New member and new 1980 1.6 Coupe project HEXHAM

[scooters29]

'afternoon,

about 18 months ago I saw to my horror a rather nice but stripped 1980 Beta Coupe on its way to the scrap yard on the back of a friend's truck. I immediately asked him to do a U turn and deposit the said Beta in my yard.

For the last 18 months the car has sat in storage but, we are moving so last month I got round to trying to decide what to do with it. I had a really good look at the vehicle which has had its rear seat, carpets, bonnet, boot, grille and lights all removed. Apart from a small amount of welding round the offside rear turret and boot floor the body is in tidy shape. I have all the bits having contacted previous owner and just need to collect the rear seats. to complete. The car has under 30,000 on the clock and is a 1.6 coupe in 'poo brown', the paint is in good condition. From what I understand of the history it was purchased by a lady advocate in Edinburgh from new and was used very lightly by her for about 20 odd years spending a pampered life in a garage. It was then taken on by a well known Edinburgh Lancia enthusiast who ran it until 2006 before taking it off the road for rennovation - it was sent to one of his contacts in the north and, as is often the case, other projects take priority and when the day came for his friend to move house, there was nowhere for the car to go so the god bits were removed and the car loaded on a scrap wagon whence I saw it.

My options are - sell it how it is to someone who is looking for a relatively straightforward project or do t up myself.

Now, I have a bit of a collection of priceless classics and the todo list has just reached epic length since my 1985 Citroen CX Gti lunched its engine last month.

OK - Betas are not the most straightforward cars in the world but they are much more straightforward than a Citroen CX so my plan is to start on the Beta, the pressing requirement to get the Citroen work underway before the winter means I might actually have some motivation to get the Beta on the road.

My collection at the moment is:
1985 Jaguar XJ6 Sovereign
1985 Citroen CX Gti
1990 Volvo 850 T5
1990 BMW 325 Baur TC2
1980 Lancia Beta Coupe
1996 Citroen XM tdi Auto

at the moment the Jag and the 850 are on the road, the XM is the daily winter driver the BMW is just about on the road and the CX and Lancia....well not going anywhere soon!

Given that most of the cars listed have large engines/drink petrol. I'm coming to the conclusion that I need to:

- sell the Jag, the 850 and the Baur
- repair the CX
-restore the Beta
Keep the XM as a daily and the CX and Beta as toys

This strikes me as a method of keeping SWMBO off my back whilst cutting down the fleet and as an engine for the CX is likely to cost me 3000EU then it gives me some cash towards the projects.

Now the todolist on the Lancia-
-weld up, paint and protect the dodgey bits
-source fit and paint a new front valance (the original one is bent as it was used to load the car onto the flatbed grrr)
-top end rebuild
-coolant system flush
-clutch needs work
- suspension bushes and brakes need work as does steering
- interior refitted
- bonnet and boot refitted

and a wash and an MOT...

Are there any reliable breakers/parts places I can source some bits from?
Whilst the Hayes manual isn't bad it's not that detailed and I have no experience of owing/working on Lancias so any assistance like photos where bits go and how to fit them together would be hugely appreciated.

What do you think? worth a go? I'm going to get some half decent photos up asap and your experience opinions would be very welcome!

cheers all

[peteracs]

Hi

Welcome to the forum, probably the best place around, certainly for getting Beta info in UK.

Your parts sources are in no particular order, Betaboyz, folk on the forum and Ebay (here and in EU). Watchout on Ebay for folk who do not really know what they are selling and avoid if poss any Chinese items such as bearings (several poor experiences have been reported). You can also look abroad on leboncoin.fr and there is an Italian one which escapes me at this moment as well.

As to info, get a copy of the Haynes book, usually around £5 on Ebay, but bear in mind mainly good for early cars, so you have to read between the lines of later ones. it is known on here as the Haynes book of lies to some, but I find it useful sometimes....

There are the parts books out there, in paper version expensive, but you can order a CD scan from here

http://www.viva-lancia.com/specials/cd/beta-cd.php

Not sure which version that covers on the S2, you may wish to ask if it was the pre facelift or facelift version the books cover.

I think for your car you should not have too many issues getting parts, the f/l one is far more common, but the 1600 is not so common in the UK.

We do of course require pictures of the car......!!

All the best

Peter

[rossocorsa]

The s2fl was covered initially by parts book but that was superseded by microfiche, the book that I have doesn't appear to have been updated after a certain time presumably once microfiche came in around 79 or 80. I can answer any minor parts queries however it is really worth getting hold of a book as they are really useful in working out how stuff is supposed to be assembled.

[peteracs]

The Italian one I was trying think of was subito.it

Peter

[smithymc]

Nothing wrong with brown Betas.

Bear with the Haynes as a starting point but it does seem to understate the difficulty of some jobs when you are working with everything insitu.

Can recommend all of the parts sites and key thing is it sounds like you have the interior / trim.

Good luck and ask away on here for advice- invaluable I find.

Mark