scratch built Mazzer roadster | Page 15 | FerrariChat
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scratch built Mazzer roadster

Discussion in 'Maserati' started by wildegroot, Jan 13, 2009.

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  1. tazandjan

    tazandjan Three Time F1 World Champ
    Lifetime Rossa Owner

    Jul 19, 2008
    39,312
    Clarksville, Tennessee
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    Terry H Phillips
    #351 tazandjan, Jun 17, 2011
    Wil- Just updated myself on your project. That front fender line is just beautiful and the engine details, especially the intake manifold and carbs, are art. Really looking forward to seeing her painted and maybe a video of the car running. She really looks like one of those stud cars of the 60s, but quite a bit meaner. A Birdcage on steroids. Great job.

    Taz
    Terry Phillips
     
  2. kvisser

    kvisser Formula 3

    Dec 11, 2004
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    Ken Visser
    #352 kvisser, Jun 21, 2011
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 7, 2017
    Coming late to the party but thoroughly enjoying the thread. Incredible workmanship, good on ya' mate. Best of luck finishing her. Looks like she will be fun to take out on that road course in jersey.

    best of luck.

    your work reminds me of this car, of course!

    ken
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  3. wildegroot

    wildegroot Formula 3
    Professional Ferrari Technician

    Nov 19, 2003
    1,522
    Frenchtown NJ
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    Wil de Groot
    #353 wildegroot, Jun 21, 2011
    Welcome "to the party" and thank you for the compliments and the photos. Yes, my design, particularly in profile, is loosely based on the Maserati 200S, 300S, 450S series of race cars. Those body designs are difficult to find fault with.
     
  4. gcmerak

    gcmerak Formula 3

    Mar 17, 2008
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    George C.
    #354 gcmerak, Jun 23, 2011
    Hi Wil,

    I was looking over the upper engine parts, they look great! Don't worry though they will dirty up before you know it once you start driving that bad boy around.

    I was curious about the manifold runners. There seem to be two schools of thought related to the smoothness, or lack of in the runners.

    On the one hand, some say that the factory finish roughness is there for better atomization of fuel due to the created turbulence.

    On the other hand, others say the smoother the better, higher velocity, atomization is handled by the carbs, runners are short[well, at least in our case], and the heat is high enough that condensation/wetting is not an issue.

    I have always heard the easier the air gets in and out, the more efficiently the engine runs.

    What do you think, and how did you handle your intake runners?

    Ciao,
    George
     
  5. wildegroot

    wildegroot Formula 3
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    Nov 19, 2003
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    Wil de Groot
    #355 wildegroot, Jun 23, 2011
    Modern thinking is rough surfaces. I was at the PRI (Performance and Racing Industry) Show and saw some shockingly intentional rough surfaces inside a couple of intake manifolds but honestly, only extensive back to back flow bench testing and dynamometer testing will give the answer and I haven't done that on this engine. Although I did build a set of true equal length exhaust headers for the car, I've concentrated most of my efforts on the chassis and body and the engine is being left basically stock for now. I may build a hotter version of this engine later but I've also been thinking of replacing this engine later with a more modern Maserati V8. Who knows. First I've got to get this car on the road.
     
  6. gcmerak

    gcmerak Formula 3

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    #356 gcmerak, Jun 24, 2011
    Thanks Wil. :)

    Ciao,
    George
     
  7. gcmerak

    gcmerak Formula 3

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    #357 gcmerak, Jun 25, 2011
    Yes, best to leave rough surface alone.

    Ciao,
    George
     
  8. gcmerak

    gcmerak Formula 3

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    #358 gcmerak, Jul 7, 2011
    What is the latest word, Wil?

    Ciao,
    George
     
  9. wildegroot

    wildegroot Formula 3
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    Nov 19, 2003
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    Wil de Groot
    #359 wildegroot, Jul 7, 2011
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 7, 2017
  10. open roads

    open roads F1 Rookie

    Jan 28, 2007
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    Stan
    #360 open roads, Jul 7, 2011
    That thing looks outstanding. I'll bet the car took more work to put together though.
     
