Repairing Ferrari Testarossa wheel

A customer bought some 16" center lock wheels for his 1986 Ferrari Testarossa to replace the metric wheels that came with the car. The early TR's had the Michelin TRX tires developed in the late 1970's, as many of you may know, tire technology has developed quite a bit over the last 25 years. Ferrari changed from Metric sized wheels in the late 1986 production run to 16" wheels using Goodyear Eagle tires which were a much better tire than the TRX and were no where near as noisy as the Michelin.

After the center lock (knock-off) wheels were delivered I had to re-finish them. One wheel had a sizable dent in the rim section and all of the wheels had curb rash and other imperfections. To remove the dent we fashioned some wooden blocks to support the rim and with gentle hammering and prying got the thing straighted out. Next we welded up all of the mangled rims and filed them smooth followed by a good coating of special etch primer specifically formulated for magnesium castings.

The finished product looked great, bright silver paint on a flawless wheel. It is a real trick to get to the inside of the rim area as it can only be covered with over spray to prevent sags. After painting dozens of Ferrari wheels over the last couple years our customer was happy with the results.

Ferrari engine test runs

Here are a few links to youtube that show the 512BB and Porsche 356 C engines running on a test stand.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BErLL9y4UW8
Boxer engine

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ou8-8QhWqrA&NR=1
356 Porsche engine

The sound doesn't seem to work well but overall it is kind of cool to see these engines running out of the chassis

Ferrari Test drives

I spent a day with a customer driving a number of Ferraris back-to-back last week, a gorgeous day about 55 degrees with slight wind. We got to compare a 365 GTC/4 with a 365 GTB/4 Daytona and 330 GTC with a 275 GTB/4. We also drive some other cars like a 246 GTS and a BBI.

What is amazing is how different the Pininfarina built cars are from there Scaglietti counterparts. The Scaglietti cars offered a much more thrilling driving experience in every regard. My customer desgribed it best when he called the Daytona and the 275 GTB/4 as the more "athletic" cars.

The 365 GTC/4 is an excellent and civilized car with a firmly planted feeling as you travel at high speed. The overall build quality of the C/4 is amazing with perfect door fit and a Mercedes-Benz like solid feel. The visibility out of the car is tremendous and the car is a breeze to drive with power steering and great driving position. The engine noise and power is addictive especially when lugging the car through town or out of the door yard when you can take advantage of the low end torque.

However, the car does feel a bit like a German luxury car, a great drive that is not particularly thrilling because it does everything so well, even the power steering is direct and does not feel "numb" as other Ferraris with power assist steering. It is truly a car that needs to be driven for hundreds of miles to appreciate how wonderful the car really is.

The Daytona is a thrill. The car we drive was a converted to Spyder some time ago but was in excellent overall condition (like the C/4) and felt just as solid as a Daytona Coupe. I believe that Stramann did the conversion on the car and it has a few small reinforcements which disallow any "cowl shake" typically associated with convertibles.

The driving position is totally different, you sit further back in the chassis, and it feels that the driver is sitting in a deep soup bowl. The dash and steering wheel are much higher and you have to point your nose high to see over the hood! The build quality leaves alot to be desired, interior details are not as sturdy, doors feel lighter and overall the car feels rivited and glued together versus welded. The beautiful thing is that the car is still very heavy feeling similar to the C/4 and feels planted and stable going down the road.

The engine on the Daytona is amazing, instant throttle response, slick shifting trans-axle and immediate brakes. The non assisted steering is tolerable at slow, not as bad as all of the driving reports claim but at speed the steering is more direct and positive feeling than the C/4. The car has a reported 20 extra horsepower but feels like it has 100 extra HP! What a thrill, from the second you fire up the engine you know that the car is thrilling and you immediate satisfaction and is exactly the opposite the C/4 whereas the more you drive the Daytona the more you want to get out of the uncomfortable seats driving position and overall intensity.

The 330 GTC and 275 GTB/4 are very similar to the comparisons of the C/4 and Daytona except they share the same basic chassis and trans-axle layout. The GTB feels like a race car with tighter suspension and different driving position. They have totally different engines and the GTB engine is more tightly wound and the tachometer needs to be pointing nearer to red line to overtake another car. The GTC can pull from idle to red line in perfect linear progression where you can feel a definite power curve in the GTB's engine.

The difference in overall build quality between these cars is obvious immediately. The GTB has light doors that close without a solid thud and body work feels shaky even though it is on that wonderful oval tube chassis. The GTC feels more like a car built by adults.

My customer was more moved by the Scaglietti cars, enjoying the thrill because after all, isn't this why you buy a Ferrari in the first place? He enjoys the confidence of having that extra power on tap and feels the same way as the majority of Ferrari fans, the Daytona and 275 GTB/4 are some of the most beautiful and thrilling cars that have rolled out any production line.

