Hello, I am new on this much interesting forum. My name is Alain and I am from Geneva, Switzerland. I have just bought AM109*572 in Belgium. It's a Mistral 3.7 Coupe built in november 1965. The history of this car is easy to trace, as it had only 3 owners: it has been delivered new to a Mr Loury in France, who sold it to a Mr Bertin in 1972. This second owner kept it near Paris until 2009, when he sold it to the car collector in Bruxels a bought it from. The original specifications a have received from Maserati Classiche are the following: - paint color: "Argento Auteuil met". (Salchi code 106E1) - interior color: "Rosso" leather (Connolly code PAC 1603) with red carpets - options: transmission tunnel's console The car is in a good driving condition, but has unfortunately been repainted at some time in a dark blue metallic color. The interior is original, with much patina. The engine has a matching number. I have delivered it to a Maserati specialist here in Switzerland to correct all the main issues and go through the swiss technical inspection before registration. There is a lot of jobs to do: small (suspension silentblocs, seals, ignition wires...) or bigger (injection tuning, clutch, front windshield). I will visit the whorkshop tomorrow to see how they are managing that. More news will follow. Alain. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Beautiful car, the engine bay looks spotless (and it looks like you have the Lucan fuel injection)! I think the color works very well with the car.
Nice car! Congratulations and enjoy. Please share the journey. PS not sure about the original colour but this is nice looking
Welcome Alain. Your Mistral is wonderful. Congrats. on your purchase. I do like the current color. Please keep the group informed of your progress!!!! ~Trev
Hi and first, thanks to all for your positive comments. You seem to appreciate the blue color. I have done the trip to the whorkshop to have a look at the car and to understand what jobs were necessary to have a reliable vehicule. The first good new is that the chassis is straight and the car is free from accident damage. As usual, I was astonished to hear the specialist explain me all what had to be done, only to go through the technical inspection: - big service with valves and timing adjustment - rebuild the ignition system - tune the Lucas injection system - rebuild the steering box (leaking and therefore low on oil) - renew the clutch slavecylinder (corroded) and the clutch disc (slips under heavy charge) - rebuild the front suspension (silentblocs contaminated with oil or dry) - attend an oil leak at the rear axle - renew the flexible brake hoses - put new tires - find and put a new front windshield (stonechip in front of the driver and deeply scratched) And now, what about the cosmetical side of the car? - the blue paint job looks really bad from a short distance and will need to be redone. I will take this opportunity to bring the car back to its original silver factory color - the Borrani wire wheels have responded well to cleaning - I like the patinated leather and will not touch it, except for some Hidefooding. The carpets will need a heavy shampoo - the engine bay is nice and will do with some detailing - the bumpers will need rechroming After the registration, I will begin to do all those other small d.i.y. jobs to bring the car to a really pleasant condition. It's my week-end's and holliday's hobby. I will keep you posted. Alain. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Hi Can you send to me the name of the shop in Geneva working on the car and if you think they are good. Have many friends in Geneva and one of my cars is originally Swiss. Send by PM fine
Hi, The shop is not in Geneva, it would be too easy. It is located in canton Luzern, about 270 kilometers from Geneva, but I think the trip is worthwhile and it gives the possibility to test the car when going back home! Its name is: Garage Limacher AG (www.limacherag.ch for more informations and pictures) It's the first time I use their services, but it has been recommanded by other Maseratisti and is mentionned on Enrico's site. It's a medium size family business employing 2 mechanics and a bodyman. The workshop is very modern and clean. The boss has taken 1 hour of his time to show me the issues on the car and to explain what he was doing to fix them. When I'll have collected the car, I will give you more "live" impressions. Alain.
With Limacher, your Mistral is in safe hands. My Quattroporte has been serviced by him for more than 20 years. Always to my greatest satisfaction. Greetings from Switzerland, Geri
Congratulations on a beautiful Mistral, Alain and thanks for sharing the details and photos. The blue does look nice - but personally I feel your plan for Silver would really set off the red interior beautifully. It will be fun to see how it comes along. Enjoy!!
Hi, I'm near Olten, so less kilometers to Limacher than from Genève.. Don't think there is a better specialist near you. Don't think there is a better specialist in Switzerland anyway...I have a 1967 Quattroporte. My father already had it serviced by Limacher since he first opened shop (must have been in the eighties).
