Next update to my progress

Well, I have done some more tear down. Actually the car is now stripped of pretty much every thing. It is amazing how much is actually coming out of such a small car. Eventually I will be putting the car on some sort of jig that will allow me to rotate it onto it's side.
From there, I can remove all the undercoating and start installing the floor patches. Speaking of patches, I have made the first floor patch with a hammer mold, here is a pic of what it looked like.

Now I just have to cut out the rear floor and weld this one in. The front floor is going to be tricky because it has way more curves in it and it will take more time to beat it into place properly to get a good result.

I have also decided to replace all the undercoating with box liner. It is going to be a tedious job but in the end it will make for a longer lasting result should the windows leak again and the road grime do it best to promote rust. Once the floors are done and the underside along with the inner chassis is coated in box liner I will have to strip all the body panels. I have explored every thing from dipping the car to sand blasting it and finally after the research I have decided  to go with aircraft stripper. The body metal is too thin to dip as well as sand blast so the only viable option is going to be using aircraft stripper on each panel. It's a good thing the panels are not to big or it would take forever. (kind of glad I am not into Cadillac's)

I have also been able to get my hands on a fiberglass hood. This should save me a bunch of money by not having to deal with a rusty hood and now I can sell my hood patch to recover some of the cost. If any one is looking for a hood patch let me know and we can make a deal.


Well that's about it for now, I suppose my next entry will be when I have my rotation jig done and my floor boards in place. If any one has some advise on some of the things I am going to attempt in the next few months please let me now. Avoiding pitfalls is a good thing.

April 14 Update. (About time)

Well because I haven't updated in a while you think there should be lots to report........ well your right.
Where to start....... The motor got pulled, the gas tank removed, the rear glass removed, and future upgrades explored and........ I managed to obtain a set of Delta Integrale wheels which will add the final touch once I am done.

The motor: Once all the bits and bobs were removed the removal was pretty much strait forward. Not quite as easy as an X1/9 but still it came out fairly easy.

 The gas tank and glass well what could be said about that, pretty much a non eventful task. But I have to ask... what is with the Italians? I ran into this with the X1/9, GLUED GLASS what a PITA! That was probably the most work I've done on the whole car so far. Trying to remove the glass that is partially still glued was not fun but I got it in the end. Putting it back in should be interesting, this time I want no leaks and not have to worry about it again.

 In the meantime while I was chipping away at the various things to strip out of the car I came across a set of Delta Integrale wheels for sale that were exactly what I was looking for. (or at least eventually I would be looking for) They were a good price and re finished the way I would have done which saved me some effort.
If the person who I bought the wheels from is reading this...... Thanks again, you were great to deal with and I am glad I got the privilege to meet up with yet another great Italian car enthusiast. That is probably one of the best things about owning a Lancia or a FIAT, the people you get to meet. I have been in other car clubs and with other car groups but by far the FIAT and Lancia owners are the most friendly and supportive to each other by far more than any of the other groups I've seen. Any way here is a pic of 2 of the wheels and the other 2 are still in their boxes.

These should look good on the car and put a nice finishing touch to the whole package. What I have planned is to paint the car white and go down the side with Martini Racing stripes and then the rest of the car will have small Martini finishing touches like matching floor mats various badges ect.

On to the future updgrades:
The first must do for me is to get rid of the distributor ignition and upgrade (and tidy up) the current fuel injection. I have been doing a bit of digging and found that the Ford EDIS ignition is the way to go. But in the meantime I did end up buying a Mallory Hyfire programmable ignition which I am going to re sell it to pay for the other ignition. The next big decision for me is which FI system to use? The Megasquirt or the SDS?
Both have their advantages and disadvantages so now I am just sitting in the background on both of the supporting forums and seeing which system in the long run will be best.
The link for SDS is http://www.sdsefi.com/ and for the Megasquirt is http://www.diyautotune.com/catalog/megasquirtii-ems-system-smd-pcb357-assembled-ecu-p-171.html 

If any one has some info on either please don't be a stranger and post your comment, any info would be helpful.

I am still up in the air on the suspension. At the moment I have some Koni Reds in need of attention and I am not sure if the KYB rout is going to be better or should I spring the extra cash and go with something like Leda's? But I have lots of time and right now my main concern is to finnish stripping the car and start on the rust worm removal.

