It works great. I used it on my vintage racing Alfa years ago and it held up well. Best sprayed on as opposed to brushed. Cheers, Paul
Hi Ivan, the Eastwood product works very well and looks like the original mill castings. I have used both the "Cast Iron" finish and the "Stainless Steel" finish. I usually use the Stainless Steel finish, it has a more mellow tone than the Cast Iron but both look fine. I believe the instructions say to BRUSH the finish on. And for best adhesion, this is the way to go. BUT,...you have to be very careful to not use too much. Otherwise you will have brush strokes after it dries, which you don't want. I spray my fanifolds, AGINST the direct instructions on the can. I have found that spraying leaves a perfect finish, BUT the down side is after some time e.g. 3 to 5 years you may have some "flaking" of the finish. I just tuch these areas up with a brush after they develop. For me, spraying is the way to go,....no brush marks which will detract. Hope this helps, Trev
Ivan, Please do NOT paint your manifolds. Just bead blast them and install. They will age naturally and look as they should. Anything else will look, well, "customized" Not a good look for such an important car. my 2 cents only and offered buffet style, ie take what you want. Ciao, FGM
Ivan and Frank, not be pedantic here, but bead blasting on cast iron will "peen" the natural pores in the manifold castings and it will change the texture on the originals. Soda blasting or sandblasting using garnet should do the trick. Don't use an agressive media on cast iron. Details are details after all, especially on a rare Maserati. My .02 Lira. ~Trev
Ivan, MIE did not have the heater or fuel hoses. I went to a local hot rod shop & NAPA parts store. Goodyear makes the correct type of heater hoses (braided). I bought 3/4" (19mm), and 3/8" (9.5mm) of the Goodyear hose. Napa had Gates brand fuel vapor hose in 3/8" (9.5mm). They also had the upper and lower radiator hose in 1 3/8" in their own brand. Parker Hall sells the Pirelli decals for the incorrect hose. If I can help by getting any of these for you, let me know. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Opps, you are exactly correct on that point. I stand corrected. Walnut shells are good as well. Ciao, FGM
Thanks Mark. Which Pirelli decals are you using? I have a 1959 Alfa Giulietta and the Pirelli decals are triangular. I have never seen these on a Maserati but perhaps I have never seen an original Maserati water hose from this era. Ivan Image Unavailable, Please Login
Ivan, Consider Calyx manifold dressing. You need to reapply it periodically, but it really maintains the correct cast iron appearance. Don
I have used Calyx for years and it is a great product. The problem is you must constantly reapply it. I will paint one of the manifolds with the Eastwood paint and leave the other one bare. After a few weeks I will decide which one I like better. For those not familiar with Calyx, it is a paste like product that you can apply to the manifolds without having to remove them or do much cleaning. It is a bit messy to apply but it is easy to do and it gives the manifolds a clean natural cast iron look. Ivan
Hi Ivan, I plan on using the same decal that you show in your picture. It appears identical to one of the decals offered by Parker Hall in his catalog. I have a single hose camp that is identical to the one in your picture....was it ever used on the Maserati?
Mark, Some period photos show different clamps, but nobody would question Cheney clamps. It would be good to locate some period engine shots and see if the hoses have Pirelli decals. Most books show period exterior and interior photos ... and engines out of the car. Ivan
Ivan I agree with you that I have never seen Maseratis with hoses that had a Pirelli label. I am sure I have seen several cars with original hoses, and have seen both cloth covered hoses and rubber hoses that had a cloth sprial wrapped finish similar to the Green stripe hose. Cloth covered hose is available from Volkswagon suppliers for both heater and fuel hose. And I believe these are correct for your vintage car.The larger sizes for the radiator hoses are very difficult to find with the cloth covering. Ferrari suppliers do have a good selection of radiator hose sizes that have sprial the cloth wrapped look. i have never seen the smooth rubber hoses on original cars as your picture of the Alfa shows. But as we all know with Maserati they used a mixture of parts on the early cars. The Chaney clamps were used up to about 1972 and beyond. i have seen some 1972 and later cars with other mfg clamps
Ivan, I agree....it would be great to find some peroid correct engine compartment shots. Little details like how to route the driver's side heater hose would be great to see in a photo.