I tend to enjoy the Pininfarina cars more, I like a car that you can get in and drive without feeling beat up and I am not interested in high speed driving. I like to enjoy the sensory element and listen to the noises without having that desire to test the more thrilling elements and get in trouble. I guess I am the boring guy!

Ferrari 512BB engine running on test stand

Here is a clip of the 1979 Ferrari 512 Berlinetta Boxer engine running on the stand prior to putting it in the chassis.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BErLL9y4UW8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_fB9MeRswA&feature=related

RPM shop tour spring 2008

It is getting warmer, we had a tough winter but the roads are clean and the sun is shining. As you can see, not a spot of color anywhere, gray, brown and dirty snow banks! Have a look at the red Subaru, do you think its owner lives on a gravel road?

We are at a point where so many cars are nearing completion, as great as it is to see the light at the end of the tunnel on some of these long term projects, it is generally a stressful time. When we are down to the last 5-10% of the project, every little detail becomes heavily weighted because you feel like the project will never be finished. Typically, once you start driving a car many annoying things rear there ugly head such as sticky door handles, leaking axle seals, pretty much anything that we did not address will raise issue!

1950 Ferrari 166 Sheet metal work

Here are some more images of sheet metal work to get the 1950 Ferrari 166 Touring Coupe closer to finished. So much of the aluminum is work hardened and cannot be repaired, so it has to be replaced.

Ferrari 212 Vignale Coupe Headlight details

This 1951 Ferrari 212 Vignale Coupe has some generic headlights that did not fit well or look good. I located some correct Marchall headlights, buckets and trim rings but like most projects, the were not a "bolt in" installation

When we stripped the paint from the headlight area we found that the aluminum was very thin from over zealous filing and sanding so there was not much good material to work with. Eben made a hammer form for setting up the new aluminum sheet that will accept the headlight bucket.

Headlight trim ring fit is so important on a classic car so great effort was taken to make sure everything looks great prior to paint work. We think that the front end of the car looks so much better with the correct classic headlights. Now, how well will the paint match?

Porsche Oslo BLue

I have done a few posts about this car, one on overhauling the engine, another on stripping the car in prep for paint and a third on fixing rust on the bottoms of the doors. The original car was so rusty and damaged that I bought another shell for the customer and we had to do some minor prep work to get it ready for block sanding and paint.

The customer wisely chose Oslo Blue for the car, a super nice medium blue non-metallic color that has a slight bit of gray mixed in so it looks rich and kind of smoky. We are so happy with the door and hood gaps and how the car is so straight and detailed overall.

Now is the crunch time, re-assembly. We know that the old car had a good transmission, engine and brakes. We also removed the new wiring harness to re-install into this blue car but there is so much else that has to be done like a new headliner, carpets and dash top.

We have been restoring so many Ferraris lately that it will feel good to put a Porsche together which typically are easier than the detail oriented Italian cars.

Ferrari 250GT engine running on test stand

Before we install any engine into a chassis we test run it on the stand for a few hours. The engines are just run relaxed for the first few minutes to get some heat in them and check for leaks or problems. It often takes 5 minutes of running just to get the assembly lubrication burned off the piston tops so the engine runs evenly and smoothly.

This gives us a chance to check for oil or water leaks and make sure that after it has run for an hour or so, the compression and leak down is good. On one 275GTB/4 engine that I overhauled, the number one cylinder was smoking any engine speed even when decelerating so I hoped that the exhaust valve had a bad valve stem seal. I replaced this easiest-to-remedy seals, put it back together and it still smoked! Next I decided that it must be the intake stem seal but this is harder to replace because you have to remove all of the carburetors. I replaced that seal and----- STILL smoking! Turns out that in the matched piston and ring set that I bought for the engine had one bad oil control ring so I had to disassemble the entire engine to replace this part. I ended up replacing the rings on all of the pistons because I just did not want any more surprises.

Needless to say all of this was much easier to remedy at waist level than braking your back over a beautiful paint job and delicate fender. Set up on the bench top also allows for easy carburetor and distributor tuning and most importantly checking the water pump seals. We cannot seem to put a Ferrari V-12 water pump together lately without having a leaking seal. Every pump needs to be "massaged" to make sure all of the tolerances are good with the questionable quality of the springs, we replace them with a "magic" spring to add slightly more pressure to the impeller.

Here is a youtube clip of the Ferrari 250 engine running.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUHjZja3NEU

Ferrari 365 GTC/4 project

We are getting some head way on the 1971 Ferrari 365 GTC/4 project car. As you may remember, this car was a solid and complete but ugly old car that needed to be freshened up. We stripped the car to bare steel and replaced rusty steel in the lower "chin" area, a common rot problem on these cars. The bottoms of the doors are great and we just recently pulled the gas tanks while replacing hoses to find that deep in the trunk floors are totally fresh looking.

