1600 Coupe Restoration.

[MattNoVAT]

Sadly,not as much progress as I'd hoped.

Ended up fixing two bikes for my daughter, servicing and fixing the aircon on my mates Seat Ibiza, attending a finance meeting for work, finding the parts to fix a Jeep Cherokee that belongs to my buddy in France and then I get to work on my car!

N/S is fully stripped - O/S will be done Saturday and then just got to pop the old wishbone bushes out and drop everything off for blasting & plating.

No seized nuts or bolts - all came off very easily...... thankfully!

[MattNoVAT]

I gave up trying to get the lock rings out of the hubs myself, after about three hours and even made my own lock ring removal tool .  I was bouncing up and down on the end of my 2.5 foot breaker bar having heated up the lock ring up but when the whole bench moved about a foot I thought...... I'm gonna need some bigger tools!

I gave the hubs to my engineer who phoned me today (His first words were to rude to repeat on here) then to ask me if my ears were burning, he was sweating cobs, owed the swear box a few pounds, had the gas axe and two people on the end of a breaker bar and scaffold pole - 2 hours later the rings admitted defeat and gave up.  Built to last eh!!

Front shock, springs, wishbones all ready to be blasted & powder coated, the hubs will get painted and all the bits and bobs are being plated.  Pretty much all new parts (tie rods, lower ball joints, wheel bearings, lock rings etc) are present & ready for assembly but am running out of time again. Just a Hub/Flange to find.

Will probably do the cam belt and water pump when I get back and I have the wings off as that will make access a little easier.

Only one outer CV boot to change so it could be worse!

[HFStuart]

I gave the hubs to my engineer who phoned me today (His first words were to rude to repeat on here) then to ask me if my ears were burning, he was sweating cobs, owed the swear box a few pounds, had the gas axe and two people on the end of a breaker bar and scaffold pole - 2 hours later the rings admitted defeat and gave up.  Built to last eh!!

I'm afraid to say I drilled and split mine our after I'd scrounged a full set of new ones. Everybody else makes do witha big circlip WTF were Lancia thinking when they came up with this design? It's not like wheel bearings have a habit of falling out, quite the opposite in fact.

[WestonE]

Chaps

I get away with Plusgas the OE lockring tool and a 650NM Milwarkee Impact gun!! I have given up trying breaker bars and scaffold poles.

Eric

[rossocorsa]

 Everybody else makes do witha big circlip WTF were Lancia thinking when they came up with this design? It's not like wheel bearings have a habit of falling out, quite the opposite in fact.

It's all part of the flavour of a proper Lancia there was still a fair slice of over engineering on a Beta but isn't that part of the appeal?

[MattNoVAT]

To get over the 9 hours of driving on Saturday getting back from fishing in France ( and stripping heads x 4 from a jeep Cherokee 2.5 TDi, changing all the core plugs and rebuilding the top end ) I did a few bits and bobs on the S1 today.  

Rebuilt the steering rack, new bushes, new gaiter and new tie rods.  Everything is plated and looking lovely the only change I've made is to use new nyloc nuts on the tie rod adjuster clamps.

Also painted the front hubs, pressed in the new front wheel bearings and fitted one new lock ring, I have to pick the other up from a friend of mine who also has a new hub from an Integrale for me.  Won't be long now and it'll all start going back together

Ahhhh it's good to be home

Will probably take a day off work to take advantage of the good weather and have a full day at it.

[MattNoVAT]

Another good day today.

I had the cam belt off, changed the water pump for a new one (precautionary), new cam belt tensioner bearing fitted, new cam belt, new fuel lines, fuel filter and hose clamps.  Took the front ARB out and cleaned that up and gave it a coat of paint.  Also changed the O/S outer CV joint gaiter.  Cleaned everywhere I could get at and tidied up some of the wiring.

Next job is to have the steering rack out and refit the rebuilt one I have ready.  Will have to start thinking about taking the front bumper and wings off soon.

Found the erratic choke issue is due to the choke being loose on the carb and it has a bit of gardening wire holding the cable in place!  So that'll have to be sorted out.

Took the red coupe out today to fill her up with fuel, called in on Neils Daikin who lives about 1 mile from me and found he has 9 Betas and a Gamma, plus more Betas in storage!

