scorpion #1147 resurrection thread

mikeroten

True Classic
hi guys -

there seems to be a much more engaged scorp crowd here than on the other lancia site, so I have decided to mirror the contents of that page here for the larger audience. I'll be reposting in order each of my updates that are relevant, and will continue the thread here. enjoy!

- mike
 
ok, let's start from the beginning. this was in Sept of 2016. Has it really been that long?

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the short story... I'm an avid car guy, not new to Fiats, Alfas. I also own a Ducati Paso. I've known this car since the mid 80s, when I was in my teens, and I pined for it then. last year, it turns out it had been put away wet in storage in 1995 and has sat ever since. i struck a deal with the owner to resurrect another car he had in trade for the Scorpion, and the deal was completed last night.

this is how we found her

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after pulling her out

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I have no idea why she was sidelined. She's got 64k miles on the clock. The timing belt is intact. The interior is unbelievably good. The engine bay is unmolested. The body appears to be completely free of rust. The paint is original. After some cleanup, I'll post some better photos.
 
later that month...

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so, did some light cleaning, gave her a bath today. now you know why I say I found a "good one"

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now comes the slow mechanical resurrection process. I would claim that this car has zero rust. It's lived it's entire life in Northern California. We'll see what I find as I pull carpets and stuff to clean it out.
 
a few days later went into the frunk to see what's up

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today's miniproject... yank the trunk carpets, clean them, and clean/inspect the area

the carpets were dirty, with mouse pee and stuff in them but in overall nice shape. a pleasant surprise was a plastic battery liner on the tray area which has kept rust down to a minimum.

what I don't understand is what's going on with the hydraulic bypass line... anyone know what's going on here?

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that's all for this weekend. I'll put it all back together this coming week.
 
a little later I dug into the fuse box

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back from a long weekend, tonight's miniproject is to prepare to energize a car that's been sitting for 21 years. I have this crazy paranoia about fires in cars and it'd be a shame to see this one go up in smoke, so I'll be approaching the electrics carefully. I want to keep things as stockish as possible, but get it sorted well. so... yank all the fuses, inventory what's going on in the fuse box before hooking up the new odyssey battery, which will eventually be tied down with this setup from Rennline or similar minus the remote switch. The switch location is pretty secure in the frunk but I definitely want a tidy cutoff. Once the battery is hooked up I'll then test each circuit one by one and pray there's no rodent damage.


on to the photos: I usually stick the fuses down to a piece of tape to keep them in order

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then cleaned the fusebox out with THIS STUFF (yeah, left the short fuses in there for the time being)

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then, after doing a bunch of wiring diagram studying, I made a table of what to expect in the fuse box vs what I found. Everything seemed to be in order with the exception of location H which is a lighting circuit but had a 16A fuse in it. the factory wiring book shows an 8A in that location. could be a sloppy swap by the prior owner, could be something else. ah, the joys of limited production italian cars. we'll see. to get the car running requires what appears to be only location A

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I need to pop the relays out still, and should probably replace them all. They look like standard fare, nothing fancy.
more to come later! this is a slow and steady project. I did some work on the paint, too... but I'll save those pictures for another day after the whole job is done.
 
more about the fuse box

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so, after culling all the random stuff together (thank you klarid for completing the puzzle!) here's my interpretation of what the fuse box/relay plate looks like and what goes where when you look under the steering wheel. I'll ID the relay types later and perhaps update the image.

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did some cleaning...

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last night's mini-project... pull spare tire, pull heat shield, degrease and wash out the engine bay. I hate working on dirty cars.

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next up will be to dump the fuel tank contents, dump the oil, toss some E85 into the tank and let it percolate (to remove any varnish) then work on fuel flow up to the carb, which will be rebuilt.
 
dug into the rear brakes...

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after attending a local lancia club dinner and shaking a few hands last night, today was quite a productive day! my son and I pulled the calipers and prepped them for rebuild. I was able to free the piston in each and tear them down. One of the bleed nipples is being difficult but we'll solve that problem.


got the calipers off... (this was very straightforward)

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they were filthy, the pistons were hard to remove, the ebrake stuff was rusty/crusty but after a couple hours of soaking and messing with them they tore down

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It's soda blasting time! These babies should rebuild just fine.
 
more brakes...

