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

Couple of 748′s in yellow

Service Ducati

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.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Ferrari-1966-Ferrari-330-GT-2-2-/320786529089?pt=US_Cars_Trucks&hash=item4ab05dfb41

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!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Ski-Roof-Rack-Porsche-VW-and-other-models-Early-70s-stainless-/320789565039?hash=item4ab08c4e6f&item=320789565039&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_100&vxp=mtr

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

We had to wipe all this detail out to re-chrome plate these insane door handles for the 166 Berlinetta so the engraving shop scanned in the scrapings so they could reproduce them when it came time to re-finish the part. Not too half bad .  Not even 7/16 bad neither. Nice chrome Mickey, like jewelry, you are killin it Mickey.

D&S Custom

From a diner in a Philadelphia Neighborhood, a great T-Shirt from the Fairlane Diner.

Fairlane Diner

Can you imagine if the USPS went out of business and we didn’t have this beautiful sticky currency! See the New River Gorge Bridge stamp, I was just there earlier this month on the Mountain Mille Rally with Vintage Rallies. It’s an incredible span in West Virginia that has become famous for hurling your body into the deep gorge with a bungee cord attached to your ankles. Without researching this, I believe the company who built this bridge also built a similar structure that I crossed in Burma over eight years ago.

The guy in Italy will be more excited to see these cool USPS stamps that the contents of the package and I’m more excited because instead of paying $300 to ship the package through FedEx or DHL, I am paying a little over $50. I was trying to think of what little American memento to include in the package but these stamps are a good gift to Sergio.

So is the USPS a US Government organization or not? If they are, how was it possible for them to sponsor the Cycling team in the late 90′s and how can the US army sponsor a NASCAR team? They didn’t ask me!

USPS Stamps

These headlight rims were purchased with headlights and buckets to “bolt in” to the front end of the Touring Body 1949 Ferrari 166 Coupe. The parts are beautiful and very expensive (even though the chrome plating is flaking off) but there is no way to secure them to the car! I have to make these brass tabs which will be soldered onto the rims so I can use a bolt to secure them to the bodywork. I drilled the holes in the parts for more surface area for the silver solder to adhere the tab to the rim. Once I am done I’ll send the rims to the engraver to have the delicate “Carello” script scanned into the computer so when they get re-chromed we can engrave this important detail back in. What an expensive detail!

Carello Ferrari Headlight 250, 166, 212,

Trim Rim Ring Carello Headlight