Resurrecting Jalpa #359

hydraulics are all rebuilt. calipers rebuilt and on the car. clutch hydraulics good to go. the new booster and master setup is installed, the extra lines are ran. i basically just split the lines at the T connectors, and then ran 2 extra lines for each T so it's now a 4 line, 4 outlet master setup. I've misplaced my euro adapter for the damn power bleeder. So someone will have to come over tomorrow and help me bleed it, unless I can find an adapter locally. I could potentially make one.

 

Interior is pretty much all in. A few bits of glue are now drying so that I can finish one last piece of carpet.

 

Headed to the dmv tomorrow to get plates, and then I need to button up and adjust a few things, double check ALL moving parts, suspension, all nuts and adapters and make sure I haven't overlooked anything. Late monday, or sometime tuesday should be first drive if I keep this pace up. The hard parts are out of the way.

Congrats! It's been great following the journey. Good luck getting some sleep tonight. Can't wait to see it on the road.

Congrats, looking forward to some pics and video from the first drive.

 

Thanks guys! The clutch hydraulics were a bit.... odd... to deal with. The braided line originally came very very close to the headers, which I did not like. I've since sacrificed one of my Porsche hydraulics off my 931 which fit the slave cyl, lobbed the end off of a 1/4" brake line, and then used a union fitting. Basically I was able to take a longer line, pass that past the subframe, and past the starter, up and around and into the side of the slave. In the end, this made it clear the header better, which hopefully will be an improvement over the stock setup.

 

As well, the brake lines were re-used to some degree.

 

On the Jalpa, for some reason, the master went from one line in the front, splitting into a T at the back (behind the seats) and into the bottom and then back into each line.

 

Same for the front.

 

I split the T lines, used union fittings, and then ran new lines attached to each, to get the end result to the master, and clutch as well. The brake master is large, good diameter, and since it's now 4 line, should stop in a far better manner than the stock brakes, while still utilizing the original calipers and brake setup. The best part is that the booster AND master required no fabrication to make it fit to the box, only the actual rod from the booster needed minimal cut and welding to get it to an adjustable length that was where stock was.

 

The clutch hydraulic is used off of a diablo, unlike the brake master which is not lamborghini at all.

 

Very very tight fit for both together, as the lamborghini booster (which i believe was originally Alfa, modified by lamborghini) was spaced out further, and the one i am using now is the same diameter but closer to the pedal box. very very VERY little room to work on it, but totally doable.

 

So long as the bleeding goes well tomorrow, and all the little things are addressed, should be good for the test drive.

Brakes are bled, clutch is bled, and adjusted. Everything is tip top groovy. The DMV had a statewide outage today so i couldn't get the stuff to make her legal.

 

We did have a few snags on bleeding, one of them had a funky flare which cracked, fixed that and reflared. Then the teflon seal for the pressure sensor i used wouldn't seal so I used tape instead, that fixed it. Everything is now solid as a rock. That brake pedal is absolutely perfect for how it feels.

 

So tomorrow is all the little crap:

 

- Get plates

 

- adjust shifter linkage

 

- Plop hub and rest of interior in

 

- double check brake lights and test everything, double check bolts, fasteners, frame, leaks, etc.

 

 

 

If that all checks out, I'll take it for a spin. Either way this feels crazy!

I love that feeling of basically being done. Good luck with the final steps.

I love that feeling of basically being done. Good luck with the final steps.

 

Man, I'm tellin' ya, converting to a 4 line master was THE trick. Feels super solid. Can't wait to see how it is on the road. Everyone complains that the Jalpa brakes feel like crap but I don't think that'll be the case with this car.

It needs to be live!

Alright so... i got it out on the road.

 

Got the fucker down to the culdesac and it died. Turns out the signal cable was rubbing up against one of the spark plug wires. Fixed that, fired right back up.

 

Got it up and down the block multiple times. Finally got on it in first, hit a little swoop and the frunk pin popped and up came the hood. Zero damage, I wasn't even going fast (I never got out of 1st), so the only thing hurt was my pride.

 

Got the hood back down and kept driving and enjoyed it.

 

Throttle response is INCREDIBLE on itbs. Fires right up. Stops fantastic with the new brakes (and they aren't even boosted yet). Feels absolutely fantastic. Definitely needs an alignment, but aside from that? SO so so so good.

 

 

Dirty as hell. Needs a bath

Wow, what a journey. CONGRATS!

That's awesome, congratulations

I'll get some footage up here soon, need to edit it because it has my address and stuff so i don't wanna post that on the interwebs lol. You will probably laugh your asses off when you see the frunk pop open. I never got out of first gear because it was getting late and i don't have the switch wired up for the headlights yet.

Wow that must be the best feeling in the world, it’s amazing that you restored this Jalpa on your own and now it runs and drives! Huge congrats to you.

Wow that must be the best feeling in the world, it’s amazing that you restored this Jalpa on your own and now it runs and drives! Huge congrats to you.

 

It's a weird feeling I'm still processing. 4 years ago I felt overwhelmed and it was a crazy amount to take on. Now I'm driving it down the street going, "holy shit! this is mine? I DID IT!" it feels fantastic.

wow this is incredible, I can not tell you how excited I am for you! Enjoy it my friend!!

Been following this since day one, Incredible job Derek!

You have been an inspiration to alot of people with this and it certainly has me eyeballing more classic cars now.

 

Enjoy it and if you go to monterey this year let me know.

Congrats! Awesome job all around!

 

Don't know if you've seen this yt chanel but your story would fit right in... https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOABx_lB4InzJyo5AnJAGXw

Well done Derek. That car was majestic in its first life and deserved the new lease on life you gave it. My hat is off to you for the labor of love rebuild/restoration of #359. Welcome to the club & enjoy your LAMBO.

Well done Derek. That car was majestic in its first life and deserved the new lease on life you gave it. My hat is off to you for the labor of love rebuild/restoration of #359. Welcome to the club & enjoy your LAMBO.

 

I plan on reviving the ultrasmith stuff on it that was damaged from the mess of everything, poor car. I want to put some interesting twists to it with some modern tech, but I feel it would do the car justice to be just as majestic as it was. That'll be stuff i'll do over the winter though, but should be rad as hell. Any luck on finding any of the old photos? Thank you for the kind words. Means a lot.

Friend came over last night and detailed the hell out of it. Paint really came back to life.

 

 

Here's the before. Yes that's blood, no I didn't hit anyone, it's not a mustang. I sliced my finger open on a piece of metal and was trying to get the damn latch to close. Apparently there was a nice little bur on one of the pieces of metal I cut off in there and forgot about. I was frustrated and I said "fcuk it." and kept trying and unfortunately it was just blood all over. I did get the latch closed and adjusted though yay.

Speechless! Well done

Man that’s great!!!

 

 

Well, took it for test drive #3 today. Steering was still walking a little. Went ahead and measured. Was told by someone very familiar with the Jalpa and Countach that the toe should be 1/8" IN. I'm nearly half an inch OUT, which explains a lot. Soaking the nuts for the tie rod adjustment and will fix it in the morning. Easy fix, but that means it's nearly 3/4" off total, that's nuts. Mind you the front suspension wasn't apart the entire time I did this, so it isn't like something went out of whack from putting it together, it came that way.

 

EIther way will fix and remeasure in the morning.

Pics from today's photoshoot. Woot! Pictures courtesy of Short Lyfe Photography, my friend Jaydra, she did great work.

 

Cool pics. Makes me miss the Diablo!