The time has come, the Walrus said, to speak of many things.
Of ships and string and sealing wax, and whether pigs have wings...

And apparently they do, since I've getting my hands dirty doing some tidying up, mostly the interior/console and the engine compartment. It's getting a respray in April, so before then I want to sort out some of the rust under the bonnet and get some new hoses on the engine.

First - the undertray. I didn't even *look* for a replacement, but the car has been off-road too many times (farmers fields, tops of mountain tracks when I've been flying) and parts of it have abraded completely away.



Getting busy with some fibreglass to try and hold it all together; here's today's result from the bottom; the glass has been applied to both sides. Tomorrow I'll trim it and sand smooth as required. I'm not planning to repaint it.



Currently it's curing overnight. If nothing else, it's one less rattle...

Here's the finished undertray, after trimming, sanding smooth to avoid fiberglass in the fingers, and a quick squirt of paint.


Next... bumper and crash pad off:


ICV removed and given a little wash and brush up


Now the thermostat replaced by one made of finest unobtanium (and some new radiator hose):


And finally, a quick look at some of the rust along the front members and the slam panel. Fortunately, it's only scab; cosmetic, not structural (yet!). Scrubbed off with a wire brush and hit with Jenolite before a quick blow-over with black paint; not elegant but it might keep the tin worm at bay until I can afford that strip and dip (ha!)



Then put it all back together and hope none of the fasteners I had to drill out are actually critical until I can replace them. Memo: when replacing the thermostat, don't connect the air feed from the inlet pipe to the outlet for the heater... (like I did) could be an expensive mistake!

Hmm. Car is overheating at idle and in traffic. OK on the move. All the pipes and the rad are hot, and shorting the connector spins the fan, but the fan's not coming on. Conclusion - new radiator temp switch ordered.

More on the interior - the last removable console panel is the heater control unit:

Not terribly tatty but sticky and gouged in a couple of places.

With the nasty stuff taken off and repainted:


Back in situ and it really shows up the remainder of the console... unfortunately, not easy to remove, and something of a pain to sort out that area of sticky. I'll try and see if I can use the methylated spirit to clean up the existing surface, or if it will leave it sticky.



More important: next two jobs are passenger window, which has given up (and down), and driver's door lock which is stiff and sticking on occasion.

No pictures, but radiator switch now replaced with a shiny new one. It cuts in at 102 or thereabouts.

The interior console is sticky in places, improved in others. I think it needs more effort...

Another day, another door... and a bit of a detective story. This is to make the passenger window go up and down.

Start by removing the door card; first remove the five cross-head screws below the bottom edge, and pop the four covers (three shown) and remove the hex bolts beneath. Only three shown because, mystery one, there are only three bolts on mine.


Remove the cover below the handle (it's a different shape) and remove that bolt, and the bolt which goes up from behind the handle, then remove the handle.

While you're at it, remove the screw that holds the handle trim. The door card then lifts up from the bottom and lift the card off the inner edge of the window space, working from the back.
Note the tasteful (mystery two) packaging tape holding the somewhat torn and tattered rain trim on...

To get to the winder motor is tricky. Since there are volts present at the connector, but the motor doesn't even twitch, it looks like the motor is jammed. Three nuts hold the motor to the frame (mystery three - one was almost off the stud) and removing them allows the motor to be moved around in the door space. It won't let you get it out though: it's also attached to two guide posts which are held with two bolts each. I discovered too late there's no need to remove these...

revealing mystery four: why is there a feed for the puddle lamp? The 16NA has no puddle lamp...
The motor can be removed from the traveller system by unscrewing it from behind, blind, once it's removed from the door; there are four crosshead screws which once removed allow the motor to be pulled away.


There seems to be no way of dismantling the lifter motor so if it doesn't go it's going to need replacing. Fortunately, once removed, the motor decided to spin in the appropriate manner, so it was either a jam, or (mystery five) the unexpected scotchlok connectors were playing up. Mystery six is the presence of a couple of chunks of toughened glass in the bottom of the door.

