrity of the bodywork. The car is as good as I could have hoped for.
I have managed to find one small area of rust-through – the underside of the reversing light in the centre of the rear valance;
In the photo above you can see some of the dark ‘Lancia Blue’ paint that is also visible on the dashboard and the top of the interior door trim and door shut panel (shown in one of the photos below). Intriguingly, there’s a paler mid-blue colour on the opening of the windscreen (where it would have been covered by the windscreen rubber) which looks original to the car: a more unusual shade, and one that would suit the car well. I have a 6th Series B20 in Lancia Blue, and don’t really want another exactly the same colour…
Blathering on about shut-lines is a sure sign of true anorak status, but I make no apology for doing it here. If you’re interested in this sort of car then you are probably similarly afflicted. The shutlines of the doors on this car are remarkably narrow and even. Here’s a picture of the passenger-side ‘A’ pillar junction – door to front wing and windscreen pillar. Bear in mind there’s no filler on the metal…
I thought that was worth a bigger photo!
All the (correct, green-tinted, 4th Series only) glass on the car is in great condition. The windscreen was stored in the car, so I didn’t see it until yesterday.
What do you suppose the military style stencil signifies? Was the car sold at an auction in 1967, ‘incompleto’? (Well it’s still that…)
The only other date clue I have is a lubrication sticker in the driver’s door shut;
It’s an Italian label, dated xxx/76. I suspect the car wasn’t used much more recently than that year, but who knows. As I don’t have Spanish registration papers or even a plate with an old number, it’s going to take some extensive research and/or luck to dig out the car’s earlier history. It appears – on the evidence of the sticker above at least – that the car is likely to have spent at least the first 20+ years of its life in Italy. It also seems that the car had a re-spray to dark blue before it was 20 years old…
B20-2959 