Delta Integrale rust repair

As always when Delta dealing, one thing leads to another.

Our white Evo had surface rust problems on the welded seam under the back door seal,

the time came last Summer to address this.

I pulled off the rubber seal and sanded the rust off, back to the metal. I brushed on

2 coats of Kurust, this did the business. I knew this car had once been bumped

in the back, someone not stopping fast enough, or a spin into a hard object.

Anyway, the lower valance was a bit bent, so while I was at it, I banged it straighter,

the lock catch was bent inwards with the lower edge seam, so I banged that straight

also, some of the upper seam edge had corroded away, so that would have to be

welded too.

Then I removed the carpet and noticed a hole in the floor under the fuel filler neck,

so silencer, filler neck, trim, spare wheel and carpet were removed,

Rust 2

Not a happy sight, you can see the hole goes into the cross member

Rust ground away, and area cleaned up

Patch on, primed up

I cut away about 100mm x 20mm of the rusty raised seam by the door latch, I cut a patch twice the depth and hammered it over in half, making sure it was flat, I let this into the hole I'd cut out, and welded it in, When this was ground down, it looked quite like the existing raised seam, with the rubber over it, nobody would know!

So, my original plan was to prepare and paint the gutter strip under the rubber seal, this had now extended to inside the whole, cleaned up, boot area, rear valance, inside tail lights and underneath the cross member.

I was going to use spray cans, but decide to spray it properly.

I had some single pack poly white mixed, I masked up to the raised outer door frame, primed it all, then blew in the white, 2 coats wet on wet.

This went well, the morning was warm, no wind, and the sun wasn't too strong, the single pack white dried fast to a nice deep gloss, and didn't require any lacquer.

So it was tail lights out, filler neck off, wiring and interior trim removed. I dropped the silencer, I should have removed the fuel tank too, but I didn't, I stuffed the tank neck with damp rags, and covered the area with a sheet of aluminium.

I ground out the corner, the rust was of course, worse than expected, it had extended on to the cross member. I was recently told that Lancia strengthened the Evo cross members by making them a twin skinned laminate, this of course invites corrosion from within, mine was sound though. A good early Waxoyling giving some protection.

Masked and painted

The car looked pretty good after the work, I bought a little belt sander to get in the corners for this job, I've reviewed the item in the tools section. This was useful, and helped give a nice finish in the corners. I also dropped the roof lining and gave the roof back end a squirt of waxoyl while I was there, it made me feel better, and I hope it has a lasting effect.

The back bumper had a long standing crack from the previous owner - honest! - this was better done in Pete's oven,

so I took the bumper over, Pete prepped it and did a lovely job, as always.

The car was reassembled ready for the Ormskirk Motorfest last summer, the Evo looked very good and clean. We proudly paraded with the Supersprint exhaust echoing off the town's buildings.

We bought this lovely water spray Evo about 6 years ago. The owner met me off the train at

Croydon station, I could hear the car coming long before I could see it.

That Supersprint box echoing off the tower blocks sounded wonderful!

The finished back end, bumper looking nice and fitting well, paint good underneath and inside tailgate, that'll keep the rust away for a good while.