The panels on this Aston DB-4 GT Zagato probably looked like the firewall on this Auburn Special Racer before being smoothed and polished to perfection. Can you imagine the time involved in filing and sanding all the welds let alone building such a complex body. Hello? Isn’t that what body filler and paint are for!

The Auburn firewall is super cool, made by someone who had the talent to smooth it out just like the Aston but chose to leave it rough for effect. These cars were photographed at a VSCCA event at Lime Rock Park last Friday.

Zagato Aston Martin DB-4

Firewall on Auburn SpecialAuburn

A customer swung by with the pictured Testarossa hood asking if we could repair it. We said we’d check it out, and he asked for a very rough ballpark estimate of what it could run – you know, is it $20 dollars or twenty-thousand? Initially we said it’d be a few grand, but when Eben saw it, his experience as the panel beater and sculptor rang true, with an estimate of about $5k to make it perfect again. The aluminum can only be worked so much, and new material would have to be welded in.

It was a better deal to just replace it with a used panel and let the owner keep the crushed one as a souvenir – you may ask, how’d he do it? The guy he bought it from did.

These are 80mm Carello Tail lights, where can I get the identical ones but 100mm in diameter? These were on a Vignale Ferrari 225 Berlinetta at Cavallino and I need the 100mm ones for the 166 Berlinetta that we are restoring.

Tail light

Here is our gangster punk friend putting a beat down on the red Ferrari BBI and a 250 GT Pininfarina Cabriolet series II. Shiz Bro, he does a nice job!

He used wool on the BBI and foam on the 250, what it is Syl?

Polishing

Ferrari Red

A gorgeous Dark red that a prominent Ferrari Historian calls “mature”.

This is just out of the paint shop, no wet sanding or polishing on an overcast day. The camera is one of those heavy duty LUMIX point/shoots.  The car looks particularly amazing right now because it basically has 3 finishes, the glossy red, brushed aluminum and black Excelsior tires from Coker. It is beautiful!

Before we delivered this Austin Healey 3000 to its new home, the purchaser wanted to make the car his by having us paint the “coves” ivory. I thought it was a great idea and Syl did an amazing job with the paint. The car was very nicely detailed to start with and with this color contrast, the car looks great.

Syl has been using a new clear coat that needs next to no wet sanding and polishing. The clear is so crystal perfect and it lays down with no orange peel. He just shot some Ferrari Boxer wheels and they are perfect! Loving that RM paint!

Healey Blue 3000

Healey Blue with Ivory Coves

A few weeks ago a man called me to see if I was interested in buying a pair of 1967 Porsche 911’s that he has had for a long time. The owner had been driving the red car in the photograph for many years and decided that the car was deserving of a major restoration as the paint and rubber trim was looking nasty.

He methodically took the car apart, tagged and organized every part and safely stored the boxes on shelves in his garage. Upon removing the components he uncovered the dreaded “R” word…. RUST. He was not up for dealing with the rusty body shell so he located another 1967 911S coupe to turn two cars into one but after getting the second body shell, he found that is was better but still needed lots of repair.

Now he wants to sell the cars and I think that they have a great upside but I am not the one who is going to suffer the brain damage of restoring them on my coin. So, is anyone out there who may want to buy these cars? All of the parts are perfectly categorized to make a complete car with matching numbers. In my opinion, it is worth doing a high end repair on both cars simultaneously so the second body can be sold at a later date.

I have many more photos of the engine, trans and important pieces and would like to make these cars whole again.

So, what are they worth?

1967 Porsche 911S Coupes

The Oliver 2050 with the forklift makes getting cars off jack stands or a rotisserie quite easy. Now this Ferrari 250 GT Lusso is outside and positioned high in the air for sand blasting and painting the engine bay.

The Lusso is being restored in a way that many would think is backward, but it is actually quite prudent. Most people would chose to restore a car from the outside-in making it look the part and then worrying about mechanicals later – but risking a basket case under thousands of dollars in paint.

Our client has chosen restoration from the inside-out, focusing on meticulous restoration of the running gear of the car. The engine was rebuilt with period performance modifications, cams, and porting. The suspension was nickel plated and all fasteners were black oxide treated. This is a very detail oriented work, but the car completed in the condition it was in when leaving the factory – save for the paint. Read about the suspension here and here.  And the drivetrain here. Watch the engine run here. To see all related Lusso posts click the “Lusso” link under the categories heading on the right.

The exterior of the car should have paint, but it’s an option left to the current owner, or an option for a future owner down the road.

Karl installing headlight buckets on the Morgan.

After 8 years of sitting, the 1954 Morgan +4 (a four passenger) is beginning to look like a car again. Maybe it’s been on the back burner, and perhaps many of the parts had been sent out to be refinished like the gauges and dashboard, but now it seems to be coming back together in a hurry. Karl has been with the Morgan throughout its stay here, and with the car is shaping up beautifully, we’re excited to see how nice the car is when complete.

In addition to mechanicals, body, and floor work, the Morgan received a new windshield made of a cut piece of tempered glass carefully inserted in the original frame, as well as new brackets to hold and fold the windshield. The windshield bracketry is exceptionally simple on this car. It is made of polished stainless steel and laser cut – admittedly a departure from old world techniques.  Surprisingly, the windshield hinge brackets are available new from Morgan. Their operation is simple, and what look like thumbscrews are actually nuts, held captive by small screws threaded into end of a larger threaded post. The feel is solid – an excellent example of a functional yet beautiful part, with simplicity not found on modern cars.

Laser cut stainless windshield hinge brackets

Notice the threaded stud, large diameter nut, and keeper screw