Our customer wanted us to re-paint this 330 GTC because the paint was faded and cracking but the car appeared to be very straight and showed no signs of rust or accident damage. As we exposed the bare steel under layers of blue and red paint we found some minor accident damage at the left front headlight that was expertly fixed years ago. The other damage was from the infamous “rust worm” slithering about the rocker panels and rear wheel arches. There wasn’t any bubbling in the paint because someone (expertly) applied stainless steel tape over some perforations in the bodywork which did a great job sealing water from behind and lift the finish.

I cut away the rocker panels and cut the inner structure from behind the rear fender arches so I can properly fix and seal the panels so they’ll last at least another 45 years. Water can get into the rocker panel area but there are many areas for it to leak out but there were these big sand bricks trapped inside which allowed the water to linger in there for a long time which caused the most damage. As bad as it looks, there won’t be any major re-construction other than a few new inner sill struts and new rocker panels.

Refinishing a Ferrari 330 GTC

Rocker panel Ferrari

Over the last Month I’ve been disassembling a dark blue1967 Ferrari 330 GTC to re-finish the paint, chrome and interior. Even though Pininfarina did a spectacular job building these beautiful Ferrari Coupe’s, there are some things that I can’t live with. These photos show the fit between the “B” pillar cover trim and the “C” pillar window surround trim just behind the door. The gap was enormous on both sides and was filled in with black urethane rubber from the factory. I ground off the chrome and copper and welded some new brass on the trim (which is made of brass) to tighten up the gap.

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

Carrozzeria Touring Berlinetta

Ferrari Headlight detail

Touring Carrozzeria Body Dashboard

High Build Primer Ferrari

Here are a series of photos of the block sanding process on the Ferrari 166 Touring Berlinetta. The sheet metal is all sorted and gaps are perfect but the body needs hundreds of hours of serious elbow grease (sanding) to make sure it is all straight as an arrow. Syl isn’t scared of the “mud”, he completely fills in all of the door and hood gaps allowing him to block sand right across them so when the light hits the highly polished top coat you won’t see any waves or change in reflection.

Even though the grill we made fit the opening in bare aluminum, Syl spends hours making it perfect with skim coats of body filler and attacks the headlight rim contact areas with the same level of perfection. There isn’t any room for error when working with super fine trim that is used all over this car like the delicate headlight rings and the low profile windshield and rear glass surrounds. Imagine these surrounds,  start with a long  section of 1/4″ aluminum rod and whittle it down so only a quarter of it is used.  We re-made this trim because the delicate original material was destroyed when the car was disassembled.

Right now, the car is sealed up in high build primer with a blue tinted epoxy primer that seals the polyester filler from moisture and greasy finger prints. Now we have some more fitting here and there before it goes back to Syl’s shop to work out some more details such as the incredibly complex belt-line crown that goes from the headlight to the tail light..

We’ll probably have more hours in sanding and painting the dashboard that it would take to paint an entire late model car like a Mercedes or Honda. The dash on this car is a thing of beauty but it requires a perfectionist sicko to finish it because like the rest of the car, the trim that surrounds the gauges and switches are like string bikinis

Re-finish Ferrari 330

It doesn’t look bad in this photo but the paint on this 330 GTC is displaying it’s age with small cracking, a few minor rust bubbles and areas where its flaking right off the sheet metal! I was looking carefully for signs of the original color which appears to have been blue from new. There is a hint of red paint around the front window but I can’t tell if the car was red at one time or if it was just some extra protective coating in an area that needs lots of rust protection. The car will likely be re-painted a dark blue.

330 GTC in for Paint

It’s hard to tell how deep the crease is in the photos but the door skin actually split at the rear edge and crushed the framework at the closure area. The crease went on the panel behind the door as well so Nate took the door apart and pulled the fuel tank to access the inside of the rear panel. I had to make a few custom tools to get inside the door to shrink the sharp crease and other dents without having to remove the entire skin. It would have been a bear to remove and replace the skin because the door fits so well from the factory and to duplicate that is tons of work. A complete replacement door would have been equally intensive so my gut reaction is to fix what you’ve got

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

We had an open house over the weekend so I took some photos of the shop all cleaned up and looking sharp.  With the floor so clean, it appears that the cars are floating, especially that copper colored Maserati Ghibli!

In the past, our open house has been to show customers what is going on with their projects but this year we geared the event to be more of a fun party where we ended up eating clams and shrimp right off the BBQ grill and enjoyed some cold beers. Since we have survived these last few difficult years, we certainly needed to let loose!

Maserati Ghibli

For the first time in over 50 years, these former Marzotto team cars are sitting side by side,  prepared once again to compete in the Mille Miglia.  Are these cars like working dogs, border collies or sled dogs who are anxious to work almost to their own demise or are they dreading the stress of the event?

The lighter red car is a Ferrari 340 America serial number 0030MT that belonged to my father, Peter Markowski for 35 years. He bought it as a worn out race car when he was in his late teens and restored over the course of many years then driving it for close to 100,000 miles. In the late 90′s our shop restored it again, overhauling the engine, transmission, brakes and other components. We performed a flawless pant job on the car and Peter sold it shortly after all that work was completed because he was not comfortable driving the car with reckless abandon as he used to.

The car sold to its current owner in Europe who disliked the perfection so performed some magic to make the car look more original followed by competing in many driving events which added some true “battle scars”.  My father was probably quite emotional seeing this old piece of his history next to a car that he and his sons built from the ground up.

A well known Ferrari historian is working to make arrangements to have the two cars shipped to the home of  Giannino Marzotto at Lake Como for a photo shoot and possible magazine article.  I hope this works out as Signior Marzotto may have some incredible stories of racing these cars in the early 50′s.

Ferrari Marzotto 340

Marzotto Team cars 212, 340 Ferrari

Nice job on the 356.

Syl is using RM clear on our projects lately, the Morgan, this Porsche, as well as a bunch of other projects over the last year or so. The stuff is SO clear, lays down so nicely and with next to no orange peel, straight out of the gun.

This Porsche had tons of rust, when we put it up in the air, the lift arms went right up into the frame at the torsion bar location and eventually started to pick the car off the ground! Now the body has been fixed, the car has paint, and it’s time for assembly.

RM Clear coat and color on Porsche 356

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