Dedra turbo H630 XGN

[Kevinlincs]

I had a Dedra as a daily driver when the kids were little, (well I had two in actual fact, a lovely white 1.8 followed by a red turbo, now owned by my friend Jim) but as that was almost 20 years ago I have been hankering after one for a year or two now.
I did go down into Norfolk last year to see a pretty rough and tired one, that was February 2020 BC (before covid) and since then prices seem to have grown twofold at least, but I have still managed to stumble across what I feel is a good valued investment. Not that I have bought it as an investment, but one to make great again.

I haven't yet had chance to look under it but how bad can it be? Well, a 31 year old (how is it 31 years old!) Lancia must surely hold a surprise or two. Time will tell. Looking though the history I have on it there are a few welding repair invoices from Zagato Lancia, hardly a surprise really.
The rear bumper mounts will need work, the drivers side is pretty much non-existent so I fully expect that once the bumper is removed there will be plenty of metal needing replacing. The N/S arch already has holes so the water will have been getting in causing havoc. The outer sills have recently been patched up, I will try and find new replacement panels but suspect they will be near impossible to find.

Mechanically it seems OK, has been running recently but are a few immediate jobs to tackle before a proper assessment can be made not least a  fuel leak from the pressure regulator! The starter motor also needs an overhaul, cambelt & balance belt change well overdue but I want to make an assessment on engine condition first, just incase it all needs a stripdown refresh. Showing 90k on the clock which seems to be backed up by the history and MoT's so is probably genuine.

[Kevinlincs]

The interior has, or had as it has been replaced with blue Alcantara, an unusual set of half Alcantara with a fabric middle.
Does anyone know what the name of this material is as I'd like to try and find some to get the fronts retrimmed so I can install the original set.

The previous owner actually stumbled across a Dedra in a local scrapyard so grabbed what he could, including this blue Alcantara trim, just a shame that there is a hole in the rear seat base, the fronts look like they'd clean up very nicely.

[Kevinlincs]

It's an SE model, has the electronic suspension but again, I haven't had chance to check if the struts are still the originals or if they've been changed for conventional ones. Does anyone know if the electronic ones are available anywhere still? I will add it to the growing list of things to check...

I'd welcome any information on the car, even just thoughts about them. I personally find them a great car, a "sleeper" as they say.
Looking forward to making a start on this one. Maybe even at the expense of the Flavia coupe..

Car all safely stored away for now, 4 Lancia in the same shed, and another at home... No, that's not excessive!

[SanRemo78]

Fantastic - just as we were beginning to get withdrawal symptoms now that the Y10 is finished!

Good luck with restoration! Have you seen the £7000 1 owner 24,000 car on eBay?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lancia-Dedra-1-8ie-1990-1-Owner-24k-Miles-MOT-October-2021/154338720454?hash=item23ef4dfac6:g:RQwAAOSw5J5gSxTT

Unfortunately not a turbo!

Guy

[Kevinlincs]

Hi Guy, yes I did notice that Dedra 1.8 on eBay. Does look lovely, apart from the wheels. Mileage and condition look great, hope it does achieve decent money, about time Lancia got some mainstream recognition.

And yes, a build thread will start!  I'm hoping it won't be as extensive a build as the Y10 but it won't have anything left to chance, time will tell how far the build goes once I get going....
Won't be for a month or two and won't be done in such quick order, unless we go into "lockdown" again and I get a few months up at the unit.

Body up top is pretty decent, faded paint of course but that will all get redone, but no real rusty patches aside from the aforementioned rear arch/bumper sections. Sills I fear will need cutting out so more than likely (well let's be honest 100% likely) that the floor lip will be far from useable, needs to be all cut out rather than patched so as not to return to it later on.
Looking forward to starting this one, despite saying I'd not do any this year!

[frankxhv773t]

Thema Dedra Consortium and Brian Hilton (Dedra Advisor) are your essential wing men on this project.

My 1991 brochures specify full alcantara as standard trim for Dedra Turbo but in grey rather than blue on a red car. I have a feeling that half alcantara was a feature of late series cars.

