Cavallino the quest continues

I attended Cavallino Classic 30 two weeks ago. The event was spectacular -- the weather, the venue, the food, and, especially, the Ferraris! There were a large number of gorgeous Boxers on the field.

My '83 was awarded a Platino and first in class and scored 99.5 points. I was especially pleased with this outcome because my car was restored all the way back in 2010, and we drive it A LOT. The engine and transmission were rebuilt in 2019. The fact that the car can still score at this level is a testament to the great restoration work of Chuck Wray and Kendall Merritt back when they were partners at the old Grand Touring (now Dew Motorcars of Sterling Virginia), the wonderful job done by F-Chatter and Boxer guru Paul Newman in rebuilding the engine and trans and making the engine bay spectacular, and the exceptional detailing by Tim McNair, whose powers of observation and intense focus on the smallest of details is legendary.

The judges marked the car down for having natural-zinc-colored bumper bolts rather than black painted (fixed as of this morning), overly bright engine components (not sure which ones -- maybe the runners), and not quite gray-enough manifolds and plenums. I had the wrong tire valve caps, but they didn't mark me down for that because they were not sure when Ferrari switched to stainless steel.

So, the never-ending quest for 100 points continues! Here are some pics of the weekend. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login

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Congrats and beautiful pics!

 

What a car! Regarding “overly bright engine components (not sure which ones -- maybe the runners)”. I always wonder how any judge in 2021 figures he knows what was the brightness of something coated over 40 years ago. Even if they had a can of the original paint there’s no guarantee it didn’t deteriorate in the can. Strikes me as like taking a hard position on the latter-day cleaning/restoring of the Sistine Chapel.

 

Wow, lots of nice Boxers!!

the first picture of a boxer appears to be Rosso Dino.

 

40+ years of research on my part, more than that on the part of another judge who operates a large restoration shop and the 3rd judge who is one of the researchers for another well respected restoration facility. For me owning and restoring the cars in question. Working at the dealer who sold more Boxers than any other world wide and having a computer full of pictures of the cars in question including pictures from a recent trip to the east coast to view, inspect and photograph 2 BBi's in a private collection with just a couple of hundred miles each. We do not make those decisions lightly. Additionally I spent a good deal of time working with the company in Italy who made that paint trying to find a way to import it. I do happen to have a good degree of familiarly with the product.

The valve stem caps are a good example. While I know the nickle plated brass caps were used through 84 and part way into 85 before being changed to black rubber, since I cannot state with specificity when that date was I chose to accept either.

 

Congratulations on the award! I’ve never attended a Ferrar only event, hopefully next year

 

Pictures don't do the Rosso Dino car justice. It had an orange hue and was spectacular. Anyone know where I could get the nickel plated brass caps for the tire stems?

 

I am not questioning anyone’s level of experience, knowledge, ownership or employment history, nor seriousness of purpose. And the valve stem caps are in no way an example. I’m referring to the “too bright” intake runners.

Instead I am raising several technical points about paint degradation over time in both cured and stored form, the general fallibility of human visual perception and memory, the specific effects on visual perception by geography, weather, local surroundings, and lighting conditions, and the relationship between value and hue as perceived in real life vs printed or displayed camera images. There are huge error mechanisms in each and every one of those and all those errors accumulate. So to say that at a particular day at a particular concours this year one can accurately determine whether a particular painted object in front of you matches the brightness and hue of another object as it was in a different location at a particular moment 48 years ago is, to my mind, implausible. I’d love to be convinced otherwise and to know how anyone in the judging community defeats those errors. If this is described elsewhere please let me know, off line if appropriate, this being only marginally on-topic.

Perfect reproduction of original paint is of course a way out. But does that exist and how available is it to the restoration community? I’m asking non-rhetorically.

 

Actually you were. reread your statement.

We do not deduct for close. We deduct for big misses. The actual paint is unavailable in the US due to environmental laws but it still exists so is not difficult to see and compare. Additionally we know it does change with exposure to heat or contamination but not simply from time so undriven, undisturbed original cars give us good samples. There are many of those cars to see and use as a baseline for many things in the process of restoration. One of my files of photographs is just such a car and that particular car has been used as a benchmark for a number of BBi restorations.

