Bianca Neve – 330GT 6227 awakes from a long slumber

This is the first in what I hope will be a series of posts about the re-emergence of 330GT 2+2 6227 from a long sleep.
I purchased my 330 in September 1994 from David and Douglas Brackman after it had been hastily re-sprayed and reassembled for sale having sat for many years “awaiting restoration”.
Thankfully, the car was quite good mechanically and I drove it and enjoyed it for 9 summers before preparing it for storage in preparation for a two year stint working abroad.
Returning to Vancouver with a new wife (Italian and happily “simpatica&#8221, my circumstances had changed
rather a lot and one thing to another, she sat until earlier this year when I determined to reignite the romance.
And so it began in April, with much oil, Moveit, and WD40 being applied every few days to various parts and allowed to work for two months before setting to work. Points, plugs, wires, caps & rotors, coils and a multitude of filters were ordered and installed and, after checking that all the internals were free and spinning up the oil pump to pressure, the engine fired up, running smoothly and smoke free after burning off those lubricants applied in preparation.
The next order of business was on-road insurance (the car itself has been insured with Hagerty for the last two years) and a bit of real world running to confirm that the first impression was accurate. Luckily, we’ve had a dry summer, and the car has proven to be every bit as strong as when parked.


Next up: new clothes are in order – beginning the re-build

photos: "Bianca Neve" emerges from a long sleep & 3/4 front and rear of car
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Molto Bella.
Congrats on getting another 4 headlighter back on the road!
Are those tyres(tires for you)Pirelli CN36's? They may be a little old for using.
...and congrats on finding a sympatico partner.....I'm as fortunate as you!

 

grazie mille

Yes they are indeed CN36's
They've been "in the dark" for quite awhile and are not too bad, but will be replaced as part of the rebuild along with much else...

 

I am a fan of these 4HL's, looking forward to reading more.

john

 

She's beautiful ....and the car is very nice also.

Looking forward to a great thread!

And to proving the fact that these cars are strong enough to sleep, and wake again, without a million dollars dumped into them.

 

beautifull

 

+1 x 3!

 

Awesome

 

I see from your profile you have a 330 as well...

 

In my first installment, I retrieved “Bianca Neve” from her resting place, returned her to consciousness, and gave her a little exercise to limber her up a bit. Now it’s time to treat her with the respect a beautiful 47 year old deserves.
It’s time to get that body back in shape!

Given the price of Ferrari parts, I’ve decided that if I’m going to do this rebuild, there’s no point in doing it by half measures. “Bianca Neve” will get a bare-metal re-spray after a thorough exam to find and correct any earlier “bodywork” and remove and repair any rust that might be present. As I mentioned in part one, my car had been hastily re-sprayed and reassembled by the previous owner for sale having sat for many years “awaiting restoration”.
I expect to find “issues”.

And so it was in June, that I contacted the bodyman who has done two cars for me previously (attached is a photo of my TR-4 in the process) to have a good look and provide a provisional estimate for the body and paint work needed. He’s a perfectionist and thankfully he likes a bit of variety in his work. He’s also a “sole proprietor” and as such, his prices are far more reasonable than one might typically expect. The Triumph was just shy of $11K and the result was far better than anything the factory produced.
With estimate in hand, we discussed a time frame to get the car stripped and into his shop.
Stripping the car was straightforward enough, with a list being made along the way of parts to be repaired, replaced, or re-plated.
One of the headlight surrounds has some pitting and needs to be re-plated.
One of the front turn lenses is cracked and will be sought (is it from a Fiat 1200?).
Two of the jacking point covers are missing and need to be replaced.
The rear bumper needs to be re-plated, but this will be done after the car is finished as the money may be needed elsewhere in the interim!
In the interior, the passenger side window mechanism needs to be replaced and its handle is missing (does anyone know if these were sourced from Fiat?), a stereo has been bodged into place at some point and various panels need to be replaced as a result, and the gear shift knob is massively incorrect.
I’m also going to need to replace one wheel, as the spare “went missing” during the time I was overseas.
Any help with tracking down some of these parts down would be gratefully appreciated.
That’s it for this time.

