My 1.6 coupe restoration (formerly back in red + rust)

[peteracs]

Hi Chris/Guy

100% polished stainless for all trim on a Beta. (Thankfully!).

I bought a relatively inexpensive stainless polishing kit comprising of three wheels and three grades of ‘polish’ ie paste and a fixing for drill to polish my Spider parts which worked pretty well, though patience is required to get a perfect finish (I did not do that well on the bumper, but other parts came up much better).

If you do not have the plastic bracket spare, I most certainly do.

Peter

[chrisc]

Plastic bracket is 100% missing after a thorough sift. Would appreciate it if you can spare it! I had enough of a broom handle for a bonnet stay in my jaguar xjs days..

Under the bonnet I have some work to do.. lots of oil escaping from various places, and a fuel filter with rather a lot of sediment in it.

[chrisc]

Front bumper back on. Much happier with this, with the reduced dents, polishing and straightened bumper bracket


On to the back bumper - another nasty dent

And the overall view


50/50 during polishing for a bit of a before and after - again, same 'technique' if you could call it that for reducing the dents


And back on the car after



Of course nothing is ever simple - with the later filler cap / rear quarter and the rust that was there when I bought the car, I knew it'd had a prang there at some point, most of it has been repaired well enough, but the right bumper bracket is slightly stoved in, so needed spacing out slightly to get the alignment right on it. The last person to go here had used an assortment of plumbing fittings to secure the bumper oddly.. fortunately one of the things I am doing where I can on the car is fitting new hardware, so they've gone in the bin. Also, one of the number plate lights is missing its base and bulb holder.. one more for the shopping list.

None of this is to a concours standard of course, but I think in total to remove, straighten, polish and refit both bumpers, including fixing the front bumper bracket and replacing the indicators it's probably taken me only about 4/5 hours, which for that amount of time taken is a mega result.

Oh, and new number plate on at the front - if I can't have pressed steel black + silver lettering, I'll at least have the raised 4d type. Missed the stretch goal of getting the back one done. Too new a lancia logo but couldn't find one with the 80s logo I used on my old car.

Car is rather sandy from the recent hot weather + rain, but washing it had to be given a miss after the mother-in-law threatened to return to her old ways of washing her car with fairly liquid and a brillo pad unless I showed her how to do it properly, so that took up some time.

[peteracs]

Hi Chris

I can probably help with the rear bumper light holder as just brought back a couple from France last night, will PM you later today.

Car is looking really good, like your attention to detail.

Peter

[chrisc]

Another half day of tinkering today

Starting off with what I didn't manage yesterday.. numberplate. It was at about this point I realised why the original was a larger than normal size, with the extra holes in the rear panel exposed. Oddly they look factory! Oh well, I'll decide whether or not to get another bigger plate or live with it



With that done it was time to tackle the dubious wiring repairs that had worried me since I noticed them.

Right hand rear loom removed, and it was apparent that all the scotlocks added in to the loom went to the mysterious cable cluster to nowhere. So, calling up my inner bomb disposal expert, I took a deep breath and started snipping and hoped it didn't end badly. Here we are with the excess pointless chopped off


With that done, the task now looked a bit simpler.

Before


After


Whilst I didn't manage to take a photo, I then taped up the loom, finding one actually damaged wire which I repaired the same way as the above, using Eric's suggestion of proper ratcheting pliers and connectors.

Mercifully the left hand side loom is much simpler and only had one 'scotchlok to nowhere' that was easily remedied


Along the way with these I also had great fun (not) removing overspray from connectors + wires.

I still have several loose wires, but they are now less mysterious. Both side looms have connectors with nothing to connect to. The heated rear window and the light between the rear seats should account for a few of these, but there's still some that are just flat out no idea what for.

Next up I need to spend some proper time under the bonnet, but for that I need the bonnet to prop open! still looking for that other prop mount.

[SanRemo78]

My restoration car also has those square holes in the rear panel. I assumed that they were for mounting number plates... I'll be welding them up.

I had a look through a few boxes yesterday but haven't found the bonnet prop part yet. I will have another look today, I was sure I had one - it'll be in the last place I look.... I'll let you know if it turns up.

Guy

[SanRemo78]

Not in a box. In a bag on the workbench with other odd fixings…. If these are what you need drop me a PM with your address and I’ll pop them in the post later.
Guy

[peteracs]

Nice one Guy, saves me now looking…….

Peter

[SanRemo78]

In the post now to Chris - and I've just noticed the plea for a number plate light base.... Not sure if I've got a spare one of those. I'll check the garage later tonight/tomorrow....

Guy

[SanRemo78]

Found one. Doubt it’ll survive disassembly let alone Royal Mail. Can post if you’re desperate!
Guy

[peteracs]

Hi Guy

I have one with one good and one broken plastic clip, rather than the metal clips which I am including in a package to Chris. Yours looks to have two complete clips albeit rusty ones, so he may make use of it.

Peter

[chrisc]

In today's episode of amateur tinkering...

Brackets between the front valance and the crossmember were a rusty twisted mess, so I got rid of them and broke out the cereal box card template to make new ones.

Naturally, because I don't do this very often I couldn't remember what a 'normal' thickness bit of steel for this would be.. so after marking up the cuts to make on the sheet of repair steel, I applied my vintage tin snips and discovered that 1.5mm was probably a bit thick

Hacksaw did the job instead, and with the aid of my sheet metal folder vice, I now have some brackets, and as they are invisible under the car I borrowed a painting technique from 1980s ford factories of just dip the whole thing in hammerite and if it ends up drippy - hey ho, it's hidden anyway.