The valve stem caps are a good example of our judging philosophy which you are evidently unfamiliar with. Many of our decisions are judgement calls. While we know BBi's came from the factory with both types of caps and the change came about late in production we do not know exactly when. That is still under investigation. Point being since this is not a 100% settled matter the entrant gets the benefit of the doubt even though I can say with a very high degree of certainty when his car was built metal were still in use.

The three people who judged that class collectively have around 100+ years of experience doing this and do not take performing the research lightly. It is our profession as well as our avocation

 

This is what you are looking for.
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I, along with Rifledriver, and another highly skilled Judge, judged the BB line up of cars at Cavallino this year. Our experience comes of many years of working on these cars, as well as restoring and showing these cars. We are very sensitive to the issues owners may have during and after the judging process, and as senior judges, we are well aware that any comment written showing an improper item or finish will be seriously discussed between owners, forums, and who ever restored the car. As stated above, if the judging team is not absolutely 100% sure of a possible deficiency, there is a notation made in the judging sheets, but no deduction action will be taken. What we are speaking about in the discussion above falls in the category of " over restoration". Typical examples are wheels that are painted full gloss, where the Boxer wheels were a low sheen original Factory wheel. One might argue that all the wheels were gloss when new, and the judges do not take into consideration years later that the glossy wheels fade to a satin finish. All the judges on this team are very familiar with details such as this, as in earlier years, we were personally there when these cars were new, and glossy wheels never came on the cars. Secondly, if you were to order a NOS ( new old stock ) factory wheel, it would not come thru as glossy for the BB series of cars. The same holds true for all the aspects of the car. So, if a particular car has a finish that is too bright and glossy, research will prove that our decision is correct. This decision is in no way meant to harm the owner , or their car, but rather to lend credible advice as how to improve the car for future events. I myself have been infuriated by judges who are incompetent over the years. As an example, in the last Cavallino, I restored and showed a 1984 BBi for my customer, and much research and time went into finding the exact original golden/ tan/ bronze color coating of the exhaust mufflers and resonators, of which this car's exhaust was refinished in.
This car was judged many times in the past as being a 99.5 point car consistently at FCA events. This time, the car didn't do as well, because the lead judge on the BB team at Cavallino stated that all BB exhaust systems were either silver or black, with out exception. I knew he was wrong, the car owner knew he was wrong, I also ordered a NOS Factory piece of the exhaust system to make sure that my duplicated color was an exact match, but in the end, the lead Judge's opinion cast us point deductions. Lengthy , heated discussions followed between myself, the owner, and the Cavallino head judge. I prevailed, and that previous lead BB judge didn't judge this year's BB class. So, my point is, we, as a professional judging team , sparingly assign deductions, we do so with full skill and knowledge, and stand behind our decision.
Gary Bobileff

 

Brian and Gary, you guys are the best!

 

Not so sure about that but thanks.

When I get to work with a team of that quality it makes it a great weekend.

 

Another thing everyone needs to know. People get hung up on points count. That is one thing I really like about the IAC/PFA judging system. We really do not care too much about points, they are really only used for the internal purpose of determining if the car desreves the Platino award. There is no "winner". At Cavallino there is one class award level, 'Platino". Platino is scored at 97 or higher and all Platino cars are assumed to be equal. There were 5 Platino cars in the BB class and all were great cars, Mr Schuh's car included.

Cars that are awarded other awards over and above class awards have to make Platino first and other non related factors are used to decide that.

 

How well did the (1976?) Rosso Dino BB score? Was it a Platino entry?

 

Thanks, Garry and Brian, that was very enlightening. Most of my concern is addressed by Brian’s comment about “big misses” being the guiding threshold. So, just as an example, did Mr. Schuh’s over bright components and not gray enough manifolds constitute big misses? If so, how would he or anyone else in the same situation determine with confidence the right brightness or greyness while still in the restoration process and thus head off a future do-over? I don’t ask this lightly, I am in the middle of a restoration from the same approximate era and country, and have several areas where gray values and gloss are questionable.

Regarding the idea that paint degradation is operation-driven rather than time-driven: in the case of “metal” coatings, which to my knowledge are usually based on aluminum powder suspension, can you really be certain that aluminum oxidation plays no role? Aluminum oxide being black I would expect metal paint to grow darker over time as the carriers degrade and the aluminum particles increasingly exposed, perhaps just from UV exposure. Perhaps this effect, if it exists, is swamped by the big miss threshold.