The engine is nearly complete, the "big" parts are assembled, it just needs the carburetors and ignition installed and other minor parts. I have wrinkle finished the air cleaner boxes 2 times and still cannot get the correct finish. The cam covers and chain covers look great but I cannot get the flat sheet metal stuff to look good. I am determined to make these parts look perfect because they are such a dominant visual element to the engine.

Karl has put some serious hours into re-assembling the car, doesn't necessarily look like a ton of work but every little detail needs an excruciating attention to detail. You cannot just install a new light bulb, you have to replace the old and cracked housing, crimp and solder on new connectors and apply anti-seize paste to all contacts. Every screw needs to be right. Many parts re-plated. on and on.

We re-upholstered the dash in high quality black vinyl instead of the "mouse hair" so it will last longer and look better over time, the carpets are new black wool but the rest of the interior will be original. The seats are solid dark blue so they should look good in this blue car.

Now for the tires...
At $470 per tire, probably not going to buy the Michelin XWX's for this car!

Ferrari 512BB

I am slowly pecking away at the 512BB "sera blue". I really like how this car is coming out except for sealing the windshield. In the past I have used urethane to do the final sealing around trim but I cannot get it to flow nicely. It keeps coming out lumpy. The Ferrari book says to use silicone but I feel that urethane has a more robust grip and will last longer. It is such a kill-joy to be making progress and be stumped on this detail because you have to trim all of the old stuff out and start over, 10-12 hours work?
Yeah

Ferrari Testarossa and 246 Dino

I was hired to to a pre-purchase inspection on a very nice 1986 Ferrari Testarossa the other day. This is a very attractive car with 40K miles and very little "road rash". The reason I am mentioning road rash is that for some reason these cars age very quickly both on the interior and the exterior. These cars have both a low front end and long overhang in front of the wheels so curb damage is hard to avoid and stone chips are common. This car is clean.

Also, the interiors on these cars are prone to premature aging but again, the tan leather looks great but the chocolate colored dash is starting to pull, common on these cars. The car runs and drives very well and it went into second gear when cold as though it was brand new. Did someone put a 40K odometer into a 10K car?

These "single mirror" cars are super cool and I think that they are on the way up in desirability and value. They offer killer looks and performance with good reliability. I am finding that buyers like these early cars with the center lock wheels because they do not have the DOT mandated "mouse" seatbelts an the strange looking under-dash shelf.

The guy who hired me to do the PPI is debating whether to buy this silver car or the black car 1986 Ferrari Testarossa that I have for sale.

The Dino is in for its first major service after the engine was overhauled. We are going to do a head re-torque, valve adjustment and camshaft timing check. We typically remove the camshaft support caps to inspect for wear on major services because we have seen some ugly wear from plugged oil passages.

This is a very nice Dino that will be prepped to run trouble free in '08.

Porsche 356 Coupe

Remember that red Porsche 356 Coupe that we "thought" we would restore? Well, we changed our mind and located a solid car with a replacement pan and filler/block sanding work nearing completion. There were some other things that needed to be addressed prior to painting, random holes in the front fire wall (from a radio?) and other sheet metal to straighten out to make sure it is all nice.

One thing we found was -surprise- rust in the bottom of the LH door. We clipped it out and replaced the sheet metal making sure to make a wood form to duplicate the shape in the lower front corner of the door frame. The door skin in that corner was also replaced.

One other area needing addressing was the rear bumper. It was bumped the past and with some new metal and shaping all was looking good.

I ordered about $1300 in various parts to assemble the car after it is painted such as wind lace, door seals and other body seals. I have a feeling that this car is going to go together much better than the Ferraris we have been struggling with over the last few years. The availability of totally correct body seals and strips, screw kits and overall better build quality this should be a refreshing project.

Ferrari 166 Grille fabrication

The 166 project continues to evolve, all of the sheet metal is "hung" and lining up nicely. There was a considerable amount of time spent making that delicate mid-body detail line up between the doors and other panels and have the subtle compound curve. One of the trickier details was to get both door windows to open the same amount, the drives door left more glass exposed when fully down than the passenger door so we had to adjust and make compromises so they looked similar when down and up.

The grille on this car was a mess and had to be re-made. The original was soldered, riveted, welded and chrome plated over the years and began to look terrible. After making the templates we bent up some aluminum to make the surround and cross pieces and began to shape them with the shrinker/stretcher. Once it is all lined up and looking nice we will use the correct bucking style rivets to final assemble it.

Rhino?

Eben is making another copper "relief" (?) sculpture in a similar fashion to a life sized sturgeon that he made 4-5 years ago.

It starts out with 3-4 layers of MDF plywood glued together and hung on the wall. Next step is to draw a Rhino on clear paper and project it up on the plywood and drawing the animal on the plywood. Now is where the super tricky part comes in, carve away the plywood to make the shape more dimensional by using chisels and angle grinders with cutting attachments.

