This is a page dedicated to my Lancia Montecarlo. I'm Bert
Kanters from the Netherlands and have owned this 1981 Series II Lancia
Montecarlo Spider chassis #4683 since 1999, when I bought it from a co worker. This co worker
was the 2nd owner and had owned the car from when it was only 6 years old. It
was originally silver colored but when he decided to restore the car in 1992 he
had the color changed to red. It was a bare metal respray as the car was
sandblasted, I still found sand 14 years later. Also a new shortblock was fitted
right from the crate, a Fiat 132 block he could acquire for not too much money.
Still he spent a lot of money on the car but after restoring it he almost never
drove it for the next 7 years, it was just sitting in the driveway. When I
bought it it was in fairly good shape although there were some rust spots and
the paint was lifting on the front bonnet (excuse my mix-up between US and UK
terms). The brakes were seized and we fixed this on his driveway so I could
drive the car home. My brother following in my Alfa with a towing rope just in
case but it was not needed. He did report a lot of smoke coming from the exhaust
but that disappeared after some miles. After a new front wheelbaring was fitted
the car passed the Dutch roadworthy test and I started driving it. It had some
faults and I needed to replace the exhaust because of flames coming out of the
old one (what are these light flashes at night I wondered until some folllower
told me it came from my own exhaust). The engine never ran fine with te original
2 step Weber carb so I bought a dual Weber DCNF setup with Alquati manifold. I
had some parts of the car resprayed and had fitted and painted a glassfiber
front hood that came with the car, but this looked horrible as the glassfiber
was all wavy even after many hours of sanding. All in all I spent a lot of money
on the car after purchase and still it was not a satisfying car to drive and it
left me stranded along the roadside several times. Finally on my way to my
girlfriend that I had back then in Germany, the engine seized on the Autobahn
near Frankfurt. I had the car brought home by a towing company and parked it in
a shed because I was tired of it. It stood there for 5 years without touching
it, birds nests and rodent winter food storage included. Summer of 2006 I
decided to put it back on the road and started a full overhaul. All new brake
system with new lines, discs, master cylinder and overhauled calipers. The
engine I removed and it turned out that dried out parts of the valve cover
gaskets, the bridging parts that not actually rest on a surface, had blocked the
screen from the oilpump. Not enough oil was pumped in the engine and the
crankshaft had seized, 1 crankshaft baring was totally gone and the mainbarings
were damaged. The crankshaft I had regrind and I refitted it with all new
barings and gaskets, this time I removed the parts from the valve cover gaskets
that didn't rest on a surface. The body of the car was not in a bad shape, the
floors needed some repairs just like all corners of the sills (or rockers) and 1
front shock tower. The interior always looked poor, a thorough cleaning didn't
really freshen it up so I brought the seats and door panels to an upholsterer to
be covered in red leather. I made a new "parcel shelve" from wood covered in
black vinyl with speakers and a new firewall cover panel from wood covered in
grey carpet. A new roof was made from material acquired from a company that
makes tents and boat covers. A lot of new trim parts were fitted like the roof
straps, badges, rear light lenses and so on, all bought from the Monte Hospital
in the UK. The total bill was, well, very high. I guess I spent 3000 Euro on the
car in bringing it back to life, that includes the new Volvo 214 Dark Antracite
Metallic paint that I sprayed on myself. So, 3000 Euro now, 1500 right after I
bought it, the previous owner spent thousands and the original owner spent 20000
(1981 money) in buying it new. This car has a lot of money spent on it and hours
of work, it better be good now! As of writing this, 13 Feb 2007 the car is
almost finished only a short in the wiring keeps it from getting spark at the
plugs so it is not running yet. Update soon. The paint is awful, spraying
metallic paint was overestimating my skills. I'll have it painted in a
professional shop this summer, before that I will refit the original steel front
hood as the flimsy glassfiber one is still wavy despite 20 extra hours of
sanding. On to the pictures.
I bought the car with 7x15 inch BMW Alpina wheels fitted with
195/50 and 205/50 tires. Those looked narrow and high so I fitted the Alfa
wheels I had, Revolution Modern line 7.5x14 with 225/40 tires. Those wheels were
a little to small and the tires too wide looking at it now 7 years later.
Parked next to the Ferrari 308 that I still have, allthough I modified it
heavily in the meanwhile, see link above.
Weber 40 DCNF carbs, CSC exhaust and Opel GT rear lights
(what was I thinking?). Everybody confused it with the 308. At work, is that
really a Ferrari? No, of course not, read the badges, it's a Lancia! Next day I
came with the 308 and the guy told everyone that it was not really a Ferrari...
Someday in 2001 the engine seizes 200 km from home in Germany. Many phonecalls
were needed but the insurance company paid for the trip back home. The awful
Frankfurter typical fat german car tower (not the guy in the picture but his
boss) lost all my original Dutch registration for the car so I had to get non
original new ones. After that the car was stored for 5 years.
Summer of 2006, a good washing of the car made it look good again so I could get
in the mood to do the necessary work on it. Fitted back the Alpina wheels it
came with originally but now with 195/45 and 205/45 tires and 20 mm spacers,
looking good already. New cloth for the roof.
Engine removed and taken apart (no pictures). Floors needed some welding, inner
engine and luggage room sprayed the new color, the previous painter who painted
the car red did a much better job at reaching all the corners, as you can see,
oh well. Also fixed the heater, not an easy job.
Filler coat, sanding, then paint. A lot of clearcoat when on that I sanded
smooth later. Looks much uglier in reality than in the pictures. That is because
I choose only the good pictures. Seats were back from the upholsterer. Spent a
lot of time on the bumpers and other plastic parts. Making them smooth,
repairing all the broken mounts with glassfiber. Then I sprayed all the plastic
parts in a high gloss black automotive paint. This looks more "premium" and
looks good with the dark antracite metallic the rest of the car has. Many owners
spray the bumpers body color because it looks cheap otherwise but gloss black
looks good with dark grey and it is still as Pininfarina intended it.
Car is not running yet, will be back on the road hopefully in march-april
2007, update then.
