Lancia Beta Forum

I finally got delivery of my sorry looking 1982 Beta HiFi
It's a navy car no. 97
chassis number Z1A 828BC 10022611
If anyone here knows anything about this car, I'd appreciate any information they can offer.
It's a shame to see it in its current state of decay and although it's not bad fronm the front bumper to the B pillars, the roof and boot are beyond salvation.
It does have good rear quarter panels and arches which I'll be reusing for my '79 spider along with the bonnet and front wings and all exterior trim is present and in almost perfect condition.
I'm going to strip the matt black paint, or what remains of it, from the very straight bumpers which appear better than those on my '78 spider and the struts are functioning well with the rears sitting better than mine.
There is a wealth of spares including seven(?) wheels which unfortuantely are FPS items but six of them are free from scuffs or signs of kerbing
I'm pleased to have it as a source of parts but sorry it's too far gone to be worth restoring.
Another one bites the dust!

Build date for that car November 1979!

First regd. 1982!
One of the "Runway babies" I presume?

more likely a muddy field!! you can see why they had to get tickford to partially repaint them/tart them up and also why they all disappeared faster than any other variation 

I couldn't resist trying to start this car today before I realy get into stripping it.
I poured a measure of petrol down the carb and after hotwiring it, the poor old thing started and ran for a few seconds.
I hooked up a temporary fuel tank and it actually drove and changed gears very smoothly!
Oil pressure is healthy, exhaust is putting out zero smoke and everything electrical that was still connected, worked, including the air horns and digital clock!

No wonder I love these cars ;D

Now do not get carried away and have the timing belt break on you.........

Given the likely history of these, I guess the body gave way well before the engine.

Peter

Not going to push my luck with it Peter.

The body is fairly shot, especially from the B pillars back, but the front wings, lower panel, bonnet and inner wings and suspension mounts are as solid (?) as when it left the factory with only minimal surface rust in a few places.
If you wind up the windows, the door tops actually come up with them and the bottoms of the B pollars are absent.
The roof is gone around the partially open sunroof and the boot is pretty non-existant.
The bootlid is still very good though, as is the enormous and disproportionate boot spoiler.
The seats are firm and supportive but the stitching has of course broken althoughunlike the vinyl seats in the spider, the fabric remained intact while the thread has disintegrated.
Overall, I got excellent value for money and now I need someone who wants to swap a pair of spider wings for my unwanted coupe items.

I suppose that if it were a rare or valuable car, it would be salvagable but as we're aall too aware, the Betas aren't in that league (yet)

They made spider wings by cutting the bottom off normal ones and aging a new bottom section probably the easiest route on yours

It's the bottoms of mine (spider) that are rotten!

I think he means that you can adapt the good Coupe ones?

You need to fabricate the bottom bit, used wings are almost always rotted there anyway

I'll just fabricate the bottoms for my spider ones if that's the case as the coupe wings are almost perfect aside from a small dent beside the headlamp on the O/S one and no rust or rot whatsoever so it would be a shame to butcher them.