Here are some photos for Derek who seems to get very turned on by Ferrari engine photos, mostly the “basamento” which translates to “base” and in this context it stands for Engine Block.
Testa Normal
Bassimento 250 GT Ferrari
Here is a early Porsche 911 Engine that Casey has finished and will hopefully be running later this week.
We often pick on people who say “all you gotta do is”, because there’s no such thing as “all you gotta do is”…. Anyone who says “all you gotta do is” either has never done it before or is trying to beat you up on an estimate. AKA, a looser
Most of the cars we work on have brand new brake components available to purchase which allow us to slam ‘em in and ship it. Unfortunately, we have to rebuild brake components on Ferrari’s which really sucks. All you gotta do is… Ugh. A guy sent me a totally blown out Master cylinder for a 330 GTC, rusted and stuck, terrible, horrible, so I sent steel fittings off to be cadmium plated, sent the cylinder to have a new sleeve installed in the bore, ordered an overhaul kit and when everything returned, I put it all back together. After assembling it the I noticed that the pistons were sticking in the cylinder so I took it all apart and the wrenches scratched the fresh plating and watched as the brake fluid stripped the black paint. I honed the bore and got the pistons to move freely, assembled it again and set it up to be tested on my high tech device that you can observe in the photo below. Now I am finding that the sleeve wasn’t drilled correctly and fluid couldn’t into the forward chamber (that goes to the rear brakes) so I had to start all over again, scratching, chipping. Now, the cylinder is all back together and working perfectly after 7 hours of labor! “All you gotta do is”! Did I mention that the rebuild kit didn’t come with the correct first seal, there was a 30mm seal included when I needed a 25mm seal so after buying 3 kits, I resorted to making my own seal.
Ferrari GTC Brake Master Cylinder
MGA 1600 Barn Find
What do you think this car is worth? Even though the inside of all the sheet metal has a light coating of surface rust, the car is amazingly solid without any evidence rust bubbles in the rocker panels or bottom of the doors. The car is complete with all the brightwork and trim and as you can see, the side curtain’s are still in tact. The seats are nice leather things that probably came from a Volvo, absolutely not original.
The engine turns over freely with the starter and it sounds like it has even compression in all cylinders. It has all the original mechanical components like the Lucas Starter, Generator and distributor. Based on how well all of the panels fit and the condition of the sheet metal, it doesn’t appear to have ever been in an accident. The odometer shows 15K miles, is that possible?
I’m thinking of putting it on ebay but need to get a feel for the value before I go through that exercise. I’d really appreciate anyone’s feedback on where to go with this MGA.
A friend of mine is looking to sell this BMW Isetta to free up some space for other cars. This is one of the best Isettas I have ever seen because he had all the details done properly right. If you are looking for an Isetta let me know and I can connect you with the owner.
BMW Isetta for sale
We think this may have been a fire patrol van for a German or Swiss parks department and I’d like to hear if anyone has any thoughts on what else it may have been used for. Every detail is so incredibly well crafted from the incredibly precise roll up rear door to the beautiful speedometer/clock combination gauge that looks like it was made by Patek Phillipe! With this craftsmanship comes a super heavy curb weight that is propelled by a minuscule 2.4 liter 4 cylinder diesel engine that barley gets this tank to 50 mph! If you really need to get to that raging forest fire this may not be the first vehicle you choose which may explain the low miles and lack of wear and tear.
Diesel Mercedes Benz
We did tons of work on this 1956 Jaguar XK-140 this summer, between waiting for parts and correcting some stubborn little details and then cleaning it all up, we spent some hours on this beauty. Now that Mike has his car back, he has been driving all over the place including to and from work, a 50 mile drive one way!
Jaguar XK-140 DHC
After getting a great response to a post a few weeks ago about engraving on the door handles called Giouche, I thought you would also get a kick out of this old school decorative detail. It’s called Cloisonne, a technique developed to make Jewelry and small fixtures as well as larger items like bowls and vases. Years ago at a Montreal art museum I saw pottery that was finished in a geometric pattern cloisonne that was so beautiful with pools of glossy color and a chaotic randomness.
Cloisonne is typically made by soldering wire to the base material in order to form dividers that get filled with the enamel filled with colored paste that it fired in order to harden and become glossy. These Ferrari and Pininfarina badges are made a little differently. The base metal is stamped to create the 2 dimensional depth which is then filled with different colors of the glossy translucent enamel. The Ferrari badge is an original from the 1957 and the Pininfarina (Letter F) as well as the Ferrari/PF flags are new manufacture. I’d like to know if the modern production pieces are made by the same company who made the originals or if they are reproduced by another shop.
Cloisonne Ferrari
Cloisonne hood badge
Coisonne PF Pininfarina
PF Badge, Ferrari badge
If you get a chance, have a look at our ebay listings one of which is this spectacular 330 GT 2+2.
We just sold a very tidy Tool briefcase for a 365 series Ferrari and have a guy ready to purchase a steel roof rack for a Porsche 911 (and other German cars like VW’s). This is a super nice piece with an original equipment manufacturers sticker on it!
In the next few days I’m gonna get some other cars up there so I will let you know what I am posting and will see if Gene can start an ebay store to start selling the stuff we have been accumulating around her.
Ferrari Ebay 330 V-12
Here’s the real question of the day. Isn’t there a philosophy class based on just this question and answer? If you answer Por Que correctly, you pass the class with high honors.
Because Por que, porque
RPM on Ebay