Here's an original Pirelli sticker on a 1964 Alfa 2600 Spider. The stickler almost looked to be white and not yellow, but 47 years of engine heat may have baked the yellow off of the sticker(?). Image Unavailable, Please Login
The dash and instruments are being put back together as I want to test the electricals before the engine goes back in. Also it is easier to run the vent, choke, heater valve, tach and speedo cables while the engine is still out. The dash is rather simple. The dash itself does not unbolt and is an integral part of the body. The dash top is painted with a black textured paint with a much lighter texture than wrinkle finish. I guess they were looking for something that would kill the glare but without going to a full wrinkle finish look. There is a leather covered metal strip which bolts to the bottom of the dash which contains the ignition switch, plus a few additional switches. I simply cleaned the original leather and kept it as is. The gauges pod is wrinkle finished and should be installed in the next days. Ivan Image Unavailable, Please Login
The engine compartment is slowing coming together. It is so nice to be able to crawl inside the engine bay and work in a nice clean environment ! Ivan Image Unavailable, Please Login
It looks stunning Ivan. Great job. Thanks again for the clamp. I just completed the POR15 treatment on my gas tank. I am really pleased with the results. No more worries about the crud left in the tank, after the radiator shop worked on it.
I have been working on the electrical system as I want to sort it out before the engine goes back in. It appears they took the wiring harness from some other car as there are many wires that are not connected. To make matters worst they essentially used two colors ... red and white, with white accounting for 70% of the wires. One thing I found strange is that the horn button is wired so that both the inner button and the outer ring activate the horn relay. I am used to seeing the outer horn ring for headlight flashing while the inner button is for the horn. How were other early 3500GT horn buttons wired? For those not familiar with the 3500GT horn button, below is a photo from another Vignale spyder. The button has two contact points ... the center button (with the Trident) and a black plastic outer ring. Ivan Image Unavailable, Please Login
Ivan, I believe your wiring is correct on the horn button, one ring is for the "city" (loud) horn and the other is for the "country" (LOUDER) horn. I have never seen a 3500 with the horn ring that actuates the head lights. Aren't the bright lights operated on the turn signal stock/switch? ~Trev
Ivan, Just drove my car home and checked the horn and sure enough the center button and the ring activate the horn. Check you steering coulum brass fingers and I suspect you will find one ring and one set of fingers. Later 3500's had two rings and fingers thus te high beam function activated by the ring next to the horn button. Hope this helps. Janet and I are off to Vancouver tomorrow at 8:57AM with the Ferrari Club. A 3 hour drive with stops. Most likely the only Maserati to go along. The NW GT guys seem to be afraid to drive their cars save for a few diehards. It is unbelievable how so very few guys use their cars. Then one day they wake up and their in a walker wondering what happened. Ciao, FGM
Frank: thank you for verifying that your 1959 3500GT is wired just like mine. One disturbing thing I discovered is that the side lights and high beam headlights are wired without going through a fuse. Not only do they have power when the ignition is off but there is no fuse to protect the circuit if something would get shorted. My wiring harness has not been tampered therefore this was definitely done at the factory. One day you are bored, remove all your fuses and see if anything on your car still works. In theory, nothing should work, with the exception of the starter and power to the coils. Have fun in Vancouver! Trev: You are correct that the headlight high beam is activated with the turn signal switch. I have seen 3500GT where the horn ring momentarily activates the headlights (for passing the car in front of you). Perhaps there are 3500GT that have city and country horns. I have seen these in later Maserati (ex: Ghibli) but not on a 3500GT. Ivan
I previously posted that I was not sure what to do about the exhaust manifolds. The factory left them unpainted which cause them to quickly rust and look not that attractive. I have seen some people jet coat them in silver or black and, although I am sure it is an excellent coating, the manifolds in my opinion do not look correct. I decided to use te Eastwood factory gray high temp coating and up to now I am very pleased. The first photo shows one manifold after it was blasted next to one in its rusty natural state. The second photo shows one manifold after the coating was applied; next to it is an non-coated blasted manifold. You can see that the color is almost identical. The coated manifold looks very much what I would have expected a brand new non-coated manifold to look. Now let's see how long it lasts ... Ivan Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Looks great, and have used it a few times myself. but no matter how good I think I've applied the coat, there are always some pinhole rust spots that show up down the road. no biggie; you can just spot-dab those as they appear. Looking great!
Good choice Ivan, Eastwood Co. makes very user friendly products. You may see a small amount of "natural cast iron" color appear after 4 or 5 years, but as others have said, just touch it up with a brush and keep going! Did you spray it on, or brush it on?????? On the horn ring, my 60 3500 is wired for horns on the inner and outer rings. I just looked at a '59 3500, and it too had both wired for horns. I'm sure Maserati did both, or maybe it was standard practice to use the headlight circut for FIAMM air horns; using the headlight circut? Or maybe just Maserati,.....no two cars are exactly alike. Which brings up another question,....was the FIAMM air horn an option? Your Spyder is looking wonderful!!!!!!!!!!!!!
