Thought you guys might be interested in this one. This is a Lancia Delta Intergrale owned by a good friend of mine, I absolutely love these cars and it’s amazing how cool they still look today, a proper classic, if you are of a certain age you will remember these winning rallies in the 80’s and 90’s. This particular car is an 1989 16v model, it’s also a very rare right hand drive car. Integrale’s were only ever made in left hand drive but some were converted to right hand drive in this country using parts from the regular right hand drive Delta turbo sold over here. My friend has owed this car for 10 years now and although it’s certainly not been neglected, it certainly would benefit from a proper clean and polish. It’s not a daily and is only used for weekends and special occasions. The idea was for me to give it a going over and bring the red paintwork back to life. My friend had washed it the week before so it wasn’t looking bad at all on arrival. First up I gave the wheels a clean using Auto Finesse Imperial and Revolution wheel soap using various brushes. Tries cleaned and scrubbed with Meguiar’s All Purpose Cleaner and a Chemical Guys stiff bristle brush. Then rinsed and snow foamed using Auto Finesse Avalanche While the Avalanche was dwelling I cleaned up various areas with a Auto Finesse brush. Door shuts etc. cleaned with Auto Finesse Citrus power and Meguiar’s Super Degreaser to try and remove the ingrained dirt.
Rinsed off, then washed with Dodo Juice shampoo and a lambswool wash mitt, using the two bucket method. Next up the decontamination stage using Auto Finesse Iron Out and Obliterate and left to dwell. It had started racing quite heavily by this stage so no pics of either in action unfortunately. Foamed and rinsed again and into the garage for claying, dried off first with Auto Finesse Aqua deluxe towel. Auto Finesse clay and G3 Bodyshop detailer as a lube. After decontaminating, the paintwork wasn’t bad at all, this is about as bad as it got with the clay. Onto polishing and the red paint, considering it’s age was actually pretty good! it was quite heavily swirled but no signs of any bad fading, which can happen on older red cars. Some nasty etching from bird poop on the bonnet So taped up ready to go I used Car Pro Fixer on a Chemical Guys 5” pad on the DA, which worked really well, I really like some of the car pro products i’ve tried lately, really impressed. Auto Finesse Pad Prime was used to prime the pad during polishing Side before and after a hit with Fixer, looking much better
Bonnet came up well but seemed to have some deeper scratches and the nasty bird poop etching was still there, which you can see in this pic. So I decided to go over the bonnet with Meguiar’s 105 on an orange heexlogic pad, then Meguiar’s 205 on an Auto Finesse finishing pad. This came up very well indeed, I’ve been trying various polishes and there is always something new on the market to try, but I have to say the 105/205 combination does work very well. After polishing I wiped the entire car down with Car pro Eraser. Next up LSP..... There is always something new to try, sealants etc. but being a bit of an old fashioned wax lover I wanted to go with a carnauba wax, which I always think works well on red paint. Also, this isn’t a daily driver so, I went with something that I know works well for me. Firstly, two coats of Auto Finesse Essence, applied with handi puck and wax spot pad followed by a top coat of Illusion This left it looking like this in the garage under the lights, lovely Black trim and plastics were treated with Wolf’s nano dressing, love this stuff left the trim looking really good, especially considering this car is 26 years old. Exterior glass polished with Auto Finesse vision
Once polished, exterior widows given two coats of Power Maxed glass sealant interior glass cleaned with Auto Finesse Crystal This was after cleaning the inside of the windscreen! some old sticker residue on the inside of the windscreen removed with Obliterate. Supersprint exhaust was bought second hand a couple of years ago, it was in reasonable condition but came up nicely using Chemical Guys Heavy Metal polish Once polished they were treated to Blackfire Wet Diamond all metal sealant leaving them looking like this Tyres and mud flaps first wiped down with Car Pro Eraser and then treated with Car Pro Pearl Headlights polished with Car pro Ceriglass The wheels, although not kerbed at all had started to corrode on the Diamond Cut outside part of the wheel, which is a shame so could really do with a refurb. A quick rub down with Chemical Guys Heavy Metal polish did help a little bit and took this dirt off too.
The interior was definitely in need of a bit of a clean Interior was hoovered and cleaned with Auto Finesse Total, Meguiar’s APC, including the mats. The alcantara parts of the seats have seen better days really, but were cleaned with Race Glaze alcantara cleaner best as I could Plastics then treated with Auto Finesse Spritz Steering wheel was scrubbed with Valet Pro leather soap Steering wheel was pretty dirty as you can see from this pic Leaving the interior looking like this, not perfect but a lot, lot better
inal wipe down with Auto Finesse Finale ready for my friend to collect. Probably one of my favourite cars I’ve ever worked on this, always a fan of these when I was younger and I fell in love with this car while it was with me. It was hard work but very rewarding to get it looking good again, it’s not absolutely perfect but definitely a great improvement and the red paintwork looked stunning when waxed. Thanks for looking The afters
Lovely work mate, one of my favourite cars, i need to own one one day. that looks in great condition considering the age, RHD as well which is pretty rare.
