Lancia Scorpion #1733 -- new owner, project start

So this project is unfortunately going on hold for a while, which is something I was hoping to avoid -- project creep is a pain!

My wife and I are moving from California to Washington at month's end and will be living in an apartment while we house hunt, which means the Scorpion will be stashed at the in-laws for a spell. That said, if anyone in Southern California is interested in buying the car and can make a compelling offer in the next couple weeks, I'd be willing to entertain these. It's probably not the best California car unless you have a way around smog testing, which is why it will be happy in Washington if we move it up there.

After selling my Fiat 850 Coupe yesterday, I'm not super motivated to sell but you never know! PM with any questions and otherwise, I hope to get back here by year's end to restart this project.
 
Welcome to Washington. I’ve got 2 ‘76’s. I’m down near Mt Rainier in a little town called Eatonville. Would be happy to show you around.
 
On your drive north if you have time around Eugene, (mp 190 ish) on I-5) and have time to stop for lunch/dinner there are a few fiat people here we can see how many we can gather to say hello
 
Thanks, guys! Looking forward to meeting some new Fiat folks, I'll keep you all in the loop. I just bought an expensive, heavy-duty Coverking cover for the car while it's stashed at my in-laws in Anaheim. Hopefully I'll be able to trailer it to the new home by year's end.
 
Well, as I mentioned in another post, the Scorpion is here in Bremerton, WA with me now. I've decided I just don't have the expertise or time to get my new engine put together (and feel good about the results), so I'm looking for suggestions on reputable shops in the greater Seattle area. Willing to drive further to drop this motor off at a place that knows what it's doing. My hope is to have this car running and driving in time to use it over the summer. So far, Ralli-Round in Kirkland is the only place that's been recommended to me. Any other places folks would be comfortable having an engine built at? I have all the necessary parts already, just need it assembled.
 
Call me 253-223-6264 I might be able to help. The former Lancia rep for this region is still alive and working from his place. I also have two spare 1.8 SCORPION engines as spares here at my place.
Dean, sent you a PM. Lots of work travel these couple weeks with Scottsdale auctions and 24h of Daytona, but we'll chat next week.
 
Just an update here to keep the Scorpion section humming. This week I've dropped the engine off at a local shop with Fiat twin-cam experience (the owner has a very nice Lancia Beta Zagato with a warmed over engine that he built) and we have a timeline that should hopefully see my Scorpion back on the road for the start of summer. Fingers crossed!

While the engine is being built, I have a brake system to refurbish. Ultimately, I'd like to go with a big brake setup, but will stay stock for now. I'll have to pull the calipers and see if the pistons/cylinders are in good enough shape to rebuild. Currently, I suspect at least one caliper is frozen as the car takes a huge amount of force to roll in neutral. All to be expected, the car has sat for at least a few years by now.

It feels good to finally have the ball rolling once again.
 
Glad to see progress here. It's been too cold to focus on my car out in the garage, we got a very rare 15 inches of snow in Eugene, Oregon this last week and everything has stopped.

Be brave with the brakes, they suck to work on...
 
Thanks, Chad. We had about two feet of snow here in Bremerton, WA a couple weeks back, but it's all melted by now. Still chilly in the garage! Not looking forward to the brakes at all, but since I'm wimping out on doing the engine rebuild myself I figure this is my penance.
 
It's been about a month, so we're well overdue for another update. The shop that is building my new engine needed a couple bits off the old one for balancing, including the crank pulley. Unfortunately, my old block is still in the car and it quickly became clear that removing the crank pulley was going to be tricky. There's really no room for an impact gun between the side of the block and engine bay. After failed attempts with a two-foot breaker bar, I called on a somewhat local forum member, Dean, who just so happened to have the pulley I needed on one of his spare engines. Dean lives closer to my mechanic than I do and graciously volunteered to not just loan me the pulley, but run it over to the shop for me. Thanks again, Dean -- lunch is on me when I get down to visit!

