What’d ya do with your X120 today?

Chad C.

True Classic
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I wonder if much of the work done on our cars is so incremental as to not inspire a post about it, but yet something did happen. If so, this thread might catch on. Seeing my avitar this much in the forum makes me worry about over-sharing, hope I’m not irritating.

My seats came in the mail today, $269 of awesomeness from eBay. I’m really happy with the fit & look of them, and they come with mounting brackets. They weigh 17 lbs each, much lighter than the factory seats that were trashed in my car.
I’ve been waiting to completely reinstall my carpet until I have the mounting of the seats figured out, so far they’re just set in place. I’m 35 inches at the waist, and they’re a snug fit. Good incentive to lose this extra ten lbs...

My car is running well, took it for a blast up the hill with the new seats sitting in place just before dark. Loud, rev-happy and in desperate need of real tires.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/RETRO-CLAS...546860?hash=item5d7e5659ec:g:39cAAOSwQGhbIB69
 
You have a long way to go before you are over sharing.

Nice, I like the silver vents which give a neat contrast. Yeah, the 10lbs will come off with the calisthenics you will be doing to get in and out of those seats :)

Looks great. Now get out and drive that thing! (After bolting down the seats of course...)
 
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Thanks : )

It's the factory carpet that I removed & restored. I began by washing it at a car wash, then failed twice with traditional fabric dyes before using an off the shelf upholstery dye. Came up pretty well with some effort. Getting it out in one piece was a lot of work.
 
I've always thought the design of the stock seats is one of the more interesting parts of the car, but your seats really look nice in the Scorpion. Almost like they were made to be there.
 
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Cleaned up the trans & surrounding areas this afternoon. Two tins of Brake cleaner, some abrasive pads, compressed air, Sea Foam in a spray bottle, and some effort.

A very relatable task that defines the phrase “better than it was”...

Still trying to sell the idea of this thread, if you washed your car’s windows today, post pics of it here. If you stared intently at your car, tell us about it!

I’m hoping to see other people’s X120s & what’s being done to them, no matter how insignificant.
 
Careful what you wish for! This is pretty insignificant to most, but not to me: my Scorpion #1733 finally arrived at my new home after an out of state move this past June. It had been vacationing at my in-laws' garage these past five months but now we've been reunited. I've still got one heck of a laundry list to even get it back on the road (see my thread here in this section), but I do have nearly all the parts ready to go and newfound motivation to see it through. Aiming to have the car back on the road for the start of summer here in the PNW.
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Bringing it home is a pretty significant event, that has to feel good. Glad you've got renewed enthusiasm about it. It looks great next to your 75, I envy the combo.

There we have it, what another of us did with his X120 today. Who's next?
 
Well, it was yesterday, not today... and I'm not sure I can call it a Scorpion anymore. But I drained some of the water from the coolant system and replaced it with antifreeze, since it is sure to get below freezing this month. Ran the engine up to temp to ensure it was circulated into the block.

Other recent work - front clamshell area - roughed out the lower latch area in between the door and tire, mounted latch. Working on contour line that runs from top of clamshell down to latch area. Pretty rough right now.

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Added retaining straps to front clamshell. Quick release at the radiator top mount bolt with a small pin.

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Still working on the "flares" that continue the wide part of the door bottom, in between the door and the rear wheel.

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Damn, Pete! That's coming along nicely. Just now checked out your wordpress blog on this, it's going to be amazing. Much thanks for sharing your progress here : )
 
I drove mine today. 20 miles up a rural twisty road parallel to a river here in western Oregon. A rare nice day today...

I took the time to get the correct air pressure in the tires, and that gave me more confidence in the corners. I'm pleased to find that the heater works pretty well and is reasonably quiet. My carbs aren't 100% yet but they're close enough to enjoy and the car gave me a pretty dignified drive for how rough it looks. The steering is so damn nice & light on these cars, super nice to feel. The suspension is in pretty good shape. Only a couple bushings need replaced and the car feels solid. It will easily rev into the 5k mark on the tach without any argument from the carbs, and the 40/80 cams are noticeable in the midrange. I had them put in just for fun as part of switching out the timing belt & water pump. I didn't expect much from them with stock compression but they do help.

