F40 LM Restoration

Wow!

This thread came to my attention a few days ago and I've spent several hours getting up to speed and following the numerous links provided throughout.

A stunning project and a masterclass in professional workmanship.

Thank you Tim for taking the time to share your dream with us. Good luck with the remainder of the project and I hope you enjoy many years of use into the future.

I'll be waiting impatiently on your every update.

 

Zircotec is such a good product, I had them do the exhausts on my Ducati Panigale which helped a lot with the heat and looked great in matte black.

I am still thinking of having the LM pipes for the F40 done in either white or black. Have you had yours done?

 

Excellent Tim, finally some 'Rosso Corsa'!

Gr. Martin

 

Tim, very interesting about the red color shade variation during production. I don't recall you mentioning which month/year your F40 was built during?
The picture Joe has shared is of the early F40 intro press car which was built with NO serial number and shows the darker red.
CH
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Nice to see the progress. "Coach Builders" or "more natural finish"? Can't help there as I don't understand what's being offered.

Look forward to your further posts..

 

I vote more natural finish. No sense in over restoring it paint wise plus you mean to actually drive it and use it properly.

Amazing to see the step-by-step progress! Thanks for taking the time!!

Alex

 

Just spent the last 2 hours going through this thread. Thank you.

I am humbled by the depth on knowledge on this forum plus reminded why I prefer newer cars. Take one thing of an older car, make it better and now all of a sudden you feel everything around it should be at that level. All of a sudden you think everything around that area should be at that level. Then you are sitting with a bare shell and wondering how the hell did I get here?

Amazing job and really looking forward to when it becomes a 'car' again.

 

I would go with a flow finish. This will make the panels look like glass when all finished and will make the red pop so much more in different lighting. You have updated the car with modern replacements so i think the paint work should be done also.

 

Original paint quality was variable to say the least. Some cars were so poor that they were repainted under warranty. Ferrari were caught out with demand and the final production run was 4 times as large as they originally intended. To some extent quality suffered as a result. The US cars at the end of the run seem to be pretty good; but I've seen some pretty ordinary paint finishes on a number of early Euro cars.

I wouldn't go over the top with the finish myself. You could see the weave through the paint originally; but the more paint you put on, the less weave you will see.

 

When the factory first talked about the F40 they struggled with the idea of being able to sell 275 of them...
CH

 

This......I would not go crazy on the paint finish, as noted if you can 'see some weave" in those early CF panels, it's considered legit.

To me anyway, but I carry body colored duct tape, for scratches in the field....

 

The car has already been painted a few times, like all race cars that have seen action. Once the weave has been filled up with material, sanding won't get the material trapped in the hollows of the weave. New paint goes on top and the finish won't show the weave as much as if you started with fresh carbon fibre. Nothing you can do about it. However, over time the paint will contract and draw down into the weave as much as possible. Doesn't mean you should just paint it to pebble beach standards though.

I went through all this when I restored my 360 N-GT. Ten years later you can't see any weave in the paint finish.
Mind you, when you see an F40/50 or whatever with lots of weave showing you wonder what the fuss is about as it looks pretty awful. Makes the paint look flat and dull; but it is original.

Cool project BTW

 

To remove the paint from the weave, I reckon you will need to sandblast it with a very fine grain...

 

Please correct me if I am wrong but the CF weave is coated/sealed and sandblasting even with the finest grade will remove some of the coating/sealant. If I am not mistaken this coating not only adds protection but adds to the structural integrity. I realize this process is now more advanced but the process on the F40 is over 20yr's old.

A hand stripping process that does not effect the CF sealant would be my approach. Time consuming yes but it is an F40.

 

By hand would even better

 

I agree. Just because that's the way the car "left the factory" doesn't mean it's correct. If the car left the factory with a piece of mechanical hardware that has been shown to fail over time, no one in their right mind would put that same questionable part back on the car when it was being restored. If you can improve upon poor original craftsmanship, I say go for it.

 

I agree. I guess what I was saying is it would be wrong to go with a finish that was too perfect as they were
pretty poor from the factory.
Re the visible weave, I think it's only a desirable feature because it's an accurate indication of originality. It's sure not cosmetically attractive.

 

Was told by an engineer at Swift a while back, that the more porous, "less-finished" appearing CF is lighter/stronger than the shinier street application.

 

Recall Forty's finish as a mix of cf-weave and orange peel. F50, no the other hand, being mostly cf-weave. Though maybe there's more kevlar w/the cf under the Forty's paint than the F50?