When the plywood carving is finished he will place 20 gauge copper over it and hammer the copper to duplicate the shape and elevation change on the plywood. The reason for taking all of the time to make the plywood "negative" is so you can make more than one copper "positive".

Engine works at RPM

We are currently going through a few engines. I did a post a few months ago regarding a tear down of a Ferrari 250GTE engine and we are in the process of assembling it. We had a set of new forged pistons made, cleaned and repainted all the castings and drilled and cleaned the crankshaft. I finished the wrinkle finish and it came out perfectly, now I have to run the ignition wires through the tubes.

Since we are assembling a Ferrari V-12, we decided that now is the time to break down two Porsche engines. One is a 1975 Porsche 911 engine that has a blown piston. Someone installed a very crude turbocharger system with no provision to retard the timing or increase the fuel pressure upon boost so this damage came as no surprise. It seems to me that major automotive companies dedicate millions of dollars to develop a reliable and powerful turbo-charged engine so why should a shop think that they can provide a working system for short money?

The other engine is a 1964 Porsche 356C engine. This engine had a few bad valves that were not sealing and when we popped the heads off we found broken rings on a few pistons. We often do not like to "split the case" but not knowing the history of this engine we decided to see how the bearings looked. Boy, I am glad that we did. The bearings were down to copper and the end float was .010 instead of the .002-5 that the book calls for. We are going to install brand new 86mm pistons and cylinders, lighten the flywheel, port the heads and turn the crank to first under size. Since the engine already had Weber carburetors we feel that we can get away with some performance modifications as jets and venturis are available for them.

We have overhauled 4-5 of these engines with 86mm bores and lightened flywheel and it really perks these engine up. I am so amazed at how well designed these things are to where they are so docile and easy to run while having tons (relatively speaking) of low end torque.

Another Blue Ferrari 365 GTC/4

I bought another Ferrari 365 GTC/4 recently, a car that is blue chirao metallic just like the color we painted our project C/4.

With original paint and interior this car is so special. It is clean and detailed nicely even with some old age related deterioration. The interior has that special smell associated with leather, wool carpets, latex foam mixed with the years of oil and gas fumes!

The other reason that this car is so appealing is because the engine and transmission have been overhauled. There are photos of the engine break down and of it on the dynomometer, service invoices and dyno sheets. The engine does not leak a drop of oil and the transmission shifts like a dream.

As of this entry, the car has sold but I still have my 365 GTC/4 for sale. We are currently assembling the body, getting all of those tiny trim pieces assembled around the door frames. This car will probably be one of the nicest ones out there with fresh engine, trans, brakes, paint, and detailing. I am excited to do another post on this project.

Mack B-42

My Father used to have a Mack B-61 single axle tractor that did not get used as much as he would have liked. He sold the truck but always wanted another one.

When he found this low mileage B-42 he had to have it. Unfortunately the truck has a gas engine with very low power but we will probably convert it to diesel. This truck is a little more usable as a dump truck than the single axle tractor, hauling fire wood, gravel and to transport a 356 Porsche to the sand blast shop!

Digital camera technology

I was a major Canon Camera fan. Our first digital camera was a Canon A20, 2.1 MegaPixel something. Very 2001 style. We took between 20-50 photos a day with that thing. When the flas goes off a cloud of smoke arises from the old mule. I never took a bad photo with that thing. I had some complaints, long delay from the time you push the shutter button until it actually cracks on off, and you really had to hold the thing steady when you turn off the flash.

About a year ago we bought a Canon Power Shot SD600. This camera has 7.1 MP ( not sure if this is the correct term) and video capability. Unfortunately it is like many of the cell phones that you can buy today that have all kinds of options but it seems that using it as a telephone is an afterthought.

This SD600 cannot take a good photo. The delay is just as bad as the A20 and there is no way to make a print that looks decent without tuning it up in iphoto or some other editing program. With the A20, I could make a 5 by 7 inch print that was perfect.

After one year of trying to figure this thing out I am thinking of switching brands. After a year of ownership the camera is so ancient anyway (2006.)

These are some nice photos of non-red cars in the shop the other day. They are a 1965 Ferrari 275 GTS (lt blue conv) a 1967 Ferrari 330 GTC (dark blue in corner), a 1979 Ferrari 512 BB, and a 1967 Ferrari 330 GTS (green conv).

246 GTS DIno

The Dino is finally finished! One of my first posts one year ago was about the 1973 Ferrari 246 GTS Dino that we bought to freshen up and market for sale. We bought the car with the engin apart from a dropped exhaust valve so never had a chance to drive it. Not knowing what else the car needed we decide to do everything (except the suspension)

We completely overhauled the engine with new valves, forged pistons, timing chain and bearings. We overhauled the water pump, oil pump, alternator and starter. We replaced the radiator core and installed all new stainless steel coolant pipes. Every brake component is new or overhauled and the fuel system is renewed. All syncronizers are replaced along with a few bearings (diff carrier bearings) and all part were inspected.

