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

This Ferrari 330 GT 2+2  interior is original but the wear and tear is getting a bit out of hand with cracked and split leather and blown out webbing in the seat bottoms.  The drivers seat is so crushed down that I couldn’t even see over the dashboard! The owner was thinking of changing the color but wisely decided to keep the red leather (slightly darker, less pink) and red wool carpets. Even though the headliner is in good condition, we are going to replace that material since the foam in the pleats is falling out and the glue is coming undone here and there.

Red Leather seats upholstery for Ferrari

Leather for Ferrari 2+2

Re-upholster 330 Interior

Signs of things to come. Later we found 35˚F temps and 7" of snow

After a drive to Long Island to pick up cars, and Philadelphia to drop off an incredible Velocette Thruxton motorbike, we finally made it to Hot Springs, Virginia and the colossal hotel resort, The Homestead. The hotel is rich with history and while lobby alone is massive, a series of parlor rooms runs its length such that any small group can get away and feel as if they have their own private space. (Gallery after the jump)

We set up to begin a series of mechanical, electrical, and other repairs on a few vehicles before the rally began. Checking the charging system on one of the nicest Lamboghini Jalpa’s we’ve ever seen, repairing the Electromotive ignition on a Porsche 914/6, and the drivers window on a 330 GTC.

The Dish...

There were also a few repairs that didn’t surprise us. A beautiful 356 came by with a seat back that had become unscrewed. It was recently restored and the seat was likely “temporarily” installed without a good tightening. A quick hunt around the 30 or so screws that hold the interior door panels and the sill trim on showed many more screws that needed a final twist. A really nice 250 GTE came by with some carbs that the Ferrari dealer had been tuning. Unfortunately the dealer hasn’t been tuning carbs on new Ferrari models since the early-eighties, so we balanced them and dialed in the mixture.

The Homestead with a Porsche courtesy car out front - a Cayman R no less

Driver's Meeting led by Rich Taylor of Vintage Rallies.

Click and Clack, the Car Talk guys suggest placing coffee beans throughout the interior making the claim that the beans not only absorb the smell, but they give off a nice fragrance, not a bad deal. I was thinking of pressure washing it with tomato juice like we do with dogs that have been “skunked”.

Jaguar 4 door MK

Jaguar Interior 1960

Fuel and oil pressure

Here are the two pressure gauges, the one I created, the BENZINA, and the one we based it on, the OLIO pressure. I used a thick acrylic urethane paint with lots of catalyst to make the needles white. It was done in the original fashion with a heavy build up of paint that I “floated” on the part.

The gauges are almost finished, I started on restoring these late last summer (ah, how time flies by) and as you may remember from a past entry, I had to make one complete gauge that was missing on the car. We had the oil and water temp gauges as well as the oil pressure gauge but old photos show that the car had a fuel pressure gauge so I had to create one from scratch. Since we had to make one, we had to re-make many parts of the other gauges so they all match which meant fabricating new beveled-edge jewels, bezels and faces.

The original faces were 60mm aluminum discs with an acid etch screen for the font. I used a different process of clear anodize the disc and laser engraving the font into the aluminum which gave an identical contrast to the originals. Using the oil pressure face as a template, a graphic artist created the art work to make the “benzina” and instead of 0-10 Kg/Cm2 we used a 1/10th scale of 0-.1 scale. He had to create the artwork on all of the gauges since the fonts are so unique and the laser engraver wanted Adobe Illustrator file instead of a jpg file.

The bezels were scratched and ugly we we had to make new ones, not so easy since they have to thread onto the case using a super fine 1.0 thread pitch, a 65 mm by 1.0 thread!

The Benzina pressure gauge uses a 1/4 scale movement and no one makes a low pressure mechanical movement so I had to adapt an electrical movement and install a special sending unit that could register the super low (5-10 PSI) scale.

A water jet shop cut out the delicate needles from brass sheet and I made a bunch of tiny spindles and pegs on our lathe to complete the package.

So many sub-contractors and suppliers to make a set of gauges work for this car, and I am so happy with the final product!

Fuel and oil pressure

Jaeger Oil Pressure

When I had to explain why we had so many filing cabinet drawers full of suppliers and subcontractors to our bookkeeper, I realized how much we rely on other shops to keep these cars on the road. We try so hard to maintain good relationships with these shops through many long and arduous projects and feel blessed that we have some of the best people in the business as our ally.

This 212 gauge project is an example of the different suppliers that we use for the smallest of projects.

When we got the car to our shop we were missing the fuel pressure gauge but had the oil pressure, oil temperature and water temperature gauges. The fuel pressure should have the 1/4 pivot just like this oil pressure gauge and say BENZINA instead of OLIO and use different numbers for the lower pressure of the fuel system. We have to create an entire new gauge, new case, jewell, bezel, movement, needle, and the hardest part, the face.

To date I have bought a movement from an aircraft company, got fittings from a Ferrari Supplier, used a specialty shop to make hand ground beveled glass and used David to water jet cut a bunch of 60mm aluminum .030 discs. I sent the discs to get anodized, then to a laser engraver to have the script and graduation marks done. Another shop made the delicate thread on four bezels and make one complete case. I will then send all of the gauges to my friends who restore gauges to make sure everything is calibrated after I send them the correctly plated capillary tube!