F40 LM Restoration

An update on the chassis. Now back from having been 'blasted' and years of crud stripped away. This will then be primed and expoxyed prior to dry mounting the suspension, then we will finally have a chassis ready to spray the special silver.

I am hoping for part of the Michelotto late Birthday surprise to arrive next week which will then enable us to dry mount the suspension and make any changes prior to the chassis paint. That will be really exciting to open as much of it had to be newly fabricated and bought sight unseen! We already know that for some reason the upper wishbone mounts are turned through 90 degrees so there will be work to be done.

Maybe three weeks away from real progress?
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I was only asking with no judgment expressed or implied. Only asking.

 

Yes sir I had some time on my hands and thought maybe I could be of some assistance, your post was in no form or fashion taken negatively .

 

I'm scratching my head over what can lead to this. Has anyone you have dealt with given a possible explanation for how this happened. It is as if there was a stress in a direction along the shaft, causing circumferential cracking. Strange.

 

Just a few more general shots of how the car was which may be of interest. This was some weeks ago and so now well in the past.

The entire heavy front section has now gone and will be replaced with the lightweight alloy LM structure as posted previously.
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I can't wait to see it all go back together. Awesome thread and many thanks Traveller!

 

Hi Tim,

I thought that you would deserve my first post on here as I love the F40 and restoration threads in general.

What a fantastic project to be able to do a F40 LM, I'm currently restoring a 82 mini van and the pleasure it gives me to see the progress is great as I'm sure it does you. (on a totally different level of course)

I will look forward to update and drop back in to see more.

Keep em coming!

Matt

 

Thanks Matt, it is a brilliant but also worrying project as every time you take some element apart your heart drops as you smell burning £ notes. And it seems endless. Nonetheless, it is about as exciting a project as I could have hoped for albeit it will be comforting when I see a car begin to emerge.

 

Ah, but it will be "ad unguem factus"

 

I expected to learn alot on this forum, but Latin had not crossed my mind. I stand educated and for others wishing to join me, "perfect" or literally, to the fingernail.

 

WOW!
just stumbled across this incredible journey!
I noticed you have sourced the transmission parts. I you end up needing someone to build them for you I can highly recommend PPG (Pfitzner performance gearbox) in Australia. They are the only company that was willing to build us gear sets for the Ford GT as they have become unobtainium.


P.S. I vote for #2 Turbo technology has come along way in 15 years.
Best of luck with the completion.

 

That's awesome Tim.. I love the F40 and interested in every detail of what you're doing, thanks for this thread!

Pity we missed meeting up last year at Maranello.. our paths came so close.. still I'm glad I was a few days ahead since the weather was so good for the Stelvio only in that brief time!

 

Lucky you, what a rubbish return I had! Trying again this year.

 

Fingers crossed for you this time!

 

yes... evidently the Romans were fastidious about fingernails

 

Back to the present.

A few shots of the engine in strip down. Blue injector rails and injectors all going off to a specialist to be matched.

This is the problem lightweight flywheel and clutch. New flywheel is now being made by Ark Racing a specialist Flywheel manufacturer and they are working with AP who are assembling a clutch for us.

The silver lining in the new flywheel is that it will have 60-2 timing pins for accurate setup with the Motec gear, whereas the existing had just 4 rather bent ones, so that would have had to have been addressed anyway.
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Chassis now being sprayed with primer and then two coats of epoxy before a top coat of the Michelotto silver. If only Michelotto would either answer the phone or get me my parts things would be looking encouraging!
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Amazing. Clearly Michelotto must be following this thread as no sooner posted than he calls to saying shipping front suspension, brakes etc tomorrow so hopefully late next week we can start to dry mount, adjust brackets etc. Very exciting Easter present.

 

The BFG g-Force Rivals have this extreme tread edge feature which wraps the tread compound down the sidewalls. The Proxes R888 have light tread similar to F1 inters.
Check out www.Tire Rack.com here in the US.
Is the car to be driven on the street occasionally with track days or to be track only?
BFG has their g-Force R1 and Hoosier makes their Sports Car D.O.T. Radial A6.
Tire Rack offers Heat Cycling and tread shaving as well if required.
One could use full on slick tires as you are using a full race suspension and damage to the suspension from lateral loading wouldn't seem to be an issue.
Ideally two sets of rims , one with street/track tyres and the other full race tyres though expensive, this super car would deserve no less!
GV27TIFOSI

 

Yes, occasionally on the street and probably 75% on the track. One interesting point Cristiano Michelotto recently cautioned was on tyres. With the older Pirellis, they provided some slip and a release valve for the engines power whereas the newer tyres are so much more advanced they will have much less give, if any, and so then the strain moves up the driveshafts and then the gearbox and finds the weakest link. Food for thought.

 

You should post that he is overcharging you as well.

 

I know you're making a joke but that's uncalled for.

Genuine Michelotto parts are not cheap. They never have been. Neither are things like Audemar Piquet watches, Snap-On tools, dinner at The French Laundry, etc. The price for a superior quality product from a well known brand that is specifically intended for an application like this is going to be more than an off brand or one adapted from a different application. The fact that Tim is putting the quality of the final product as his first priority is a big deal. You know where you usually get Michelotto parts? Maybe I have not looked hard enough but I have yet to see them at NAPA or Autozone. In fact, you pretty much have to get them from Michelotto.

If you want to know why there are so many crappy Ferraris on the road today it's because people sometimes refuse to pay for quality, sometimes because they read posts like yours and think that someone else will think they're a fool to do so.

The final value of Tim's car will reflect the quality of the work and equipment that went into doing it properly. I suspect it's going to be a very highly regarded, highly valued, and highly sought after car. In large part due to the fact that he is, to use your words, "being overcharged."

 

Yes it was a joke. Calm down and laugh. You'll feel better, I promise.

I have no idea what is being charged for the job, nor do I care. This thread is epic and I am glad the OP is taking the trouble to do this for our benefit.

 

It is an interesting point that Ryan raises. Yes stuff from Michelotto is ruinously expensive but so are parts from Ferrari and Michelotto is pretty much an extension of it. Add to that the run of each element is tiny, truly hand made, indeed these parts have all been specially fabricated for us as they are not lying on the shelf, add our rubbish currency and it begins to look quite reasonable

Not to forget the quality issue Ryan raises, all perfectly matched to work together, the best of their type, the halo effect of using the proper LM parts and I could start to convince myself I got a bargain!

Interestingly I priced a set of bigger Brembo brakes through a dealer here, not LM style, and they were not so much cheaper which suggests the real money is in the suspension etc.

 

Good point and the end result will be amazing. Price justification is imo a very small issue with such a project and as you mentioned the extra cost for doing it right the first time will pay off in every aspect and in the long run.

Well done mate!