1600 Coupe Restoration.

[HFStuart]

Could be worse - at least the bottom of the A pillars doesn't look too bad.

Odd how they rust so selectively  - on mine the A pillars were cobwebs at the bottom and the strut tops were perforated - but the inner wing top was light surface rust only.

[MattNoVAT]

I can only surmise that its down to poor, unevenly applied or no protection, or possibly some minor surface damage from the manufacturing process that scratched what little protection there may have been on the steel, and then from that moment its kind of doomed and its just a question of time.

Nothing that my body shop man can't sort out.

I'll rip as much as possible back to bare metal and coat it in primer, then start refitting steering rack, ARB, wishbones & suspension.  That shouldn't take long!

A pillars are solid, the bottoms have a bit of surface rust and one bit has been mangled by a poor historic repair

[MattNoVAT]

A bit more progress today with the two replacement wings and the lower valance.  The original valance was dented and rust had got at the three fixing lugs on either side.  Thankfully the car I broke had a near perfect valance so I'm thinking of dropping these off to be sandblasted back to bare metal.

All the brackets are in good condition but I may fabricate the two that brace the lower valance to the subframe as the originals are very poor quality steel.

Wing repeaters are good except for one rubber boot has fatigued so I'll dig out a replacement from my supplies.

Got to take a trip to the dump with all the old steel bits to make more room in the garage.

[MattNoVAT]

Bit of a result today , whilst trawling thru Fleabay I found a new N/S inner wing for a Coupe which is exactly what I need as the one on the 1600 is shot.  Rather than spending hours repairing a rusty version, its money better spent on a new item and the old one can simply be cut out and new one welded straight in.  £150 delivered 

If i do well replacing the two hand brake cables on the wires BMW then I'll do some work on the 1600 as I have the whole day off work.

[MattNoVAT]

Finally, a bit of a milestone day today.

All four of the the inner wheel arches are now fully stripped of original paint and stone chip back to bare metal, treated and given a quick coat of primer.  No more laying upside down getting muck in my eyes. (Yes I have goggles and eye protectors but they hinder me at times)

I also measured up the length of the brake lines in preparation for making up new ones.  The steel lines have perished in areas where exposed to the elements, safest thing all round IMO is to replace with cupro-nickel pipes.  The one pipe I don't need to touch is the main feed into the rear brake bias because this got coated in sealer when the car was assembled, so it's been fully protected from day one and the sealer is still intact. A small bonus but I'll take em where I can.

After the brake pipes have been swapped out I can refit the wishbones, hubs, suspension and brakes.

This leads to more space in the garage :-)

Have been speaking with my bodyshop man - the car should be with him by end of October.  We have agreed that the suspension will all come off and then the chassis will go on the dolly when being worked on.

Might be a Christmas present - you never know 

[MattNoVAT]

Another milestone today, front & rear corners are now rebuilt and back on the car.  Lots of prep work lately while A) I've been mega busy at work, B) Daylight hours are limited now C) I've been nagged into submission/feeling guilty about time spent on my car.


All that remains is to bleed the brakes fully and make sure they are not leaking anywhere where I have changed the brake pipes completely or cut out the rusted sections and spliced in new sections. I'm old school and do it using the two man method so once thats done the rough set of wheels can go back on.

I have to sort out the carb throttle linkage as its been bodged in the past and get her running sweetly.  Then it'll be off to the body shop.... somewhat later than I'd hoped but hey these things never run to schedule.

List of parts seems endless, new steering gaiter, steering bushes, tie rods ends, lower ball joints, wheel bearings, brake pipes, hoses, brass bleed nipples, pads, disks, suspension inserts, front & rear top mounts, ARB, wishbone and rear link arm bushes etc. Everything powder coated or zinc plated.  Now thats what I call a rebuild!     

Overall very pleased with the end result. 

[rossocorsa]

blimey you are miles ahead of me now and  not much hope that I'll make the Beta 40th which doesn't sound exciting anyway, what happened to the cross Europe driving tour? Nice to see your progress, are you expecting the bodywork to take long it looks like you have most of the usual rot spots but not too badly? Getting ready to take the engine/subframe out of mine reckon there's at least 6 months work yet though given that it's normally only a few hours a week

[MattNoVAT]

I'm not treating it as a race!  I just want the car done in time for the 40th anniversary.

I think you'll find that those involved with organising the 40th event have taken into consideration the fact that the current economic is going to seriously impact the attendance rate, should we tour Europe. Plus the exchange rate on the euro is not going to help either.  Unless of course your John D Rockafeller or so wealthy that the current poor state of the economy does affect you? 

I guess its easy to pick fault though rather than be realistic about an event that your obviously not that interested in.

[cheeky monkey]

looks terrific Matt. the calipers are v neat,

ive just had a major result by my standards .. managed to free another old handbrake cable from a rear caliper i had.

