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Jan 24, 2019 13:32:14 GMT
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Hi everyone.
My other thread about my Dedra Turbo seemed to be popular, so I thought I would start a thread on one of my other cars, and probably my biggest project to do. A 1985 Lancia Beta Volumex.
My uncle bought her in 1996 from HBC salvage auctions. She had had a minor rear end shunt, and wasn't deemed worthy at the time of repairing so was written off. My uncle parked her in the garage with a couple of repair panels, and there she sat... and sat... and sat some more. My uncle would go and turn her over periodically to keep her 'juices flowing' but that was about all the attention she received.
Unfortunately we lost my uncle early 2017. Thus we was presented another problem. We knew that this Lancia, and another car of his - a Fiat Strada 105TC - (we still haven't located this) were in local garages. One was in an ex girlfriends of his garage, and the other was in a council garage (we think). All these garages were in the same block however. This is quite a run down area, and when we went to have a look around with a bunch of keys of our unles for any signs most of the garages were accessible, either by just being open entirely, or by being pretty derelict. I was half expecting the police to turn up and ask us our business snooping around as we were, and this area was well overlooked by flats. I am not sure if this is because we would make excellent undercover spies, or it may just be a reflection of the area. We did not find either car though, and after a while gave up hope of ever finding them.
Early 2018 my father gets a call from my cousin, a friend of my uncles ex gf had opened their garage for the first time in years (they had to cut off the padlock which my uncle must have put on on his own accord) and was quite surprised to find an old car staring back at them. They suspected they knew whose it was, and set about contacting us to ask if we wanted it, and could we please move it. |
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Jan 24, 2019 13:34:26 GMT
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Jan 24, 2019 13:41:14 GMT
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Jan 24, 2019 13:46:23 GMT
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A quick look over the engine bay, and she looked like she needed a good clean up. However the belts, and fluids were actually pretty good. We put some fresh fuel in, put a battery on and turned her over. She was turning over and over strongly, but you could hear the fuel pump was not kicking in. we tried a different approach removing the fuel pipe into the carb, and putting a direct feed from a jerry can held above so it was gravity fed. The car fired straight into life and sounded healthy. Not long after she started the fuel pump kicked in, and petrol was coming through the pipe we had removed. we switched the car off, replaced the fuel pipe and turned over... nothing, the fuel pump would not come on again. We tried this method again and the same thing happened. I swapped the relay, in case this was the issue but that didn't solve it. At the moment I am a little stumped with this. When the weather improves, I fear it may e a case of testing and going through bundles of wires for continuity   |
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Last Edit: Jan 24, 2019 14:01:58 GMT by osprey90
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Jan 24, 2019 14:38:10 GMT
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That is lovely. So glad it's being saved.
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96 E320 W210 Wafter - on 18" split Mono's - Sold :-(
10 Kia Ceed Sportwagon - Our new daily
03 Import Forester STi - Sold
98 W140 CL500 AMG - Brutal weekend bruiser! Sold :-(
99 E240 S210 Barge - Now sold
02 Accord 2.0SE - wife's old daily - gone in PX
88 P100 2.9efi Custom - Sold
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adi
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,426
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Jan 24, 2019 15:01:39 GMT
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What a story. Love those recaros, shame the fabric has stripped.
I really hope you find the strada too
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Jan 24, 2019 15:27:36 GMT
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Thanks SmokeEm, We have had a few offers for it just for the engine and/or supercharger, and was pretty open about scrapping the rest which I thought would be a huge shame. She will be saved, but I need to finish my Delta first, so am just collecting parts for her at the moment. Thanks Adi, I know it is a shame. I think I may struggle to find replacement cloth for this, but I keep hoping some pops up on eBay at some point. I would love to find the Strada, but I think it may have been gone a while. a year before my uncle died he told me someone applied for the V5 for it, but he had wrote back telling them the car was still his. He told me he went to check on the car and it was still there, but I don't know if this is true. I am guessing someone opened the garage up and found it, and just helped themselves. I am betting it is all over eBay in parts, or someone is restoring it, and has cloned it. I keep hoping though  To finish off this story to date, last summer I transported the car up to mine, and put her in a garage. She is now sat on carpet (the pictures below are a little out of date) and is under a weatherproof cover too. Over this year, I will be collecting bits and bobs for her, and may get little bits done which I will update on here. However the work won't start properly for a little while.       |
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tdk
Part of things
Posts: 958 
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Jan 24, 2019 15:54:21 GMT
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I really, really love these. But can I have a 'but'... this thing looks way beyond repair to me. I hate rust. I wish you every success in getting it back on the road! |
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Jan 24, 2019 18:09:29 GMT
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its pretty ripe but they were like that at 2 or 3 years old back in the day. wasn't it the beta that lancia had to buy back from customers as they disintegrated so rapidly? if panels are available , or time spent fabbing them , it doesn't look beyond saving and i would have thought it well worth doing. couldn't tell you the last time i saw one on the road and would love to think this one will live again.
