We'll I thought it was about time I shared the progress of my coupe when I purchased her back in 2011 from the local garage near me .

I currently had my charmanix green 16vt back then which was giving me nothing but trouble , as much as I loved the coupe wasn't to keen on the colour and endless trouble she had to go .

So this was my new purchase at a bargain price of £650 stacks of history only downside 9 previous owners.



Pretty clean from front end , came with a nice plus grill bonus , and private plate . Car is Infact a early n reg 1995 .




Car looked pretty clean from drivers side wheels has been sprayed badly in past though and where flaking bad , one job to do!

Passenger side however had a big dint down the door , the boot lid was a different coluour red to the rest of the car and back quarters looked different colour aswell , the plan is the get it sprayed when she was all mechanically sound

Interior was very clean , apart from cloth interior I was planning on swapping with leather at some point and that steering wheel cover had to go also the usual centre console was very sticky , plan was for refurb .

I did the usual checks at the garage before I brought it , cambelt was ready for a change , oil pressure was at 1 bar when engine was hot so I thought I had a bargain for the money .

This was where the fun began , did I say fun I meant nightmare .

I got her home took the boot carpet out something I should have checked at the garage , it didn't look too bad around the back arches until I started knocking with a hammer this is what I found






Bugger this didn't put me off though lots of grinding and welding later on my dad's drive this was the result





Not a professional welder by all means but it did the job

It seemed like every where I poked more rust and more holes not good

This photo was in the boot floor under the spare wheel




The after again

I coated all the welding with lots of underseal !

Then It dawned on me the underside must be in a more sorry state than the interior so I decided to take her off the road before I even got it insured just so I could strip her and do a thorough job so it was time to take the bumpers ,tank and inner arch liners off .



Little tank came off first from inside the drivers side arch liner!, oh I forgot to mention I found this.



Both sides where the same I presumed this was the cause for the above earlier mentioned so I ground all rust back tack welded steel on and tapped it around the seal it up then coated it with lots of underseal .

More pics when back bumper was off all nuts has seized up aswell.




This was turning into a massive job and I was starting to wonder if I would ever do it never mind how long it would take me .

Ok why I was at it I took the front bumper off aswell to check the rust issue unfortunately
The front was as bad , all bumper supports had had it drop legs corroded away .



Font slam panel had corroded badly aswell !



The front black bumper supports wanted a refurb also the main red supports running down side of engine at the front was badly corroded time for a repaint .



A nice coat of black and red paint with zinc primer used .



Slam panel was far from perfect as it was very badly corroded when I grinded it back but it was much better , I will probably change one day

Why she was off the road I took out the back seats and the rear quarter cards to check behind the rear badges .




Ok these have never been done either .

Lots of elbow grease and wire brushing later





I also sealed the back of the badges with silicone to stop any more water .
I'm slowly getting there .
Shuttle panel was in a sorry state so time for a refurb .



Much better ,

This was the sorry state of the alloys



After



All that work and I didn't like them so brought some others you'll see later on the car

Ok work is moving nicely but not as fast as I would like , with only Sundays off work to do things all engine bay back together .


Rocker cover was refurbed




It was now time to do the belts water pump , and crank sensor as this looked knackered , with the belt diagram from this lovely forum




Easy peasy now I was starting to get somewhere but still a lot I wanted to do .

Ok it was now time to get her on the road ,this work so far took me 3 months just at weekends and with only 2 month left on mot I had to drive her this was when I brought it home off my dad's drive .




you can now see the different colour paint work .




Boot lid is darker red than the rest



Bonnet looks lighter on this image these are the wheels I decided to go for in the end instead of original 20v ones that was on originally .




Front looked good

Interior had now been changed from cloth to leather I purchased out of a 20vt .

One clean interior and looks much better steering wheel cover now gone , yes I know nice pink pedals ,these was already on and was the least of my worries , also a nice barnicle widget fitted which I purchased off the forum it was abit scratched so I covered myself with some carbon fibre it looked smart.

I also covered the b pillars with carbon fibre and stuck the 16vt badges back on as you can see in the picture .

Ok now time to fit my front mount inter cooler please ignore the front bumper I was just trying things out this is my inter cooler fitted



Ok now with my new purchased bumper fitted grill not yet fitted



Now complete





Ok now we're moving nicely now it's time to get that paintwork tidied up time for a full respray

Here she is

Ok just as I thought I was getting somewhere disaster strikes , my top end has started knocking on the engine

http://vid758.photobucket.com/albums/xx229/burbum123/01102011001.mp4


It sounded a lot worse than in the video .
I'm not going to mess about with the engine I purchased a good low mileage engine from a guy on here so I decided to attempt the engine swap .

The engine was a nightmare to get out with limited space on my dad's drive and just the 2 of us marking all pipes ect up aswell .




So the old engine will go in storage to get rebuilt hopefully one day

So my new engine arrived and it was time to clean here up.



Here she is in my shed after degreasing and hammeriting her




I took cylinder head off just to check over everything before I put her back in



New spresso head gasket fitted , new head bolts , both cams were in very good condition which was very good news . New gallon of the 10w 40 Mobil 1 semi synthetic , new clutch new cambelt kit excluding balance shaft , I decided to run without this and just locked the front shaft off against the front cambelt idler bearing .
After approx 8 weeks on and off she was complete this time felt , much better no hit and miss and oil pressure when hot was 1.3 bar great

I also fitted a strut brace and had the manifold and inlet manifold refurbed properly so I decided to get them polished up .

