Resurrecting Jalpa #359

HOping by the end of sept. Depends on if life keeps kicking me in the ballsack and sucking up all of my spare time right now.

 

Life will only do that to you if you let it ! Jump on it and make it bed the knee

Life will only do that to you if you let it ! Jump on it and make it bed the knee

 

Doing my best man. Doing my best. 3 day weekend coming up for me, so hopefully plenty will get done over the weekend. Gonna be real with you for a moment. The last 6 months have been rough. One of my exes turned stalker status, police involved, crazy shit. Latest gf decided to move. I'm single again and at a crossroads. Right now work is insane, frustrating and crazy. I'm finishing this car and going to move to the next chapter of life. I've been trying to recover from a deep depression swing. Sleeping with my 9mm at night, full security system for my house, and I am ready to start chasing the rest of my dreams.

 

Life could certainly be worse, but I'm doing my best to not let things get to me, to keep moving on, pushing forward, and doing everything I can to survive and live my dreams. This is one of the most challenging times in my life. The Jalpa has been my staple.

 

During my first divorce, I was crushed. I rebuilt my Ducati top to bottom in the living room of my tiny apartment (with the blessing of my landlord of course), and it kept me going. Years later I moved onto Porsches. They became my staple, my foundation. During the darkest, most difficult times of my life I found solace in chasing the things that brought me joy. The Lamborghini has always been my first love. During my last divorce it came down to the whole, "Sell it and get rid of it or else." I told her, "I can't be that guy." We moved on in civil terms. We still talk now and then, she's happy, new fiance, and I've got my Lambo. We're both happy.

 

Every time I have a bad day, any time I feel like I'm slipping I go back out, I sit in the Lambo and remind myself, "I've struggled, i've fought my way through all of this giant sea of shit, and I've done this. I've made it, I've chased the thing that started this WHOLE obsession." Now with hearing the engine, tuning it myself, doing all of this, the motivation is incredible.

 

The next chapter of life is coming, and I refuse to give up. I'm a month (or two if all goes well) away from restoring my own Lamborghini, my way, with the modifications I want.

 

Dreams only escape you if you let them. As long as you remain determined, as long as you don't let things bring you down, despite the haters, the naysayers, despite all those that want to see you fail..... you can... and will... succeed.

Got everything i need to convert the jalpa to LED today. Have to trim the connectors, but these will do the job. Instead of having do make a resistor pack for dim/bright for running/brake lights the lights and harnesses can already do both.

 

 

 

Alright, so, LED conversion complete. Ready to be put into the car. I was able to "adapt" some harnesses to work with the stock jalpa lights. I wanted to gut the old ones out but once I realized how plentiful and easy it was to just find these new ones, I snagged 8 pairs and went to down experimenting. I was able to get them completely sealed with some extra thick o-rings and combination of some careful clipping and shaving.

 

I started with the license plate lights. Which were dirty as hell and had seen better days.. I started by going after them with water and wax, cleaning them up, and then ended up modifying them to retrofit LEDs.

 

 

Not as bad.

 

Oh hey you can almost see through them.

 

Testing to see if these are going to be good enough. Ayup.

 

Mounting.

 

And final testing. Booyah.

 

Like. A. Glove.

 

 

Onto the tail lights and turn signals. I ended up buying these plugs and harness pigtail kits to just basically fcuk around and see if they'd even work since the bulbs were the same fitment. I found out that happily to my surprise, while they didn't immediately fit, I found a way to make them fit with some careful shaving, sanding, orings and patience. The result is a weatherproof seal and LED conversion.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cool!

Cool!

 

Less power and easy to adjust brightness with a POTS system, which i'll be making as well.

You are having way to much fun LOL

 

I am jealous

You are having way to much fun LOL

 

I am jealous

 

If you're not enjoying a restoration and not happy with a smile on your face the entire time you do, then I would propose, "What's the point?"

If you're not enjoying a restoration and not happy with a smile on your face the entire time you do, then I would propose, "What's the point?"

 

So very true and that goes for pretty much everything else in life.

Cars going to be awesome Derek!

Huge progress tonight.

 

- Headlights are done, wiring done.

- Rear of the car is damn near done being wired up. May need a new brake sensor but that's no big deal.

