My New project - 76 128

lanciahf

lanciahf

True Classic
Lancia is sold all packed up ready for its trip down south. In the meantime, I have been playing with this 76 128. Unfortunately, the former owner passed away after he had it painted. Came with a parts car and loads of spare parts.
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77 Parts C
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My plan is for Ralph to grow tired of it in three months and offer it to me. Ralph, is it true you plan to weld the rear doors shut and bondo in the seams so it looks like a two door?
 
Ha, when I initially saw the first couple of pics in your post I was thinking the yellow/black one was the "good" car. And I could not comprehend what you meant by recently repainted....was it that badly painted I wondered? :D

Then I saw the rest of the pics, with the nice car....whew. It looks to be a very good repaint. And both cars seem to be pretty solid overall? The parts car might be worth saving?

But I agree, two too many doors for my personal preference. :p
 
I think there was a coolant leak at the thermostat or rear inspection plate. I hope to pull the motor this weekend
 
When I helped drag this car out of the widow's driveway I noted it was odd that the car had been totally stripped, including glass to paint it but this really ugly motor was in there. I'm thinking the motor was reinstalled after painting but why stick that ugly lump back in. Ralph, any indication the car was painted with the motor/trans still in there?
 
Hi Carl,

I removed the engine today, I don't think the motor was removed, there is still a lot of original paint in the engine bay. They probably masked as much as they could and removed the battery and spare tire.


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Repainting a complete car yourself at home is a huge task, especially with a total color change. I imagine by the time they got everything else except the engine bay prepped to paint the decision was made to just get it done without the big job (for most people) of removing the drivetrain. Perhaps the thought was "we'll get to that when it's time to rebuild the engine". Or for that matter they may have wanted to do the engine bay black instead of the body color. From the pics it looks like they did a good job of painting the car though. The color is a little unusual but might look amazing once all of the other details are done and the car is complete.
 
Who knew! Address the surface rust and take careful look of the sway bar mount and frame under the battery tray. That is an area for serious rust.

Did you drop the motor like normal people do or pull it out the top?
 
Pulled it out from the top, from the bottom was plan B. The car is pretty high up on the stands and I was not sure the lift would clear the fender but it did.

I saw an old post where you moved the battery to the trunk? Did you cut out the battery tray in the engine compartment? What did you use to mount the battery in the trunk?
Thanks
 
I moved the battery in both my 128s. I assume you were looking at my blue two door. No recollection but probably used some generic Summit Racing battery relocation kit or possibly pulled a 124 spider battery "box" and used that. On the wagon I relocated it to the side of where the passenger seat would have been (rear seat delete) as the wagons are two doors. If you are nice, Chris Granju might take a pic of the wagon battery location if you ask him nice since he owns the car now.

Then I hacked out the stock battery hold down...which had probably mostly rusted away anyway. Maybe you can use the battery tray from the front and relocate in the back.
 
If you get one of his bibles you will know exactly what he did with his 128, You want to borrow one of mine?
 
However, please make sure to do your research. Some of the mods from "the good old days" were actually not all that great. I, along with a number of others here have either done and/or unfixed a bunch of these types of mods. 3 leaf rear spring, sure. 4 leaf rear spring, sure, no rear spring and coil overs, sure... The battery to the trunk is actually pretty easy to do, but first I guess I need to know why? The newer batteries, especially a lithium Ion are so light that you would probably add weight to the car with the amount of cable running from the battery in the trunk to the starter up front. If this is going to be anything other than a pure race car, then I would leave the battery location alone and focus on other items. Just my rambling thoughts.
 
Plenty of room in the trunk of a 128 for a real spare unless you are prepping for a Costco Christmas run.
 
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