  11. LightGuy

    LightGuy Four Time F1 World Champ
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    Oct 4, 2004
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    David
    #361 LightGuy, Jul 8, 2011
    Ahh.
    A clean garage with lots of empty space.
    There is a cure for that.
     
  12. gcmerak

    gcmerak Formula 3

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    #362 gcmerak, Jul 8, 2011
    The new building/facility looks spectacular, congratulations!

    Ciao,
    George
     
  13. wildegroot

    wildegroot Formula 3
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    Nov 19, 2003
    1,522
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    Wil de Groot
    #363 wildegroot, Jul 9, 2011
    You're right!
     
  14. JOLLEY

    JOLLEY Rookie

    Oct 23, 2010
    1
    #364 JOLLEY, Aug 9, 2011
    Beautiful work. Thanks for sharing :)
     
  15. SandydeG

    SandydeG Formula Junior

    Feb 16, 2011
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    Milford, NJ
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    Sandy de Groot
    #365 SandydeG, Oct 3, 2011
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 7, 2017
    Here is a shot of Wil's Mazzer in our new showroom. Hopefully we can paint the car in the next month or so. Have been incredibly busy building and relocating our shop so not a great deal of progress since the last photo.

    All F-Chat Maserati owners are welcome to our open house coming up October 16th! Refreshments, light lunch served from 10AM - 3PM. Would be awesome to put some faces to the names on this thread.

    Sandy and Wil

    (please see our website for Open House invitation and directions)
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  16. gcmerak

    gcmerak Formula 3

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    #366 gcmerak, Oct 3, 2011
    Wow! Looking awesome.

    Ciao,
    George
     
  17. wildegroot

    wildegroot Formula 3
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    Nov 19, 2003
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    Wil de Groot
    #367 wildegroot, Nov 13, 2011
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 7, 2017
    We made the "crash-roll" for the edge of the tub this weekend. We wanted to get this done before doing the finish paint work. Basically the interior and the surrounding exterior were masked off and fiberglass matting and resin were applied around the edge of the tub to make a skeleton for leather trim which will be wrapped around it and the whole thing will be screwed in place for a finished look. Of course a lot of fiberglass grinding was done to get a smooth final product. We didn't get any photos of the fiberglass lay-up. Not a good environment for a camera!

    I also removed the aluminum front valence pieces from the car and started preparing them for making molds so we can make fiberglass copies and prep them for paint. I'll post pictures of that soon. We hope to have the car painted and assembled this winter.
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  18. gcmerak

    gcmerak Formula 3

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    #368 gcmerak, Nov 13, 2011
    It's too much for me! I have to take a break. :D

    Ciao,
    George
     
  19. wildegroot

    wildegroot Formula 3
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    Nov 19, 2003
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    Wil de Groot
    #369 wildegroot, Dec 13, 2011
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 7, 2017
  20. wildegroot

    wildegroot Formula 3
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    Nov 19, 2003
    1,522
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    Wil de Groot
    #370 wildegroot, Dec 13, 2011
    We're pretty hot and heavy on the project again this December. We're basically ready to start prepping the body for paint but we decided there were a couple of small projects that needed to be gotten out of the way now, so we don't accidentally damage the new paint later.

    The front valence pieces were originally fabricated out of aluminum sheet but they're very vulnerable, so low to the ground, so we made copies out of thin fiberglass so they just break if hit hard enough, rather than transfer the impact up into the bonnet...hopefully. The original aluminum valences had integral splitters at the bottom but for the fiberglass copies we decided to make the splitters separate parts to ease road-rash repair...hopefully.

    We also decided to make the interior a little more civilized than originally intended so we've been molding some interior dress-panels to be covered in leather later.