- Bumper wired up

- Brake light is put back in and happily sealed.

 

The car is starting to look like one car again.

 

Tomorrow:

 

- Going to get out my old singer, scrape off all the old shit on the trunk, cut new carpet, sew new leather (i hate vinyl) onto the carpet and line the trunk

- Finish sealing the interior and lay carpet

- Finish wiring up the tail lights

- Try to get axles back in and part of the suspension along with the liners of the fender wells.

- Clean up some of the sealant around the tail light

 

Bumper isn't back in these pics since I need to connect it to harness.

 

 

 

 

 

Car is finally of stands. Still working on a brake solution. Found a clutch solution for the clutch master. Did some mock up spacers, will need to make a cnc'd spacer for it for final fit, and of course to ensure that my calculations will work for the bore size.

 

But the suspension is in, axle shafts in, working on brakes and clutch hydraulics, slap interior in and GO DRIVE.

 

Yes, my garage is messy right now, deal with it

 

 

Very cool!!

Getting there.  Got some very nice egyptian cotton to sew with today and got out the new enormous roll of vinyl.  So far so good.

 

Still need to re-route the power cable. For now it's just "out in the open" while I do the carpet and trim.

 

 

You sure do make me miss my Jalpa! I love seeing the progress so keep up the good work 😉

You sure do make me miss my Jalpa! I love seeing the progress so keep up the good work 😉

 

Get another!

 

I should have the majority of the interior done tomorrow. Pics to follow.

Makes me want a Jalpa even more!! Great job!!!.....and good luck.

Is there anything you can’t do? I have a tone of respect for you, you are amazing!

Is there anything you can’t do? I have a tone of respect for you, you are amazing!

 

Meet someone who likes the same things and keep a consistent relationship with someone who isn't crazy?

So some time ago I bought some window motors out of a Porsche from a friend. When I showed him my window motor (he restores porsches) he went, "holy crap I think I have something that'll fit."

 

So I sent him my window motor so he could play with it, and sure as shit, he found exactly what I was looking for. With some slight modification, I have combined the two of them and made a half Porsche, half Lamborghini window motor setup. The Porsche internals and gearing is THE SAME as Lamborghini. But I can snag these for about $100 out of a used Porsche, rebuild them easily, and upgrade the stock motors. Beats the hell out of getting those $1500 motors when I can make these much better.

 

The wiring and internals and winding on the Lambo motor are far thinner, much weaker. The Porsche motors are very beefy internally with better winding. The result is a LOT more juice you can run through them. The Porsche window motors always seemed like there was a ton of drag on their rails so I suspect they were made that way to compensate.

 

But on the Jalpa? They're super quick, snappy snappy snappy.

 

Meet someone who likes the same things and keep a consistent relationship with someone who isn't crazy?

 

 

Don’t forget, opposites attract, I have no interest in what my wife does and vice versa, there are few things which we both like but not that many, she has her hobbies and I have mine. We have a perfect relationship because we stay out of each other’s hair and give each other space so we can still be individuals but come together when our relationship is concerned. Best way to be.

 

You have to find someone who accepts you for who you are not your identical twin! Good luck !

 

 

 

Don’t forget, opposites attract, I have no interest in what my wife does and vice versa, there are few things which we both like but not that many, she has her hobbies and I have mine. We have a perfect relationship because we stay out of each other’s hair and give each other space so we can still be individuals but come together when our relationship is concerned. Best way to be.

 

You have to find someone who accepts you for who you are not your identical twin! Good luck !

 

Yeah maybe someday.

Passenger side pretty much done.

 

Got out my Porsche piston ashtray and had a glass of scotch and a cigar and sat in the driver seat now that it's in, for the first time in 4 years. sat there for a good hour just enjoying the cigar and scotch and relaxing. Was up since 9 working on it all day. I'm beat, I'm sore, and I feel so god damned satisfied.

Very nice. I like the white piping.

Very nice. I like the white piping.

 

The previous was black with black. I didn't like it because I feel it didn't really blend well with the white piping on the doors and seats, it was... inconsistent. So I'm doing the white trim on carpets for consistency, and I really like how it pops, without being "too much".