Before engine failed on me !



And after I also thought horns was looking abit tired , so new red ones aswell .

Ok now I'm a happy bunny oh wait disaster again I went to start her and the car filled with smoke I quickly ran and took the battery off this is what I was left with !




It melted all the ignition wires including plug in back of ignition , and wire to starter motor , and power wires under bonnet .





So time to find what damage it has caused everything stripped out .





It turns out the started motor stuck on , so I chased all old damaged wires back and replaced , new ignition barrel with plug from joe fcss I put my lock inside so I could use my key I also kept my ring which goes around the ignition for my key code and prayed then I turned the key and she lives again .

Her as she stands at the moment .





One happy car at the moment

It's been a learning curve for sure most people would have proberbly scrapped her by now but I just love my coupe so much , I've got more to add though currently upgrading lights ect will update when I can

More to follow

Little update to the rear end of her I decided to upgraded the rear light cups as they started to corrode and I love the look of the le ones I've not gone for the anthracite grey though just and dark steel color



I did them In situ plenty of masking up 3 cotes of zinc primer , then 3 cotes of paint followed by lacquer .



Rear light LEDs also was done previously as per the how too on the forum .

Ok I finally decided to sort my oil leaks out , 1 new rocker cover gasket as mine has started to split rubber everywhere



This is the second in so many months a nightmare I learned though spend a little more and get oe quality I could tell the difference straight away now sorted .

Now the dreaded crankshaft oil seal I stripped it down and found this



Oh dear I didn't want to risk putting another oil seal in this luckily I had a spare , after speaking to folks on here I stripped it down to investigate the gearing and valve inside .





After speaking to joe fcss he said all looks good so I can start putting her back together again.

New crankshaft oil seal lancia delta integrale one .



Also new oil pump gasket lancia delta integrale aswell



Time to start rebuilding her tomorrow

Started rebuilding her today had a good afternoon on her , oil pump fitted , sump fitted , exhaust fitted , cambelt fitted , just waiting on new crankshaft sensor , then a fresh gallon of 10w60 oil and hopefully she will run



Also stripped the front end down after 3 years from when I first treated the rust I'm pretty impressed still in good nick for 20yr old front drop legs are none existent now nearly though I've got to do something with them .

This was before I treated the rust 3 years ago



And after 3 years mainly drop legs and a few little rust areas as to be expected .


The ecig is now part of the car

It lives had it running approx 20mins electric fans kicked in oil temp was hot oil pressure was 2bar happy days .

http://s758.photobucket.com/user/burbum1...0srhaz.mp4.html

I just ran with alternator belt on for the water pump to try it .

New pas belt , new power steering pump belt on order,
Widget is bringing up lambda sensor fault and plugs are sooty so new sensor also on order .

Took drivers arch liner off today to try and do something with my drop legs and found alittle surface rust out came the grinder.



Coated with hammerite this time
.

Ok I think I've come up with a solutions for my drop legs .
I've chopped them off flush at the top, then I'm going to order some 70mmx40mm box section steel and plate the bottom up and tac weld to the existing.

Then drill bumper and arch liner holes , and hammerite up pics will follow just waiting on my steel to arrive

Getting there

Ok ive finally painted the wing mirrors after the paint was started the flake off them I've gone for the grey same as rear light cups .

And so more work begins now shes of the road for the winter my wings was starting to rot on the bottom corners .

The bottom nuts was seized up solid so i had to chop them off im going to replace wth new vented ones from auto ds, this was the condition of the front sills when i took the plastic skirts off .



lots of welding to do then take the manifold off to try and drill studs out and helicoil , rear subframe to change body work to do ,front struts to change ,lowering springs to put on front wishbones to changge drop links under sealing its going to be a long winter will update with pictures as i progress.

Well the Mrs isn't happy I decided to turn my back yard into a portable garage for the winter



Manage to take turbo and manifold off today to try and put new studs in head .

Decided to take off drop links , wishbones , and struts off today ,


She's having new wishbones , drop links , tops mounts lowering springs, new anti roll bar , just can't get front subframe bolts out

Well its been a long week doing a couple of hours here and there finally got my front subframe off what a pig of a job .

Ive started cleaning it up ready for por15 primer and a few coats of black on top.



I also took the front wings off as they started corroding on the bottoms ready for my new vented wings .

unfotunatly the front sills have gone shes starting to show her age .



lots of welding to do





Ive started cleaning things up

Had a busy weekend with her got one of my sills welded and por15 painted .


Finally got the subframe painted before and after pictures

Also got a brand new fiat genuine front anti roll bar .

Before and after pictures

Well it been a long slow couple of weeks been very busy at work as well but making slow progress .

Front subframe is back up and new wishbones have been put on today .


Also sick of trying to drill the head now so she's coming off .


She's looked better


I'm replacing with my spare one , it's just being over hauled by a rebuilder it's being re-shimmed , new valve stem oil seals , pressure tested, skimmed ect .