The engine will probably be finished in May or early June, so I've gotten started on rebuilding the brake and clutch hydraulics. When I got the car, the clutch pedal was on the floor and the brake pedal gave no resistance. The clutch slave cylinder was blown out and the brake calipers were also frozen, making pushing the car around a real burden. Basically, a full rebuild is needed.

I've been periodically spraying the connection between the front brake hard lines and flexible hoses with PB Blaster since nearly every car I've worked on in the past has been a challenge to get those two lines separated. Must have worked, as these were the easiest hoses to get off that I've experienced -- took just a few minutes each and the hard line nuts were not rounded in the least.

Removing the pistons from the front calipers went nowhere near as easily at first. I started off using compressed air, but even 60 psi wasn't making them budge. I got nervous about cranking up the pressure further than that, so Plan B was to use a grease gun to pump grease into the calipers through the hose port. This worked extremely well, and 20 minutes later both pistons were free. The seals were pretty toasted. Given the effort the pistons took to remove, I was worried about the condition they'd be in, but they look pretty good after the judicious use of brake cleaner, metal polish and some very fine steel wool. The caliper bores look pretty good too, but I need to finish thoroughly cleaning them, especially after packing them full of grease. I also need to clean up the sliding wedges and other hardware.

I have rebuild kits from Midwest-Bayless for both front and rear brakes, as well as new stainless braided hoses to install all around. My goal is to finish the fronts this weekend, then start on the rears. The final (and probably most difficult) part will be replacing the brake and clutch master cylinders with new spares from MWB. If I don't complete that job by the time the engine is finished, I may be tempted to save my back and let my mechanic have all the fun. We'll see.

Also, I ordered a set of 15x7 Ronal A1 replicas from Centerline Alfa when they had them on sale and they arrived the other day. The wheels look great and are a decent weight for the size -- they're made by a Swiss company called Maxilite which also does Fuchs replicas for Porsches, among other historic wheel designs. They're also TuV certified, so they should be safer than the original Ronals which I've heard have a tendency to fail under extreme use. A set of Dunlop Direzza DZ102 tires will be used. These tires appealed to me for three reasons: 1) they're fairly inexpensive for an ultra-high performance summer tire 2) I could get them in a staggered 195/50 front and 205/50 rear, to help preserve steering feel and 3) they're an older design with a little less grip than the best tires in this segment (like BF Goodrich Sport Comp 2) which means they'll look a little more aggressive than stock while still allowing the car to move around a little on the road. Massive grip is fun on the track, but I like to be able to get a little more movement on the street.

A few photos below...

P1040705.JPG P1040706.JPG P1040707.JPG P1040710.JPG P1040712.JPG
 
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Good to see someone post up some progress, nice work there. Your brakes are progressing much better than mine. I absolutely could not separate the hoses from the hard lines despite the same treatment, and rounded the hell out of the front hose nuts. The hoses weren't bad, but I had new braided ones in hand ready to install... I left the old ones alone after beating them to death. The brakes work, and I wonder if they work as well as other Scorpion brakes do... I replaced the rear calipers & pads all around, that'll due for now.

Serious wheel envy, those look great! I hope the previous wheels went to a good home, they're awesome too. I look forward to being lower down in my car's hierarchy of needs enough to consider wheel choices. New top & top parts are being saved for right now...

Have you had a peek under the carpet & behind the rear bulkhead upholstery yet? Knowing is good, and keep in mind that cars rust much more quickly here in the Pacific Northwest. I likely shouldn't atomize phosphoric acid buy putting it in a spray bottle, but I think its a critical supply for rust control for cars like ours in climates like ours.

I suspect your goal is to have the brakes ready & the tires mounted in time for the installation of the new motor? You just might have it on the road this summer, I sure hope so : ) I sure love your car in black, I hope you post a lot of gratuitous garage photos of it as you progress.
 
I absolutely could not separate the hoses from the hard lines despite the same treatment, and rounded the hell out of the front hose nuts. Yep, that's been my experience with nearly every single other car I've done brake hoses on. I must have done something to appease the God of Derelict Italian Project Cars.