[rossocorsa]

I'm not treating it as a race!  I just want the car done in time for the 40th anniversary.

I think you'll find that those involved with organising the 40th event have taken into consideration the fact that the current economic is going to seriously impact the attendance rate, should we tour Europe. Plus the exchange rate on the euro is not going to help either.  Unless of course your John D Rockafeller or so wealthy that the current poor state of the economy does affect you? 

I guess its easy to pick fault though rather than be realistic about an event that your obviously not that interested in.

actually I'm flat broke skint constantly have dilemmas over buying parts for the beta as it will not get finished without the right parts keep playing the 0% cards to keep going. With regard to the Beta 40th thing I'm not surprised that the euro tour idea has not succeeded although I had thought it was meant to be fairly informal and a more formal event in the usual LMC mould may not be cheap either. Excuse me if I appear disinterested but I get too much ear ache about Lancia from the daughter these days 

[HFStuart]

To be fair I don't think it's so much that it hasn't suceeded just that the desicion was made to scale it back a bit to make it more viable. Beside which I like the idea of having it in Norfolk & Suffolk, though I may be a teensy bit biased!

Very impressive Matt - though I wonder how long it'll stay like that? Some of the parts I fitted to mine in the spring are already failing. In particular the NOS bushes and the boots on the track rod ends are cracked and/or split - disapointing after only 1000 mies.

Nice lacework on the bottom of the A pillar BTW!

[rossocorsa]

well i must admit that the Norfolk bit didn't excite me probably because it's a bit of a pain to drive to from here but no doubt it will become more interesting as the plans unveil themselves. Which bushes do you have problems with is it the wishbone bushes as I might have some you could have (I've gone for polybushes)

[MattNoVAT]

I don't use NOS bushes or anything else that will perish or fatigue with age. Pretty much because of the issues you've described, even though they have never been on a car they are still 25+ years old!

I bought new bushes all round from Mark W, I figure that while everything is dismantled and being overhauled I'd be mad not to put new bushes in.

In fact the second set of bushes arrived yesterday, these are for my spare steering rack and rear transverse link arms.

[HFStuart]

I agree with you on the bushes - though the poly ones on the front of my black Spider didn't look to good after a few hundred miles either - but the track rod ends were new from a factor. I wonder how long they'd been sitting around for?

Thankfully I have at least one set of new poly bushes so they can go in when I get the chance. Powder coated spring and front strut fitted to the offside at the weekend - need to do the NS next then the cleaned up hubs with new bearings.

[MattNoVAT]

And now I'm breaking one of my own rules!!

Just found someone in Italy who has NOS series 1 rear ARB bushes, I might have these and take all necessary measurements then have poly versions of the rubber section made up. That's a job for the back burner though as I need the pennies for body shop work and interior retrimming!

[MattNoVAT]

So today has been a MONUMENTALLY GOOD DAY  

I have to use up my holiday entitlement before the end of the year so I took today off and spent half of it working on the Coupe.

After a bit of head scratching and consultation with TonyLanciaBeta, we discovered last Sunday that the dizzy had been installed incorrectly, so as the light had faded I left it until today to sort out.

Within an hour the static timing was set and the car started and ran/sounded "reasonable", then it overheated.

I cleaned the jets and the carb out and also sorted the crappy wiring on the thermostatic fan switch, the switch was new but the cars wiring loom spade terminals had seen better days.  So a bit of fettling and she was running sweetly and cooling herself with the fan cutting in/out as it should.

High on the success of reaching this milestone my Dad popped over at my request and I set bout bleeding the brakes through, lots of pressure behind them now and I only found two unions that were weeping slightly.  So a 180 degree turn of the union nut and then there were no leaks.  

I then scooted off to see my body shop man and collect the front panels from the shot blaster, the wings are now being repaired as the bottom section that joins the sill has suffered, so having these bits fabricated. Plus there is a single tiny perforation by the indicator mounting position.

Will check the brakes again on Saturday morning and if all is well, the old wheels get put back on and I can start to crack on with stripping the interior out and removing the external trim.

Today feels like real proper progress, especially as the car is pencilled in to be in the body shop for December.

It's finally mobile under its own power....Yaaaaay!!!
    

[raz1966]

i think yours will be on the road before mine......

[lanciamad]

Great stuff Matt, the suspension/brakes look great. Has the body shop given you a rough time frame for having it done?

[MattNoVAT]

Looks like it will be going into the body shop for December to be worked on.

Wheels will go on today and I will possibly start removing the interior, once the interior is out I'll start stripping the paintwork down to bare metal.

If I can tidy enough of the garage to get the blue one in as well as the red Coupe then front & rear glass should be the only thing left to remove when it goes in for the bodywork & paint.  I'll drive it out (weather permitting) and strip paint outside, then move it back in.  Alternatively my paint man has said I can do it at his workshop.

 

[MattNoVAT]

Happy days!

Both cars are in the garage