After doing some major cleaning of the shop, it seemed a good time to take these photos of the shop.

212, 250 and 330 Ferrari engines

Shop shot

Ferraris and Packard

After detailing all of the hardware and countless hours adjusting the pinion depth, pre-load, back lash and differential pre-load, the Lusso axle is finished. I really wish Ferrari took notes from GM when building these axles, the amount of shims and in and out of the parts practically destroys the housings before evertyhting is adjusted.

The axle tubes are powder coated and all hardware is black oxide finished. The pinion is converted to tapered roller bearings. The brakes are all new and once I get the tube nuts back from the plating shop, I can finish up the plumbing for the brake fluid.

Rear axle assembly for a Ferrari 250

Here is a late production GTC engine that was recently overhauled at another shop. The owner never liked the way the thing ran and the major clacking noises coming from the engine was a sign to stop driving it. I took it for a quick spin, it was low on power but ran smoothly. There was a racket coming from the timing chest and just off idle you could hear piston slap.

With the engine running, I removed the oil filler cap and watched in horror as the camshaft chain wheel wobbled excessively. We performed a compression and leak down test and observed 30-40% leak down in 3 cylinders and about 20% in the rest of the cylinders.

We removed the cam covers to see that a few of the bolts that hold the chain wheels were missing and the remaining ones were loose! Upon further disassembling the engine we found that the missing bolts were rattling around in the water pump area, just chewing up the chain and casting.

The piston slap was because the cylinders were honed excessively and the pistons has .08″ clearance, this also cleared up the fact that the engine has low power and high leak down numbers. Good thing that the shop who did this work polished the distributors, carburetors, chain tensioner and oil filter housing!

Bolts missing in Ferrari engine

Ferrari 330 engine ready for overhaul

Here is an interesting part on early Ferraris. It is a cushioning device so when you “snap” off the throttle, this gizmo will reduce the shock to the driveline. It seems like it would be a great addition on many cars but I have never seen anything like it on modern vehicles.

There are 8 pins with that have one end that has a peak. These peaks ride in corresponding grooves in a disc. A series of bellville washers push on the non-peaked side of the pins, the squared off end of the pins. When you drive normally, the bellville washers keep the pins in the grooves but if you snap on or off the throttle, the ramped grooves force the pins against the  spring loaded washers and cushion some of that torque.

Kind of hard to describe but the photos will tell the story. I realized that I do not have great photos but I will try to get some more up soon

Driveline cushioning device

Special driveshaft coupler

Marzoto Ferrari 212

The 212 is nearing completion. We are now working on the rear end and getting the opening to the fuel tank fitted. Lots of shape in this little thing. Not sure what color to paint it, it is far from that stage but have to think about this stuff in advance. We bought new Borrani Wire Wheels for the car 6 months ago and they are still not here so with some of these decisions, you have to think way in advance.

I am thinking that the car was a very dark red. The Marzoto team bought the running chassis from Ferrari and had Fontana build the body for it. Did Fontana have a particular red?

Here is an adorable little thing. I think that it is based on a Fiat 500? Does anyone know out there?

Display car transmission

Small car for demonstrations

Cut away view of Differential

I took this photo of a 1971 Porsche 911 T coupe and even though the car is not perfect, it looks great with that spotlight on it. The car is not clean or anything but I like the way the silver car looks on the snow with the sun hitting it like this. Sooner or later I will have to invest in a better camera!

1971 Porsche 911 Coupe

I like this photo because it shows this 1967 Ferrari 275 GTB/4 in a different angle. This is a nice original car that I am checking over before it goes to the 2009 Cavallino Classic event in Palm Beach Florida. You can really see the parabolic shape of this car from this angle

Ferrari 275 GTB/4 up high

When it came time to detail the Lusso Ignition coils, I thought that I should do what I am so good at, over complicating things.

I scoured every old box, drawer, cubbard and located about 12 Magnetti Marelli ignition coils. I stripped tested the coils and resistors, stripped the paint from them and bead blasted the brackets so they could be re-plated. Typical of these cars, there were a few subtle differences in the coils over the years but what was interesting was the difference in the stamp on the resistors. Here is a photo of a number of different styles of stamps used.

Now I have to get that correct orange-y brick color for the resistors and that burned red color for the coils. Tom Yang has the stamp kit for these so I will send them to him to finish them off.  All of a sudden, this is becoming a 2 day job to restore some ignition coils!

Magnetti-Marelli ignition resistor

This lovely car is available for purchase after being well attended by the last owner for 15 years. What a great old car!

It was restored to its original colors in 2001 and has run in many events since then including the Ferrari Challenge Rally as well as the New England 1000 and Texas 1000 Rallies. The car is striking and to hear and drive it will set you right up! There was recently a thread on a Ferrari Forum about what engine is nicer, the inside plug or outside plug 250, this car with its 128D or inside plug engine will convince you which sings a sweeter song.

We have overhauled everything except for the transmission. The axle has been upgraded to tapered Timken roller bearings and is silent and more robust than the original set up. The engine has a coil spring conversion for the valves and it has new bearings and other components. It is just an excellent car to drive and to look at.

Ferrari Coupe