This is probably going to be an ongoing topic in this blog, its the revolves around the fitting all sorts little do-dads, fiddly parts to this car that barely fit from new, but since this car is valuable and the customer has high expectations, I am going to ensure that these things fit as the hacks who built the car intended.

We made a slight modification to the “B” pillar, it was originally chrome plated then welded in to the car so the heat could discolor the chrome, plus, this method made for an incredibly weak attachment. We make it so it could be bolted in making for a much stronger pillar, however the trim piece that covers the lower attachment needs to be slightly larger now so we copied the original with a slightly longer “tail”. There is such an unbelievable amount of time involved in fitting these parts because they are close to clashing with other trim when the doors open and close.  Since they are attached with sheet metal screws, I had to be careful fitting them because after threading a screw in and out a few times, the sheet metal will wear out and there won’t be anything to hold it! So many painful hours to get this to work well and look good. When the car is going together for the last time,  I will use period correct hardware such as slotted head screws instead of Phillips head but for now, these screws are easier to obtain, cheaper and better to cut the threads.

B Pillar trim parts

Door end cap part

166 rear glass

Side glass plastic

Side glass profile detail

Even though the original rear side glass for the 166 fit terribly, I used them as a rough outline to make new pieces from plexi-glass. It still took 4 hours of sanding per side to get it to fit tightly. These windows open at the rear for ventilation and the reason Touring made them from plastic is to allow them to bend outward without a hinge as the cam mechanism pushes it out. Crude. In the photo with the drawn outline you can see the original shape being so much smaller than what it needs to be in order to fit properly.

This is what makes the old Fontana/Ferrari body

gussett

Other photos structure

such a neat piece, look at the structure to support the body and reinforce the chassis at a very key area. This Cribbing work took an incredible amount of effort to build but is light and strong. All of this tubing is terribly rusty and pitted so it isn’t  good for a functioning car but is fine for a “sculpture” as this car will be.

Old Sheet metal Ferrari

Grille Ferrari Classic

This is the body that was on the Ferrari 212 that we located in a barn 5 years ago. Eben is in the building next door getting this body built up so we can paint it as a static display. Most of the aluminum is foil thin and work hardened but the objective is to save as much of the original material as possible and Eben has been successful in doing this.

This 1937 Ford came in and we decided to check it over thoroughly before bringing it into the shop. The trunk lock cylinder was deteriorated so we drilled it out and found a great surprise inside, enough critter debris to fill two 30 gallon trash barrels!

Unfortunately there were some interesting 1940-50′s magazines and other relics buried and destroyed in the piles of nastiness that would have been cool to look through, but I didn’t want to catch any nasty diseases.

Critter problem

What upholstery?

One of the best Jaguars I have driven was this 1959 XK-150 Roadster, an original and serviced car that drives like new.  The suspension, steering and brakes have a perfect feel, not too harsh or abrupt, everything supple and easy with the power and handling that can keep up with modern day traffic with ease.

We did some work to get the lights functioning as they were originally intended and had to overhaul the brake system as the calipers and master cylinder had some leaking but overall the car needed very little.

Often when a car gets restored, that easy “well worn pair of jeans” feeling is totally lost making a car almost unpleasant to drive but it’s nice to have an example like this Jag to understand how they are supposed to feel and perform.

Xk-150

Can you believe how much labor went into building this dash? I would guess that the bulk of the piece was hammered out to fit a profile but the stepped bores for the gauges were made from a two piece press die, simply and amazing number of hours to fabricate this piece.

This piece had so many layers of primer, filler and paint that it has taken about 8 hours to strip it down to bare aluminum and will take another 20 hours to re-finish it in the dark blue color that it was originally. There are more man hours in this dash than goes into assembling a new Pontiac!

166 Touring dash panel

Touring berlinetta