While doing all of this work, we detailed the engine bay with many freshly plated parts and powder coated air filter housing and cold air box so the engine and engine bay look perfect. This will be a great car for someone to drive trouble free for many years or to continue the restoration by attacking the cosmetics. The chrome, paint and detailing are not terrible but are not fresh either so with all of the mechanical work done and sorted, now could be the time!


The carpets are new but the rest of the interior is nice original. The dash is in good shape and leather seats are supple and nice.

This 1973 Ferrari 246 GTS Dino is for sale for $185,000 and as far as I am concerned worth every penny of that. The serial number of the car is 07194 and it shows 40,000 KM on the odometer. This is a full European Spec car with the small side marker lights and flush mounted front turn signals. Based on how strong the car runs I am sure that the camshafts are marked to the European specification.

Sunbeam Alpine

About 10 years ago we had a Sunbeam Alpine and I was always impressed with the little car. It seemed to have been built with some integrity, heavy front suspension, decent brakes and an engine that actually made some horsepower unlike the MGB and other anemic British competitors of that time. The car still had the simple charm of a British roadster with Smiths instruments, Lucas Wiring, and dead simple interior.

This 1967 Sunbeam Alpine is for sale after we did some work to get it safe and sound after sitting for some time. The front brake calipers were leaking so we overhauled these, replaced the brake hoses and inspected the system. We addressed some other very minor things like a sticking choke cable and new wiper blades to make this car ready to go for future driving.

When I drove the car to the alignment shop after putting on new tires I was impressed at how well the car drove. It is agile, smooth and has some decent power. What it needs for the open roads in America is a taller top gear. Even on some twisty Vermont back roads knocking the engine speed down 1500 RPM would be excellent.

This car is a genuine California "black plate" car, dead solid and complete. I am not sure if it has been painted, quite sure that it is original paint but not 100%. This Alpine offers a lot of bang for the buck.

Lamborghini Miura engine

This Lamborghini Miura engine never ran correctly. There were restoration photos showing the heads off as though it had a valve job so we assumed that the engine was healthy and some other thing like bad gas, poorly adjusted carburetors or ignition woes were causing the poor running. We did a leak down test and found a few cylinders that were weak but not so bad that the engine should run SO poorly. We looked into a few minor issues like carburetor tuning, ignition timing and bad gas but when the engine just wouldn't run properly we decided it was time to break it down.

We pulled the engine which is extremely entertaining, you have to tilt it 90 degrees to allow the differential housing to clear the frame. What a deal! Once we removed the heads we put the pieces of the puzzle together, the reason we saw the photos with heads off is because the head gaskets were leaking and were replaced. Unfortunately the past mechanic did not notice that 4 out of 12 cylinder liners had huge pitting from water leaking into the cylinders and rusting the bore.

The engine/trans casting is a thing of beauty, such an amazing part that could only come from a company familiar with large complex castings. This part looks a lot like the tractor and industrial castings that I have seen in the past. The Lamborghini tractor influence weighs heavily on the Miura!

Ferrari 212 engine

A Ferrari 212 Coupe came in about a month ago and we met with the owner to make a list of things that we need to address. The car ran very nicely since it has the single Weber carburetor and actually drove quite well. Unfortunately the engine smokes like crazy and has a few major oil leaks.

Among all of the things that the car needs we started on the engine as it takes so much time to schedule a machine shop and to get the parts in like new head studs and pistons made. We pulled the engine from the chassis and began the break down to see what was making this thing smoke so badly. When it was on the bench Karl did a leak down test to find that the first two cylinders that he tested had about 60% leaking past the piston rings. We only tested those two cylinders figuring that these alone necessitate an overhaul.

Someone had been in here before, tons of silicone sealant instead of gasket paper, missing o-rings in key places and a few broken valve cover studs with acorn nuts glued in place to look like they were doing there job.

The engine had the original 9 piece head gasket which was leaking and in an attempt to stop this leaking the heads were over-torqued causing the head studs to stretch and the head nuts were rounded and mangled.

The Pistons were original cast Borgo's and the skirts were "knurled" in an attempt to quiet the piston slapping from being under-sized in the past. Even though the skirts were fit better after knurling, the rings were now under-sized which caused the smoking and low compression. All of the valve guides were a severely worn adding to the smoke screen.

Crank and rod bearings were down to copper and because of clutch pressure plate springs that were way too heavy (added in an attempt to keep the clutch from slipping instead of replacing the disc) the thrust bearings were almost completely gone. A few more miles and this engine could have been a major disaster.