Either way, all back together and working, with some rather fine red gaffer tape to hold the waterproofing up...

Now the mystery: I've never had the door panel off. However, eighteen years ago, there was an incident involving an unlit skip, a scaffolding pole, and Mrs Barnacle. That led to a three inch gouge in the passenger door and rear quarter which was repaired under insurance.

One might have expected that an insurance approved repair centre would have used, on a less-than-two-year-old car, new parts. What I conclude, though, is that they have sourced a second hand door from a crashed 16vt - hence the glass, extra wires, missing screws, and probably all the squeaks and rattles.

Curiouser and more curious... the driver's door *does* have a puddle lamp.

It's not working at present, along with the interior lights and the clock, for reasons I have not yet investigated - they worked a couple of days ago. Perhaps a fuse.

Hmph.

Anyway... this is how the door screen *should* fit. The passenger door has been replaced inside out...


Investigated the driver's door lock, which has been a bit sticky: three plastic rivets hold the window seal in place, then the guide rubber is removed to reveal the two screws and a further screw on the outside.


Unfortunately one of the screws goes round and round but remains firmly attached to something inside which prevents the removal of the handle, so I settled for greasing what I could reach.

Instead I settled for a little more work removing sticky from the centre console. Turns out that plastic pan scrubby things are excellent at removing it... not perfect yet but a damn site better than when I started.

In the back of the garage I found the original lights (replaced some years ago when the UV coating fell off). A quick polish with metal polish (unchanged on the left):



The units on the car are somewhat, er, mouldy (or possibly some strange lichen growth):




After polishing the old units, which also sorted the last remnants of the UV coating:



Also cleaned up the rubber gaskets which were still attached (and to be fair, also somewhat of a site of special scientific interest...). Now they're in the back of the car so that I don't forget them when I take the car to Joe's for the respray in a couple of weeks.

The car is now at Joe's, stripped out and ready to paint. The mystery of the passenger door is resolved: it's a 20v door that's been modified to take the 16v door card - I have no idea why the bodyshop felt the need on a car only a year or so out of production at the time, but there you go... clock and interior lights work again after replacing the fuse (they're supposed to be different fuses, but there you go!).

Big pile of bits for me to tart up and mostly spray black this week - B-panel trims and lock panels (just ordered a couple of new 16V badges from the bay), the windscreen wiper arms front and rear, wing mirrors, wiper cover panel, grille, fuel filler cap and no doubt other bits I will remember as soon as I open the big box of bits I brought back.

There's nothing in the car aft of the front seats; the interior trim and seats are out to get at the trim fixings and to clear access for some welding to be done under the Pininfarina badge, driver's side (the passenger side is for some reason still in reasonable condition).

Pictures later, hopefully.

Dismantling, cleaning, and painting of matt black external trim proceeds apace:

The insides of the door handle: dismantle by removing the two circlips (one on the transfer crank and one on the long hinge pin) and removing the screws holding the lock barrel and the hinge frame. When putting it back together, handed parts have a 'd' or an 's' cast into the part for right and left. Note - last picture is the other side - one screw on the lock didn't want to release so I didn't push it too hard.


Trim painted:


No 'before' pictures - too embarrassing! The handles are now back together, greased on the spring, and the lock barrels will be cleaned and oiled when I get the keys back.

Some belated 'before' pictures...

Behind the Pininfarina badges - good side and bad side: the metal's being replaced on the bad side.


Looking a bit battle-scarred:


Full of empty:


Piles of removed bits:


And the worst of the wheels:

It's back...

All the bits back together, new original mats, new exhaust, flex, and cat, newly painted wheels, shiny shiny shiny.

Still needs before the weekend: wheels replacing, oil change, new filter, replacement oil pressure sensor, and a fan remote switch - the switch in the radiator is new, but operates five degrees hotter than I would like, so I want a temporary override in the cabin.

Granddaughter helped polish...


Shots for the insurance valuation - still on winter wheels:

Today Joe and I dropped the engine from the coupe, which is in winter hibernation and continuing the on-going fettle.

