KEEPING
DELTAS
DRIVING
Lancia Delta Integrale specialists and enthusiasts
and talking of rust . .
Talking about rust is something I do quite a lot, working on Integrales causes this.
I'm presently rebuilding the back end of an Evo1, so rust is on my mind.
A year ago we were driving around in this car without a care in the world, it's difficult to believe this happy, MOTd, fast red Evo that was taking on any challenge, was near inner collapse.
I've often repeated that Integrales rust from the inside outwards, so if you can see rust
it'll be much worse underneath. Anyway down to business.
I've owned this Evo1 for a good few years, an article to the right shows the car a several owners before me.
On this occasion I'm rebuilding the lower passenger side inner rear fender, where it joins the rear floor and includes the bumper side mounting bracket.
I made a new curved panel a while ago and welded it in place, but now I've made a new floor section they wouldn't match up.The curved piece is tapered towards the back end, I had made it straight.
So I cut my 1st attempt off and tried again.
I formed the piece with some difficulty, it has a welded joint to the floor panel at the bottom,
it links to the inner wing at the front, and it opens out in width towards the front.
I cut the first one off leaving the bumper side mount in place, making the new piece to fit around that mount. It went upwards at the front end where it joined to a new section which
met the outer rear wheel arch.
I've made a new floor section out of heavier gauge steel, pressing out the swages with my roller wheel machine.
I can't fit this new panel until the new rear cross member arrives, and that's late coming.
My new side section welds to the floor but I'll only weld the top outer edge on at present.
This area is where the washer bottle lives, which is impossible to fill without spilling some fluid,
one of the sunroof pipes drains into this corner too, so it's a wet corner which rots to Olympic
gold medal standard.
I had to laugh at the back end clampage,
needing to keep everything lined up meant
I used most of my clamps.
It looks like an operating theatre or a mad
giant porcupine.
I did take care to make sure everything was positioned correctly before welding, that was the mistake I had made previously.
That's the new section in place, it's better than my first one. The front is welded to the previously installed new inner wheel arch, the back will accept the new under the light section.
When the crossmember arrives I can cut the back away and use the new beam to
keep the parts lined up.
I can shape the floor into the corner at the correct height then puddle weld on the lower edge
of the curved piece.
Pictures from long ago, this Delta has stuck to
its aim of rusting as much as possible!
As Racey sang, some girls do, some girls don't. As rust goes, some Integrales do and some Integrales don't do it so much. I was told Belgian Blue steel was to blame, whatever that is!
Some Deltas seem to rust with a vengeance, this red car is one of those. I am the 3rd person to take on a major welding programme with UHN, these pics are of the 1st time, the 2nd was in Wrexham, and now it's up to me to do it and make it last. I will do this, and I'll make sure it won't have to be done again. Fingers crossed!
This is what we had to put up with in the 70s.
You'll realise how lucky we are today!
Thanks for looking at our site, all the best.