Wiring the car I’m installing a 4 circuit fuse/relay box in the front near the fuel tank for the fuel pump, radiator fans and horns. Inside the car I have a 10 circuit relay box and I’m using the original engine relay box in the rear. All power goes through the cutoff switch and two circuit breakers on the dash—one for the engine and one for everything else. I’m making a new switch panel to replace the one shown in the image below. Continue reading Update 11/11/20
Wheel stud upgrade The car was using different wheel stud sizes between the front and rear hubs. The front has Wilwood hubs with 1/2-20 studs and the rear has Chevrolet bolt on hubs for the Corvette rear spindles. The OEM stud size in the rear was 12-1.5mm. I purchased two sets of ARP 1/2-20 conversion studs for the C5 Corvette and installed those in the rear hubs. I took the opportunity to install Timken hubs which use tapered roller bearings instead of ball bearings. Installation wasn’t too difficult using a tie rod press to pop out the original studs, a … Continue reading Update 10/27/20
I finished spraying the doors and air intakes with epoxy primer. It’s cooling off in my area so I’m taking a break from the exterior body and will begin working on the chassis wiring and the engine fuel injection. Continue reading Update 10/2/20
I found a solution to the front quarter panel body pieces. I’m building the pieces out of steel sheet metal and square tube that is welded to the Lancia chassis. These pieces will be skinned in thin steel as shown in the second picture below but represented by a manila folder that I am using as a template. I’ll use easy to shape polyurethane foam blocks on the leading edge to continue the contour of the wheel arch down to the bottom rocker panel. With the foam blocks in place I’ll cover the whole assembly in fiberglass, including the outside … Continue reading Update 10/8/17
I took a week of vacation to work full time on the bodywork. My hope was to get the body filled and in primer back to the rear quarter panels. So after a week how was the progress? Almost zero progress. I spent almost the entire time working on the front fender pieces that mount to the chassis just ahead of the doors. The good news is that I decided to stop and cut my losses and rethink these parts because the pieces are poorly formed and there is just no way forward using the pieces I received. If you … Continue reading Update 9/24/17
I worked on the Lancia bodywork yesterday. I used a chemical stripper on the passenger side door jamb and A/B-pillars but the original Lancia paint doesn’t want to come off even with stripper. It took four applications of heavy duty stripper to get down to the metal. I’ll strip the paint on the corresponding areas on the driver side but on the doors themselves I’ll just scuff the original paint and paint over it with urethane primer because the factory paint is really solid and I don’t want to deal with the mess. I feathered in the fiberglass I applied … Continue reading Update 9/5/2017
I stripped all the red paint on the A/B/C pillars and around the windshield using a wire wheel and applied POR-15 white chassis paint. The paint isn’t a bright white, more of an ivory color, but it dries very hard and holds the surface well. I bonded the quarter panels to the car with 3M panel adhesive. Surface prep is important so I scuffed the steel chassis really well and sanded down the panels to the glass fibers on the inside edges. I cleaned the steel surface with left over enamel reducer until the paper towels came back clean. It … Continue reading Update 8/18/17
A new throttle cable bracket bolted to the engine at one of the hoisting points. All the bolts are secure with Loctite. It’s very simple and strong. The picture makes it look like the cable is coming out of the bracket at an angle, but it is exiting perpendicular to the bracket. I made my own throttle cable using 1.5mm wire rope and a thimble on the end at the pedal. Unfortunately there is no off the shelf solution that is the right length, diameter and cable end. The routing has a few bends but I lubed the cable really … Continue reading Update 8/13/17
My Stradale 