I am posting this just to show how crazy some of the repairs on these cars can be. What I figured is that a Foreign car mechanic who knows BMW and M-B did the engine overhaul and did not know the intricacies and details of these engines. Did I mention that the valves were hitting every piston because the cam timing was off? How did this thing even run!!

Plating parts

Something that makes a engine bay on a car look fresh is fresh plating on parts. There are so many parts that get a dip of Zinc, cadmium, nickel, chrome that it is sometimes hard to tell what was used from new. Some plating looks similar, Zinc looks like silver Cad except silver cad has some faint greens and yellows in it. Polished nickel look like chrome with a slight gold tint. Dull nickel has a nice soft platinum look.

I often use photos and take notes at shows and also think about what the manufacturer uses based on what is cost effective. Some uses of plating do not make sense for example, why does certain car have a silver cad door catch with black oxide screws to hold it in place? What do you do when the photos show a car to have silver cad linkage (which may be wrong) and the linkage on the carburetors has gold cad finish?

I get so nervous when I send off all of these parts for plating. What if they loose one screw or minor part? What if the delivery truck goes off the road and all the parts are strewn about the side of the road!

All the parts in these photos are going for a of gold cad or silver cad finish.

Group thinking

Seems like the group thinking in the human race is benefiting me. 2007 seems to be a year of selling cars in groups, not a steady stream of sales. The group thinking has kicked in and I sold 3 cars in the last few days.

The 1987 Porsche 911 Cab just sold to a man in Maine. This guy is such a character and we had a great time with him. He showed up on an extremely busy day, doing some last minute things to get a speedster delivered and loaded on a trailer, two visitors from out of state and some friends of my fathers getting a old tractor serviced. There were so many people all around the shop that Nate and Karl went home early because we were plugged! Porsche buyer bought the car that day and we delivered it to ME a few weeks later
(That same day another guy called ready to buy that car, group thinking?)

We sold the yellow 1978 Ferrari 308 GTS on Tuesday to a local man who shared my passion for the carbureted 308's. We ordered some 16" wheels from Maranello Auto Parts and will do some minor cosmetic work on it this winter.

I just sold the Green Austin Healy 3000 BJ8 on Thursday the 6th of December. A man who stopped in on the Healy driving tour that passed through Vermont this summer stopped in unexpectedly and saw the same value in the solid and complete condition of the car as I did. I will deliver the car this coming Tuesday. This same man is also looking for a Healy 100 if you know of anything out there.

Anyone else want to buy something?

250GTE

I really like that silver 250GTE and the new owner seemed to appreciate it as much as I do. We knew that the engine smoked but as we spent some time tuning and running the car we realized that the engine was tired. It made an excessive amount of mechanical noise which came from many worn out timing chest bearings and totally worn out roller followers. We figured that the time was now, not when something breaks and chews up some castings.

With the engine out and we broke her down we saw just what we expected, stuck and broken piston rings, roller follower bearings with .020" run-out and timing chest bearings that were nearly beyond turning. We were happy to find that there was nothing broken or in need of major repair, just replacement of numerous wear out items. We have seen so many engines with major internal issues due to sloppy workmanship from another shop that I always enjoy seeing a largely original worn out engine.

We did a engine overhaul on a 330 engine that had a number of sloppy and strange workmanship. The valve guides were hammered into the heads but the machinist did not hone them open to the proper clearance which resulted in valves sticking and eventually bending. I had to use a 3lb hammer and punch to get the vales out of the guides. This same engine had .005 shim stock only under half of the rod bearing shells. Not half as in 6 of the 12 rods but between the bearing shell and rod cap! With the heads off, the engine took double the torque to turn it over. The flywheel ring gear teeth were polished to a razor sharp edge from the starter.

We just finished painting all of the engine castings on this 250 GTE engine and soon will assemble it with all new forged pistons, re-con rods, full valve job with all new valves, guides and seats, rod and main bearings and all other necessary items. As you have seen from prior posts, we spent the requisite 6-7 hours drilling the plugs and cleaning the crankshaft oil
passages

Old Ferrari Magazines

I recently thumbed thorough some old Ferrari magazines from the early 80's and thoroughly enjoyed the little history lesson. The articles on the cars were the same as always with great emphasis on some little details, "look at those lovely weber carburetors" and "the sound of the V-12 engine...", yadda yadda.

What was interesting were the advertisements. Todays best known restoration shops had small b/w print ads who today buy a cover page. Guys who started out advertising one car in the magazine only to become "big shots" in the world of sales. Interesting to me were there the private guys who would advertise one car at a time, own a few cars over the course of a year and flip them. Many of these guys are still doing this today.

