RESTORATION CENTRE

An aesthetic and functional conservative restoration of the tricycle was carried out after careful study and analysis of the historical documents.  The work involved the total disassembly of the tricycle in order to analyse its state of conservation and proceed with the operations of cleaning, restoration of the mechanical parts and painting of the exterior.  The boiler had to be completely reconstructed because the original steam generator was no longer suitable to withstand the operating pressure indicated in the original booklet; the original boiler is now kept in the museum deposits. 

The purpose of conservative restoration is to restore the vehicle’s appropriate conservation conditions and facilitate the aesthetic reading of the most compromised materials: tyres and metals. Cleaning, consolidation and final protection operations have been carried out on the entire vehicle, in the attempt to achieve an aesthetically adequate result while respecting the history and authenticity of the vehicle.

The chassis was in a very advanced state of decay, with substantial paint damage, corrosion and biological attacks.  The choice of intervention method was evaluated critically in order to carry out an ethically correct restoration in line with the preliminary analyses that revealed the original colour.  The work involved cleaning, painting and final protection operations. 

The car has undergone functional restoration after several years of inactivity; the pipes and tank had to be cleaned as part of the work on the petrol supply system.  In addition, adjustment and commissioning work was carried out on the ignition. In the near future, the front leaf-springs will be restored following an incident that occurred during the last revival of the Peking-Paris race in 2007.

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After a long period of inactivity, the vehicle has undergone functional restoration. The intervention involved the total disassembly of the engine into its individual parts to assess their integrity and any prior damage.  Subsequently, the timing gears were reconstructed because the originals were unable to fulfil their function.  The rest of the mechanicals have been cleaned, checked and reassembled and work correctly.