RJ80
True Classic
Hi all,
Just bought my first Scorpion last week. I'd always wanted one and now I have one! I'm a previous serial Fiat owner -- had a '76 X1/9 for three years or so back in college days, recently owned a '79 124 Spider for six years and currently have a '67 850 Coupe that I've owned for three or four years.
This car is #1733, so pretty late in the U.S. production run. The story I got is that it's been sitting in an indoor collection for the last several years, and that it has always been a California car. The original color is gold, but it was resprayed black over the original paint at some point in the '90s, which I believe is when it was last run regularly. The paint is now starting to let go, especially towards the front of the car. I haven't pulled the inside carpets yet, but the car generally looks quite rust free, including under the front trunk floor.
At some point, someone spent a lot of money and love on this car. The wheels are three-piece 15" Southern Ways Epsilons, which were never cheap. The spare is a pretty rare 13x6 Cromodora (maybe CD66?) with an ancient Pirelli P3 tire on it. This Scorpion also has twin Weber 40 DCNFs and a 4-1 aftermarket exhaust that exits on the passenger side of the car, but looks very well made. I'm guessing it's a CSC or Guy Croft system. I haven't checked the cams yet, but would wager they are aftermarket as well. The car came with zero service records, unfortunately.
The interior is in very nice shape -- some stitches on the seats are letting go, but should be able to be resewn, I think. The front trunk area looks brand new. An aftermarket alarm (appears to be an early Clifford unit) is fitted with a very '80s looking keypad. A '70s Blaupunkt is installed and it looks like someone converted the shifter to a shorter-throw unit.
I bought the car being told that the engine will fire up, but I haven't attempted that yet. I bought a new Interstate battery and the dash lights do come on in the accessory position, the clock works and the windows go up and down. That's as far as I've gotten.
My plan is to first get the car back to running and driving condition. The brakes, incredibly, don't appear to be seized up but the clutch pedal goes to the floor with little resistance and there's not much fluid in the clutch reservoir. Judging by the rust-colored fluid splash in the engine bay, the clutch slave cylinder gave out. I should be getting a supply of parts I ordered in the mail shortly: new clutch master and slave cylinders, timing belt and tensioner bearing, water pump and gasket, and alternator belt. I'll do a full belt/water pump service before attempting to get the car running.
Will keep the thread updated with progress and I'm sure plenty of questions! These pictures were taken before I'd even washed the car off, so I'm really at the tip of the iceberg here.
Just bought my first Scorpion last week. I'd always wanted one and now I have one! I'm a previous serial Fiat owner -- had a '76 X1/9 for three years or so back in college days, recently owned a '79 124 Spider for six years and currently have a '67 850 Coupe that I've owned for three or four years.
This car is #1733, so pretty late in the U.S. production run. The story I got is that it's been sitting in an indoor collection for the last several years, and that it has always been a California car. The original color is gold, but it was resprayed black over the original paint at some point in the '90s, which I believe is when it was last run regularly. The paint is now starting to let go, especially towards the front of the car. I haven't pulled the inside carpets yet, but the car generally looks quite rust free, including under the front trunk floor.
At some point, someone spent a lot of money and love on this car. The wheels are three-piece 15" Southern Ways Epsilons, which were never cheap. The spare is a pretty rare 13x6 Cromodora (maybe CD66?) with an ancient Pirelli P3 tire on it. This Scorpion also has twin Weber 40 DCNFs and a 4-1 aftermarket exhaust that exits on the passenger side of the car, but looks very well made. I'm guessing it's a CSC or Guy Croft system. I haven't checked the cams yet, but would wager they are aftermarket as well. The car came with zero service records, unfortunately.
The interior is in very nice shape -- some stitches on the seats are letting go, but should be able to be resewn, I think. The front trunk area looks brand new. An aftermarket alarm (appears to be an early Clifford unit) is fitted with a very '80s looking keypad. A '70s Blaupunkt is installed and it looks like someone converted the shifter to a shorter-throw unit.
I bought the car being told that the engine will fire up, but I haven't attempted that yet. I bought a new Interstate battery and the dash lights do come on in the accessory position, the clock works and the windows go up and down. That's as far as I've gotten.
My plan is to first get the car back to running and driving condition. The brakes, incredibly, don't appear to be seized up but the clutch pedal goes to the floor with little resistance and there's not much fluid in the clutch reservoir. Judging by the rust-colored fluid splash in the engine bay, the clutch slave cylinder gave out. I should be getting a supply of parts I ordered in the mail shortly: new clutch master and slave cylinders, timing belt and tensioner bearing, water pump and gasket, and alternator belt. I'll do a full belt/water pump service before attempting to get the car running.
Will keep the thread updated with progress and I'm sure plenty of questions! These pictures were taken before I'd even washed the car off, so I'm really at the tip of the iceberg here.
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