I'm still catching on to mid-engine driving, it's way different from my Alfa Milano/75 was. I sold that soon after buying the Lancia. I mastered the Alfa, and I look forward to improving with this car. Tips are welcome. I damn near put it through a fence earlier in the fall...

The thought of the car being even louder when I add a header & free-flow exhaust makes me smirk a bit. This car is clearly a toy, and won't see much practical use. It's damn loud! I'm cool with that out in the countryside where I live, but I'm a bit old to rock that volume in the downtown area or at the hospital where I work. For contrast, my other car is a Volvo Cross Country wagon.

Thanks for reading my ramblings, has anyone else driven theirs lately? Some other driving impressions are of interest to me. For that matter, post what you've done with your car today!
 
I'm still catching on to mid-engine driving, it's way different from my Alfa Milano/75 was. I sold that soon after buying the Lancia. I mastered the Alfa, and I look forward to improving with this car. Tips are welcome. I damn near put it through a fence earlier in the fall...

Don't let off of the throttle mid turn - that will transition the weight of the car forward and cause the back to loose grip and step out which will be harder to recover from compared to a front heavy car since a mid engined car will spin faster (since the center of mass is closer to the middle).

General rule of thumb for mid-engined cars is if you stay in the throttle while turning, you'll find you have seemingly infinite grip (assuming your suspension/tires are in good working order). Of course every car is going to be slightly different and I've never driven a Scorpion, but the same physics will generally still apply.
 
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I sanded. And sanded, and sanded, then sanded some more. I spent an hour fixing imperfections on my Monte bumper. Still not done but much better. I've had it for a while, it felt good to do something with it. I still have no idea how I'm going to mount it, as it has only some basic tabs on it as provisions for mounting. No hardware, no threaded anything. Considering structural adhesive & bubblegum.

I'm a bit past the pictured progress on the right side. Got it smooth to 180 grit, which took forever due to many imperfections & some poor collision repair on the rear quarter. It's as close to perfect as I can get it with tools, torch & minimal long strand filler. Looks pretty good. I have a set of Dura-Block sanding blocks that are helpful, and a soft/spongy block for the rounded bits. Each panel got a skim coat of lightweight filler that is strangely satisfying to work with as most of it made it onto the floor below. I'm no expert here, but I've done two motorbikes and some collision repair that I was satisfied with. I'm just hoping for something presentable.

The right side had a lizard skin texture given to it by the Napa valley sun & a right side re-spray. I started with 60 grit, which made me sigh heavily as I began. Then 80, then 180.

I've begun on the rear deck lid, it's in good shape so it'll be comparatively easy. Still have the left side & frunk lid to do. I did the hard side first to make the rest seem easier. Once it's all good to 180 grit it gets its epoxy primer. Then I'll sand, and sand...

What'd ya do with your X1/20 today? Even if you only scrawled profanity on its dusty windshield, snap pics & share!
 
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I sanded. And sanded, and sanded, then sanded some more. I spent an hour fixing imperfections on my Monte bumper. Still not done but much better. I've had it for a while, it felt good to do something with it. I still have no idea how I'm going to mount it, as it has only some basic tabs on it as provisions for mounting. No hardware, no threaded anything. Considering structural adhesive & bubblegum.

Chad, where'd you get your bumper from? Did you just buy a rear or do you have a front as well? Getting the car back on the road is my first priority, but I'd like to find a set of Monte bumpers before I have it painted next year.
 
Back in the Nineties, I made reproduction Montecarlo panels and mounted them in a similar fashion as did Pete.

Pete, where’d your panels originate? I noticed the front turn signal cavities are a different shape than the Montecarlo. I know the FAZA panels only had the onboard cavities. All others I’ve seen were duplicates of the original.


Yeah mine came the same way. It's not perfect by any means, but here's how I dealt with mounting it, and it never fell off, so I'm sticking by it. :D

https://xwebforums.com/forum/index.php?threads/lancia-scorpion-euro-bumper-install.15580/
 
Back in the Nineties, I made reproduction Montecarlo panels and mounted them in a similar fashion as did Pete.

Pete, where’d your panels originate? I noticed the front turn signal cavities are a different shape than the Montecarlo. I know the FAZA panels only had the onboard cavities. All others I’ve seen were duplicates of the original.
They came from a guy name Jason Greenwood.
 
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