1608 Restoration begins

[Dean Scharer]

Coming together. Pulled the 5th gear from my ‘79 Zagato. Having .865 verses the .925 ratio should drop my rpm’s nicely. I am toying with taking the Volumex transmission and going the rest of the way. Pedal box has been rebuilt with new master cylinders and front brakes swapped over to Wilwoods. Block has 9.8:1 pistons in a 2.0l. Next up is the head.

 

[dherr]

This is really looking good and is probably what I want to do with my 77, which is also white and has the 2.0 engine. I picked up a Zagato grill and headlight bezels and hopefully will get the headlight buckets soon. Need the Monte bumpers to complete the look, your car is really looking good and should be really nice with the drivetrain you are building for it.

 

[Dean Scharer]

This is really looking good and is probably what I want to do with my 77, which is also white and has the 2.0 engine. I picked up a Zagato grill and headlight bezels and hopefully will get the headlight buckets soon. Need the Monte bumpers to complete the look, your car is really looking good and should be really nice with the drivetrain you are building for it.

Playing with rims. I can’t stand the bow ties!

 

[Dean Scharer]

Transmission rebuild.

Thru research I learned that all Beta’s (with the exception of the ‘79), have a 5th gear ratio of .925 be it the Coupe, Zagato, Volumex, or Montecarlo. For this car, I wanted something different. By utilizing the ‘79 Zagato’s .86 ratio, I will arrive at a final of 3.929 instead of the 4.12 that came in the original setup. As you can see, gears were coated and all new bearings installed.

As noted a while back, my ‘79 Zagato’s body was beyond repair after spending its life in Hawaii. The salt air was too much for it and I finally shipped it back to Washington for disassembly. I will admit that I was very distressed about not being able to save the car especially because it was my first Lancia, but it lives on in projects such as this one.

 

[Dean Scharer]

Nothing is ever fast on these things. The 5th gear from the 79 Zagato is finally done in the transmission. However when we got it on the lift to do the whoa brakes, we discovered the control arms and A arms on the left side had the nuts ground down on the front and rear on a 15 degree angle. Was the car dragged without wheels? Did it lose both wheels while driving? Hmmm

Anyway, that lead to pulling the suspension and changing the ball joints out. Then Ray decided the Torrington bearings on the strut towers needed to be addressed. Ugh.

So all new wheel bearings, all new control arms, all new ball joints. A completely “new” transmission. A newly built block. But the head isn’t done yet!!!!

The car I just hauled up from Sacramento also had a brand new Alquatti dual 40 DCNF never used intake. My new plan for this car is to add that and port and polish to optimize. The end result should be 10:1compression ratio with a hotter cam, dual carbs and a final ratio of 3.92:1

 

[Dean Scharer]

Once the car was on the lift, we were able to see that the ball joint nut on the driver’s side control arm had been ground down. That necessitated pulling the entire front suspension to insure all was right with it. I’m glad we did, because we found the tower had been accessed by someone who didn’t know what they were doing and it had been rebuilt without all the parts! New delron bushings were fabricated and the rebuild commenced (including new Torrington bearings). When all is said and done, the front will also have both control arms changed, new nuts and bolts everywhere, poly bushings, Koni’s, terox slotted brakes and new wheel bearings. I had to share the photos since this will be the cleanest it will ever look.

 

[Ron Avery]

Nice work

 

[Dean Scharer]

Sometimes I go sideways to move forward. My ultimate goal with the three Scorpions is to have one car with high compression and plenty of fuel, one car turbocharged with FI, and the final version with a Volumex supercharger. That way I can decide which system I like best. This car sports the 9.8:1 pistons, A16 cam, a 1800 head, and dual 40 DCNF’s with 28mm Venturi’s.

Before the block installation, we wanted to fire up the engine on the stand to verify everything is go to go. So we built up another head, threw on an old carb and prepped to run her. Today is a day off to go to the local car show and then back at it on Monday.

 

[Dean Scharer]

Completed head

 

[Ron Avery]

Cool looking motor

 

[dherr]

Dean, you are going to have three of the nicest Scorpions in the country, really nicely done!

 

[Dean Scharer]

Making progress. Heim joint modification done on the shift linkage and finally installed.

 

[Dean Scharer]

Will do the initial break in with the single carb and then swap over to the twin 40 DCNF’s. Carbs are all set and ready for installation but wanted to be careful with the new engine.

 

[NigelProdrive]

Consider running the wiring onto the crossmember using its threaded holes and wire loom clamps for a cleaner wire tuck look. Starter, alternator, oil sensors, ....all down low.