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An original Scarab Z on Ebay


pparaska

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I think maybe the car has a Scarab style conversion but I think Scarab went out of business long before 1999. I saw an original Scarab car this past week up in Rogers, AR. It was a beautiful silver with black interior. It had the distinctive Scarab insignia on the side and the vents on the back hatch. This car doesn't appear to have those. Maybe I'm wrong but this wouldn't be the first time someone was a little off in their advertizing on ebay.

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I agree. No dash plaque, no scarab on the sail panels, no scarab emblem, and I *think* Scarab stopped doing conversions around 20 years ago, although they did sell parts for a while after they stopped doing turnkey work.

 

Methinks someone is about to get taken for a ride.

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  • 1 month later...

Where did the 2+2 comment come from? His ain't one, yours ain't one, nobody posting so far has one or has commented on one... Not that I like them, but I'm just curious why you mentioned it? Perhaps you hate them so much that it just pops up in idle conversation? :wink:

 

If yours is genuine Scarab, I'd stick with yours. His body and paint are in fantastic condition, but it's not a "Scarab" car. He's got scarab PARTS (louvered hood, conversion kit, etc.) but it isn't a factory conversion car.

 

Scott

(Yes, I dislike 2+2 S30's, too!)

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Scott, the first one I posted IS a 2+2. I agree with you guys - it's not as nice looking as an S30. The second one posted looks like it was built with a Scarab kit, and might have had Scarab do some of the work. The paint looks good in those close ups.

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yes the second one is a true scarab car. You can tell it has the carroll shelby magnesium rims. This was an option you could get on the cars when you sent them to scarab, along with widebody kits, targa tops, and suspension upgrades. I looked at a scarab here in the area it was a widebody with koni adjustable shocks, carroll shelby rims, a balance and blueprinted 327 with a borg warner t-10, and high perf. clutch. Had recaro seats, and a plaque on the dash, also had an emblem where the stock z emblems goes that had a scarab beetle on it. It also said scarab on the lower front fenders. The car also had functional hood scoops that fed into the intake. Very interesting car, I would like to talk the guy down on price, he wanted 10k plus a 2000 lincoln ls in trade :eek2: .

John

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John, I was about to dispute your claim that the second car is a "true" Scarab but I thought better of it. Instead, would you please educate me? I thought all the turnkey Scarabs had a dash plaque and the scarab emblems on the side panels? Since you could buy everything from just the engine mounts to an entire car from Scarab, what level of completeness qualifies you to call your car a "Scarab"? Is just purchasing the mounts from them enough? Or if they just do a part of the conversion? Or if they supply just the cosmetic pieces like the louvered hood?

 

Personally, I hesitate to call anything a Scarab that wasn't either a complete, turnkey car or a car whose entire drivetrain was replaced by the Scarab company in their factory. IMHO, no dash plaque + no emblems = not a scarab. If Scarab afficianados disagree with me, I'm open to be educated! :-)

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Guest grunt0311

RPMS,

 

Man I didn't mean to pee in anyones corn flakes. I was up all night and a bit punchy I think I made about about 4 or 5 posts. I did say it was a conversion not one done at the factory. Although it was done with Brian's tutilage. As for the 2+2 comment, I was just wondering if anyone felt the same way. It was just my humble opinion...JMHO. Hey I don't want to drive a wedge with anyone here. I love this place.

 

 

grunt0311

73 scarab conv 327

70 rhd ugggllleee

75 2+2 parts

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  • 3 years later...

Yhea, there are only 249(?) true Scarab Z cars going by ones that they sold as complete cars. They are all numbered and have individual dash plaques as well as the scarab emblems. In addition only the turnkey cars got the scarab aluminum valve covers or widebody kits. I have a san jose "Scarab" car, the original/previous owner knew the scarab folks so he got parts they didnt otherwise sell(mine wears the valve covers, scarab rear fenders and wing.) But since I lack the dash plate I do not have an official scarab car :(.

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Yhea, there are only 249(?) true Scarab Z cars going by ones that they sold as complete cars. They are all numbered and have individual dash plaques as well as the scarab emblems. In addition only the turnkey cars got the scarab aluminum valve covers or widebody kits. I have a san jose "Scarab" car, the original/previous owner knew the scarab folks so he got parts they didnt otherwise sell(mine wears the valve covers, scarab rear fenders and wing.) But since I lack the dash plate I do not have an official scarab car :(.

 

It sounds like you have a Scarab conversion. Of all the "factory" cars we have located only 15 or 16 in the registry.

 

Mine is #154, it wears Panasport wheels (but I have the original BBS's) I had to hunt down a set of valve covers, found an original Scarab radiator, the only things I'm lacking are the Mark 10 ignition and the Momo steering wheel.

IM002656.jpg

 

Scarab_parking_6.jpg

 

100_3087.jpg

 

 

 

 

100_1138.jpg

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Heh, thanks for the pictures showing what I was talking about. But yhea any car that wishes to truely claim the scarab title, will be wearing a nametag with a number on it. I just like to think as im sure many others do that those couple extra original bits make mine closer to the "gods" as it were, then your average v8 swap. BTW I have peiced what I said there from various articles and whatnot, Hard facts about scarab and its offerings are rather difficult to come by it seems.

