Dedra turbo H630 XGN

[Kevinlincs]

All looks OK but will benefit from a new set of seals and gaskets, seals can go hard over time and start weeping.
Some of the rubber breather hoses have gone rock hard with age.

[Kevinlincs]

Nice bit of bling though, had a call from the wheel refurbishers and collected the rims back.
Considering how bad they were with quite a lot of pitting on the faces and generally very rough I did at least have one with some original paint so they could get a decent match for the bits that aren't diamond cut.

[tzf60]

Kevin,
The refurbed wheels look better than the factory finish !!!
 
Superb work as always.
 
Regards,
Tim

[Kevinlincs]

I can't thank Jason and his guys enough for the fantastic job they did on the wheels Tim, I only wish I'd taken a "before" shot to show how bad they were, most had been painted silver and were badly pitted on the face, I feared Jason would say they were too bad to do but he reckonned they'd be fine.
He showed me some they'd done and what they would be doing, odd to see a 1 Tonne builders bag being filled with Aluminium shavings!

If anyone wants any wheels doing I can highly recommend them.

 https://www.simplywheelslincoln.com/

[tzf60]

I'm open to correction, but Lancia were way ahead with this style of finish to the Dedra wheels, 30-odd years ago. Now every car has alloys with the machined face and contrasting paint on the edges of the 'spokes'.
A bit like the Y10 with the black hatch 😊
 
Tim

[Kevinlincs]

I still firmly believe that Lancia, and more recently Alfa Romeo were very much at the forefront of trend setting, the Italian flair for design and engineering being more importatnt than the German way of just trying to be efficient.
So many things were just copied, the Japanese were famous for it.
Like when the 156 came out and then Honda etc copied the hidden rear door handles to create the coupe illusiion.
Even the 70's and 80's cars that I grew up with were streets ahead of anything from Ford or BL.
I can only wonder what the early pre war Lancia cars were like with the innovations of the Lambda era stuff.
I did a week or two at a place that restores 20's Bentley cars and they are so agricultural it's unreal, having come from a Locomotive background I guess that's hardly surprising, but the engineering on the Lancia with the lightweight chassis and trick suspension, they must have seemed like spaceships back then.

[frankxhv773t]

Attributed to Ettore Bugatti is the comment 'Mr Bentley is a very clever man to make his lorries go so fast'.

[fay66]

Kevin,
I think the Lancia Ypsilon was first with the hidden door handles, but on the front doors.
Brian
8227

[Kevinlincs]

Not a great deal to report, the engine rebuild is continuing at a slow pace with things being checked and plans made as more and more issues arise!
The head was brought home for a decoke and replace the valve stem seals, lap the valves in and replace all the seals and gaskets then reset the clearances. Thought I'd also get it skimmed whilst off for a belt and braces approach. On taking the valves out though it became apparent that the valve guides were very worn, an inkling that all was not well was the exhaust stem seals having melted to the top of the guide whic I assume would be due to the heat travelling up with the excess clearance? Never had so much trouble in removing old stem seals.
So the head is away having new guides fitted and then skimmed.

Thankfully the bores in the block are just about within tolerance so dosen't need a rebore, new piston rings will suffice. The big end & main shells to be changed, crank in great shape.
I've had the crank out this weekend to do the main shells and change the balance shaft seals and gaskets, not gorgetting the "O" ring oil seals that fit under the sleeves on the balance shaft ends which had gone very hard and shattered like plastic on removal.
Front and rear crank seals renewed.
The rear seal fits in an alloy housing, the same as the integrale as it's basically the same engine. When I did that one I managed to crack the housing on fitting the new seal as the material is quite thin where it apexes near the sump. I rang Guy Croft (R.I.P.) and he chastised me for tapping in a new seal with a hammer in the standard fasion. Apparently it's common for them to crack there in fitted in the usual manner, the technique is to warm the housing up in the oven at about 120deg to make it expand which I did but also had placed the new seal in the freezer for a few hours.
Result was the seal pushed in quite simply by hand and a light tap with the hammer with the housing on a piece of flat hardwood and all is well.

The turbo has been sent away to the same place that did the integrale one for a refurbishment, it appears the original so will no doubt benefit from some attention.
Loads of parts keep arriving awaiting fitment, my shed is getting full of parts that have been cleaned and painted, a box full of items are away at the blasters to be then powder coated so lots going on but not much visual progress!

Once the weather warms a little I'll also do some prep and paint to the underside of the chassis rails whlist the engine bay is fairly empty, get everything tidy and shipshape as best as I can make it.

The seats are away being retrimmed, new Alcantara having been ordered fromEU at great expense!

Hopefully around April/May everything will be done, in time for a decent shakedown before the AGM. 

[Kevinlincs]

Got a few parts back from being blasted and powder coated, also have the rad fan cowling and the lower crossmember too so a good bunch of bits ready for the refit.

[lancianut666]

Nice work Kevin.
Clarkey

[Kevinlincs]

I managed to snap one of the mounting bolts off for the passenger headlight ages ago at strip down, I tried to drill the mounting lug but being plastic with a steel sleeve the inevitable happened and the lug broke off. Damn.
Now used ones are available but it seems a shame to discard an otherwise perfect unit.
I figured that a bracket could be made up.
This I made using some flat steel folded over a grinder disc key to get the right slot gap.

[Kevinlincs]

The raised area on the headlamp I drilled some holes in for extra adhesion for the glue.

[Kevinlincs]

The bracket, which I had painted for protection, was slid into place and bonded using 2 pack epoxy having already checked for the alignment.

[Kevinlincs]

Lastly a  small piece of neoprene glued to the face to create a gasket to go against the front panel rather than metal to metal, the other mounts being plastic.