Imagine owning a mint Mk1 Ford Escort…. now imagine saying goodbye to it, seeing it drive away and knowing the cash was going toward helping to restore another car. At this stage, some of you are probably thinking “was he mad!?” while others are wondering “what car was he restoring!”, “must have been pretty special?” – read on.
Allow me to introduce my friend Mark and his Delta, in the first article of many(I hope).
Mark is a regular at the local Cars & Coffee, and has been since day one. This stunning example of pure Italian automotive scorcery, first found a home in Germany, back in April of 1994. Just three years later, she was purchased by a UK based specialist car importer(oakfields.com) and introduced to its new owner, a Doctor in Hamshire. It was to remain in his care until 2005, when he traded it back to Oakfields.
This is where Mark enters the scene. The car was purchased and brought back to Ireland. The journey back home with the Delta must have been an exciting drive. Mark used the car for the rest of the year, only to stop to give her a chance to avoid the grip of winter.
Once March arrived, the Lancia once again saw sunlight, but it was to be short lived. The head gasket obviously liked the idea of hibernation and didn’t want to work properly just yet.
The previous owner had left her parked under a tree for quite some time before moving her on. As we all know, mother nature can be a jealous lady, and she took it out on the Giugiaro penned beauty. The birds in the trees probably used it for target practice too.
Oakfields treated it to a good respray prior to selling it to Mark, but for this car, good simply isn’t good enough. It had to be perfect, it was to be given the VIP treatment, only befitting of such an Itailian Super Model. This meant only one thing – total restoration. Unfortunately for Mark, the fabulous bubble arched Mk1 Escort had to be sold to fund the work. But it would be worth it.
Many days spent in prep work, before she received numerous layers of lucious red paint. This was followed by hours spent machine polishing, with the end result being a finish that would have been the thing of dreams at the Lancia factory. Paint so deep you could swim in it.
The front seats were in a sorry state, but thankfully the rears looked like they were never used. So, the investigative work began and the source of the material was located, surprise surprise, in Italy. Thankfully they still had the exact fabric in stock. One slight problem though, it wouldn’t be perforated. Material located, next stop, Germany. A firm there had the ability to replicate the perforation pattern exactly. Excellent!
So, next task was getting the fabric applied to the seats. The firm in Germany wouldn’t do this, but a company in the UK were entrusted with the task. The pair of reclining buckets were dispatched to the UK, and the material was shipped from Germany. The seats were professionally reskinned and shipped back to Ireland to be reunited with the Delta.
The mechanicals were given the same level of care and attention to detail, with any issues being addressed and the block and all ancillaries brought back to full health. “The engine bay is not a good place to drop a socket” – sounds like the couple of skint knuckles were the result of some under the hood fishing!
So, after all the attention now being given to the Lancia, surely it would be locked away in storage, watching the value rise, as so many are?
Not a chance! This one is being enjoyed, driven as it should be – hard! Mark has a truly fantastic machine now, one which provides a much needed burst of colour and sunshine when the grey skies and government are doing their best to drown the country in gloom. I hadn’t seen a Delta up close until Mark came along to the Cars & Coffee meeting, but the look on everyones face was priceless and the memory will stay with us forever. The sound, the paintwork, the shape. Stunning doesn’t come close. Thank you Mark!
Diesel is for tractors 