For a Porsche 911T in 1972. The radio was 3% of the cost of the car, do radios still cost that much? I heard that the reason sunroofs are so rare on these Porsches is because they were something like an $800 option or 10% of the cost of the car – something few people would pony up for.

Invoice for a 1972 Porsche 911T

If I were making a production run of something, this isn’t how I would do it. Ferrari made thousands of “250″ series cars all with these goofy water pipes for the cooling system which vary drastically throughout the 10 year production run.  They are so complex and hard to duplicate that re-making them nearly impossible. This “J” shaped pipe has a compound curve with barbs that have to be welded on in exactly the right location even though they appear to be stitched on at random locations. If they are off one millimeter, they will hit the oil filter or run into the fan.

These pipes are for the Lusso/GTE series of 250, but I can make a number of other styles from 166 up through the 275 cars utilizing my incredible and growing stockpile of bends and flared ends. Right now I am making a short run of the water pipe that connects the thermostat housing to the engine on a 275 GTB/GTS Two-Cam engine.

Water pipe for Ferrari

Water pipe copied for Ferrari

If anyone needs a 3 phase 150KV generator, let me know. This one can bolt up to a Hercules Diesel and someone said that a International engines like the DT466  engine have the same bolt pattern. It can be wired to make 133, 230, 266, 460 volts while generating 651, 377, 326, 188 amps.

Generator A/C

As we’ve been traveling through the Canadian Rockies on Route 1, the Trans Canada Highway, Route 93 and other roads,  another group in Pre-War cars has been mixing it up with our group of sports cars. To see a 1911 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost “floating” along at 70 MPH is a sight to behold because it looks so effortless and elegant with the huge wheels and locomotive styling. This group is staying at the Banff Springs Hotel as we are so I am passing cards out to see if I can work on any of these icons. Sure, it would be great to see more of the inner workings on a Silver Cloud or on this Peugeot but  I’m more interested in getting some tips!

Peugeot Pre-War

Silver Ghost, Wrath, Cloud?

**GT-R is posted to Restoration & Performance Motorcars site. Click here. **

Have a look at this cool car, a 2008 Nissan Skyline GTR. 6 Speed dual clutch transmission, all wheel drive, tons of power. It’s for sale and once I get it cleaned up, I will post it on the website and get you some more information. These cars are selling for about $75K which we feel is a fair ask for this car in excellent condition.

Nissan Skyline photo

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

Restoring a VESPA

Over the last few months I have been pecking away at this 1966 Vespa 150 Super to get it ready for a final finish. It had been crashed so the front fender was dented and warped and the front “leg shield” area was all dented and nasty so I spent some time on the sheet metal and locked down the metal with epoxy primer.

I just finished overhauling the transmission and engine so once it is painted the assembly begins!

Hemmings Sports and Exotic Magazine did an amazing article on a 1962 Ferrari 250 GTE belonging to our customer in New York.  The owner had a spectacular Alfa Romeo 1900 for a number of years and decided it was time to sell. He did an incredible “feature” of the Alfa to sell it on ebay which had video links on youtube showing how the car performed on the road. The Alfa sold very well and guy now has a pocket full of cash to get what he really wanted, a Ferrari GTE.

He bought this car and had it shipped it to us where we picked it apart and did some major repairs to bring it up to a standard that it can be driven and enjoyed. We repaired or rebuilt every mechanical component on the car except for the rear axle so true to form, after 1000 miles, the ring and pinion started to growl.

At this time, the rear axle is overhauled and we have driven the car about 20 miles after performing a check over on the work we did last year. We have a few things to address so the car can  be driven regularly for the summer of 2011.

As you can see from a previous post, we changed the rear axle ratio from 7-32 to an 8-34 which I recommend for an early Ferrari 250!

Here is the link to the Hemmings article. Pics and words by David Traver Adolphus.

http://www.hemmings.com/hsx/stories/2011/04/01/hmn_feature1.html