Lancia Beta Forum

I dropped off my 1300 Coupe at Classic Car Lab in Otley this morning. I’ve had the car for over 10 years now, and although it passes the ‘Concours from 10 yards’ test, close up it has quite a few bodywork issues. The corrosion all around the rear window is the particular biggie.

The work is way beyond me and I’ve had a couple of false starts finding a trusted restorer but here we go. Resisting buying a very nice Fulvia last year certainly helped with the finances.

Hi Neil,
Looking forward to seeing the progress.
FNC deserves this.

Nigel

Hi Neil

I have sent you a message.

Peter

Well, this thread has been much quieter than I planned.

The one job that I did was to strip down and rebuild the rear light clusters. The rubber seals on those on the car were perished and letting in water. A pair of black framed units came with the car for reasons unknown so the seals were swapped over (it involved punching some extra holes in the newer seals for the different screw alignments) and the broken silver frame was replaced courtesy of Guy M.

Classic Car Lab initially (and literally) tore into the car; cutting out the rust I knew about and inevitably finding lots that I didn't as per the pictures below. A particularly good job has been done of rebuilding the badly rusted strip below the rear window.

Unfortunately things ground to a halt after that when for reasons unknown to me the workshop manager and painter were sacked. The new manager promised that the Coupe was next in the paint booth 2 weeks ago but we will see.....

....

....

I'm told that the major leak at the top of the rear screen wasn't because of rust as I suspected, but because the mastic on the top half of the screen had completely failed. Add the the rust on the bottom half and the screen came out in less than a minute....

Hi Neil,
That looks like a lovely job on the B pillar.
It appears he's even replicated the factory join line.
Superb.

Looking forward to seeing it later in the year.
Cheers
Nigel

I visited the workshop yesterday and the new manager has got things moving. The car is in final prep for painting which will be hopefully done next week. I'll then be invited along to inspect before final re-assembly.

While there I also go a photo of the re-built lower rear screen frame that I'm very happy with.

Great to see progress!

Primer going on....

New car on its way….

Peter

Good work Neil.  I know there are those that have the capability to DIY these jobs, but whenever I’ve tried  the more complex fabrications I’m never happy with the result. These jobs are pricey too, but well done in getting it done!  Looking forward to seeing it in top coat.

Chris

Great to see.
You must be a ‘little’ excited.

Ian

Thanks for the positive comments guys. Yes, definitely excited now. Debut may be the Yorkshire LMC meet at The Motorist 9th June, but failing that the LMC National Weekend 20th/21st July then Betameeta of course!

Wow - its looking great Neil! I can't wait to see the finished result! I will be attending LMC National and Betameeta too!  :)

Top coats going on. Looking a bit dark in this photo but OK on some close ups that they sent. Off to have a proper look on Tuesday.

In the words of The Boss; 'There she is buddy just a gleaming in the sun.....'

Hi Neil

Did you have it back in time for the LMC weekend or is that from this last week?

Peter

Hi Neil,

Fantastic news! I suspect you will not see this for a while as you are out racing round the scenery.

Eric

Very smart Neil.....and the sun has come out. Enjoy.

Mark

Looking forward to seeing it soon!

N

No, just back yesterday.

Looking really good!

Working on the inevitable snags this morning.

After filling the car on the way back from the body shop the running fell off a cliff with a return of FNC's classic rough running. A combination of aged petrol getting a good stir up plus dust from lots of spraying and rubbing down seemed the prime suspects, though funny it ran fine for the 15 minutes to the station.

The jets had a good soak in solvent, the carburetor got a big spray of cleaner then everything back together with new plugs and fuel filter element. Started up fine and ran without lumps until the choke dropped out and I had no idle. 10 minutes juggling the mixture and idle screws seems to have sorted things, but it's bizarre how fixed points like this could fall out of adjustment.

The other more prosaic job was to fit the OS door lock button. The trim was broken and as I thought I had a decent one in my stash I declined having the broken one glued in. In the end though my stash trim was also missing a prong so not much better. Anyway, the button is fitted now and I left the garage in a much better mood.

I'm helping my friend with her Fulvia tomorrow, so might do the 30+ mile round trip in the Beta as a test run for Saturday.....

After returning from my 300+ mile jaunt to Betameeta the running was still off, with quite a bit of hunting at slow speeds. Another go on the idle mixture screw has properly sorted things now though, with pretty smooth running even through the warm up stage.

I adjusted the screw all the way in then wound it out half a turn at a time. About two turns out I hit a real sweet spot and was then able to drop the idle speed down by a good 400 rpm. The weird thing is that I had done all this a few weeks before and that sweet spot just didn't appear, so Betameeta must have been something of an Italian tune up.

The motorway drive to Auto Italia at Carlton Towers last weekend was through lashing rain with all the electrics on, which the Coupe took in its stride, so that was reassuring too.

Thanks for all the positive comments from those who have seen the car.

The alloys have come back from the refurb company I found in Bradford looking totally transformed! Thanks so much again Tim W  ;D

Now the question of tyres? I'm wanting to keep a degree of that classic skinny 155 look of the stock 1300 Coupe. The wheels came with 175x70x14 that I am currently looking to stick with; Vredstein or Firestone Firehawk offer to keep a classic look at a reasonable price.

The refurb company have done a lovely job with those wheels. Top marks!

Looking great Neil

What a fantastic result. We're not going to recognise the car next time out! I'd look at Camskill Tyres for whichever size you want and do a comparison of performance. I generally look at wet grip first, dry grip then noise and ignore the price unless the performance is identical. Al runs Continentals, Panda Falkens and the Beta will also run Continentals.

Guy