Well that's about it for now, hopefully the next time I update I should have the car completely stripped.
Chao for now.

Dec 14th 2012

Well not much has happend, I have finished removing more of the interior and dash and all that's left is the HVAC and doors. I pulled out all the fuel injection wiring and removed the rear bumper and roof as well.Now I have to figure out how to get what's left in the gastank out of the tank.(I think there is about a 1/4 tank left)

I have also realized that now all the parts are coming off, my storage is starting to fill up.
So over the next little while I am going to have to clean up the storage area. This is OK, because tomorrow it is going to be the start of a cold snap (-22C), perfect time to work on that. (I hate it when it gets cold)

Some of the things I am starting to think about:
1) Which wiring harness am I going to go with
2) The floorboards and parcel shelf, what to do next
3) Cooling pipes, what material am I going to use, can I make some using some from an X1/9
4) The dashboard plastic under the vinyl, what am I going to do to repair some of the cracks
There is more to think about but that is the major list for now.

I almost forgot, my under the car ducting showed up on Monday, YAY!! I have been searching for that for years and all it took was a quick call to Mid West Bayless. Thanks guys!

So far I have most of the big items taken care of that I want to replace.
Thanks to the Montehospital I was able to get my bubble top, all my seals (the whole car), roof straps, hood patch panel, and msc switches. TMH is a very valuable source for those hard to get parts not only that Linda and Rod are an absolute pleasure to deal with.
Mid West was able to supply me with all new front hubs (it was cheaper to buy the rebuilt hubs than try to put new bearings in myself)
All the other stuff I was able to find on you guest it........ E-Bay.
I have to admit, there was quite a bit of parts I had left over from my X1/9 that work on the Scorpion that was part of my E-Bay purchases.
So lets go down the list:
My car has a rebuilt motor, transmission, new brakes, rear a arms rebuilt, new CV joints, front control arms, new front hubs, new top, new rubber seals, front and rear bumpers c/w side skirts, noseband, Fuel Injection, reconditioned gas tank, shift bushings, rebuilt cross member, new starter, and new carpet. I think that takes care of the major parts.

Parts I am on the hunt for:
Rear view mirror, adjustable cam pulleys, wiring harness, floor boards, windshield, coolant tubes, lower Lancia Beta coolant pipe from the block, Fi wiring harness, Lancia Delta integrale  wheels (I would gladly trade my wheels with the adapters for a set of Delta wheels).

Well that's about all I have for tonight. What's on deck for the next few weeks? Cleaning up my storage, draining my coolant, draining my gas, pulling the last of the interior, and prepping for the motor to be pulled.
If any thing interesting is found I will post it as soon as I can, other wise I plan on updating as I get some of the items on my list done.

I guess I should show what I am starting with.

Here is what my car looked like before I decided to pull it apart.

What has been done to it?..............
Here is what it looked like when I got it back in 03.

When I got the car it had a single carb, headers, and lowering springs with a rebuilt tranny and motor.
I did put dual Webers on for a while but wasn't happy with the performance so........ it went to F.I
I will never go back to carbs, if you have the choice...... ditch the carbes and go injection.
The car drives better, starts and runs way easier, and has more power. When I have the time I will go deeper into the car and post what is in it and what is planned. (lots to go over there. :-) )
I am tired, and it's late so I will post more when I can and bring the car and the project up to speed as soon as I can.

The fun begins

After a summer of sorting out some minor issues and having a fun Fall driving the car with little issues it was time to put the car away for the season. Fast forward to December........ Dec 16th, I decided to see what the years of leaking glass did on the car. So I pulled the carpet and the rear valence covering the firewall. Surprise!!! RUST!

 
Well I can't say I was surprised.... but I can say it did take me back a bit.
After pulling all the parts and pieces I realized I need a place to put things. I did have a plan for this, I was going to construct a shed but that didn't happen. Instead I built a mezzanine in a part of my garage that was (to me ) was wasted space. The cool thing is that it ended up much cheaper than a shed and about the same volume plus it's heated so no plastic should break because of that. Here is what I ended up with.

It was Dec 26 when I built this.
Dec 28th, I ended up taking the dash out and prepping for the battle with the rust.