KEEPING
DELTAS
DRIVING
Lancia Delta Integrale specialists and enthusiasts
Back at the yard
Rust still never sleeps!
It's hard not to despair when the full rust extent is found, but it can be done!
It may take a while, many people have rescued real basket cases much worse than this!
I'm back working on our chicken shed 8valve Kat. It's a sunroof car,
and the sunroof drain pipes finish inside the rear panels just in front of the tail lights. Quite where Lancia thought the drained water would go is a puzzle, but it does cause rust. This car was no exception.
As I've mentioned before, Lancia Deltas are good at hiding their rusty bits, until sometimes it's too late, but we've got to this one in time!
Cutting away the rusty bits,
wondering what'll be left to weld to!
I stripped the rear end down, removing all the trunk interior parts. I needed access to both corners, the rear slam panel, and underneath the car. I didn't remove the fuel tank, but I made the area safe with wet rags and alloy sheet etc., and kept a bucket of water very close!
I cut away the rust and patched both corners and the rear panel inside and out, all quite standard for a Delta of this age. The tricky repair was the offside lower rear seatbelt mounting point, this was dangerously rusty.
I removed the interior trim, rear seat and plastic doorstep trim. I rolled the carpet forward and put an aluminium sheet over the plastic fuel pipes. I spent some time assessing how to repair this area, it was important to do a strong repair and keep the mount in the right location.
I ground away the rust, this went right through the double skin into the wheel arch, I cleaned it all up and left the seatbelt mount dangling in place. From a cardboard pattern I cut a metal plate to the correct shape, and drilled a hole to fit over the mounting point. I bent the plate to shape and tacked one edge on, then gently hammered the plate to fit, welding in place as I went around.
I then welded around the mount point, this secured it in place and I could go behind and clean the other side up. I ground all the rust away inside the wheel arch.
Always make a cardboard pattern first, it may seem a nuisance, but you can easily trim and shape that material with a pair of scissors, until it's exactly the right shape.
I made a pattern to fit the inner bracing section,
made the plate, and drilled a hole as before. I tacked, hammered and welded it, ground it all clean and gave
it all 2 coats of zinc primer.
I gave that, and the whole seam sealed, filled and smoothed back end repairs a couple of coats of red primer, then the next day prepped and painted it Rosso red. I use a cellulose 1k top coat for local repair painting, it's safer to use than 2k, and gives a perfectly acceptable finish without the need for air fed masks etc.
This large bung was missing inside the wheel arch, it's a double skin here, and water inside has nowhere to go. I'd bought a replacement on Ebay, so I was able to insert this after painting.
Bungs are important! As reported before I often find bungs missing, they need to be in place, water will get into any hole
and as we know rust never sleeps!
These repairs went well, the seat belt mount is good and strong in this safety critical area. We'll be selling this car after refurbishment, so all must be done properly.
Here's how it looks now, a bolt in the bumper mount sheared off when the bumper was removed, so I've tacked a new captive nut on. The back door is adjusted better, it was rubbing at the top edge, but evidence of a previous rear end bump shows why the door latch didn't line up, a big bar sorted that out.
The new rear exhaust box arrived as scheduled this morning from AECar.
They use DPD for their deliveries, DPD send a text and an email with the delivery time, and options for leaving the item somewhere if you're not going to be in. This message must also be relayed directly to the driver, who's name is given and who confirms the delivery time.
They are always on time too, all very good!
Watch the muffler
This is where we are now, welding done, exhaust up, and all pipes and fittings in place.
Next job are the brakes and handbrake cable replacement.
The callipers are away at Brake Engineering being refurbished, I'll update when I start fitting them.