[MattNoVAT]

Progress has been slow the past ten days or so, mainly because my work has gone ballistic following recent global economic events.  I missed what looked to be a fantastic day at BetaMeeta '11 - Gutted    ( I was sat in my office at home between 8am and 23:00 and I thought about what I was missing many many times)

The car has not been touched since the last update, but everything is back from the powder coaters and looks great, the wishbones have had the lower ball joints fitted, the front suspension have been re-assembled with new top mounts and inserts.  The inserts are a modified alternative of similar bump & rebound performance, to the original Beta Coupes that Mark W has been working on and I'm testing.

After the inserts are modified they are a straight fit but the top cup and the lock tab (silver bits) need to drilled/filed out to remove the flat edge as the modified units do not have a flat orientation face on the threaded section. Once this is done everything looks original.

[MattNoVAT]

More bits ready to go one once the subframe has been painted with Hammerite (I've just cleaned surface rust off and treated it)  and the old steering rack is removed, then things should move pretty quickly.

[Duncan23]

It must be pleasing that even when you don't get anything done, all the newly cleaned up bits show up.
Are you selling your Hawk (I think I saw it on pistonheads)? Shame you can't finish it - shows how much this Beta means to you to keepit and sell the Hawk!
Cheers
Duncan

[MattNoVAT]

Yes, I've sold my Hawk. (in 3  days) I've built one already and have to be realistic over the projects I have. It's a shame but Betas are my real passion.

The past ten days have been handy as all parts are now here and I'm not waiting impatiently for them to arrive.

[Neil-yaj396]

Did you use new springs?

[MattNoVAT]

No, they are the originals. I gave them to my engineer friend who tested the spring compression & he advised they are OK, then I had them powder blasted & powder coated.

I'm trying to keep the car as original as possible.

[MattNoVAT]

The old steering rack is out, the damper has been cleaned and fitted to the refurbished rack.

I need to do a bit of cleaning while the rack is out of the way and theres room behind the engine.  The measure up and adjust the track rods to get it sort of close and then the rack can go back in.

Luckily it all came out without issue and just minutes before the rain started coming down.

[MattNoVAT]

No Beta work this weekend, spent all day Saturday driving to Nottingham to deliver my now sold Hawk Stratos kit.

Now (8am Sunday) heading off to Bristol to hopefully buy a replacement for my daily driver.

Racking up the miles this weekend but it will leave Bank Holiday w/e free for family and Beta related activities.

[MattNoVAT]

Before I set about doing my Beta work today I have to do a few hours "weekend work" for the company, after that I have a clear day on the Beta.

This past week I've had my new daily drivers alloy wheels in being refurbished before I start using the car, so I took the opportunity to do a deal  and get the spare set of alloys (Thanks to HFStuart) for the Beta refurbished in the original colour at the same time.  The early FPS alloys were a flat grey colour as opposed to silver so I took an original along so they could match the colour as close as possible.

The guys I use did a great job of matching the colour, which was perfect before the flat lacquer went on, once that went on it did make the colour just a little darker - but overall I'm very happy with the end result. OK it cost £15 extra per wheel because it was non standard colour but it was worth it IMO.

The middle wheel in the picture is an untouched original FPS alloy from the set thats on the car to allow it to be moved around, the refurbished set will go on after the respray.

It's dead handy having a Renault Espace to put 10 x alloy wheels with tyres in!  

[cheeky monkey]

Very nice Matt.
these alloys are still my fav design ever.
Ive just had a spare set refurbed too and well pleased with result. i dont have tyres on them. have you used Kumho tyres before?

cheers
graham

[MattNoVAT]

No, this is first time out for the Khumo tyres for me.  I went for these as I did a combined deal on the Khumo tyres for the Beemer and it ended up with me buying 9 tyres in total.  The 5 x 175/70/14 which were for the Lancia costs me less than the price of two tyres for the B.M! (But the B.M.'s tyres are big and fat )

The Khumo's got good performance reviews in both wet/dry conditions for the price range and even the tread pattern is kinda old school, so I'm happy to give them a try.

[MattNoVAT]

Good news, bad news and bad weather today...

Good news is that the headlights, grille, lower valance and wings are off the car.  The wings are going in the bin as they are rotten in several places.

The bad news was that the N/S has more rot than I was expecting, but on the upside the O/S has only the one patch that I already knew about.  The N/S has seen some fibreglass repair at some point which has now been removed ready for proper welding repair.

I've had to stop because the weather is terrible and I'm now at the point of needing to use power tools.

[MattNoVAT]

The dreaded tin-worm