Viva Mexico - bringing #854 back to life

Hi Paul...

Good to have you here!!! The info you have is invaluable!
My Mexico is an early one, whereas yours and Olaf's are later ones.

Some things I can help with, others I can't!

Mike

 

Hello Olaf...

In your PM you asked about the trunk (boot) lining material over the bare metal.
Attached is a picture of what is in mine. The sides and underneath the trunk (boot) lid
are a black diamond vinyl type material. The bare metal floor is covered with a dark
gray felt type material. The diamond vinyl material is probably correct as this is what
I see in my 1967 QP1.. I can't be sure of the bare metal floor covering.

I have a choice of two items which cover up the fuel pump area, the spare tire area,
and the battery area. The first is a large piece of heavy wood covered in carpeting. The
second is what I took from my QP1. It is a lighter piece of wood painted black. A black
loose piece of carpeting is then placed over this. Neither of these are correct. Perhaps
Paul will post a picture of his trunk (boot) area!

If I get a chance later today, I will remove my passenger side fuel tank cover and see
if I can get a picture of any electrical connections, etc..

Note: this picture is not the most flattering for my trunk (boot) area.

Hope this helps...

Mike
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Looks good Mike. Sides and trunk lid are covered with the vinyl stuff on my car too. I think it is reusable, since i took great care in not ripping it apart when removing it. I think that gray felt stuff on the bare metal may be correct, i have seen that on a couple of cars. The wooden black cover seems to be original too. But if it is covered with carpet or not i don't know....
Thanks for the picture, looking forward to anything regarding the wiring.

CU lbird

 

Does this help with the routing of the trunk (boot) wiring?
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Thank you Paul, that certainly helps. Great job drawing that down!

CU lbird

 

The wiring diagrams on the 'Carnut' site are very useful for the final connections. The ones in the Mexico Manual are useful for checking the overall distribution, but if you find the file that contains all the individual Maserati component diagrams titles 'Electrical diagrams 1964 - 1968'. Find the ones for '112' and these show all the connections to each component including useful 'Lucas' references along with wires correctly colour coded. They are all black & white and are upto 1968, but they do have the wire colours written on each and most will still be applicable for your later car.

Regarding the felt lining, the wheel well should be lined with a thin black felt, mine was originally so I've put some back in. Once that is done and as below, there is a black painted wooden cover which is screw-fixed in position siting above the fuel pumps, then two loose plywood sections cover the battery and spare wheel supported at the front by the small shelf-angle which you can see on the picture above just above the + battery lead. The carpet then covers the whole lot, being fixed by press-studs only allowing easy access to the spare wheel.
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Thank you Paul, the trunk loom is already properly distributed and fixed in the car thanks to your diagram which answered some final questions!

CU lbird

 

Hello Paul / Olaf..

Interesting the different diamond pattern between my and Paul's car... Perhaps
there was a change somewhere along the line...

There was some discussion about horns.. Do your cars have two horns, as mine does?

One horn is run off a compressor, as you both mention, while the other is electrical. If I
remember correctly, one runs when the center button of the steering wheel is depressed,
while the other operates when the stalk is pushed in toward the steering housing. Can't
remember which is which, but neither of these work for me.. I was working on this last
July while fixing the lights, and got side tracked..

Mike

 

I was giving some thought to Paul's depiction of the trunk (boot) floor coverings.
Of interest is that the fuel pump area cover is secured. Mine basically sits on top,
and can be easily removed, when the whole floor covering is removed. I rather like
it this way as I can open it up when the car is not being used, and don't have to worry
about fume build-up in the fuel pump area..

Mike

 

Hi Mike, it is very hard to say for me which trunk cover is original, since i don't have any. But i have a friend with a very original series 2 Mexico living only a couple of minutes away which i use as a reference car. I will check his car for the trunk cover. Regarding the horns: My car has two compressor driven horns and one regular electrical horn, but without any trumpet just sitting on the passenger side behind the grille.
It is great to get feedback and reference pictures from you guys!

