3500GT Barnfind

Can you try again with just less, maybe half, and then in a second post the rest?
Wilfried

 

Probably you need to subscribe. The price is modest compared to the value of the forum.

Lavaux, it would be better to use nylon trim tools (like these: http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=95432) rather than a screwdriver when removing your hubcaps.

Thank you both for sharing news and photos of your progress.

 

Hello Mark,
Have not heard (or rather seen) from for quite some time! Still eager to see those attachments.....
Wilfried

 

Hi Guys. I'm sorry that I have not posted here for a while. I had spine surgery number seven in August, so I took a little break from my project.
Since my last post, I have rebuilt the Webers, removed the brake vacuum boost & master cylinder, and redyed the leather several times. Leatherique has a fantastic product...but it took four tries, before we finally got the color of the dye correct. I still have to do the final re-dye.
Here are a few pictures of my progress. My transmission is still at a local shop. I located the components that I needed for it on ebay, a couple months ago.
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more pictures
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I am trying to preserve the car's originality. I would have preferred to not redye the leather and keep it's original "patina". It was so deteriorated, that was not possible. I plan on keeping the carpet original. I will get some nice cocoa mats to cover the worn spots. I am hoping that the backs and sides of the seats can remain original. Obviously, the tops of the seats will need recovered.
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A couple more.
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I am in the middle of removing the brake & clutch master cylinders. I have the brake master unbolted. I have also unbolted the two top bolts on the pedal assembly. I will tackle it further tomorrow. Any helpful hints would be appreciated. I am trying to remove both master cylinders, without removing the hood.

 

Most impressive.

I bet if you took that left hand arm rest to a clever trim guy they would be able to sew it up.
Pete

 

Nice work! I love survivor cars.

 

Pete, thanks. I hope that I find a good upholstery shop that can work miracles with the original pieces.
James, thank you.

 

Just came across this topic. Very cool! Nice to see you kept updating it over the past few years.

Im sure you answered this somewhere in here but will you keep it or drive a little while and sell it?

 

Dave, thanks. I would love the keep this one forever...unfortunately, I will be selling it upon completion. It will be painful to part with. I found it when I was 17 and it was my first dream car. I will have to drive it a few times, just to make sure everything works perfectly.

 

Thanks to Lavaux, I was able to remove the brake and clutch master cylinders. They can not be removed, without taking the entire pedal assembly off the car...I never would have guessed that, without Lavaux's (Wilfried's) advice.

Here is where the master cylinders were mounted. The almond shells were from my dad's orchard. My brother had a bag of almonds in his garage sitting next to the Maserati. The rat gorged himself on the almonds and left shells throughout the car. I would not want to be following the Maserati on it's maiden voyage. I'm sure it will spray almond shells behind it like confetti.
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Mark,
Both pumps on my 3500GT were dead after 30 years of non-use: the diaphragms had become very hard, so the plunger could not move any more.
The pumps were made by "SECONDO MONA" , Varese, Italy. They don't make any spare parts any more, but I got the drawing of the diaphragm. I built two of them with three layers of 0.4mm rubbertissue. Both pumps work again.
You told me that you don't want to restore the pumps. If somebody wants the drawing, just let me know.
Lavaux

 

Just want to tell you a little story: Once I had everything restored, I started the engine and heard a funny noise "pf" - "pf" somewhere at the cylinderhead. Difficult to locate. I took my stetoscop but the noise was fainting. Is it a cylinderhead gasket which is leaking when cold?? No noise any more.
Next day same noise again: quite strong to start with, then getting weaker and weaker.
I finally located the noise: it is the air, which is streaming from the vacuum bottle through the non-return valve into the last admission duct. For 2 revolutions of the engine 1 "pf" ! Once the vacuum bottle is empty, no noise any more, until you press the brake pedal.

Why does the Jaguar not make this noise? Because it has a common admission duct for 3 cylinders: it makes 3 times more "pf" but they are 3 time less noisy!
Lavaux

 

Wilfried, I finally checked the balance on my original radiator fan. It appeared to be balanced perfectly. When I spun it on a shaft (slightly smaller than the inside diameter of the center hole), it did not wobble at all.
Do you recommend doing anything to the vacuum cannister for the brake booster, while I have the rest of the system apart?

 

I don't know if you are lucky with your fan, or if I was exceptionally unlucky: as I said, the fan was acting like a pendulum......

The vacuum cannister was ok, but not the non-return valve fixed to it. If you see no damage to the cannister (like rust holes), just clean (and paint) it.

I guess you are making progress without telling us about it!!!

Wilfried

 

While removing the radiator/cooling hoses today, I made an unfortunate discovery. I drained the radiator and found that the system had been filled with water for the entire time that it had been sitting in my brother's garage (about 30 years). I noticed a small amount of gritty material in the water that came out of the radiator. When I removed the hose between the thermostat and cylinder head elbow (which contains the temperature sensor), I saw that the elbow was over 50% obstructed by the gritty material. The material appears to be rust. It's consistency is about halfway between sand and gravel.

I removed the elbow, which appears to be cast iron. It had severly corroded, causing the gritty material to deposit inside it. I can see inside the head, but I can not see if the rust went inside. Does anybody know if the water goes into the head from the elbow, or is it flowing out? I reached into the water passage with my finger, to see if the grit went inside the head. I could not tell. There is a sharp wire protruding up from the bottom of the passage...does anybody know what it is? Are there any other non-aluminum parts of the cooling system, that would have been damaged by the water? The water pump sounded fine when I ran the car a few months ago (for about five minutes).

