Ferrari 0855 Ellena

Mike Curley was kind of a Ferrari "junkman"and a little bit of a "wheeler-dealer". He had a number of "worthless" Ferrari's in the 1970s. Most cars had led hard lives and were apart. He sold all the cars and had disappeared from the hobby by the early 1980s.

 

Congratulations for the amazing project that you are starting. Of course now in my favourites. May be one of the best projects seen on the FChat in long time!
Keep uploading and any info that i find about it, i will give it to you.
Cheers and enjoy the way, arriving to destiny is just one more point!
Nicolás.

 

Interesting comments on Curley - I will at some point try to discuss with him the car....parts cars at one time are serious projects today - and worthy in my opinion.

Im getting my head around the initial stuff, like the body work and rust repair. We have an Italian car show here in phoenix oct 11th and I plan to display the car in its found condition. Will be very interesting and hope to attract a lot of interest. Not many to be seen for sure.

 

Let me know if you can't find Curley. I have a locator service that all the investigators use that is terrific and cheap. He also went by M. Cain Curley, as I recall.

 

Nice priject good luck

 

Marcel - ref the orig owner of 0855 Henry Gibson, New York, NY/USA

Do you have any more info on this person that you can share with me?

Was it sold by Chinetti to him?

 

On display at the Phoenix Le Bellesse d' Italia yesterday.

Had a body cart made that varies in height - powdercoated etc....needs to look good
as it will be on it for a while.
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Ed, a word of advice... it's best to have a dolly that supports the rear of the hull as near to the axle center line as possible. The rear of the hull is heavier than the front. Here you may run the risk of the rear door gaps changing slightly once the car is off the dolly and on its wheels. The front is not an issue because the front supports of the dolly are right under the bulkhead, which is where the door hinges are.

john

 

John, thanks for the advise - ill make a few mods to ext the rear support - im about 8 inches short of the rear centerline.

 

Ed, I started out with a dolly like yours and later made the mod as well.

A further argument against this way of lifting... when I have my other car on jack stands for maintenance, sometimes I have to support it from the same four points as your current dolly. Then, while the car is up and I forget and open the doors, they do not latch closed easily. This tells me that the chassis is flexed when supported from those rear points. Good luck.

john

 

Mike Curley passed away several years ago.

 

Thanks for the update - I was looking for his number today. It looks like there is family still living in Irwin PA at the same address.

Im in touch with Bradley Balles - great conversation!! He bought the car from Curley. My seller bought the car from Bradley. Just need to find the link from the first owner to Curley .

 

Unfortunately the family has no record of the many cars that passed through Mike's hands. As Dyke said by the 1980's he was out of the game. Quite an interesting character, he owned some very significant Ferrari.

 

Anyone recog this air box. This was on the orig motor but im not sure it is correct for the Ellena.

There is a number stamped on the tag - 2239 01
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Hi Ed, I have seen single slot, low profile boxes like these on the mid 60's cars, like the 275GTB, 330GT, etc.

john

 

what is on other Ellena build sheets for airbox part numbers although top is removable

 

Just when it seemed there were none left to be discovered, THIS! It will be a real treat to follow of restoration of this car.The only thing I can add is that both Talacrest and DK Engineering have done restos on these cars.Though across the pond I am sure they would be glad to be consulted on this project. Let's hope this thread grows and grows. tongascrew

 

If "Presa d'aira" is air box then build sheet 0861GT says " FAT 4101 "

 

My memory isn't that clear, but it seems to me that this car was Ivory or Cream when in the hands of Bradley B. What did he say? I'm sure you had a good talk with him, as he loves to talk cars, and has had a few, including a TdF.

 

I have pics when he got the car (he sent them to me) and the car was black - inside had black door panels and tan seats - (seats I think are from a 330 car because they are not ellena style seats) . Carpets were light color as well - but were not orig to the car. Like we discussed earlier, with the dash painted black and not evidence of any other color on the dash, im assuming the orig color of the car is black. There is evidence of silver and blue on the car - but that does not match the interior dash area - having said this - my assumption is all the ellena cars had matching color dash's to tbe body color. Good assumption??

 

My dash and exterior were both green.

 

discussing colors and this is way ahead of my resto plans - but - changing the color on a vintage Ferrari - how bad is this to the originality of the car and overall acceptance to the judging and the market for resale?

If I was to change the color - does it have to be a period correct color to be accepted?

Appreciate the thoughts on this....

 

Hi Ed, the current school of thought seems to say period color is acceptable. That said, the Elena is an early car and period for you may be plus/minus one or two years form your production year. The published color charts do not go that far back, so you can have some freedom picking a color you like. But, that said again, there is nothing more stunning than a car (any car) in an ultra-expensive black paint job.

john

 

I always say you just cannot go wrong with Blue...... They all look great as long as they are painted Blue!

 

I think there are some black Ellena around so a blue one would make the car rather special, no?