Cu lbird

 

Evening Mike

Don't be drawn on the diamond pattern on my boot linings, I had to have mine remade as the originals were wrecked. The larger diamond design isn't original but I wanted to use the same material as the bindings stitched to all the new carpets. It's close, but not perfect.

Mine also has the two horns, 'town' and 'country' horns. The 'country' air horns operated from the centre push on the steering wheel, the quieter small electric 'town' horn being operated from the end of the indicator stalk. Quite fun really

Cheers

Paul

 

Thanks Paul, now I know what controls which horn. That should be of help to me!

lbird...

Attached are two pictures of the rear electrical main connections in my car.. I don't know if this
is original or not. The cover, shown in the first picture sure looks original, but the
connection points sure do not.. I would have expected to see the bigger black ones like
those used in most other 60's Maserati cars..

Mike
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Thank to you guys, all the trunk loom is repaired and properly fixed. We trial fitted the fuel tanks and again i am deeply puzzled. I have actually 5 fuel tanks at my disposal, 4 of them look alike and have the banjo tank sender unit. The fifth tank has the screwed on tank sender unit.
Are there any known differences between Series I and Series II fuel tanks? The single tank with the screwed on tank sender unit barely fits in the trunk, but the other pair with the banjo senders do not fit at all. We cannot get them properly in the trunk area, let alone position them.

I will compare the tanks in more detail when i get back in the workshop, but this finding confuses me. Are the banjo tanks series I tanks and the other one from a series II? If yes i will have to modify at least one tank extensively to fit into my car - italian workmanship at its best

CU lbird

 

Hi lbird...

Where did you get your tanks from? Were they from other Mexico's? As an aside, if
they were from other Mexico's, we can assume at least 3 cars are PROBABLY gone!
Since mine is an early one, probably a series I, my tanks have the collar (banjo?)
fitted sending units, same as my QP1...

Not sure this helps, but again, can you confirm that the 5 tanks you have are from Mexico's?

Also, getting these tanks in their cars can be quite tricky, and requires time and patience. Whatever you do, do not force them!

Mike

 

Hi Mike,

i can confirm that these are indeed Mexico tanks, as i have #204 for spares and #80 as an emergency backup (both were crashed cars, #80 belongs to a friend of mine). The 4 banjo tanks are from these cars. The fifth tank is from another Mexico which went to the scrap heap, i bought the leftovers from a dutch guy. But it is just one tank. #204 and #80 are early series I cars, mine (#854) is a late one and came with no tanks at all....

CU lbird

 

Just to get the situation regarding the fuel tanks straight: I compared the two tanks side by side (see pictures). What i did not expect is more than true: Series I and II tanks seem to be totally different in shape - you learn something different any day when dealing with these cars. The black tank in the pictures is a series II tank which fits the left hand side of my car, unfortunately the only series II tank i currently have. The other one is one of the other 4 tanks i have which is obviously quite different and this seems to be a series I tank.
What would you recommend? I would happily swap a tank against a right hand side series II tank (or buy it outright) if somebody has a spare one.
Plan B would be to change the series I tank to make it fit, but this would be very time consuming...
Any ideas what to do?

CU lbird
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A very happy new year to everyone - a good time to post a little update. As i posted before i found out the hard way that Mexico series 1 fuel tanks are totally different from the series 2 fuel tanks. That enlightment left me with one left hand side fuel tank which worked and 5 series 1 fuel tanks - and a serious problem.
Then something very strange happened: A good friend of mine told me about a Ghibli fuel tank which is for sale somewhere in France. The Ghibli tank has the matching shape, except for the filling hose which is in a totally different position on the Ghibli. But that is a small problem to solve. Nevertheless i was excited and told him to try to get it for me. I got pictures and measurements, everything seemed to be nice and dandy. Then i got mails that it was difficult, the potential seller is reluctant to sell yada yada yada...
I was close to a heart attack, because it is almost impossible to get a good matching
fuel tank these days.