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finally got the time to remove and inspect the front calipers. I ended up in a similar situation with the rears whereas one of the bleed nipples broke off even after soaking in penetrating oil, the other one simply would not budge. Thankfully the fronts are not hen's teeth like the rears are, so I'll just order a pair of remanufactured calipers.

Here's where I'm at now. All the calipers are off. The rears are stripped down for soda blasting, and I'll blast all the carriers too.

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and more brakes...

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now I have everything outboard to do the brakes in hand. if it wasn't hotter than the surface of the sun this evening, I'd be out there soda blasting.

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how to get those frozen hard lines off without farking them up

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update: the soft lines are frozen solid onto the hard lines. damaging the hard line fittings is absolutely out of the question, so it's time to get patient and firm with the problem.

step 1 was to soak the fittings with penetrating oil and let it soak in for a few days. this is done.
step 2 was to get on each fitting with a torch, and more penetrating oil. heat things up from the outside of the soft line fitting and wick more penetrating oil in. this is done.

on order is this tool

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which will be used to clamp the hard line fitting to prevent damage to the hex

also on order is this product

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the fittings will be torched again from the outside, while the hard line fitting will be clamped in the grip and frozen with the spray. the combination of the pen oil plus the thermal difference between the two sides of the fitting should permit them to be separated -- by turning the large nut (unclipped from the body bracket) and using the clamp to hold the hard line from moving and all the while applying a small harmonic. wish me luck!
 
by july 2017, all the brake lines were off

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both front hard lines are free, and both cam off clean with a satisfying *crack* -- I'll tackle the rears in the next few days.


I am happy. I highly recommend this technique


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front brakes, this pic spurred a bunch of conversation about the Timken rollers up front

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cleaned up the existing rotors and wheel mounting faces (they were super crusty) these will do as I figure I'm going to have to pull the hubs and repack or replace the wheel bearings down the road after the car's running. In the process the kid got to learn how to handle a power drill with a wire cup brush on it. :encourage:

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calipers on

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regarding the wheel bearings: I'll tear down the driver side this week. I was too antsy to assemble my calipers and went ahead and built the passenger side up. The hard line is still disconnected as I want to flush it before I hook it up to the caliper to prevent any pollution in my new parts.

test build on the table (yes the clips are improperly assembled)

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passenger side hung up and ready

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I told my illustrious helper (14yo son) that once the hydraulics are done, he'll be surprised at how quickly the rest of the project is going to come together. I'm stoked!
 
more rear brake work...

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woot! a complete kit for rear brakes, ready to assemble! it should be noted that the pistons and their internal adjusting mechanisms were REALLY funky. anyone doing this should be sure to disassemble them and clean out thoroughly... there's a bearing in there.


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then into the pedal box. note: this is still not done and has to come out again for a MH 3-line conversion

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and, on to the next phase of the hydraulics!

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in reality, it wasn't too hard getting the pedal box out. a healthy pre-soak of the fittings at the firewall made things come apart easily enough...

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and dropping the steering column off to the side made access in the footwell a bit easier. I'm smallish (5' 8") so working in this area isn't too bad for me

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now to source parts and refresh this thing!
 
Hi Mike, I think you’re just down the hill from me. I believe I met your dad at the Folsom Cars and Coffee. Once we get out of this social distancing, we should meet up.

Mark


hi guys -

there seems to be a much more engaged scorp crowd here than on the other lancia site, so I have decided to mirror the contents of that page here for the larger audience. I'll be reposting in order each of my updates that are relevant, and will continue the thread here. enjoy!

- mike
 
by the time Feb 2018 got here, the pedal box was done. One lesson learned, the big bolts holding the masters in MUST be inserted from the LEFT otherwise the tip of the bolt (as you can see here) will hit the fuse box and not allow the box to be installed. this orientation is wrong

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and I've finally put it all back together! I hope I got the spring right...

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