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'80 s1 924 turbo..hibernating
'80 golf gli cabriolet...doing impression of a skip
'97 pug 106 commuter...continuing cheapness making me smile!
firm believer in the k.i.s.s and f.i.s.h principles.
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Jan 24, 2019 20:25:35 GMT
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One of the great tragedies of the car industry was the way that Lancia committed commercial suicide with their terrible build quality. I mean they were great looking cars and probably drove well but by the mid 80s the name was just a joke in Britain. I'm actually pleased to see how much of this one has survived. Good luck with the restoration.
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Jan 24, 2019 22:23:42 GMT
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Aaaah the Beta Coupe - an achingly pretty car! Looking forward to seeing the updates  |
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79cord
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,607
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I'd certainly argue the rusty reputation of these was blown out of all proportion with my '75 coupés better than many cars of the era, and tight consistent door gaps showed they weren't thrown together (despite the dash design). Lancia had recognised a possible design problem (rear of frt subframe) on early examples, exacerbated by rust that was soon revised for '76. By '84 they'd even abandoned bonded windows & hidden frt panel bolts in fear of rust, though don't suppose the new frt air-dam & foam rear spoiler helped.
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Last Edit: Jan 25, 2019 9:51:40 GMT by 79cord
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Nice what a story and lucky to get it back. It would be nice to find the 105tc as well
Bookmarked
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I sincerely hope it's not the case with your car but before making any further plans for the car I would put it up in the air and inspect all the suspension & subframe mounting points with the chassis - these are very prone to producing thin air & brown powder where there should be structural mounting points - in the early 80's I witnessed two of these that were both less than 5 years old sent for scrap because they were so structurally unsafe & uneconomical to repair. In the day It was a well known fact that even the dodgiest of car sales traders would refuse the offer of one of these for sale or in a part exchange deal such was the cars reputation for rust.
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Last Edit: Jan 25, 2019 8:44:42 GMT by Deleted
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mirafioriman
Posted a lot
My next project.......
Posts: 1,361
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Feb 21, 2020 21:49:12 GMT
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Great that you are planning to restore this. It's a rare model now especially as it's a coupe and a Volumex. I don't own one but I love the design especially that rear seating area! Good luck with the restoration!
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Feb 21, 2020 22:34:25 GMT
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I do like that. Keep having urges for a Lancia or an Alfa, not many up here though. Interested to see how you get on with it.
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XL391
Part of things
Posts: 160
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Feb 24, 2020 19:22:26 GMT
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Wow! What a beauty this is! Please make sure this sees the road again, it’s all fixable.
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MiataMark
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,960
Club RR Member Number: 29
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1985 Lancia Beta VolumexMiataMark
@garra
Club Retro Rides Member 29
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Feb 24, 2020 22:11:04 GMT
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I always fancied one of these in the day, even test drove a secondhand one. That's a Wiltshire (Swindon area) car as well.
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1990 Mazda MX-52012 BMW 118i (170bhp) - white appliance 2011 Land Rover Freelander 2 TD4 2003 Land Rover Discovery II TD52007 Alfa Romeo 159 Sportwagon JTDm
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Feb 24, 2020 22:30:14 GMT
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This is awesome! Will be watching with interest |
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Feb 25, 2020 13:06:58 GMT
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I sincerely hope it's not the case with your car but before making any further plans for the car I would put it up in the air and inspect all the suspension & subframe mounting points with the chassis - these are very prone to producing thin air & brown powder where there should be structural mounting points - in the early 80's I witnessed two of these that were both less than 5 years old sent for scrap because they were so structurally unsafe & uneconomical to repair. In the day It was a well known fact that even the dodgiest of car sales traders would refuse the offer of one of these for sale or in a part exchange deal such was the cars reputation for rust. Thanks everyone for the comments. There wont be an update on her for a little while i am afraid, as my Delta is ahead in the queue currently being done (just an engine change and small welding patch left now, I will start thread on that) and i am also working on my house. I am going to follow grumpynorthener's advice and get her in the air to really see underneath and the subframe mounting points and will make sure to take pictures to update on here. I do want to do that this year as will be moving her at somepoint this year. I do keep an eye out for potential donor cars to make a good car out of one. as that maybe a fairly economical option. However i would need to find one which has most of the bits right where mine is wrong, which i think will be a tall ask now. |
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