Serious wheel envy, those look great! I hope the previous wheels went to a good home, they're awesome too. Thanks! I still have the old Epsilons, actually. I'll clean them up and either keep them as a spare set or make a renewed attempt at selling them in the future.

Have you had a peek under the carpet & behind the rear bulkhead upholstery yet? Nope, haven't yet. I suppose ignorance is bliss, but I do want to redo the carpet at some point (either replace or refresh) so I'll get a look then. I also want to recover the seats -- while the vinyl is in pretty good shape, I prefer cloth for comfort.

I suspect your goal is to have the brakes ready & the tires mounted in time for the installation of the new motor? You just might have it on the road this summer, I sure hope so : ) That's my hope too! A few more weekends should have brakes completed and the tires should arrive this coming week. Will definitely continue to post here with updates -- I feel like I'm gaining some momentum.
 
Have you had a peek under the carpet & behind the rear bulkhead upholstery yet? Knowing is good, and keep in mind that cars rust much more quickly here in the Pacific Northwest.

If I remember correctly, RJ80 moved here from Los Angeles a year or two back, so maybe rust not so bad in his ride...
 
If I remember correctly, RJ80 moved here from Los Angeles a year or two back, so maybe rust not so bad in his ride...
Yep, last June. My car was also garaged for most of its life and there's virtually no corrosion on the underside, so hopefully I got lucky in that way. I sure didn't on the engine!
 
Front brakes are now back together but ahead of rebuilding the rears, it turns out MWB sent me the wrong rear caliper rebuild kit (they sent me a 34mm kit for an X1/9 instead of the 38mm kit for Scorpion). Sigh. That's the third incorrect item from MWB I've received in my last three orders, spanning a year or so. I'm sure Matt will make good on this mistake like he did the prior two (**EDIT he did**), but it's a pretty frustrating thing. Especially when each item is actually checked off by hand on the shipping list!

In fact, the delay got me looking around at other parts suppliers and lo and behold, Autoricambi sells sets of 38mm rear calipers on their website for $300/pair. They suggest them for 124 owners as a rear upgrade for those running larger front brakes. They claim the calipers to be brand new, but I'm assuming they're used and professionally rebuilt. Given the comments others have had here about the difficulty in rebuilding rear calipers, with their integral handbrake mechanism, I've just ordered a set of the rebuilt units along with fresh rotors and new ceramic pads all around. I was planning on re-using the cross-drilled and slotted rotors that came with my car since they show virtually no wear but at $16/per rotor, I figure a set of freshly honed rotors will help the new pads bed-in nicely. I'd probably pay that much for resurfacing!

Those should arrive later this week, so hopefully I'll have the brakes buttoned up by the end of the month. Meanwhile, my mechanic Pete Bristow tells me that the engine internals should be arriving back from balancing next week. The work progresses...
 
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I believe those 38mm calipers are in fact new versus rebuilt. A few different vendors now offer them, none mention rebuilt. Tempting.
 
i would bet the calipers are new and of Chinese manufacture. I could be wrong but I bet i am not. That being said they will be 100% perfect. reverse engineering works very well especially with calipers. If i needed a set I would order them without hesitation. The fact is the vendors go through a lot of work and research to provide us with parts.
 
i would bet the calipers are new and of Chinese manufacture. I could be wrong but I bet i am not. That being said they will be 100% perfect. reverse engineering works very well especially with calipers. If i needed a set I would order them without hesitation. The fact is the vendors go through a lot of work and research to provide us with parts.
TonyK took apart an OEM rear caliper as well as an after market one, and found the piston and the self adjuster parts of the after market unit to be inferior. See Tony's photos in this post.
 
Interesting comments on the rear calipers, we'll see how they do I suppose. I wonder what vendor everyone used or if production has changed in the past two years. Eventually, I will probably try my hand at rebuilding the originals so I have a spare set down the road.

Meanwhile, Matt at MWB told me just to keep the incorrect rebuild kit and he'll refund me, so I'm all taken care of there. He also apologized for the continued hassle. I understand the challenges of running a small business and I will likely order from MWB again in the future, but I will place my order directly with Matt when I do.
 
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