I bought an 85 Jalpa from Michael (Carreaper) a few months back. I'm wondering if anyone knows of an honest and reliable mechanic in the Los Angeles area that knows these cars through and through. Thanks,

Surender.

P.S. Thanks Michael! I love my car.

Congrats on the car. The owner before Carreaper lives and owns a shop in Vegas called Italy Service . He is a great guy and it would be worth the drive to have it done right.

Thank you Chris. I've spoken to Gary Shaw before I bought the vehicle from Michael and will definitly consider the drive. I would love to have a mechanic close to home if anyone knows of one in Los Angeles. I already went to a place in Santa Monica ( Foreign Sport Technician) who kept my car for 2 months and fixed some of the problems but created more not to mention damaging my paint and interior leather. I'd rather have him refund a portion of what I paid than to go back to him. Thanks once again.
Surender.

SUR,
i would replace the cooling fans and the relays. Gary had them straight wired because of the heat and the alternator just cant handle it. i put in a 65 amp alternator ( 55 amp is stock) in about 2 months before you bought the car. the first time i tried to drive the car at night after i bought it from Gary the alternator burned up the diodes. the load from the headlights and the cooling fans was too high. strange its still acting up.
if you are having electrical issues it seems the cooling fans were still drawing too many amps, even after i switched them to cycle on and off from the thermo switch in the radiator. the manual switch on the left side of the dash should be in the off position for the fans to run only when they need to.

best wishes,


Michael

Michael,

What alt did you put in the car? I am trying to upgrade mine since I have a lot of electrical stuff (Stereo) in my car and my mech could not find one that fit. He said he would have to fabricate a bracket, but he never did.


Any info would help.

Thanks,
David

late 70's VW Jetta or Golf 65 amp Bosch guts fit the Jalpa and Uracco .

When you turn on the AC the rad fans run as well...

Mine burnt the fuse, finally I was using a 30Amps fuse and these burnt through as well.

Shortly after I bought the car the alternator burnt through too, they replaced it with a Bosch exchange unit.

My only problem was the fuse of the fans, what you can do to replace them is to take new SPAL fans, the Jalpa used the same as the Countach.
They had 1800m3/h = 1060cfm and are 12", you can order similar ones with 1230cfm which are taking even less current...

Consider my radiator fan page: http://www.countach.ch/fans.html

I suggest to replace the old ones with VA10-AP50/C-25A which are even smaller...


Order at: http://spalusa.com/
Description: VA10 - AP50/C - 25A
Retail Price: $127.95

__________________
RaymondQV
Countach QV Ex-Mimran #GLA12997, Urraco P300 #20530 sold in August 2008, Jalpa #FLA12203 sold in May 2006
www.countach.ch
www.jalpa.ch

When Frank Sinatra got his Miura S in 1970, he said: “If you wanna be someone, buy Ferrari - If you are someone, you own a Lamborghini”.

Surrender,

Congrats on the car. We straight wired the fans because the heat in vegas can be a little intense. Did not discover a problem with it, because we never drove it at night. It was a purely weekend day driver.

You are welcome to bring the car here for us to sort out the fan issue and whatever issues your other mechanic created, as we know this car inside out. We would take good care of you and would love to see the car again!

I understand this is quite a drive for you, but may be worth it for the initial sort-out.

I don't know of any mechanics in LA, but Gary Bobileff's shop in San Diego is quite good, and has a lot of experience on these type of cars.

Let me know if I can help in any way.

Gary Shaw
Italy Service
702-382-5008

Thank you all for responding and taking the time to give me the info. Gary, I probably will bring the car to you when I get back from vacation. I wouldn't mind driving but my current mechanic replaced my alternator and now the vehicle is depending on the battery for electricity seeing that the vehicle stalls 1 out of 3 times when I remove the battery cable while it is running or it idles lower. I'd hate to get stuck in the desert.

Raymond, let me know when you find out if the Countach carbon fiber mirrors will be available.

Thanks again everybody,

Surender

They are no more available, unfortunately he doesn't want to make them since there are some issues.

__________________
RaymondQV
Countach QV Ex-Mimran #GLA12997, Urraco P300 #20530 sold in August 2008, Jalpa #FLA12203 sold in May 2006
www.countach.ch
www.jalpa.ch

When Frank Sinatra got his Miura S in 1970, he said: “If you wanna be someone, buy Ferrari - If you are someone, you own a Lamborghini”.