The Introduction

Experience is what you get when you are looking for something else…or the discovery of BART

Ever since I had a drive in a green 1300 X19 back in 1980 I’ve had a desire to own one.  A friend, whose father owned a Fiat dealership, had one on loan for the day and despite the lack of power I was hooked.   The styling, handling, Targa roof, everything about it.  A few years later I came across a black Lido limited edition X19 in the underground car park at work with the registration DD7 made to look like 007…I left a note on the windscreen with my extension number and an offer to buy it.  It turned out the owner had only just bought it and it wasn’t for sale unfortunately.

Roll the clock forward nearly forty years and I found myself in semi retirement with more time on my hands and an itch I needed to scratch.  Limited edition Lido’s are few and far between, there maybe no more than ~10 cars still remaining in the UK so the chance of finding one for sale would be remote, I’d have to wait a long time for one to be available and I’d still need to sell an arm & leg to pay for it…there was and still is at the time of writing, a wreck on carandclassic but it needs far too much restoration work for me so I ended up buying a red 1988 SE X19 to have some fun with.

Out of curiosity I kept an eye on the X19’s for sale and a few months after buying the ’88 SE a Google search uncovered a Lido for sale at Junction59 Classics, Darlington. (Now A1M Retro Classics)

A searching chat with my better half eventually saw us travelling a few weeks later to Darlington to have a look.  In the pictures BART looked good, subject to a major renovation three years earlier he certainly turned heads and I could see from the invoices a considerable amount had been spent on the car, the asking price was somewhat elevated but acceptable if the car was in A1 condition throughout without any issues.  Unfortunately, there appeared to be some major ones and I had genuine concerns over some of the renovation work.  I tentatively made a lower offer but immediately had doubts; torn between wanting a dream car and the reality that it really was not worth the asking price, I asked if I could think about it and let them know in the morning.

Overnight, I decided that I’d walk away due to the many issues and contacted Junction59 to inform them.  It was clear they wanted to do a deal and I made a revised offer that I felt more comfortable with given the work that would be required.  J59 consulted with the owner and the offer was accepted!  On the 24^thAugust 2018 and in the space of 4 months I had become the owner of two X19’s!

History

The Lido was a limited edition run out model based on the standard 1300 X19 before the new federal ‘thick lip’ bumper 1500 model was introduced.  Some 700+ right hand cars made it to the UK, it differed to the standard 1300 in cosmetics only, with chrome bumpers a special ivory coloured interior and black paintwork.  The name Lido was borrowed from a famous Paris night club.

BART has had quite a few previous owners, I’m #8 and I can trace its ownership only as far back to Hampshire where it underwent a significant renovation performed by Outwood Cars.  The car was put up for sale, seemingly, soon after the renovation and appeared on eBay and also in a Taketotheroad blog article, the original eBay advert is here and the TTTR article here.  It failed to sell on eBay not meeting reserve but at some point soon after it did sell and found its way to Newcastle with owner #7.

Problems, Problems, Problems…Will my problems work out right or wrong?

With apologies to the Everly Brothers! I think James May said on TV; ‘don’t drive the car of your boyhood dreams’ after driving a Lamborghini Countach, you may be bitterly disappointed! In reality BART didn’t shatter any dreams but he certainly caused a few nightmares! 

Before driving I asked to inspect the car on the ramp at J59. It’s here that the alarm bells started sounding, I’m unsure what had occurred since the renovation 3 years ago and now but it was quite evident that the dreaded tin worm Mr&Mrs Rust & Rot was taking hold.  Both rear three quarters ahead of the rear arches had been rather crudely patched and covered in some sort of spreadable underseal. Unfortunately, the rust was breaking though this and making its way down the lower edges of both sills and up the inner wheel arches.  The front valence corners had been crudely patched and rust was breaking through, inspection through the near side headlight cover revealed two finger sized holes in the inner wing and the rusting remains of the original valance in the bottom of the inspection well, some still attached to the inner wing.

The front rubber spoiler is split and the internal metal support is rusting badly.  The rear valance is also rusting and the offside rear suspension strut has rot coming through on the engine bay side.  There has been previous patch work in this area as well performed from the wheel arch but no work done to fix the inside.  It’s double skinned here so needs additional remedial work.

The leading edge of the passenger door is splitting due to rot and the top edge is starting to bubble.  The leading inside top edge of the drivers door has a couple of pin holes and there are various rust areas on seams and edges underneath that are starting to show.

Mechanically, the engine looked clean but one of the drive shafts is weeping gearbox oil, the lower engine mount has failed, the front radius arm bushes are totally shot and split and both front control arm inner bushes need replacing.

The car has been fitted with an aftermarket stainless steel CSC exhaust and header…which is blowing badly; the offending joint crudely covered in exhaust paste in an effort to stop the leak.

Apparently, J59 had also replaced the head gasket due to the results of a leak down test that indicated a loss of coolant...

Various other minor issues where noted like the lack of bump stops for the front boot, the broken scuttle grills and the under headlight trim covers held on with double sided sticky tape!  The driver’s door won’t stay open and the car has silver painted bumpers when they should be Chrome. 

All in all a disappointing list of faults, some minor and some of concern, but there was more to follow...

Driving BART

The good news everything electrical seemed to work and there was a surprising lack of rattles from the dash!  The interior needed a deep clean, the ivory colour is notorious to keep clean.

Now the bad news, it was immediately apparent the car did not want to go in a straight line wandering left or right depending on the road camber and it was very vague around the straight head position. There was a severe lack of power, yes, I know it’s only a 1300 with 73BHP but BART was seriously down on power and would not rev.  Alarmingly, the car started to overheat after only 10~12 mins of driving.  The failed lower engine mount was apparent as you went over a bump producing a clonk from underneath the car each time.  As the temp gauge started to rise perilously close to the red I abandoned the test drive somewhat dejected and headed back to Junction59 for 'that' chat...

So here we have it, 'Saving BART' maybe a bit of a dramatic title but there are issues that need addressing and numerous issues from previous work that need correcting.  These can be fixed though with a little bit of time, effort and money(!)...so the blog is more like fixing BART than Saving BART...anyhow, I hope you enjoy the read!