Progress on "Lulu" our lovely HPE!

[VXdeMayo]

Dear All,
here as promised is the pics of the window and door trims that have recently had refurbished at "Smart Cars" of Chard in Somerset. They took a bit longer than we anticipated but Darren did a super job on them, (although he did struggle at first to get the black top coats to sit correctly).
As you know Lancia originally just seemed to paint over the top of the stainless steel trims without much thought for longevity. Hence many now have trims which shed paint quicker than falling leaves in winter!
So we stripped them back to bare, polished the stainless surface, then Darren glass bead blasted the steel to get a good key. This was followed up with an etch primer coat, high build primer in grey, then finally a couple of coats of satin black to finish.
 He did comment that they were a pig to do as the black keep "retreating away" from the edges inspite of the preparation beforehand.
Finally he was happy with the result, but he did say don't let on about being able to do this as I think it cost him a sleepless night or two!
Judge for yourself, but I have just started putting back the parts, and up close I think they look so much better than the .lumpy Hammerite that was pasted on before.
Hope to get them all on before Norwich. (Note: I have no connection to "Smart Carz" of Chard other than as a satisfied customer).
Best,
Chas,
(VXdeMAYO).

[cheeky monkey]

Looks Great Chas .. Look forward to seeing the car at the Anniversary

Graham

[lanciamad]

I'll say it again, lovely attention to detail again! Looking very nice Chas.

[betaveloce]

looks good indeed!

this is also on my to do list for a while now, but I don't seem to get round to it 

[andybeta]

Dear Andybeta,
thanks for your comments regarding the front fog lamps, steering wheel and gear knob.

You are correct that I am trying to retain as much as possible "as original", and the VX as far as I know had provision for - if not came fitted with front fog lights. Certainly both our VX's have the loom manufactured with this in mind, and both had the correct switch in the console. Only one has a pair actually fitted, but that could be due to damage over the passage of time? So the fog lights are to my mind "Original" and as other members have commented on, essential with the poor quality of dipped main beam that Lancia provided! Perhaps someone can confirm this?

The original steering wheel and plastic gear knob are imho the two things that let down the later Beta interior. I know it's down to personal opinion but the wheel is dull, uninspiring and middle aged in look, and the gear "Knob" - well it looks like what it's called, horrid cheap and victim of the accountant's influence! I hope an Abarth wheel taken from an Integrale does not seem too out of place?
Also the additional benifit of a smaller wheel diameter is I can now see the clock for the first time! Super.
best,
Chas.

Sorry if my post appeared rude, but the fog lights really don't do it for me. But it's your car and if you think they are great then that's fine! I think the std wheel and gear knob are fine. Your car seems to be in pretty good condition or you are trying to get it that way, especially with the side stripes which so few later cars have now, I thought maybe you were tyring to get as close to full OE spec as possible?

The interior looks lush.

[VXdeMayo]

Thanks Andy for your comments, and if it will make it any better for you I will search ot some Carrello lamp covers to hide them!
I am very pleased with the interior, and once we sort the gremlin with the running a summer of good fun becons. I am open to opinion on the side stripes. A few people have suggested that they did not come into the country with them on, but Lancar stuck them on to appeal to the "great British public"?? I have two VX's in silver, the donor (1985 C plate) has a less subtle stripe, twin red lines with a black pinstripe between.
I think the stripe on our runner looks better, BUT is a complete pain when it comes to a required partial respray. We have to sort the LH door at some stage which means the stripe needs to be re applied, and then with silver being the pain it is to blend, you might end up with two whole sides being sprayed at the same time! Then the stripe is over £100 just for that. The aggravation  is not worth it at the moment, so we will have to live with for a couple of years.
We did not feel confident of the 600 mile round trip to Norwich, so we ended up in the Alfa instead. At least the air con was welcome!
Best,
Chas,
(VXdeMAYO). 