I appreciate any advice. I am hoping that I can resolve this, without removing the head.

 

Mark, you can flush your cooling system sans radaitor and water pump by using a 'drill powered' suction pump. They have them at most auto parts stores for about 7 bucks and Home Depot as well (used for changing oil believe it or not). They are just like it sounds, a small black plastic pump with and inlet and outlet. The impeller is powered by your drill. While your at the Home Depot get some clear soft plastic tubing the correct I.D. of the water inlet elbow and the outlet elbow or just connect them to your water pump etc. Fill a 5 gallon bucket with clean water and pump it through the block, have the outlet run into another empty bucket. you can filter the "outlet" water throught a funnel with a paint strainer filter and chatch what was inside if you are really anal like me! LOL!

Hope this is understandable, it really works, I'll send you photos if you like! At least it worked for me,....same kind of problem.

The head studs and I believe the bottoms of the cylinder liners are exposed to some cooling water. Not sure what else. Good luck!

Ciao!

 

The water flows OUT from the cylinder head through that (cast iron) ellbow, then trough a short rubber tube into the Y piece with the thermostat. From there, when the thermostat is still closed because cold the water flows down back into the engine. When the water is hot, the thermostat closes this way and all the water goes into the radiator at the top.

On my car the y-piece was simply made of two tubes, without the spheric part for the thermostat. There was no thermostat! Part of the water run down to return hot into the engine, another part went to the radiator. I was told that the factory delivered some cars without this simple, stupid system. Of course, I bought a new thermostat housing: the system runs now in the normal way!

I suggest that you flush the radiator backwards, in at the bottom, out at the top, to remove gritty parts which most probably came into it. I had both radiators (water and oil) cleaned and checked by a radiator repair shop. They found them to be still ok!

 

Trevor, your directions made perfect sense. Thanks for taking the time to help me. I needed a pump anyway, to drain the old gas out of the tank.

Wilfried, I hope you are doing well. I am relieved to hear that the water flows out of the head at the elbow. That means that the grit did not go into the head. I am surprised that both your radiators were still ok after so long. I have both the original radiator and oil cooler. Neither are installed on the car. The previous owner had a huge aluminum radiator made that is twice the size of the original. The fan is significantly larger also. I have not located any oil cooler installed on the car. Could you tell me where it was originally installed? Maybe I just haven't looked hard enough. Is it possible an oil cooler is no longer needed since the main radiator is more efficient? Thanks Wilfried...it is always nice hearing from you.

 

Mark,...no problem happy to help. My radiator had to be redone, but the oil cooler was okay. I had the oil cooler recored just to make sure . It didn't cost that much and the shop thought it was a neat period unit. They were happy to recore it with the correct "fins per inch" core for $105.

I looked at photos of your engine on this post and you should have the 'external' oil pump or scavenger pump on your car as it is a fairly early car. I'm almost positive there are two types of early engines. ** Other F-chat members should comment on this.** The main differneces in the early engines 57-59 being the cam chain tensioner and the oil pump/ external oil cooler locations. The early cars had the battery located behind the engine thus these had the external oil cooler located in a different position from your car. The later Series I engines late 59-64?(your car), had the battery mounted in the trunk and the external oil cooler mounted in a slightly different area; on the radiator.

Your car should have the external oil cooler mounted low, on the passengers side of the radiator. There is usually an aluminum cooling duct or tube about 3.5" in dia. that funnels air to the external oil cooler. This should still be on your car, I'd be suprised if it has been removed. If it is there,..... that's where the external oil cooler should be located, but it's mounted to the original radiator pass side.

The oil cooling system is simple but works well. The design harkens back to Maserati Formula 1 days of the 250F engine and before. It's quaint and some what exotic in nature, but many 3500 owners have literally gone down the road missing both of them. The external oil cooler and its pully hung lower that it should have and was often a casuality of the curb or spirited driving. They snapped off and lots of 3500 owners just made due without them. Other owners have told me you can get away without the external oil pump with a good radiator and easy driving. If your gonna drive like Fangio or Moss (my vote!),..I'd use the oil cooler, why not?

Jacques at Maseratisource has reproduction external oil pumps available if yours is missing.

Using your new radiator and larger fan, without using the external oil cooler and the external pump probably won't hurt a thing! But I'd put it back to original order if it was up to me! My .02 .

Below are the oiling system which shows the external oil pump and oil cooler and a early example of the 3500 engine, also an original NOS external oil pump which I have as a spare, for your reference.

....a long winded post,... hopefully it was helpful without being too pedantic.


Ciao and best!
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Mark,

This is an early engine of your type of 3500. As far as i know there is no oil cooler.
It has the oilpump for engine lubrication under the pulley. It also lacks the vibration damper on the front of the crankshaft.
Chain tensioner on the front of the engine. Lubrication of the chain idlergear is now internal.
Engines with external chain tensioners have the idlergear lubrication through an external steel pipe.

Your car doesn't have the round hole in the front chassis member to route the hose for a scavange pump as used on later engines.
This is what you can expect on a 1959 car.

In 1960 the oilfilter moved under the starter motor, brake booster is relocated forwards for it.
A hole was made in the chassis for the hose from scavange pump to the sump. Oil cooler fitted near RH side of the radiator.
Engine got the torsion damper.

Ruud
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