We picked up a spectacular Porsche 356 Speedster on Saturday December 23rd, I will call it an early Christmas present, my all time favorite sports car. These cars are so light and easy to drive without any body roll or harshness, smooth and settled. After we sold the silver car, we have been looking for something to replace it and when this car came up we just had to have it.
I had an online discussion with a guy regarding wrinkle finishes for Ferraris. I am interested to know what Powder-Coated wrinkle finish looks like, and if anyone thinks that the cam covers on Daytona, C/4, and newer Ferrari V-12’s may have been wrinkle finished.
A valve broke and punched a hole in the piston, beating the combustion chamber up but this is a easy repair. I will bore out the cylinders .010 and have JE make me some forged pistons to fill the holes. We are also going to do a full valve job, renew the timing bearings, timing chains, water pump all other pieces to make this engine brand new. Since I bought the car without being able to test drive it I am going to replace the transmission synchros as there is no better time to tackle this common problem with the 246.
I am also going to do a full detail on the power plant making sure everything looks and works as new.
We bought a very straight and solid Ferrari 365 GTC/4 this fall and have begun to bring it back to life. Today Karl pulled the dashboard to have it re-upholstered even though it was not too terrible. Originally these cars had a “mouse hair” dash that the Italians call “anti-dazzle” material. Mouse hair on the large C/4 dash does not work well because it stains very easily and quickly becomes “anti-dazzling” to look at. We are going to upholster this dash in a very high quality vinyl that will not shrink due to the sun and looks just like leather.
Here are some of the projects that we are working on.
I just finished installing an air conditioning system in a Ferrari 330 GT 2+2 that had one very difficult criteria to meet — “don’t visually alter the dash or interior in any way”. 330’s that came from the factory with A/C had the row of rocker switches moved to the left of the steering column so we had to work the evaporator around a cluster of wires and bulky switches. We altered the glove box in order to provide room for ducting, but not much else was altered.
This 330 GTS system is using the original cotton wrapped hose and correct hose ends as well as a restored York compressor. The most difficult task at hand is dealing with the fan speed and temperature control switches that double as the vent outlets. I cannot seem to find these switches/vents anywhere so I may modify the existing vents to accept modern switches but they will not have the script engraved/stamped into them. I guess this car is not going to Pebble Beach.
Incidentally, this same car was wrecked in the left rear. We repaired the damage and painted the car Pino Verde (pine green metallic).
Lots of discussion on the proper style of wrinkle finish. I know!!
I feel that the early cars 250/275/330 had a very fine finish, almost a fine “fuzz” if you look from a distance. This is hard to create because the directions on the can say, “3 heavy coats” so naturally you want to put it on real heavy. Well, it is harder to apply 3 light coats–but not too light— almost a gamble when you let the stuff cure, will it wrinkle evenly??!!
The 365/400/412 four cam v-12’s appear to have a more coarse “wrinkle” and a shiner plastic looking finish. I feel that this is a easier finish to duplicate as you can really lay down the paint.
I am excited to post some of the projects at the shop on this blog. We are currently overhauling a Ferrari 365 C/4 engine, a 1987 412 engine. I have a feeling that the 330 GTC engine that we pulled for detail work will need to be broken down for an overhaul as the leak doen numbers look terrible.
I will also post other segments of the restoration of these cars, but no trade secrets will be revealed, I promise.
Steve Markowski
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