I watched the new Petrolicious video this morning. It’s called “Traumatic Bonding” and it’s about a guy who bought a Lamborghini Urraco back in the 1980’s and subsequently spent a whole bunch of time and money fixing the car up.
I could only nod my head as I watched it and trembled ever so faintly with fear for the future. Excitement, too, but just a little bit of fear.
Here’s the video. It’s about 8 minutes long.
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Right now, I’m at a tipping point with the Fulvia. I’m dismantling the car but nothing that I’ve done has made the job of restoring it any harder. I haven’t spent any real money on it yet but that’s just about to change (read below).
I have no intention to walk away but if I were thinking about it, now would be the time. The car is still in a condition where it can be restored. It’s 99% complete but everything needs fixing. It could be sold as-is. In fact, I’ve even heard of a prospective buyer who has the skills and the resources to do the job. I could even make a tiny profit if I were of a mind to do so.
I’ve made my first enquiries about replacement panels for the floor and the sills and the costs are a little scary. Just a little. I’m going through Omicron, in England, because they’re the ones with the best reputation and the most comprehensive range of in-house parts and services, and price comparisons with other, similar companies were competitive. The sections I’ve been quoted on – front and rear floors, sills, quarter panels and two rear light housings and lenses – come to just under £1,400. That’s $2,500 Aussie dollars.
What’s scarier is the freight. The supplier has obtained one freight quote so far and it’s £453!!! That’s more than A$800 just to move bits from one place to another.
I’m waiting on him to get a few more quotes.
I also took the top dashboard pad to a restoration company in Melbourne last weekend while visiting my family. The cost for restoring and re-covering – $395. Not unexpected. Maybe $100 more than I thought it would be.
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I don’t want this to be a five-seven-ten-twelve-year process. I want to get this car fixed and use it as often as I can, as soon as I can. I want to do as much of it as I can myself, but I know that I’ll have to pay skilled people to do a LOT of the work.
I’ve set money aside and I’m emotionally invested in this process already, but I’m not made of money and I have to try and be as financially responsible as possible. When I see $800 freight bills I start to wonder about my own sanity.
Thankfully, this will probably be the biggest single parts purchase for the car (at one time) and getting the floors replaced is a significant part of the body repair. I just hope the rest of it is structurally sound and fixable without having to resort to a life of crime in order to get it done before I’m dead.
Again, we come to that idea of the tipping point. Maybe I should try and get one of the Bocchino brothers out to see the car and tell me if the rust is terminal, if the seized engine is fixable and whether or not the car’s skewed front-end can be realigned.
Can this job actually be completed or am I nuts to even try?
I’m committed to my little Lancia Fulvia and I want to enjoy both the process and the end result. Maybe I just need to know a little more about what the process is going to entail. And maybe I need to start looking harder for supplies that aren’t going to blow a third of my budget on freight. I’ll use Omicron for the crucial custom made parts because they make the best stuff – and they’ve already been a valuable source of advice – but there must be a way to source some generic stuff at a more wallet-friendly price.
Traumatic bonding, indeed.
