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

Here are some cool photos of the Ferrari 212 with red oxide primer and going into the PPG DCC Concept single stage satin black. As you can see from the air in the paint room, there is quite a lot of over-spray in the air which is necessary to get the entire frame coated.

Red Oxide primer on Ferrari Chassis

Ferrari Chassis in Red Oxide PPG Primer

Primer and Satin Black paint on Ferrari Chassis

Here is a nice photo of the 212 chassis with a fresh coat of primer and paint. We used a red-oxide primer from PPG and a special satin black That I feel is the perfect gloss in PPG’s DCC Concept line, a single stage finish. The finish is DCC Concept line is Acrylic Urethane and it is so tough and goes on so easy that it seems impossible anything work and look so good.
When painting something like this with all the tubes and welded areas, the bulk of the chassis is over-sprayed. It is quite an exercise to get under, upside-down and all around to ensure a good coat on all of the tubing. It is nice to know that the chassis will be coated to be preserved for another 50 years or more.

PPG DCC Concept Acrylic Urethane Ferrari

Here is a photo of the body on the 212 on the chassis. Since this photo was taken we have dialed in the wheel openings so, when steered with the suspension compressed, the wheels will clear the bodywork. The shape of this car is very exciting, another example of how it is hard to argue with the creative styling of these cars.

Aluminum bodywork close to finished

When gas welding aluminum a water soluble flux must be used to clean the surfaces and allow a nice flat and strong weld. We gas weld the sheet metal because the welds stay as flexible and supple as the surrounding material allowing you to roll the sheet metal and the welds through the English Wheel Dollies.

The problem is that if you do not get rid of all the flux residue, the aluminum will “salt away” under the paint and cause bubbling in the finish. In these photos we are using soap and water and brushes to ensure that there is no flux even in the deepest crevasses. Even a tiny amount in a pin hole will ruin a perfect paint job.

Ferrari 212 body washing off flux

Removing flux from aluminum body