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Hey dsommer

 

What kinda Momo did the Scarabs have? I have a personnal in my '72 that's circa '78 '79. It' black with black leather. I'll get you a picture if you want. Thought about putting a stocker back in it. Let me know.

 

DK

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Guest zcarbuilder

I am actually the person who bought this vehicle. I knew it was not an orignal scarab based on a number of factors. I did beleive however believe it was rust free (or as rust free as z cars can be) but I appearantly just did not hit the right spot under the car with the screwdriver.

 

When I got it home I confirmed what I knew by the placement of the engine, the transmission bracket changes and the steering rack was a mess. A reverse gear box was used which gave at least 1 inch of play in the steering rather than just properly mounting the rack. The old wiring harness was used and #7 to #12 wire jumps did abound.

 

It was marketed as having welded spyder gears which was attributed to a load clunking nose when the vehicle was put in reverse. But overall the car was about 55% of what was advertised.

 

The rust I missed on the underside was in completely through the driver rail on the floorboard and a replacement piece jammed up there with caulking and heavily coated with tar. There was about 2 inches of tar under the vehilce when we began digging..............and then.

 

Long story short, like most z cars this one had is rust problems and the inevitable decision was to strip to shell, sandblast, coat with POR-15 inside and out (sprayed on not brushed) and rebuild. So began the journey.....rollbar, upgraded rims, mustang II steering rack (no modifications to the rack whatsover can be removed and replaced with new rack from autozone), quaife lsd, motor moved back 6 inches and, vintage air serpentine system installed with vintage air ac chrome, etcetera (I can list everything done in a later post).

 

When the sandblasting was done the shell was in a dark garage and we crawled under it with a spotlight to look at weld areas. When we walked out from under the car, the light was left under the car and the inside of car with the light penetrating from below the car revealed hundreds of pinholes that made the inside of the shell look like a planetarium (Let the games begin). With the rails replaced, the floor of the shell replaced and professionally restabalized, and all the welding work done the car was sprayed with POR-15 and the puzzle started coming together.

 

I started with two advertised expert racing companies and in a nutshell cost myself 24months of wasted time and money. They just did not know what they were doing. Fabrication framers are simply the only way to go and there are about six in the country that really know what they are doing with older cars (I mean, strip, sand, manufacter replacemnt parts for older cars (actually make them from raw material). And they cost as much as the hacks.........ironically enough.

 

I had to pay again just recently for the repeat work done by the hacks work (Plan to pay twice for the same work).

 

It is a very solid, very stable, 383 Stroker V8, balanced and beautiful vehicle that rides like a dream. I will post pics of the project from begining to end (once I get the car from paint - stayed with the color it was sold to me as (Dark metallic blue with hints of purple - ford paint color).

 

I have read that alot of people had problems getting Mustang II racks on the hybrid 240 and 260z cars so if anyone wants that information just let me know and I will post that as well...

 

I will include the overall cost to rebuild the car as well.....

 

Was it a scarab from California? No, no placards..................BUT alot of features (more than 50% found on scarabs) were there to suggest it went beyond a simple kit (There were too many things like the stickers and others that did suggest it was more than a scarab kit). That said, if scarab were still in operation I am confident they would have upgraded add ons with the most current technology which is what I did. I took the known information about scarabs and used the most recent upgrades like the vintage air (incl. a/c), quaife LSD, mustang II steering rack etcetera and made this conversion resemble what I think the folks at scarab would have done if they were around.

 

I understand the name scarab was a trademark of the firm in California for their conversion but it has become synonymous with all v8 conversions. I noted that debate and think it may be easiest to just say Scarab Factory conversion vs. scarab or something along that line.....

 

Fact is, a V8 conversion in these cars is like strapping a jet rocket to an aluminum can (Wait a second, that is a commercial airplane -- Just kidding) and they are bad @ss vehicles.

 

I used a chevy harness for a small block by the way and it worked out very well and cut out all the hack wire jumps and relays.....

 

I should have it from paint within 60 days and will post pics at that time. I cannot remember everything now but I do have some GREAT dos' and dont's I could share along with the fabricators and painter that are just beyond compare. The fabricator does get cars now shipped in from all over the world and rebuilds frames and parts for old vettes and fords of any year. They are OUTSTANDING!!! (I get zero from telling you that).

You can ship a shell or your entire vehicle just about anywhere in the US for about 600 dollars with a company I found that I will share later...

 

New to hybridz and will be back soon! (interior I kept as original as possible but this car did have the scarab interior).

 

I believe this car was converted outside california but I think perhaps they caught scarab (calif.) when they were dumping alot of items and got whatever was left from the company they had (going out of business sales usually result in dumps of items you would not ordinally sell.

 

The alternative is this was a scarab and someone took the glove box label, body wording (scarab) and the gold plated logos from the vents.

 

The valve covers although damaged were with the car so there is an argument, however, the half@ssed steering set up leads me to believe someone made a valient effort at duplicating the scarab set up but lacked component part availibility (I will provide more detail with the pics about this..........).

 

Just some random thoughts to share since I am getting close to completion and I will be more succinct and detailed with pics in the next post.

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