We also make the evaporator housing which holds a very dense core and squirrel cage fan. The original housing is made from steel but we make it from aluminum since it’s so much easier to work with and the part has a bunch of bends and needs huge holes drilled in the sides.  Since the part is buried under the dash, no one will ever know the difference especially if we give it a coat of light gold paint.

I have all the other parts coming in soon like the condenser, the compressor, drier bottle and all the fittings to complete the kit. It’s such a huge collection of parts and I have lots of stuff in stock but there is always one things that is missing. When its all together I will take a photo of the complete set up. I have a higher amperage alternator to send off with this kit, it’s an 80 amp unit from a 365 GT 2+2 but the 330′s with A/C originally came with Lucas 60 amp alternators

A/C System 330 GTC Evaporator

Ferrari Air Conditioning system

Housing for A/C Evaporator

Trim on GTC Ferrari

Ferrari Pininfarina detail

Brass welding and fitting

Another area that bothers me on the most of the Ferrari GTC’s that I have seen is the fit of the center console at the shifter opening. Like the other cars I have looked at, the shifter isn’t centered in the opening so naturally, I have to adjust this area too. This GTC used to have an odd reverse lockout tab like some of the 60′s race cars, but it didn’t fit so someone bent up the sheet metal in the opening on the left side of the opening.

GTC Interior

Now it fits properly

308 GT/4 Ferrari Dino

We just bought this 1979 Ferrari 308 GT/4 and are going to go through the entire car to make sure it performs perfectly for 2012. These 308′s are sleepers, even though they are less sexy than the GTB and GTS’s, the consensus is that they are a much better driving experience. Since Bertone built this series the craftsmanship is much better as well.

This car is cool because it’s in European Specification model with single distributor, small bumpers and doesn’t have the ugly USDOT mandated rectangular side markers. It’s also cool because it’s so original and has a super clean interior and undercarriage.

More on this car later!

Head gasket and oil leaks

Since the late 80′s or early 90′s we have been servicing the car that goes with this engine and it has always been one of the best running examples we know of. I remember riding in the truck with my father to get the car on a cold and foggy night, probably around this time of the year, no, it had to have been early November. It was a brutal trip through that pea soup thick fog as we went over some of the mountains in the Berkshires on route 22.

The current owner of the car drives the wheels off of it and we have overhauled a number of components like the brakes, transmission, and fuel pump but now it’s time to address the engine. It runs great, starts instantly and doesn’t smoke but there are so many oil leaks that we have to break it down to clean it off in order to remedy them. We were blown away because as well as it ran, the compression and leak down numbers were bad displaying 30% loss in some cylinders where there should be no more than 5-10%.

So, apart it goes – it’ll run through our “process” that includes getting the rear main bearing cap cut and grind the crankshaft for a conventional lip seal, new forged pistons and a needle bearing roller follower set among thousands of other things. The motor mounts are blown out and the water pipes will likely have holes in them and will need to be replaced so we will be busy this winter getting all these 250′s back together for the spring.

As much as I hate to mention it for superstitious reasons, we’ve had great success with Ferrari engine overhauls over the last half a dozen years. A few times a week other shops call me asking how to get head gaskets to seal and how to make water pumps turn without leaking or how to make mechanical fuel pumps to work as intended. Their shops are struggling to find the exact formula, and we seem to have it locked down lately. Nate has assembled so many of these engines, he seems to have a real formula on setting the clearances, knowing the tricks to seal them up and making sure every detail is nailed down too.

Clutch housing on 250 engine

The paint match is excellent, the car is the newer tint of blue sera metallic, a slightly lighter shade than I have seen on older cars like Dino’s and 330′s. I like the older shade more because the paint contains more gray where the shade on this car has more         violet in the tint. Either way, I am happy with the results, the car is fully polished and looks killer

GTSI Door repair

Quattrovalvole 308 GTS

These pipes are for the Lusso/GTE series of 250, but I can make a number of other styles from 166 up through the 275 cars utilizing my incredible and growing stockpile of bends and flared ends. Right now I am making a short run of the water pipe that connects the thermostat housing to the engine on a 275 GTB/GTS Two-Cam engine.

Water pipe for Ferrari

Water pipe copied for Ferrari

2400 FIAT Dino Spyder

Someone offered me a super solid 1973 Porsche 911T Coupe with a sunroof yesterday that I am considering buying. Unfortunately, the car is apart for restoration but the price is fair and I may spring for it. Otherwise, one of my customers has an outstanding 911T Coupe that is a known quantity so i’ll probably make him an offer on that car.

246 GTS Ferrari Dino

1979 Ferrari 308 GTS Fly Yellow at RPM

This ’79 308 GTS is a really sweet example of the iconic “Magnum PI” Ferrari, i’m sure you’re all wishing  yourselves as Tom Sellick in the drivers seat even if isn’t the ubiquitous Rosso Corse! Of course, a 308 is undoubtedly the easiest way to enjoy a Ferrari, but the overall condition of this one ensures that it’s also one of the smartest ways to enjoy a Ferrari. Production of the 308 followed the 246 Dino and shares much of the excitement of it’s predecessor-  The exaggerated long “buttress” behind the cabin, truncated nose and air inlet ducts that cover nearly 1/3 of the length of the car, all seem to be updated and angular versions of the 246. However, these air inlet ducts feed a 240 horsepower, 3 liter V8 which coupled with suspension and gearbox changes add  a significant dose of refinement.

The interior of this car has  supple, tan leather, that looks as new as that of a 2009 model as opposed to 1979. The chrome shift gate and mechanical switch gear showcase the motoring purpose of the car as well as the full set of gauges in the instrument cluster. Like the 308 GTB, the GTS model is a Pininfarina designed – Scaglietti built “targa” featuring a removable roof panel and louvers in the rear 1/4 windows instead of glass.

Mechanically, this 308 is in outstanding condition with a few key updates. The first being a set of larger 16″ wheels and tires that really improve handling over the 14″ set up  that came from the factory in the late seventies. We overhauled and modified the factory KONI shocks with adjustable ride height equipment in combination with Eibach Performance springs. The other main update is the conversion to a single distributor from the dual-distributor set up. This simplifies the ignition system, makes the advance curve more progressive as well as making it more reliable (and cheaper) using a Ford style cap and MSD electronics.