[jaybee]

Hi Chas,
I know I'm a bit late to this thread but hey.
First off - your car looks great. A credit to the effort you are putting in.
Secondly, I read with great interest about how you successfully restored / replaced all the bumper strips and fettled the interior.
Could you let me know your source for parts these items plus much of your original "to do" list is very similar to mine....... I am particularly looking forward to restoring all the window surrounds too !!
Cheers
JB

[VXdeMayo]

Dear JB,
I had originally bought another 1985 HPE VX which seemed good and was virtually complete. However on closer inspection she was not too great so I have been progressively stripping her of decent parts that are better than on our "new" 1983 car. As for sourcing additional parts, it's Mark at Beatboyz for specialist new rebuilt stuff, and various forum members who have spares for HPE's. Just post your requirements on the forum and help comes a calling so to speak!
One person to mention would be "mattnovat", he is very helpful, and if he has not got it, he knows someone with it in their shed. Or try "milleman", -  mark is also a star when it comes to helping others.
The last of the door trims were being put on today along with a really good electric motor for the RH window. It strange how the RH one always seems to suffer first, wear I suppose.
Best of luck,
Chas,
(VXdeMAYO)

[VXdeMayo]

Dear All,
It's been a while since I posted on this particular thread but it is relevent and again I need some wisdom:
Two questions:
Q1: As you may know from other posts I have had random bouts of hesitataion under light load on the VX engine, only for it to stop and restart again at random intervals. As part of the ongoing investigation I wonder if anybody know what gaskets are used between both sides of the Volumex supercharger? I have not yet got as far as taking the blower actually off but it shows signs of blue silicon sealent squeezed out from around the matting faces. Is this correct or a bodge?
If incorrect, where can I get new replacements?

My mechanic (who has now given up) has been suspecting air getting in and destroying the vacuum etc, so this is one of the next checks.

Q2: On the VX engine with it's auto choke device, how long is the choke supposed to keep the "cold" engine on choke before cutting out and allowing the idle to reduce to 850rpm or so?
I am assuming that choke rpm is circa 1200rpm, and normal idle circa 800-850 rpm.
I start up first time, it idles at 1050rpm, but if I blip the throttle it instantly drops to circa 500rpm. Is this normal? I wonder if the auto choke device is on the blink as well?
Best,
Chas and Anne. (Still  ).

[MattNoVAT]

Chas,

A1 to Q1:  Silicon sealant sounds like a bodge to me, I had the same blue silicon (I think its called Blue Holymer) stuck around the base of my carb/inlet manifold - I took the carb off, cleaned the silicon away and purchased some gasket paper that is petrol resistant and made my own gaskets.  Result = pretty much cured the issue and made the car drivable again. (I later found the proper gaskets in a couple of head sets I had stashed in the garage.) 

A2 to Q2: This bit is actually described in the owners manual under Cold Start(Page 22) and it sounds like you are switching off the auto-choke - so its doing what it is supposed to do because you are telling it to reduce idle speed, by blipping the accelerator peddle.

[lukasdeopalenica]

As far as I know an automatic choke in carburettors work by means of bimetallic elements. It opens when the engine reaches its proper temperature, I guess ca. 80degC. Of course if it works properly. Very often the element is malfunctioning. When I used to have a fiat 131 2.0 panoramasuper, I removed the element, and even though the car run great.

[VXdeMayo]

Dear all,
Took a trip out last weekend when the sun was fine and we were not working on the house for a change. We late entered to a Classic car event at Knightshayes Court overlooking Tiverton in mid Devon. The event was a first timer, and featured classic car line up (of 177 in all), antiques stalls and a small country fair etc, all within the confines of a National Trust house in lovely gardens. For a first time event it was fun and great to see other like minded people with their cars all fettled in the sun. However we were the only Italian car there, and we were put next to......you've guessed it, an MGB. In fact there was loads of the blighters! Resisting the urge to enquire how their "Austin Cambridge Coupe" was, we aligned our moon chairs to avoid the wife of said MGB owner, (who seemed to repeat everything we said to all and sundry!)
Her hubby was fine and ignored her like we, and the day passed off very well. Took a walk around and of all on display there were two cars in particular that took my fancy, first was an imaculate "L plate" Datsun 240Z in the original "Moss Green", that was very well restored, and secondly what I thought was a Reliant Scimiter Estate.
However it turned out to be a Middlebere Scimiter, (which was a kind of last effort at glamming up an old design). It had the Ford 2.9 injected lump in it, along with uprated suspension, different alloys, subtle body detailing changes and a more plush interior. This thing was very mint, and talking to the owner, he told me that after the rights had passed to Middlebere for production, they planned to produce only 250 examples of this "psudo exotic". They only ended up making .....77! The reason was they were charging £24,500 for this car in 1987!
No wonder I haven't seen one before.
Anyway, here are a couple of pics of "Lulu" on a day out. (And yes she did hiccup just before halfway, but cleared herself soon after the trip home started).
Life would not be the same without something to fret about, would it?
Best,
Chas and Anne,

[Neil-yaj396]

Looking good Chas. Are you going to the LMC weekend and entering the concours?