Next up: how was she treated before we met?

photo of my TR-4 "in the process"
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Re the bumper,I think you'll find it's stainless steel.
A year ago I hit a 'roo on our way down to Melbourne and had some front bar damage.
At that point I was pretty sure it was stainless.
Near the end of last year I found the time(read money)to have it and some stonechips rectified.
The panel beater was of the same mind as you(even though I'd let my thoughts be known)he phoned later to advise I was indeed correct.

 

Well Bianca (6227) has been with the bodyman for three weeks now and thankfully the list of areas needing attention is relatively short.
The driver’s door has been creased at some point and badly repaired (read: filler). No areas around it seem to have been damaged so it appears to have been a fairly minor scrape.
There doesn’t appear to have been any other accident damage to the car during its life.
I was aware that the rockers were likely to have some rust, and so it appears. Photos will be posted next week when the outer rockers have been cut away for a better look.
It also appears that during one of its many resprays (see photo), rather than removing any slight rust in the rear wheel arches where the inner and outer panels overlap, they were merely rolled under a bit and filled to the proper profile. New rear arches will be fabbed & fitted.
As I mentioned earlier, the car has had a series of repaints; four (?) reds and the original silver and I was quite surprised at the amount of filler under the factory silver paint when the car was built.
No worries; it’s going down to bare metal anyway!

On the parts front, does anyone know the origin of the passenger side window winding mechanism which needs to be replaced and its handle is missing? Are these from a Fiat of that era?
It’s going to be awhile before I need it but it’s the only “internal” piece that I see so far that has to go onto the car after the bodywork

Next up: update on bodywork

Photos: early sanding & layers
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I hope you're going to paint it the original colour.
They are,as mine is,stunning in Grigio Chiaro metallizzato.

 

Looking forward to following your progress, subscribed. Will it be silver?

 

Errr...that's the same question I asked...albeit in Italianspeak.

 

I've been giving this question a lot of thought over the summer.
I was originally cosidering "Celeste" as I think the car looks terrific in this shade and I want something different from red.
After a little research (see photos) I also added "Grigio Fumo" & "Grigio Argento" to the mix.

My car was originally sold by Garage Francorchamps in Belgium.
Thanks to Marcel Massini I know the car was "Grigio Argento" when it left the factory.
This fact, added to my personal prefrence has me leaning very much in that direction but I'm still a ways from having to make a final decision.

Any thoughts out there?
Say Simon, care to post a pic of your car here?
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I would if I could,Rick,I live and work 1000 miles away from my cars.
You're silver sub'd,you can have a look at them on 'Garage'section(page 2),under my name.
The 2 likely lads in the photo's are my travelling/co-driving mate's on our way to Tassie in March this year.

 

Rick,

What color is the interior?

 

Hi Jonathan

- the original interior was red according to the build sheet but at some point in its life it was changed to black.

 

Silver exterior with black or red interior is sharp!

 

Rick,

Simon asked me to post a pic of his 330, which I've done below. I have better shots, but I'm travelling at the moment and they are stored on my home system, will find them next week.

His is a beautiful car, one of the nicest 330 engine bays I've ever seen, and it certainly gets along.

Photo is from our V12 rally in Tasmania earlier this year.

Ian
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Thanx,Ian,I think the collective cars' in that photo were still in 4WD mode??

 

I have had 7023 GT for sale for nearly a year now and it was painted in the usual Rosso......All agreed it was a great car but it was unsalable in this colour.......Its just had a bare metal respray in Argento and the difference is remarkable.....Black interior with a 5 speed box........

Before and after photos.........
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Here's a pic of Simon's car from a FCAus rally a couple of years ago...
I posted with his permission since "Klink don't link!" (Aussie section joke!)
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So much nicer, red makes it look like a Fire truck. XWXs will make it look even smarter