New member first Ferrari

Hello everyone,

I wanted to introduce myself to the group after visiting the site for the last six months; gaining knowledge and information for the purchase of a 328. The choice of a 328 seemed to be the best for a first time buyer given the dependability, lower maintenance cost compared to other models, and what appears to be the bottom of the depreciation cycle. I finally located and purchased a one owner, 1988 328 red/tan (#75083) with 28,000 miles from Peter Sweeney at Forza Motors. Following a PPI done by Bill Pollard at SportAuto, I finalized the purchase of my first Ferrari; a dream I have always had.

I was also fortunate to have the help and input of Tim Stanford, Tim Stanford Foreign Cars, for whom his patience and understanding with my many questions and visits to his shop was greatly appreciated. He is a true gentleman and very passionate about Ferraris and their preservation. Tim’s help and support, along with Bill Pollard’s input, provided a level of comfort for a first time buyer.

My car is being delivered next week to Tim’s shop for maintenance and will post pictures shortly. I am looking forward to learning more from F Chat and meeting other owners in the South Florida area.

 

I wanted to thank everyone for the warm welcome to F-Chat and post a couple pictures. The new arrival was delivered by Intercity lines to Tim Stanford’s shop this afternoon for additional inspection and some maintenance. I will post more pictures after the wash and detail is completed. Happy with my first!!
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Jim, thanks for the great job you and your team did. I appreciate the car being delivered on schedule. I will definitely use Intercity services in the future.

 

Yes, that is Tim Stanford. I would highly recommend him.

 

As a follow up to my original post, I wanted to update the progress of my first Ferrari purchase. After delivery to Tim Stanford’s shop in the middle of March, Tim did a follow up inspection of the car. Although the car previously had a “belt service” about a year ago, upon further inspection Tim had some concerns with respect to the belt tension and some leakage from the cam seals. Thanks to the many posts on F chat that I had researched prior to purchasing the car, I had taken the advice of budgeting for a major service in addition to incidental repairs. I did not want to have the worry of dealing with an engine rebuild! The decision was made to perform the major service including belts, hoses, seals and fluids. I was especially happy to replace the hoses after reading several recent posts concerning fire hazards due to aged lines and hoses. In addition, the shift shaft seals were replaced and since the tires were twenty years old, they were also replaced. The car runs, performs and sounds great. As I had read in previous post, no need for the radio! Many thanks to Tim for his help with the car and allowing Eddy to do detail work at his shop while the car was still there.

The next step I pursued was the detailing of the paint. Although the car was purchased from the original owner with only 28,000 miles and garaged all of its’ life, the car had not been detailed in the proper fashion or technique. The previous detail process had produced swirl marks all over the car which yielded a somewhat hazy finish in the sun light as you might expect. Also included on the paint surface were the usual scratches after 23 years. I learned the importance of a proper detail.

Eddy Fiuza (http://www.fiuzasautodetailing.com/Home.html) was contacted after I received several local recommendations as well as the positive feedback comments from other South Florida F chat members. Eddy’s detailing process was both impressive and involved. Starting with the car wash using deionized water, Eddy proceeded to measure the thickness of the Glasurit paint on each panel of the car using an electronic paint thickness gauge to determine the areas with the best working surface, as compared to other surfaces that require extra care and work due to the lower thickness of paint. Also, a high intensity lamp was used before the detailing process to determine the depth of the swirl marks and scratches. I was happy to learn that the car’s paint was all original with no respray. Eddy’s detailing process took four days of hard work, but in the end the car’s paint was brought back to perfection. Swirl marks and scratches were removed which resulted in a high brilliant finish. The interior was obviously also detailed. I was impressed that the carpet cleaning was conducted using a steamer with distilled water as opposed to the tradition shampoo and tap water. In addition, the undercarriage and wheel wells were also detailed along with hood and door latches. I have attached some before and after pictures of the process. I learned a significant amount of information concerning the detailing of the car. Thanks Eddy for the great job!!

I am happy with the outcome of the car both from a mechanical and detail point of view and can now start enjoying the “old girl”. I am especially grateful that the Ferrari Community in South Florida has both Tim and Eddy, who are dedicated and committed professionals in preserving the older cars. Look forward to seeing and meeting other members at the next cars and coffee at Ferrari of Ft. Lauderdale on June 11th.
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