The green green grass of home!
We were told about this Delta 8v Kat that
had been stored in a shed for good few years.
We made contact with the owner, and went down for a visit.
The Delta shared the shed with 3 other cars, all were dusty, but the Delta had been cleaned. Bird poo was a problem, and the damp conditions had corroded all the alloy parts. All the car's lights and fittings were in place, but the passenger door handle was broken.
The interior was in quite good condition, the sunroof liner had fallen off, and the sandy old glue had made a mess on the interior. The owner had left a lot of mothballs in the car, to protect from rodents, this had indeed worked well, and the interior smelt surprisingly fresh!
I expected rust, but in the dark of the shed all I could find was an expected hole under the washer bottle. Anyway, we bought the car, loaded it onto the trailer, and took it back to the yard.
The battery is dead, and needs replacing, so I don't know if the car runs, but I connected the charger to test the electrics. Most things work, all warning lights, windows and the heater blower, but there's an alarm of some kind so the starter won't turn, that's probably best anyway, so I can't start the engine until I've properly prepared it.
All lights are present, but one winker cover is glued in.
There was a pile of chicken feathers in the engine bay, and lots of half eaten acorns, so little animals have been busy in there.
I blew it all out with compressed air, then gave the engine bay a good paraffin spray, and blew that off with air too.
The engine bay cleaned up well, the strut tops are good, as are the bonnet hinges and inner wings.
So that just leaves the rust. As noted, the engine bay is sound, the outside front inner wings are a bit scabby down by the big grommet, but not terminal.
The door bottoms are lovely, tailgate just a bit corroded, and it seems the rear roof is sound and cocky free.
The big problem area is under the washer bottle, surprise!
Rust is well advanced in that corner and around the bumper mounting, inside and out. The lower seat belt mount has corrosion, and the inner wing seam is getting bad. The other side is all sound.
On the right is a
You tube vid showing the Delta and its features.
After removing the back bumper, a job made difficult by the rusty bolts, I pushed the Delta into the lockup, removed the wheels and jacked it up. I made the car safe on axle stands, I'm going to be spending a lot of time under there!
Next, I'll remove the exhaust, drop the fuel tank and rear suspension, then I'll assess the job and start cutting away the rust.
I'll update this report when I've made some progress