Most interesting is how much higher quality everything in the Ferrari "world" has become. The magazines are full of high quality writing with historically accurate information (kind of always have been) with beautiful color photos and great event reporting. The cars that they feature are so beautifully restored and all over-restored comments aside, are very accurate and drive as Ferrari wishes they could have made them! Some of the cars that they featured in the old magazines were "restored" with some artistic license, incorrect hose clamps, chrome all over the place in the engine bay, incorrect upholstery and on and on. The cars in the magazines today are generally very nice and correct down to the minute details. The advertisements in the old magazines showcased 100 point restorations on a 275 GTB with no bumpers and strange louvers in the rear quarter panel! 100 points, are you sure?

There is also so much Ferrari "stuff" clothing, toys, F-1 memorabilia, lifestyle gadgets, so many ways to keep the whole image thriving that it made me think about how this relates to the Ferrari (and any collector/classic car Porsche/Jag/Mustang/) values and market. I feel that as the quality of everything increases, the whole market surrounding the brand increases in both quantity and quality. If people enjoy the brand and what it stands for than the demand increases. This is not really a comment on the values of the cars, it just shows that there is more high quality product out there for us to enjoy and be part of, for whatever it is worth.

Black Ferrari Testarossa and 308 QV

A man called me one year ago asking for help locating and purchasing a nice Ferrari 308 GTS. He told me that a friend of a friend told him about us, the power of word of mouth exposure!

We spoke for some time and decided that the best series 308 for him was the later Quattrovalvole. I did not have any in stock so I called a good friend Peter Sweeney who at the time had one but a second one coming in one week.

I called the buyer and told him that in one week we would meet at Peter Sweeney's and see the two 308's, one red with a black interior and one red/tan. Both cars were well serviced and ready to go but the tan car was just a tiny percentage point nicer. We both really liked the slightly modified lowered Penske coil over shocks and the Stainless Steel exhaust.

I transported the car to the owners home and he called me nearly every day expressing his appreciation for helping him find the car and for how much he enjoys the car. The man was very sick from liver failure and was at the point of his life that he wanted to live his dream.

Not long after buying the Ferrari 308, he wanted another car. He did not know what to buy so naturally I was the first person he called to help spend his money. We decided that for the amount he wanted to spend a Ferrari Testarossa showcases serious performance for the dollar and I just happened to have a sinister looking black car coming in.

With his illness progressing rapidly, the buyer wanted to get the car as soon as possible and had a chance to drive the car 1000 miles before he passed away in early October. He was enthusiastic and enjoyed every experience of car ownership, the pursuit, driving, servicing, cleaning, and preserving by replacing minor worn parts such as the hood release levers that had cracks in the housings.

The black 1986 Ferrari Testarossa is for sale fully serviced two years ago and needs nothing.
The Red 1983 Ferrari 308 GTS QV is for sale with a super responsive suspension, nice interior and having a recent belt service.

Vintage Headlights for Ferrari

Seemingly minor details make a great restoration extraordinary. If we applied the worlds highest quality paint and chrome work on this old Ferrari 166 and installed off the shelf Sylvania or GE headlights the car would look terrible. If all of the chrome was perfect, the wheels shining and engine running perfectly but with modern silicone spark plug wire, ugh...

Anyhow, I have spent probably 15 hours inquiring about a set of proper headlights with corresponding buckets and trim rings. I have emailed photos back and forth to a specialist and made sure that I can get a set of fog lights to match the headlights. After all, I cannot get Marchall type 434's with Carello Fog lights!!

I finally located a set of Carello headlight to go with the original Carello 6" fog lights. I am so excited for them to come in. Once we get the parts we can finish off the nose of the 166 Touring Berlinetta and make sure everything fits perfectly prior to painting.

I also ordered a set of Marchall Type 435's with buckets/retainer/outer trim for the 212 race car project and another set for a 212 Vignale coupe project. I think I just spent $15,000 on lights for these cars!

I am in the process of locating a pair of taillights for the 166, the car had some cheap plastic lens while using the original trim bezel. I was impressed at how well a DOT approved trailer light looked on this car. Photographed is an original taillight and original Marchall type 434 headlight.

512BB engine

We pulled this engine from a '79 512BB to do a major service, belts, valve adjust, etc..
I could not re-install this engine into the chassis because it looked terrible from years of deterioration.

BB engine covers are full of louvers and when the car gets washed or driven in the rain water pools on top of the engine and corrodes the block and rusts the fasteners. There is no amount of cleaning that can be done to clean the inner webs of the casting so I had to super clean the block and re-paint. I then sent the hardware off for re-plating and detailed some other things. Gotta love that new wrinkle finish!

The engine is looking great and will probably be the first youtube post of a engine running out of the chassis that I have done. I will post the link here in the next few weeks. Hopefully I will have a number of other engine test stand runs to post before the end of the year. Stay posted.