 

Your project or anyone like its best resource are actual cars. Original, untouched unrestored unmolested and well stored and preserved cars. In the case of fragile materials finding samples that are out of the suns rays, sealed away from moisture etc.

Metal type paint finishes do degrade from time depending on the type and level of moisture chemicals salt air etc among other things. So does fragile plating like zinc. You can't look at a car with faded paint, corroded zinc plating, pitted chrome and UV shrunken leather and declare the silver paint is correct. It is very dependant on what it has been exposed to, driven or not.

This car has a hundred or so miles on it. It is in every way new. It has spent its entire life out of the sun in climate controlled circumstances and nowhere near the sea shore. Its various finishes resemble in every way the same finishes of much later cars. None of this research should be based on a single example. It should be based on a much broader based set of examples and evidence and the correct answers are then based on the preponderance of the evidence. Single source answers should be avoided whenever possible. With all that, some cars, some very expensive cars still get restored wrong. A very important coach built Ferrari went through that and several years after winning some prestigious awards it was found to have used the wrong materials in the interior when new evidence was found. The entire interior was redone to match the new information. The search for correct information never ends.
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One of the things about this car that makes me laugh is the yellow zinc plating. On so many restored cars I see every nut, bolt, washer, bracket latch etc matches. Yellow zinc is very variable and this car is a good example of that. For one thing why would you think some hardware manufacturer, Bosch, Marelli and various Modena based subcontractors would all achieve exactly the same yellow zinc finish?

If I was doing one of these I'd send all the Bosch parts to one plater, all the Marelli to another etc and ask them to let their apprentices do the work.

 

I think, with out being rude, the colors and textures chosen during the time of restoration is critical, if the car's owner has intentions of showing the car. That's where research, and the ability of a quality restoration facility with the proper previous experience has to make the right judgment call. This only comes with years of experience. If an owner is doing the work himself, the same level of research is necessary. If it was that easy, then we could all look up on the internet for the proper restoration answers, and all cars would then be perfectly restored, and we would not need venues like Cavallino for judging, because all cars would be 100 point perfect cars. The other item to consider is that as the cars get older, many parts are no longer available, and it's up to the restoration shop to have missing or unusable pieces duplicated perfectly, with out distinguishable flaws, with out drawings or blueprints. That's where true experience comes in, and complete dedication to making sure these cars are restored in a " preserved' state.
Gary Bobileff

 

And speaking of factory plating. This picture shows the consistency of yellow plating as executed by Ferrari subcontractors. Both emblems applied when car was new. Ferrari never made a silver 328 emblem. They are supposed to be the same.
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I am curious: When a nut and bolt resto finishes up, do you try to get a new set of pictures to expand (or enhance) the canon of reference material? I am thinking about the 365 that Paul Newman is doing now and it probably is very authentic.

 

All the recent restorations that we are currently doing, which is 6 Miura's, 1 330 GTC, 1 365 BB, 2 Lambo 350 GT's, and 1 308 GTB, we are now providing the car owner, or any one else that the owner approves for viewing on Google photo's. One of the restorations that we completed last week has about 1,800 pictures memorializing all the work that was done, along with extensive photo documentation as the car arrived, prior to disassembly and restoration. In certain instances, we would select high lites from the Google photo's of the car and have a coffee table book published with about 100 photo's and texts. Hard cover, perfect bound.
Gary Bobileff

 

Having those pictures is very nice especially for the owner of the car or shop as documentation.

My photo collection for reference purposes are of original cars not of restored cars. Original cars are evidence of authenticity. I am sure the restorer of this car felt it was authentic.

 

It would seem to be a shorter course of action to see the authentic car photographs before the restoration is started. Waiting for a visit on the green lawn; to confirm what good intentions not to mention piles of money has re-created in the image of something done decades ago with different resources.

 

Holy smokes, those are some beautiful examples. My heart flutters at the pic of the blue Daytona....

 

That blue Daytona was a complete rust bucket that sat out side in Pennsylvania for 3 years with the windows down, rain and snow and all, and then fully restored by Bobileff Motorcar Company in San Diego a number of years ago.
Gary Bobileff