Christmas came, and as a present from my wife i got a small package with a hand written letter. This letter told me that my present is in our garden shed since it is to big to be put under the christmas tree. I dutifully obliged, went outside and found a massive paper box containing (drum roll...) the Ghibli fuel tank. I was totally surprised, i never thought about something like this happening.
And then a little bit later i found out about the prank i got into: The fuel tank was never in France, it was from a parts storage from one of my local friends and member of the Maserati gang. He found it by accident and they constructed a big story about it, fake emails and pictures included. Everybody knew and kept tight about it - except me of course.
Great present and a nice surprise - well done, thats what friends are for!

Aside from having the fuel tank problem solved a lot of other things happened:
The loom was checked and repaired where necessary (new plugs etc.). Everything seem to work so far - no fires while trying out with a battery. That is a nice surprise since we left the original loom in the car.

Another story are the small vent grills on the side in the front fenders. These little grills were not there. I have one, but it is damaged and does not fit my car. The only option was recreating these little buggers from scratch and a long simple aluminium bar. Quite a feat, to be honest. We made them with little screws so that every bar is removable afterwards. This is important for the drivers side, because you can't attach them after painting as a whole because of the massive pressure plate for the brake servo. We tried to measure these vent grills on another Mexico, but it seems like they where individually made and they differ from car to car. But the final result looks very good in my opinion.
Judge yourself, pictures are attached. Next step is getting the car ready for painting and creating good panel gaps (especially on the doors).

The carburettors of my 4.2 engine are sent of for a complete refurbishment too, so work on the engine has begun.
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Looks great, and nice story about the fuel tank!

Looking forward to watching your progress

 

Splendid to see such good progress Lbird. Sadly Santa was not quite so kind in our house!!
Please keep us updated throughout the coming year.

Best regards.

Mark.

 

Hi fellow Mexico aficionados,

It's Bart here, from the netherlands. I've been keeping an unrestored Mexico on the road since 2001.

The wiring shown in Mexico074's pictures is original. It's exactly the same as on my '69 am112 626.

Ibird... Sorry to catch this thread so late. I would have an original set of side vents for you. Probably came off the same car as you bought leftovers from. Do let me know if there's other stuff you need. I've got various bits and pieces.

Bart
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Loved the results from you leather restoration project. I'm working on an interior that was shelved for 30 years. It came out of a mexico that crashed, with only 30kkm on it.

I've been trying various leather softeners. The best result i got was with BICK4, saddle softener. The leatherique rejuvinator is good too. The connolly stuff doesn't do much at all in my experience.

What works like magic is using some white spirit after cleaning. It really allows the softener to do its work.

The main problem i have in restoring the old leather is the cleaning part. Still haven't found a way to clean reasonably quick. Tried connolly cleaner (so so) ,bick cleaner (ok), some other things too. I'm now resorting to bar soap from color-plus. But it still has me working each square inch for significant time. Any tips for easier cleaning?

Thanks
Bart

 

I've been looking for 15 years for an original leather-covered radio box for a mexico. Anyone can help?

Bart

 

Try this stuff:Willkommen | Lederzentrum - Spezialist für Lederpflege, Lederreparatur, Beratung

 

Hello lbird and bj69...

lbird: Have not heard much from you as of late.. I think a lot of us would be interested
in your progress?

bj69: More pictures of your car would be great.. Interior, engine, trunk (boot).. Those
of us with Mexico's would love it!

Mike

 

I couldn't find one for mine, so made one myself out of a (sadly) empty wooden wine case and covered in black leather-cloth. Not perfect but looks the part and gave me space to mount a toggle switch for the electric aerial above. The head unit is a modern 'retro' unit with Bluetooth phone and music streaming, USB, and CD player which again doesn't look too offensive.

The leather interior on mine is original. I've had some sections replaced before having them re-coloured using leather paint mixed to match a sample from under the rear arm-rest. I'm keeping it supple with regular applications of leather cream so it retains the thickness and quality feel of the old leather.

Paul
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