Lancia Motor Club

Hello all. I am now the proud owner of a 1989 Prisma Symbol (the quartz grey one that Walkers Garage had for sale) and am getting to know and love it more daily! . Will no doubt have a lot of questions to ask in due course but would welcome any general tips from more experienced Lancisti on things I should be looking out for in running this lovely car as my daily driver. Many thanks.

Congratulations. Prismas are great cars. The only warning I have for you is keep rust at bay. I would remove the fixed piece of upholstery on either side of the folding rear seat (only a couple of screws) and make sure the seam there is OK.

Thank you. Will check this asap.

Hi good purchase there..I had a look at that car and it looked very sound...on the one I had the rust bug got into the screen pillars and the roof aerial mount. mechanically no problems except the front strut top bearing thingy was u/s and the springs were tired so it was a bit nose heavy looking. When I traded it in the car salesman was most complimentary about the amount of grunt it had.
Clarkey

Welcome to Prisma ownership, I'm so glad someone finally bought it. It was making me sad to see it on ebay for such a long time. I've got the exact same model and absolutely love this car. Here's a pic and before you ask, no I'm not sure why it doesn't have its Symbol pinstripe.

(https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8703/28913669855_593959676f_z.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/L417He)1990 Lancia Prisma Symbol (https://flic.kr/p/L417He) by Andy (https://www.flickr.com/photos/8165854@N08/), on Flickr

Well done im so glad someone had the sense to buy it ,i thought about it but im a delta man really.
anyway enjoy it !

Lovely car. Concorse winner! Dont think it ever had the stripe as that is the orginal paint.....

A lovely car indeed! Mine has the pinstripe intact but needs a little bit of tlc to get it up to your standard, Andy. Will post some pics soon.

Indeed Tim, I'm a winner! - you can take some of the credit too if you want :). And yes, I think you're right, I'm 99% sure it's original. And I'm not bothered in the slightest about not having a stripe - arguably it looks better without it.


Thanks Iggy. Your car certainly looked good in the Walkers pics and I just assumed it was in similar condition to mine. Look forward to seeing your pictures in due course. Cheers.

It sounds like the Symbol stripes were a "delete option" on your car Andy. Personally I don't really feel they add to the sophistication of the model.

If the weather is ok tomorrow, I will give mine a clean and post some photos of the same colour car, newly polished and with stripes. I think they do add something to the retro look but agree that Andy's looks just as good without them.

One car that l always thought was less suited to a side pin-stripe was the HF Turbo - we didn't bother trying to reinstate it after it got restored!

Before:
(https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4013/4671792269_0a56de1fb7_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/87Qa5z)New car #6 (https://flic.kr/p/87Qa5z) by Andy (https://www.flickr.com/photos/8165854@N08/), on Flickr

After:
(https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8166/7153564491_2a4716d5e2_b.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/bU8TuP)Lancia Delta HF Turbo ie (https://flic.kr/p/bU8TuP) by Andy (https://www.flickr.com/photos/8165854@N08/), on Flickr

I know my Hf turbo had had 3 previous owners but it didn't have pinstripes, was it part of the spec as I can't remember ever seeing one with stripes?
Brian
8227 8)

Some photos as promised - Prisma Symbol in quartz grey complete with stripe!

I've definitely seen pictures of other cars with a stripe in the same position but after a bit of searching I can't currently find one. Maybe it wasn't a common thing.

Excellent, thanks for posting. Rubbing strip as well, I haven't got one of those either... Mud flaps too!

Looks really nice. Does it need any bodywork doing? Nothing that I can see from the pictures

Thank you. There was a small hole in the o/s rear door and a few patches of rust (lower o/s doors and bottom n/s corner of windscreen) that I had done by Walkers before I brought the car home. I have since spent a few hours touching up minor chips and scratches and smartening up the alloys. There is a bit of surface damage to the n/s rear wing and bumper which is hardly noticeable after polishing and some  deeper scratches on the sunroof panel where it must catch on something as it slides under the main roof. There were also a couple of rust patches on the leading edge of the drivers door. These have been treated and painted on the outside but I would like to get proper access to the inner skin where the seam looks a bit dodgy. Can't see a way of doing this properly without taking off the door. However access to the hinge bolts seems impossible without taking off the front wing!
Overall I think the car looks fantastic now it is newly waxed. Hard to believe it is 28 years old.

There's often more to be done than initially meets the eye but you seem to be on top of things - well done. I'm noticing some new bubbling appearing on my Delta 1300 LX and currently pondering what to do. It's only going to get worse...

Thanks Andy. Hope you get your Delta sorted as the 2wd models must be pretty scarce now. It was one of these that I fell in love with back in the early 1980's when a 1500 was occasionally available as a loan car from the local Fiat dealer. Always asked for the Delta when I took our Panda in for repair or service but to own one was just a dream in those days!