VA Rally

Our shop provides the "official" mechanical support for the rallies set up by Rich and Jean Taylor at Vintage rallies ( http://vintagerallies.com/index.html ). We chase the pack in 3 events per year, a Rally in the New England, in VA/W.VA/ and in TX making sure that most of the classic cars that break down can be revived so the owners can continue flogging them on some of the best roads in the country.

Karl and I just got back from the Mountain Mille 2007 where about 40 pre-'74 (a few newer cars) sports cars gathered in So. Boston VA to start off the event. Upon arriving, we had our hands full preparing a few broken classic cars and fuel up a fleet of brand new Porsche Boxter's and Cayman's. We loaded the 5 new Porsches into our Freightliner and Exotic Car Transports Freightliner and prepared for a week of repairs and logistics.

On the Monday (first day of driving) I guessed which car would be the most trouble, would it be the 1986 Ferrari 328 or the 1954 Morgan? How about that stunning 1957 Lancia B24 Aurelia Convertible? Well, the joke was on me, within the first 2 hours our 2007 Freightliner blew a turbocharger which made so much smoke that I could not see the rear axle!

I stuck around with our truck waiting for it to be towed and Karl and Tom from Exotic followed the route. I called a truck repair center in Lynchburg VA and made sure that they ordered me a new turbo ASAP because I need this rig, mostly to get home on Friday. They assured me that it will be no problem.

We worked that evening to shuttle the dead 1986 Ferrari and 1975 Aston Martin that were both too broken to repair and freed up a sticking needle valve on a Porsche 911. The next morning I called Lynchburg to see how the truck was coming along and I was assured that the parts are on the way.

Over the course of the event I had a Alternator shipped in for a 1967 Jaguar XKE overnight. I also had a Fuel pump for the Ferrari sent in for the next day and we managed to keep nearly every car on the event performing beautifully.

The Freightliner was a different story. On Thursday we visited Lynchburg to learn that the Turbo was still not in. This is a 2007 truck that is one of probably 2 million produced and the Mercedes-Benz engine in this truck is used in a bunch of farm machines so it should not be a problem getting this part. They claimed that the only one was in OR. even though the truck is assembled in Mt. Holly NC, 3 hours from Lynchburg. We finally left the Lynchburg with the high range engine brake not working and drive shaft vibrating from being improperly installed after the tow truck driver removed it for towing.

My point..... we can get parts overnighted into remote areas of W. VA for nearly 40 year old foreign cars that had limited production numbers, and get them running the next day but the same cannot be said for a 2007 mass produced domestic vehicle? What is going on? This incident makes me really appreciate the parts suppliers that I deal with every day to keep these cars running!

Maserati Bora 4.9

We had a Yellow Bora at our shop a few years ago and I was always so impressed with the car.
The chassis is a thing of beauty, robust steel tubing that is both square and oval in areas with proper gussets and buttressing in key areas for strength. I am not sure how well the bodies hold up to rust but they are beautifully built as well with excellent gaps and nice detailing at the stainless steel roof and glass surrounds. I am sure the car weighs close to 4000 lbs!

Who cares how much it weighs when you have the most sinful sounding V-8 in existence. It has a raw and rowdy feel of an Chevy/Ford small block with the sinful smooth nature of the classic Italian engines that pull from idle to red line without a hitch.

The car has pavement rippling brakes that are not boosted by engine vacuum but by a super high pressure hydraulic system. The stopping power makes the driver dizzy!

Anyhow, I really like this car and the color makes me weak in the knees.

Touring bodied 166

Eben is cracking away at the 166. The most challenging element is re-making the flange that wraps around the "Superleggaria" frame work. When this aluminum was wrapped around the frame originally it became work-hardened. When we un-wrapped the body to blast and repair the tubing it split and became too damaged to replace. Some areas are workable but in tight radius areas the aluminum is a disaster.

Elias helped to sand all of the old oxidized contamination from the edges. One photo shows new aluminum welded to the windshield opening area. She's starting to look like a car again!!

Homer's workshop

Homer is a great friend who lives close to our shop. He is a true "mad scientist" even though he is a aesthetic visionary who can create what he dreams up. He truly enjoy his energy and he has more passion and enthusiasm in his little finger that most guys have in there entire being!

Homer disassembled an old dairy barn and used the laminated curved rafters to construct his workshop. He has always dreamed of having his ceiling open to allow natural light to "inspire" his craft and after buying a section of clear poly his vision turned into reality. Homer is a sucker for interesting materials be it plastic, metals or paint finishes but most of what he works with is scrap material so for him to buy a brand new.. --anything--- is amazing but he bit the bullet and got the exterior grade poly.

He took the "found" 2" square aluminum tubing and made a jig so he could use his body weight to mimic the curve of his rafters to make the framework. He used straight sections to tie it all together.

My brother Eben, 5 friends and myself were called upon to install this thing onto the roof of the shop. I had leave at 9:30 to show a Ferrari Daytona to a potential buyer from CA.