Here are a few more panels that Homer worked on.

Clear coat tint

Tinted clear on aluminum

Last night a friend called me to take a look at his newest obsession, creating a water effect with sheet metal and paint. These panels are beautiful to see in person and I am impressed at how great they look in photographs. The technique for painting the fish is amazing.

Clear coat is not intended to go over bare metal, it typically needs primer or some sort of surface prep but the stuff is so high quality and hard, I have a feeling it will hold up great.

Fish in Clear

Water panel

This engine had low miles on an complete overhaul. It came in for us to check out, but after finding that the compression was low and the leak down numbers were terrible, we pulled it apart.

The cylinders were polished like a mirror and piston rings had lost their temper. The main and rod bearings are wiped out, and due to major detonation, the rod bearings were hammered to the point that they fell right out of the cap when they should be held in firmly with spring tension.

What a mess. I am doubting that it was actually overhauled because the whole engine was “buzz-bomb” painted right over dirt and all of the hardware.

Ferrari 209

Main bearing

These gauges are made by Smiths for Touring, a company in Italy who built bodies for Ferraris in the early 50’s. They built bodies for other brands like Maserati using light tubing for an armature and thin aluminum for the “skin”. They called this style of construction “superleggaria” or Super Light.

Since Touring of Milan built the body, they also outfitted the car with an interior and all the little delicate detailing such as door release handles and had Smiths make these beautiful gauges.

After photographing a number of Touring built cars with this style of gauge, I found  most to have a beige/tan background color where these gauges appear to have always been dark blue. Maybe because the car was originally dark blue? We carefully stripped the paint and could find no evidence of another color so we had them restored as you see them.

Smiths gauge

Touring ferrari smiths

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

Clean brake fluid is a must for proper operation of a brake system, proper operation of brakes, reliable brakes? Ferraris 250’s with the Bendix/Bonaldi booster had a reservoir cap with a steel mesh under an aluminum disc to allow the bottle to vent. Under the mesh is a small hole directly into the brake fluid reservoir. As you can see, there is lots of opportunity for crud to get into the fluid from this rusty build up in the mesh. I took the aluminum disc off, made a new spacer ring and welded it onto the cap. I sent the part of to be cad plated and made a new aluminum disc, installed stainless steel wool under the and wrinkle finish painted it. Voila!

FIAT Reservoir lid

Wrinkle finish reservoir

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

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.

1956 Ferrari 750 Monza paint detail

A customer asked about a harlequin bit of paintwork on the boot lid of the 1956 Ferrari 750 Monza. A section of paint was masked and carefully sanded to expose the layers of paint the car has worn. The result is a twelve square inch testament to the heritage of the car. It’s a trait more common to European restorations, and generally unseen in the United States.  Europeans prefer to celebrate history, while many Americans prefer to erase it with perfection being achieved through a sterile final product, and allowing the owner to forget that anyone was ever there -  an oh-so-human reclamation of virginity.

The Monza shows many colors including blue and yellow in addition to more than one shade of red, and a few layers of primer, and the foundation of bare metal clear coated for protection. This badge of visual history is especially rich as the car was born into racing, changing liveries often. We hope to see more cars like this, though few will exhibit as much character.

Ferrari 750 Monza paintwork