Restoration of 1120004

[ilconservatore]

Hi everybody,

I've been working with Tim Mathile on managing the restoration of our now infamous 004. A number of folks expressed interest in the car so I thought I'd make it public. I just started with Tim a couple months ago, so its taken me awhile to get up to speed on the project.
The restoration shop has many of the major issues sorted out, including completely repairing the wheel arch butchery front and rear (complete new rear quarters were needed). The engine was salvageable but required new intake manifolds, headers, carbs, linkage and even new cams. Bob Wallace radically modified the originals to work with the turbos...I'll be posting some pics in the near future.

I've been doing a ton of research on little details with respect to the early cars (thanks to Joe S, Christian Z and others for the help!) but a few questions still remain. It seems that every system on the car was somehow abused or modified. Please excuse me if I'm being too detailed, but you can see the effort we're putting into getting the car 'right'. Please PM if you'd like to discuss LP400 details, I'd love to listen...

engine cover - was modified with grilles added inside the rectangular openings, and the black-out pans underneath were removed. Can anyone send close ups of construction details on the cover and these trays. Pics attached

exhaust - is the early exhaust the same as the large rectangular unit shown below? Ours was gutted and replaced with Supertrapps

parking lights/turnsignal assemblies - ours has clear lenses but one was cut to add a radar detector sensor. Other early cars have amber/clear lenses. Any comments?

spare tire wheel - what wheel and tire was used for a spare?

Does anyone still have an 'original' radio, or can you comment on what would have been dealer installed. A lot of vendors are pushing the becker europa but I don't think it would look correct.

distributor caps/coils - do original distributor caps have logos, or are they 'generic' with no outside markings? Were coils supplied by Magneti Marelli?

Thanks again everyone...I've enjoyed lurking in the archives and now look forward to posting in real time...


I'll also be posting a parts needed list on the classifieds to save space here...I'm sure there will be more questions to follow.

[Jota 5084]

Hi, if you still are intrested in a higher res. of this scann, pls PM me youre mailad.

BTW, nice to see an effort to bring this car back to original again, its going to be intresting to follow this thread.

[ralfabco]

If you would like some help, I have a friend that spent years restoring an excellent LP 400. PM me, if you are interested. If so, I will pass your contact information along to him. He has a wealth of information, on the early cars.

Good luck with your project.

[ilconservatore]

thanks guys, pm's sent

[EMILIO]

the big square muffler: i do not think is correct for the LP400, it is for the later cars

in anycase it is a PITY to put one on ANY countach since it weights a ton and sounds... well...is not what a countach should sound like!

[Diablo_4_Ever]

Interesting project, good luck with it

[ilconservatore]

emilio, could you point me to a more 'correct' muffler? I'm not familiar with countach exhaust, but we don't want something that's too modern/aftermarket

[EarlyCat]

Originally Posted by EMILIO

the big square muffler: i do not think is correct for the LP400, it is for the later cars

in anycase it is a PITY to put one on ANY countach since it weights a ton and sounds... well...is not what a countach should sound like!

I think it's time to post some pictures of the Ansa systems you have! I need to get rid of my suitcase muffler......

[ralfabco]

Originally Posted by EarlyCat

I think it's time to post some pictures of the Ansa systems you have! I need to get rid of my suitcase muffler......

Joey,


Hook up with Emilio. He is good-to-go.

He took care of me.

Grazie Emilio !



He even gave me a bag of Bacetti choclates - Piccole delizie quotidiane

[Peter K.]

You are doing God's work, bless you.

[Dodici Cilindri]

Going back through my collection of books and literature I can provide the following:
(1) All factory literature shows amber parking lights. However your car is so early that the factory could have installed whatever they had on hand at the time. Remember this is a hand built car and not a production vehicle as they became.
(2) Photographs show a full size spare. Since the factory called for 14" wheels front and rear, probably a 14 X 7 1/2. Do you have the tool kit that fitted into the spare?
(3) Standard Marelli distributor caps.
(4) Radio: From the original factory brochure the radio shown is definitely NOT Becker, as the knob style is wrong. What is installed is most likely a Blaupunkt model CR4096. As this was also used on contemporary Mercedes and Porsche.
(5) Talk to the guys at GT Car Parts in Phoenix. They have been in the Lamborghini parts business seemingly forever. They are very knowledgeable and very good people to deal with.
Good luck on your project.