    The glass 1955 Ford Sunliner windshield was sent out to Pro-Glass in Illinois to have a Lexan copy molded off of it. We'll be cutting and fitting the new windshield soon.
    Pro Glass is also forming Lexan headlight covers over molds we made earlier.

    Below are some descriptions for the photos posted above.

    1) Making plywood templates for the splitters.

    2) Trimming and fitting a newly molded interior panel. This and other panels were molded right off the car after covering everything with green masking tape, which resin doesn't stick to. This and other panels will be covered in leather.

    3) The same panel off the car. It covers a roll-over bar brace.

    4) Left front fiberglass valence seen from the inside. At the bottom is the Lexan splitter which extends under the nose to help control air flow under the car. Above the valence is the inside of the left front fender which we lined with fiberglass to prevent rocks, thrown up by the tires, from denting the outer aluminum skin.

    5) Right front fiberglass valence with Lexan splitter temporarily mounted. We'll cover the top surface of the splitter with carbon fiber. Full thickness carbon fiber is just too expensive for a part that will inevitably be trashed against the pavement. We don't have an F1 team budget. :-(

    6) The glass windshield and a Lexan copy (half the weight of glass) still in the shipping crate as they arrived.

    7) The fiberglass mold for the left front valence. We didn't have any gel coat on hand when we made the mold and left some air bubbles in the fiberglass so we had to do a little fill work on the inside.

    8) Sawing splitters out of a scrap Lexan windshield blank, after tracing around the plywood templates we made.

    9) I decided to reinforce the door hinges by forming and welding a rectangle of sheet metal
    around the hinge arms. It's still amazing how stiff a piece of .040" (1mm) sheet steel becomes once it's part of a structure like this. It rings like a bell now! This will really help stiffen the doors.
     
  21. gcmerak

    gcmerak Formula 3

    Mar 17, 2008
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    #371 gcmerak, Dec 17, 2011
    Fantastic!

    Thanks for sharing, Wil.

    Ciao,
    George
     
  22. ferraripete

    ferraripete F1 World Champ

    Nov 5, 2003
    11,562
    san diego/charlotte
    #372 ferraripete, Dec 17, 2011
    this is awesome!!!
     
  23. wildegroot

    wildegroot Formula 3
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    Nov 19, 2003
    1,522
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    Wil de Groot
    #373 wildegroot, Dec 17, 2011
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 7, 2017
    Thanks guys.

    I'm posting some pictures of the new Lexan windshield fitted to the car. The thin black line across the top is where we still have to trim it. It took a bit of trimming and beveling along the bottom to get it to fit the cowl nicely but the bend forming was great - it fits the bottom frame beautifully.

    We made a long list yesterday of all the little things (body related) that still need to be done. It filled a whole page. A lot of it is mundane stuff like a bracket here and a brace there. It'll get more exiting when we put some color on the body. Still haven't made up my mind about the exterior color. I have blue Momo seats and blue leather to cover all the bare aluminum inside the tub. The exterior was originally meant to be red but I'm also thinking about making it blue.
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  24. William Abraham

    William Abraham Formula Junior

    Nov 21, 2010
    830
    London, UK
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    William Abraham
    #374 William Abraham, Dec 18, 2011
    From my perspective red has been done done done. Maserati Blue all the way. Of course if you go with red it will still be amazing. I am excited about getting my QPIII painted and back on the road properly so in Maserati terms I am easily pleased. Ciao
     
  25. wildegroot

    wildegroot Formula 3
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    Nov 19, 2003
    1,522
    Frenchtown NJ
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    Wil de Groot
    #375 wildegroot, Dec 18, 2011
    Thanks for the input William. You may be right about the color although I'm not that thrilled with the official Maserati blue which is kind of dark for this car I think.

    Send your QP over here and we'll paint it for you. If we can agree on a colour we'll hose both cars from the same can! :)
     
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