Strange about your running fault, seems too random for ignition, unless there is some sort of earthing or component issue?

[VXdeMayo]

Dear all,
some progress, no....., not on the electrical maladie / failure, but the suspension renovation has started!
For the past three days when I could, I have stripped, wire wheeled and linished the worst of the offending rust / dirt / underseal off our donor HPE suspension. Now I have just come back from taking over two hundred nuts, bolts and other gubbins to the platers for Zinc passivation. Next week will see the springs, strut tops, and other suspension links & brackets go to the powder coaters for some new matt black paint. (This will make a nice change from the suspension resembling something you trip over on a beach after a storm has just washed up some rusty old junk)!
New rubbers have been bought, (thanks Mark), and the shocks are next to get a good coat of looking at.

If the electrical issue isn't sorted, "Lulu" will at least make a nice static exhibit.
(Mummm, maybe a plinth in the front garden methinks???)
Post some pics soon when the shiny stuff come back.
Best,
Chas and Anne. (still).

[VXdeMayo]

Dear all,
Latest progress on the HPE is:
Main suspension parts have gone off to be shotblasted and re powdercoated etc. Took some time to get off the worst of the "gunk" off with a wire wheel and elbow grease, and it made a dramatic improvement. Both these parts and the myriad of nuts and bolts being plated will hopefully be back next week! If I can source a new or low milage pair of rear HPE shocks or inserts then it will systems go on the rebuild.
Oh and I have had a bit of luck with the brake calipers. The were in horrid condition and 4 of the 6 nipples were frozen, so a couple of weeks ago after many fruitless attempts to free them using heat and WD40 etc, I put them in the freezer. (Wrapped up of course). Once in a while I took them out for another attempt, but to no avail. So I then returned them to said freezer.
Now after two weeks packed around the peas they were cold. I mean so cold they almost "smoked" with frost. Not wishing to put up with comments about "brake caliper casserole tonight dear?" I withdrew them once more and clamped them up in the vice . Then put a long series 8mm socket around them (more of a heat sink effect), then sheilded that with another socket over the top i set to work with a blow torch.
Now I only heated for a short while the alloy around the nipple ( to avoid heat transfer), and then quickly removed the sockets and put a smallet 8mm and tee bar in place and tugged....
Nothing.
Still frozen.
So.. gathering what little courage I had and fortified by the thought of sarcastic comments "about chioce of frozen food", I chanced a longer tee bar...
Crack. First one free. I repeated the process using the extreeme heat difference to free all six!
Relieved. But not as much as my wife!
Happy days.
Not that I will need any brakes on a static exhibit!

Best,
Chas and Anne.

[Dr Acula]

Remember seeing in this years Demon Tweaks catalogue a system whereby you replace the nipple with this other one which has on the end somekind of non return valve,so making bleeding easier,and it is that which is opened/closed so less chance of damaging the caliper. Expensive but I think worth it in the long run compared to cost of a new caliper!
I'll look what page it is on when I get home tonight. 

[VXdeMayo]

Latest from deepest Somerset:
Am picking shotblasted / powder coated suspension parts up tommorow, (great). Picking loads of plated suspension nuts and bolts up on tuesday next, (also great). However, to the brakes:
On giving them a thorough clean and inspection I attempted to blow the pistons out with compressed air. Good news is they move fine and the surfaces are not scored, (also fine), BUT, how do you get them out to clean and replace the inner seals etc. At present they hit the steel carrier just before being able to be extracted!
Do you somehow remove the steel carrier from the alloy piston chamber before removing said piston?
If so then the steel carriers can go of to be plated as well!
After 29 years mated together they might be a bit stuck!
Thoughts please from you wise men out there.

(BTW: I have nice new stainless nipples/rubber caps, and have sourced a decent set of sliders that are off to the platers as well).

Best,
Chas and Anne.

[WestonE]

Chas

It will be well hidden after years of use but there is a pin in the steel section that has to be depressed and then in theory you can press the steel slider section off the alloy section. Think heat freeze routine steel to alloy interface corrosion. I hope this helps

Eric

[VXdeMayo]

Dear Eric,
when you say "depressed" That says to me that it is kind of sprung loaded to return when you release? Or is it a pin that you just belt with a big hammer on a suitably sized punch?
(Thus if it stays depressed how does the steel carrier and alloy piston chamber keep mated once it is re commisioned)?
Or am I overthinking this?
Best,
Chas.

[millieman]

Hi chas there is a roll pin holding carrage to caliper