This is what you call better than showroom condition! What a detail and what a car. I love the EVO2. Seen one once in Amsterdam and that's pretty unique.
That looks like a great turn-a-round. Good job mate, thanks for posting. I do love these; my dad had a succession of Thema Turbos but never a 'grale. Crying shame what happened to the Lancia brand.
Epic thread again Scooby, and fantastic work.. Think i'll need to try some of that exterior plastic gel you used - looks great! Ive been using that powermaxxed rain off for 6 months or so now - its unreal, I prefer it to rainx actually. Again, like Liquid's thread the other day with the 360 CS, fantastic to be able to see these kind of iconic cars up close and personal, let alone being returned to this kind of glory - thanks for sharing!!!
Indeed, my dad had a Lancia Beta HPE when I was a kid, remember it being properly cool, but I think it pretty much rusted itself away! he also had several Alfasuds, so reckoned he was an expert is 'Spaghetti electrics' lol
lovely job there Scooby, always was something about these cars that made them that bit special. Ed try him out on the Leon, , lol.
Yeah they did rust away alarmingly quickly. Dad also had a Beta Coupe 2.0ie (I always wanted him to get a VolumeX supercharged version, alas not) and I remember going with him to help change the bonnet on a back street in Salford after the original had rusted so badly it had a fist sized hole on the leading edge. This was on a car just over 2 years old. Cheap Russian steel used I believe. Amazing the Integrale has lasted the 26 years!
Love these cars and what a transformation!! Is this an 8v or 16v? I prefer the Evo ones but this is still mint. My uncle had a 16v one he spent over £30k on modifying and it was a great car
Leon would be an easy one mate, as Ed has already worked his magic on that Look forward to see the Focus when it arrives by the way :cool:
Cheers mate, it's a 1989 16v this one, although it has an Evo spoiler and the side skirts have been colour coded as well, they are originally black plastic on the 16v.
This Intergrale was really good, I only found one small area the size of a coin, at the bottom of the door where the paint was starting to bubble a little. I told the owner and he is going to get it sorted as he hadn't noticed it, other than that the paint was excellent for it's age. I guess they had started to get their act together by the end of the 80's Yes, I remember my dad saying that the Beta was repaired so much that in the end the garage who looked after it just said, look, you have to sell this now, I just can't keep repairing it with this amount of rust.... As you say, shocking for nearly new cars! His partner at work also had a Lancia at the same time, I can't remember which one but it was a small 2 seater sports car I think? but that didn't rust anywhere near as much as the Beta.
Cheers mate. Sure young Ed will have the Leon looking a treat again. Looks like the Focus wont be here till about March/May, it will be going to Ed asap after i pick it up.
If I remember correctly, you have a black Focus on order? In that case you will definitely need Ed I don't think I could live with a black car again now, look stunning when clean but only stay clean for about 5 mins!
Love your work mate! A real thorough job! Quick question; do you or have you ever 'detailed' or mildly cleaned an engine bay? If so, what 'tools' would you recommend?
Yes mate, shadow black some sort of paint called mica, think its like a pearl effect. Give Ed his due ive only washed the Leon once with bucket and mitt since he done a full detail this time last year, the rest of the time ive just power washed it off lol, lazy git i know
That would be a Montecarlo if from the same era? Interesting pub quiz fact: the Montecarlo played Herbby's girlfriend in one of the movies
Cheers mate. Yes I have, did my own engine bay recently, just used some all purpose degreaser/citrus degreaser, a brush and a light blast with the jet wash, dressed it after with Auto Finesse Dressle. I was under strict instruction not to get any water near the Intergrale engine though, spaghetti electrics and all that
Thant's the one! It was sort of an off white cream colour, I remember my dad borrowed once and took me to football in it, drove like a lunatic if I remember correctly :eek:
Only washed it once with a mitt and bucket!!:eek: You'll need to do it more than that with the black Focus
That looks stunning mate, top work. I've grown up with these cars and love them. my dad has had 2 HF turbo's, a 16v integrale and now still has an 8v kat which he's had over 10years. Awesome cars
Top work Scooby! Nice setup too! Love Lancias! My sister lived in Greece from the late 80s until about 4 years ago. The second hand car market was rediculous. Used cars in general were a fortune. She started with a fiat 126 and then upgraded to a mk2 cortina 1600 in the early 90s. Anyway by 95 they were really doing well and bought a Lancia Trevi 2000E. One of the best cars about at the time and probably 20 years old. I recall going fishing with her husband one night and he drove this thing down the ramp to the marina at night, braked sharply and such was the build quality that both headlamps fell out. In the UK I worked with two guys in the RAF, my boss had a Lancia Thema and the number two a Lancia Dedra. Chap I use to fly with had an Alfa 155 and I bucked the trend and drove a Saab 900 Turbo. Good times!!