En passant, we noticed the following couple of things that will require fixing or replacing before things go back:

• Drive shaft gaiters (one almost split)
• Steering rack gaiters
• Differential final drive seals
• Inlet doughnuts
• Drop links
• Track rod ends (found a couple at the back of my garage!)
• Shock absorbers (one is gently leaking at the front)
• Cam belt kit and associated parts
• Water pump
• Engine mounts
• Front bumper legs
• Welding around subframe mounts
• Clutch flexible pipe
• Brake flexible pipes
• (Possibly) brake solid pipes

And then on the engine, we also expect to need

• Exhaust cam shaft
• cam shaft seals
• big end, mains, and thrust bearings
• core plugs
• head gasket set
• sump gasket
• differential
• various gearbox seals
• clutch
  

I hate to think what this little lot is going to cost.

Some photos of the yuck, crap due to phone's inability to be both a phone *and* a camera.

Rust at the bottom of the passenger suspension tower:

Oily gearbox and sump, slightly bent:

Bumper tower; driver's side is as bad:

Amazingly, the engine is still attached:

Clutch operates perfectly!

Brake pipe protective layers worn away by inlet piping:

The fuel pipes go this way around!

Outer CV gaiter still *just* intact:

This is supposed to be clean and dry, not wet and oily:

Awaiting my tender mercies next week:

Hmmm. 16 inlet doughnuts don't seem to exist...

When looking at this restoration, you have to remember that this is a car which has driven seven times around the world, and is well on its way to an eighth. It's never had an easy life; commuting into London, cheerfully driving to Berlin or the north of Scotland without a thought. I recall one weekend when we thought "let's drive to Strasbourg for a couple of days" and did...

It's on its second engine and gearbox - the original engine threw a belt at 45k (a fortnight before it was booked in to change it!) and it was never the same after; eventually it killed a big end and bent the conrod halfway up Glencoe on Christmas Eve... one of the very few occasions when it has 'failed to proceed'. The replacement was sourced from a crashed coupe of similar mileage in the days when you scoured the small ads rather than via the internet.

So you'd expect a certain amount of wear and tear...

We started with the gearbox. Before the 20th anniversary trip to Turin, a faint click had become obvious from underneath the car, once per rev of the right hand front wheel - obviously something with the differential.



And eventually we get to the culprit:


Actually, two broken teeth on the output drive pinion, for some reason at opposite sides of the gear. This has been cheerfully driven flat out for several thousand miles since it was first evident, and who knows how long before... The original plan had been to replace this differential with a 16vt diff and trade acceleration for improved fuel economy, but it requires changing the final drive spur gear which is right at the back of the cluster. Plan B was to drop in the diff from a replacement NA box, but it makes more sense just to replace the entire box; we'd have to strip the replacement as far as this one anyway and given the absence of any visible wear it's a pretty safe bet just to drop it in as is.

So, on to the engine. We already know the exhaust cam shaft needs replacing, so off with the inlet manifold and the rocker cover:


Over the years, both the sump and cam cover gaskets have seeped, though the head gasket and compression are excellent. Neither have been changed until now.


There are no bearing shells for the camshafts, just lots of machined carriers and a seal at the belt end. There was some very mild scoring on the inlet cam bearing surfaces but for now it's going back in; it can be changed without having to remove the engine. New exhaust cam is required, though.


If we'd thought about this first, we'd have removed the crank *before* we removed the cams, because then we wouldn't have had to put the cams back in to stop the bucket followers and shims falling out. Doh.
There are a lot of bolts holding the sump on; they're pretty tedious to remove. Driving along the same farm tracks as tractors to paragliding launch sites tends to have an impact on the shape of the sump...


Not metal swarf but bits of sealant from somewhere or other. For the miles it's done, that's a really clean engine. Here's a question: where are the only 14mm headed bolts on a coupe?


