Steve McQueen's 275 under restore at Ferrari?

I think the point made is that in the old days the bodies of Ferraris were a patchwork welded together. Even the 308 had several body parts welded together, albeit possibly larger parts. The only thing open for discussion IMHO is if the roof was cut off at an original weld. It might be probable that there was a weld at that point originaly anyway because it's at the border of two distinct body parts: the sail panel and the rear fender.

In the end I don't think the new weld will do any harm to the structural integrity of the body.

Best, Peter

p.s. I'm not an expert, just using common sense and visiting many body and restoration shops over the years. I'd be happy to be corrected.

 

A scan from the Braden & Roush Daytona book... Behind a shop in California in the 80's. This wat not the right thing to do. Hope that those roofs are stored somewhere.
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Thanks mate, I don't know whom you are talking about. But thanks.

 

anyone?

 

The roof on the alloy cars was certainly welded to the lower part. It is why the rain gutters are longer on the alloy cars to hide the weld.

 

Welds, today, can be of a higher strength than the original material. I have seen the results of testing, and it is amazing. It is perfectly allowable, acceptable, and an improvement, in my opinion, to be correcting these cut cars.

George

 

See vid in link from about 1.00 on.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNYQxDqMYlw[/ame]

 

I just can't remember why the roof panel isn't welded together with the bodywork on alloy cars.

Was the roof panel made of steel?

Best wishes, Kare

 

Yah, but he didn't do it to increase its value as many did in the 80's when they routinely chopped tops off Daytonas.

 

True, True.

 

Pete: You wrote above "Remember Ferrari are doing this, so they know what they are doing and how the car was originally made!" ..... with the greatist respect, Ferrari did not build these bodies and while they were the best in the world on chassis and drive trains they had only a dim understanding of coachbuilding, hence it was always outsourced.

 

Nor are they doing this work today in house but are farming it out to small independent shops in the area.

 

Very interesting. So in the 'patchwork of welds,' as Bigodino refers to them, are the joins/welds at all visible?

 

I know my dad did not care about any value increase. He just wanted a drop top Daytona. In the early 80s these cars were not worth all that much. A coupe was around $20k. By 1985 coupes increased to almost $50k. At the beginning the value of "cut cars" were the same as a coupe plus the cost of the conversion. So this was not really a value enhancer. I don't recall what the difference in value of coupes vs. original spyders was back in the early 80s. The crazy run up in Fcar prices did not occur until the late 80s.......when the Japanese were driving prices of everything since they had low cost of funds and Japanese banks were "giving" yen away.

 

Factory Daytona Spyders were the first of the street cars to take-off in price, asking prices were $125,000 in the late 1970's or early 1980's. Really ahead of the curve.

 

As was the chassis (GILCO).

 

Have a look at this body work on my 308, before and after. These panel guys are wizzards!

p.s. this was done in Wales. They also know a thing or two about body work in the UK. Hence the English Wheel I guess
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Thanks for posting, Peter. Is that the work of Al Wilsher from Alsa Automotive?

 

I'm glad some of the silliness has been clarified from this thread. Steve, I recommend Internet research before posting sweeping statements about subjects where you lack expertise. Wikipedia would have helped you understand how welding works.

btw modern mig and tig welding is stronger than the methods used in the 70's, however every car ever made was welded together from separate components.

 

They were the only open top supercar and benefited from the dearth of new convertibles, as many manufactures were convinced that US safety regulations were going to outlaw them. There was the Merc SL, but they're hardly sports cars.

RHD Daytona spyders were very tightly held, in part because Ferrari made them hard to buy in the first place. I suspect they only made 7 because they lost money on each one. The guy who converted my car had been unable to buy either a new or used spyder in '73. A few years later, he saw a Straman conversion while visiting the US and thought "I can do that". It ended up costing him 8K pounds, more than the value of a coupe in the late 70's. He was (and still is) a very eminent person and far removed from needing to make money or impress people.

 

welding - the Italian way - if you want to see how its done, start reading from thread 252 on this page 13 and read on....and on...

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=280041&page=13

cheers Mark

 

Decades ago, I passed a shop in newport beach CA-Straman-- that cut Daytonas and 275s (and even Boxers) into roadsters
and they had 10-15 roofs with rear windows stacked up. I bet they threw them away
and now it will cost a bundle to fabricate new replacements.

 

Read a few pages already. By coincidence you're having the work done in a building I used to work in when Mark and John Pullicino sold cars from there as Pullicino Classics. I worked for them for a while as a salesman and met Joe on a number of occasions. He supplied us with a new XJ220. I'm impressed with your aim to restore the car to perfection. The only way for a car such as a Ferrari 275 GTB.

 

Hi, the building your thinking of is still there on Kimber Road, i remember the Pullicinos very well before Joe had the place, its now a German & Swedish Car repair shop.
Joe has moved just around the corner to a new purpose built shop see www.joemacari.com the 275gtb is there now getting finished - the pictures of the welding and body work were all taken out at the workshop in Italy.

XJ220's he often talks fondly of them - listening to the stories he sold more cars than were made!!!

cheers mark

 

Ahh, so Joe has now moved from Kimber Road. I'm pleased he's doing well being a Ferrari Authorised Service Centre now. So the bodywork for your car was done in Italy? I'll have to read the thread properly. Yes, Joe did sell quite a number XJ220s I believe. We sold a few at Pullicino Classics too. We may have met. I was there in 1994 and 1995.