I'm fairly sure I have a spare pair of "non wiper" headlights if you want to convert. The wiper system is a poor design because the wiper spindle goes straight into the gear box onto the last gear in the gear train. Water getting past the seal on the spindle collects in the gear box and rusts the steel gear wheels into one solid lump.

[Kevinlincs]

Joining the TDC is a priority.
Had a quick look in the wheelarches tonight, car is much better than I thought, so far at least...
Took the front wheel arch liners out expecting to see rot at the bottom of the fottwells but all looked great. Of course the bottom of the outriggers that go down to the lower bumper mounts are rotten, they always seem to be that way on all the ones I've seen, Lancia or Alfa 145/155.

Great news though is that the electronic suspension struts are still present, albeit the drivers wiring connector is broken but new junctions are readily available to be soldered in place.

Passenger front...

[Kevinlincs]

Drivers front...

[Kevinlincs]

Passenger rear outer arch will no doubt require a fair bit of reconstruction, already had some repairs to the forward section where they rot so not all bad..

[Kevinlincs]

Drivers side rear bumper forward mount is pretty much non existant, which I knew about. I expect to repair all the way around behind the bumper along the boot floor, right from one side to the other.

[Kevinlincs]

I've a small job to do on the integrale first so it will be a few weeks before I get started, but itching to get on with the car now.
It will get the rear bumper removed, back axle dropped out as that makes repairs easier then I'll assess what to do with the sills etc.
Car will need to be stripped back enough for a glass out paint job, I try and avoid masking out glass etc if I can.
Mechanically it seems decent enough. Needs belts doing, tappet shims ill check as a couple sound a little wide of gap and the top cam box covers are damp at the gaskets so all just regular maintenance really.

One bonus though is the intake pipe that snakes around the battery tray, it was covered in grey tank tape which I presumed to mean it had splits in it. New ones seem unobtainable as are substantially different to Integrale ones, down to finding a used one I assume. Decided I'd take all the grey tape off, see if a repair could be done. To my great surprise it seems the tape was applied as a protective means, the pipe is like new! I can only assume the original must have failed and the replacement OE one to have been that expensive the tape was applied to protect the new one from chafing, not a bad idea if a little unsightly!

[fay66]

Kevin,
 if you need anything regarding Dedra  I have quite a lot collected over the years, including the body section of the manual.
Keep your fingers crossed the electronic shockers are ok, I had them on my first Dedra 2.0iese and at the time they were £350 a corner.
They had a normal and sport setting, that I always thought of as hard, and harder still!
As you intend taking the glass out it doesn't matter, but according to the manual you have to remove the rear windscreen to remove the rear wings, not true, years ago a friend and fellow member Chris Catlow did it without doing so.
Brian
8227
 

[frankxhv773t]

Like Brian I think the electronic dampers were a bit of a gimmick. If they don't work then replacement with standard is the simple solution.

Here are pictures of a removed rear wing. It's going to make repairing the rear arch rust much easier and similarly removal of the rear screen.

[Kevinlincs]

Cheers chaps, I'm sure I'll be calling for assistance in the near future.
As for the shocks, and how functional they are time will tell. The drivers front one has a broken wire at the connection which I will renew, but until I have done the cambelt & balance belts I won't be running the car long enough to check, no idea if the belts have been done since the last documented change, and that was over 10 years ago!

[fay66]

Cheers chaps, I'm sure I'll be calling for assistance in the near future.
As for the shocks, and how functional they are time will tell. The drivers front one has a broken wire at the connection which I will renew, but until I have done the cambelt & balance belts I won't be running the car long enough to check, no idea if the belts have been done since the last documented change, and that was over 10 years ago!

Quite agree with you, belts are a must every 3 years or 36,000 miles, despite what the service schedule says, but don't forget to change the tensioner and bearings as well, its also worth changing the other belts while you have it apart, rather than having to have to do most of the work again if an ancillary belt goes.
I assume you're including the Counter balance belt as well, and after all this time a water pump wouldn't go amiss ether!
Brian
8227