Crank removed along with main and big end bearing shells. The oil pump and clamping plate have to come off first - six bolts each, some well hidden in the grease (which has preserved the bolts as if new!). There are two thrust bearings at the gearbox end.


None of the big ends show anything other than expected wear; there is light scoring on the two outside mains which will be reground before refitting. One of the big end shells had an obvious high-spot (I forgot to photograph it) caused in the factory; there was a tiny bit of swarf stuck between the shell and casting which will had caused a high-spot of a couple of thou...



This many nuts and bolts go into a 16NA engine:

The oil pump is in excellent condition:


The plan of action
Engine mounts are on their way to me; the existing mounts are submerged in releasing fluid in the hope that they might not need grinding off!
Shopping list going together for replacement parts; we've sourced a camshaft and the inlet doughnuts but we need to add up all the gaskets required. The same source we hope can provide a couple of water pipes. The thermostat is only five thousand miles old. A couple of water pipes may be replaced with silicone as they're just right-angle bends.
I'm looking largely for originality on the engine so don't expect any bling, but a number of parts will be airblasted and powder coated including the radiator support and the oil heat exchanger water pipes and the crankcase breather pipes, and anything else that looks as if would benefit from some rust-proofing.

It will probably be a couple of weeks before the next update.

Just a brief note; no pictures.

The crank has been re-ground (0.25mm under) and is currently on its way to TTI for re-nitriding, after which it will be lapped and polished and new bearings provided.

The new cam-shaft is on its way along with the CHOD-equivalent and a couple of other bits of pipework.

I have three shiny new engine-mounts. One has possibly the wrong thread (it's for a Dedra, not a coupe) which will be resolved by either a different bolt or cutting the thread.

Shiny for xmas decorations: after grinding, hardening, and polishing... just need to find some 0.25mm/10 thou oversize bearings now.

Oooh... I wonder if 16vt and 16v engines have the same bearings?

http://www.deltaparts.co.uk/index.asp?itemID=226

Why, yes, they are! Woohoo!

(cough) full gasket set

Scroll down...

Plus lots of seals too. Not sure what if anything you'd ordered... but I think we need:

- crankshaft main bearings £45
- big end bearings £40
- thrust bearing £10 (don't know if we need oversize yet)
- gasket set £100
- full rotary seal set £42

which looks rather a lot cheaper than we thought. Re bearings: A B C are the initial grind select to fit, then +10 and +20 thou.

Work has resumed on the engine rebuild; today the mains, big end, and thrust bearings were refitted along with (obviously!) the ground, hardened, and polished crank. The shell bearings were all 0.25mm (ten thou) oversize to fit the regrind while the thrust bearings were standard size as there has been no change to the crank there; the end-float is fine.

Everything is turning very nicely, though we did have one small issue: some sort of sealant had been used in the crank-end thread, presumably to keep the hardening effect there to a minimum, and it was a bit fiddly to get it out. Normally you'd just run a tap through, but this bolt is left handed...

The stubborn front right engine mount has been removed; an angle grinder removed the shell and then two of us with a meter of lever each sheared the bolt, to our annoyance, but that's not a major issue... we did establish that the front left mount is incorrect, so I'll need a new one. Never mind.

With the engine turned over, we replaced the inlet cam, complete with a new seal. A cunning move on Lancia's part is that the inboard cap bolts are too long to fit... if you happen to forget the oil bar. Doh...

With the original shims, the clearances are all as they should be (0.4mm +/- 0.04 - 16 thou +/- 1 thou) with the exception of the two endmost valves which were about a thou tight - obviously a little erosion of the valve seats. After a little thought, we decided to live with it, and keep an eye on it in a few thousand miles.

One oddity: on one of the big ends and one of the mains, the shells showed wear high-spots. In both cases, the cause was a tiny splinter of metal, lodged between the shell and the housing. I can't see how this could have got there without it being a manufacturing carelessness... anyway, the housings were scraped clean, which removed the embedded swarf, so I'm a bit happier about it now.

Pictures soon.