Tada! two drippy brackets.

Bonnet stay mounts arrived, thankyou

[SanRemo78]

I need to look at the state of the supports on the Coupe - last time I did they looked so bent and twisted I thought they we accident damaged. Maybe not so much now I've seen the remade ones....

Next time we see a picture I hope it's with the bonnet prop fitted! Glad the bits arrived Chris!

Guy

[chrisc]

No pics today but seeking the wisdom of the forum.

After visiting mark's on Saturday, my body did it's usual affair of going "time off work? Immune system, take a break", and Sunday/Monday I felt positively awful with a decent fever. Today I'm somewhat on the mend but it's limited progress on the beta.

I'll get the question out of the way early. Bonnet prop mounts - the captive fixing for this has given up on one side and hidden itself in that box section. Given its a screw rather than a bolt I'm assuming it must be a glorified trim plug/ rawl plug. Any ideas for a suitable replacement?

And for the infinite detail on tiny jobs
Number plate lights both now have 2 tangs. Superb, the one I got at mark's had metal tangs so they must have upgraded them at some point before the ie/vx style.

Indicator bases - proper side indicator bases are now on the car rather than my home brew attempts, and they fit perfectly.

Mirrors - now up to two mirrors on the car

Carpet - better (not perfect but a significant improvement) bought from mark hoovered and heel pads scrubbed clean. Want to get the rug doctor on it this week before it goes in

Steering wheel off, had to destroy the horn push unfortunately, 2 of the screws were too cheesed to undo

Old indicator stalks off and a quick test of how viable careful Dremel and paint is to tidy the stalks up on them. Doable but go carefully.

Sound deadening arrived this afternoon.

Oh, and I replaced the broken passenger side door pull.. that was easy, now let's attach the rod to the mechanism..err where the rod??? Another part MIA during the restoration

[SanRemo78]

Is the rod handed Chris? If not I'll have a spare when I strip a door down tomorrow afternoon, assuming I'm capable of anything in this heat and post dental visit.....

Could get it in the post Thursday morning?

Cheers
Guy

[chrisc]

Sorry Guy, haven't looked. Thoroughly bendy item, I suspect it's handed as it tucks inboard from the window but I need to confirm.

Still laid up, yesterday was a write off but today I managed a small task

I'd bought some column switchgear, 2 sets in fact, and for the better of the two I decided to try tidying up the stalks from the usual rusty state.

Keeping them complete I used a Dremel with a sanding band to do most of the work, very brief follow up with a bit of coarse wire pad. The last 5mm at each end of the stalks I couldn't get at with the Dremel and didn't want to risk damaging the plastic so they weren't as tidy. Wasn't after a hundred percent job though so left it at that, wipe down, prep and rattle can. Normally I'm very impatient at painting and go too thick but this time I managed to be patient enough to only end up with one small run.




Very pleased with the result it has to be said, much better than I was expecting.

[SanRemo78]

Stripped down the door - no rods in there at all - Sorry Chris! I was convinced the door I got from Drew had handles on it. I might have a chance to see if any of the spares I got from Kevin included the rods but that might not be until Saturday or Sunday.

Guy

[chrisc]

Friday comes around and whilst still not well, determined to get something done today.

Bonnet stay and mount on. To resolve the missing captive nut issue I deployed these from eBay, which worked a treat



Mount and stay on. I put the mount on upside down initially to try and get my mistakes of the day done early.


This yields us our first proper look of the engine bay as a forum. Incomplete, random nuts and bolts lying around, bizarre routing. Just what you want!



With my newfound access I take a look at the fuel filter, which had looked quite sediment-y from below the car.

Last time I ran the engine and tried to move the car it was struggling like it wasn't getting fuel. I think we can say that mystery is solved! 2015 dated, rusty and full of crud. Amongst the work paid for was stripping, cleaning and reassembling the carb, quite what the value of doing that and not doing a £2 fuel filter was I don't know. Simplest answer is that the carb wasn't stripped.

Mulling that over I went to the back of the car and tried out fitting some of the newly purchased dodo mat. Simply couldn't be easier to use. Lots more to do, I stopped after doing the main boot area


Next up was refitting the refurbed column switchgear, which gave me an opportunity to see what the replacement steering wheel and boss will look like. Nice!


From the side a bit of a gap to the column shroud, suspect this boss is meant for a fulvia or something. The original steering wheel has a milled out area to allow it to slide on further. Still, I can live with it, still need to test what the drive is like with the reduced reach to the wheel.



Lots more to do. Considering I'm still rough it's frustrating seeing how much I could have got done with a decent week of wellness


Last job of the day was refitting the passenger c pillar trim where it'd been repaired but not had the hole for one of the fixings redrilled. Bit of masking tape, trial fit to leave a witness mark on the tape, then deploy my newly purchased DeWalt drill, stepping up all the way from pilot 1.5mm hills to 4mm in the end. I definitely didn't try and fail to fit the trim at 3.5mm, causing me to have to dig out my trim removal tools.

[SanRemo78]

I know where there's a spare door handle pull rod! I'll get it tomorrow/Sunday and post Monday. Do you still need a number plate light or is that sorted now?

Guy

[chrisc]

I know where there's a spare door handle pull rod! I'll get it tomorrow/Sunday and post Monday. Do you still need a number plate light or is that sorted now?

Guy

Sorted, picked up one at mark's with both the tangs to secure it in the bumper present and correct