Hi, The work on my car is almost finished. It has gone through the technical inspection successfully. I have already obtained the vehicule license and number plates. The last problem to solve is that the original Lucas fuel pump is too tired to be kept. I have seen on the site of powerprops.com in Holland that Mr Klijn sells a Bosch pump kit. Does anybody have an experience of the Bosch pump or another solution to suggest? Thank you for your help, Alain. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Hi Maseratisti friends, It's almost one year now that I haven't given you some news of my car. I am unfortunately not working as quickly as Frank does on his 3500gt: great job Frank! I have picked up the Mistral from Garage Limacher in march and driven back to my workshop in Geneva. The car has gone through the technical inspection without problem (I wonder how it was possible...) and has been registered as "veteran vehicule". I was immediately disappointed by the Mistral's driving and handling performances on the road. - the steering is still very imprecise, quite hard in some situations and light in another ones - the car is going dangerousely to the right side when braking - the tac-tac-tac noise in the transmission is still present - Mr Limacher has installed a Bosch fuel pump in the rear of the luggage compartment: its very noisy and smells fuel I have seen on the invoice (amongst other jobs) that the front suspension's silentblocks has been changed, the steering box has been restored and the braking system has been overhauled. Well, bye bye Mr Limacher, that was a bad enough experience. I hope I will find another mechanic in the future who is able to work better and at a more reasonnable price (I had to sell my last shirt to pay Mr Limacher). Now, I am slowly working on the car. I have an afternoon free each week to go ahead with all the small jobs I can do myswlf. The first one I decided to do was to attend the battery tray and holding bracket. Look at the result in my next message, Alain.
Sorry to hear about your bad experience Alain, hope you find a good and reasonably priced mechanic to help you with future work. It sounds like you're in a similar situation as I am, where you are able to tackle smaller jobs on your own but need a shop to tackle the larger jobs. Looking forward to hearing and seeing more of your car
Great hearing from you! Alain has already helped me quite much with pictures and measurements for some details in my restoration. Really hope I can come to Geneva for work early 2014. We''ll see. Merry Christmas! Alex/Norway
Hello Alain, I am in Switzerland as well. I live in gstaad, but I am in Geneva 2-3 days a week, I am not a maserati owner, but you may want to try Olivier de siebenthal in acclens (autonautica). He takes care of quite a few of my uncles vintage racing cars, and although he is expensive I know he works well, and has good knowledge of old Italian machinery. Good luck, with your beautiful mistral ! Jeremy
When I bought my Mistral, there was no battery retaining brackets, so the battery was jumping out of its tray when I was driving over road bumps. The tray itself had a lot of surface rust and several small impacts from underneath. I decided to repair and repaint the tray and to fabricate the brackets from scratch. I must here thank Gene O'Gorman, who has sent me some pictures of his Ghibli's brackets. To flatten the tray, I put a jack holding a metal plate under the car and hammered the impacts out. I then applied tree coats of Hammerite black satin paint to protect the metal. To improve the appearance and avoid vibrations, I glued an anti-vibration pad in the middle. Regarding the brackets, I made the small "L" one with an M6 bar I threaded at both ends and on which I brazed a washer to do a stop. It was Hammerite painted once screwed in place. The main bracket was made with a modified Triumph one on which I welded the vertical slotted part. I then let it powder coat. The result looks reasonably original even if it's difficult to reproduce the faded paint of the trunk. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
I am now restoring the fuel system, from the tanks to the injection manifold. I have already changed all the rubber fuel lines. The Garage Limacher discarded the Lucas "bomb" fuel pump because it was too tired. They installed a Bosch Motorsport pump with its relay and filter at the back of the luggage compartment (see first picture). They then put a pressure regulator in the engine compartment. As this installation is very noisy and disturbing when driving, I have decided to keep the Bosch pump, but to install it with all its accessories in the original position under the right side front wing. For now, I have bought all the necessary bits from Glencoe Ltd. in the UK (see second picture). From left to right: - Sytec Motorsport filter with removable paper cartridge and 10mm brass connectors - Sytec Motorsport light alloy pump bracket and connectors - the Bosch Motorsport pump is an FP200 delivering 8 bar, which is a modified 044 pump (the part Nr. is B 261 205 413 01) - Powerprops fuel distributor, including an adjustable pressure regulator - Sytec Motorsport "T" and brass connectors for the fuel return lines to the tank My goal is to do a 3mm thick custom support which will be screwed in the holes of the original one through anti-vibration plugs. I will first cut a support in wood to position all my bits temporarily and do the fuel pressure adjustments more easily. I will place this support at the right height but outside of the car and I will start the engine to be sure it is running well with this kit. I would be very interested to have your opinion. Do I forget something? Do I do something wrong? Fingers crossed for the next days, Alain. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