Glyco's finest bearings ready to go


Half of them fitted


Lots of oil on the journals


And then dropped - carefully - into place, and the caps bolted and torqued up


The inlet cam with new rotary seal and the (oops) oil bar in place


And finally, the recalcitrant engine mount, after polite discussion

Here is one of the original dodgy bearings, showing first the wear high spot and then the embedded swarf that caused it - that's been there 175k miles.



Hmmm... tough little beasts, these engines!

Not a huge amount of work done this weekend, as I had to supervise Joe putting his other ramp up, but fitted the new cam - genuine NOS Fiat/Lancia Ricambi Originale



There was a little more valve seat wear on the exhaust so the gaps weren't as close as the inlets - they should be 0.50mm +/- 0.04mm. So after some careful measurement, out comes Joe's big box of shims, and the cam comes off again to replace bits. Two out of the eight shims were OK.



With the new shims in, all the clearances are correct at 0.5mm (3b and 4a are a little tight, but in specification).

One bit of terrible news. The makers of the OEM shims have kindly written their name on the side of the shim.

VOLVO!

The end is starting to look as if it is in sight... I had hoped this week to complete the belt end rebuild, but found a couple of covers that were rustier than they looked at first sight, so they're on the pile to sand-blast and powder coat...

Here are some parts that have been blasted and powdercoated - these should last another twenty years. In particular, I wanted a number of external oil and water pipes protecting. The sump has also had some dents knocked out and been coated.


Twenty years of tiny oil leaks add up to a layer of crud


but after removing the seals for the balance shafts and the water pump


it cleans up nicely - and the interior waterways are not significantly rusty, which is nice.


The balance shafts have a ball-bearing race, a sealing o-ring, and the rotary seal. The o-rings had set hard and weren't sealing properly, and weren't in the seal pack, but Joe had a couple. Replacement requires lots of lubrication and a hammer to drift the chamfered ring over them.


And with the gasket and new seal in the housing, refitted. A zizz gun is required to undo and do up the drive belt toothed wheel; on the front drive it was so tight it required a long lever and a pair of mole grips.



Meanwhile, in the engine bay (from which the slam panel has been removed for blast and coat), horrors are revealed... most of this is scab and will be sorted out with a wire brush, kurust, and paint, but some will need cutting out and replacing. This is under the washer water bottle, and the driver's side chassis leg.


Passenger side is a little better but there's a hole behind the suspension leg, where the subframe bolts up.


The engine bay on the whole though is dirty but in good condition - the benefit of gentle oil leaks!


And finally, some of the bits that have been removed, and some that will be going to the powder coater.

Woohoo! It's time to put stuff back together.

First, twenty year's worth of crud and rust is blasted off the engine:


Guess the engine number: I think 149852 but there might be another digit between 1 and 4.


Red enamel is probably worth at least thirty horsepower...


Engine mount and oil filter block back on. Any idea why there might be bendy join between the two halves? Can't see any obvious reason for it.


The two blasted and powder coated shields go back on, along with the new water pump and carefully cleaned oil pump (with a new crank seal).


And then the cambelt, after a little swearing (loctite applied to the crank and balance shaft end bolts).


So that's the engine coming along nicely. Meanwhile, Joe has been poking around in the engine bay. The idea is that this will have new metal let in, so we want to find the damage now so it can be repaired properly while we have access. First three pictures from the passenger side; last two from the driver's. Who would have thought twenty years ago that a Fiat could have this *little* rust after twenty years?

The original engine number was 1653491, so it looks as if there should be another digit in there.

I had a brilliant idea to trawl through eper to see if I could find something matching, but it seems the original chassis number doesn't exist...

I played around with the gamma on the full sized image. I think the number looks most like 1649892 - which at least looks as if it matches the sequence; slightly older than my original engine.

Edit - the numbers above are 836A3.000 which correctly identify the block as a non-turbo twin cam originally fitted to an NA coupe.

Just this, today. It's (deliberately) not a mirror finish, just looking a bit better than when it came out of the Fiat factory. Still needs the lettering infilling and then lacquering.