[joe sackey]

Originally Posted by Dodici Cilindri

All factory literature shows amber parking lights. However your car is so early that the factory could have installed whatever they had on hand at the time.

Not sure you are correct here. All-white rectangular turn signal lenses were fitted spec for some specific countries such as Italy, which 1120004 was delivered to. Half amber/half white lenses were for the rest of the world. In fact, even going back to the days of the Miura SV, this was the case. Of course, there were variations with certain countries and with the odd car here & there, but they did in fact have a system going on. Attached is the turn signal lens of an Italian delivered car, 1120110.

[LC3929]

Originally Posted by joe sackey

Not sure you are correct here. All-white rectangular turn signal lenses were fitted spec for some specific countries such as Italy, which 1120004 was delivered to. Half amber/half white lenses were for the rest of the world. In fact, even going back to the days of the Miura SV, this was the case. Of course, there were variations with certain countries and with the odd car here & there, but they did in fact have a system going on. Attached is the turn signal lens of an Italian delivered car, 1120110.

correct

[LC3929]

Originally Posted by Dodici Cilindri

Going back through my collection of books and literature I can provide the following:
(4) Radio: From the original factory brochure the radio shown is definitely NOT Becker, as the knob style is wrong. What is installed is most likely a Blaupunkt model CR4096. As this was also used on contemporary Mercedes and Porsche.

The early LP400 received a Philips radio. Type unknown.

[EMILIO]

Originally Posted by ilconservatore

emilio, could you point me to a more 'correct' muffler? I'm not familiar with countach exhaust, but we don't want something that's too modern/aftermarket

i think the correct one for the LP400 is the smaller black box, smaller than the one in your pic

personally i would get a sport ANSA for it since i love the sound and weights no more than 8.5 Kgs (the original should be well over double this!)

the ANSA sport in normal steel and black paint is "almost" period correct being available (at least ) from 1978

Joe: may be you know what was the first year for them to be the factory sport exhaust?
it would be interesting to know, tks

[EMILIO]

Originally Posted by ralfabco

Joey,


Hook up with Emilio. He is good-to-go.

He took care of me.

Grazie Emilio !



He even gave me a bag of Bacetti choclates - Piccole delizie quotidiane

tks you Ralph
pleasure to got you what you were looking for !

p.s. you will like the sound!
p.p.s. no countach should run with a muffled box...let the beast roar >: )

[ilconservatore]

The ANSA system is very tempting, especially since the restoration shop reports that there were additional brackets welded to the rear lower frame tubes that may have been for a different exhaust. With the pictured ANSA pipes installed, is there a different intermediate pipe required to go up to the header collectors? One could make the argument against a factory muffled system on this particular car - for 'promotional' purposes!

[2NA]

Originally Posted by ilconservatore

The ANSA system is very tempting, especially since the restoration shop reports that there were additional brackets welded to the rear lower frame tubes that may have been for a different exhaust. With the pictured ANSA pipes installed, is there a different intermediate pipe required to go up to the header collectors? One could make the argument against a factory muffled system on this particular car - for 'promotional' purposes!

The intermediate pipes are included with the Ansa system.

[EMILIO]

the ANSA SPORT exhaust comes complete with the 4 connectors that goes on stock headers so no problem here

it has a strut on the upper canister that mounts on braket to the rear lower frame tube

see pics

[EMILIO]

also keep in mind the ANSA SPORT was THE factory sport optional exhaust for the countach cars (at least from LP400S onwards ...)
many cars i know were delivered from factory with the ANSA SPORT on