Steve McQueen's 275 under restore at Ferrari?

Not quite, some are being hoarded...

Sale price is more than fabrication cost (assuming you can borrow a car to copy) - I've looked into the exercise. I would assume that Classiche have the original wooden bucks too.

The hardest part is the rear glass, very hard to find an original one, although I haven't checked for a while and there may be good repros available now.

If Daytonas ever get near current 275 values, I think we'll see more cars converting back, which will motivate people to make the parts. 100-ish cut cars out there, at $100K per car, not a bad opportunity for someone.

 

Miurasv,

No bodyshell is made from a single piece of steel. Even a modern Toyota Corolla is made from many different pressings and they are welded together.

Also as others have said back in the 60's Ferrari bodyshells were made by welding hundreds of small pieces together. They did not stamp panels like Toyota does today. Also the roof panels would have been welded on originally.

All,

Regarding my comment that Ferrari is doing it today, I'll clarify. Ferrari Classiche is project managing this restoration. Ferrari have access to the original drawings, etc. so they are well placed to do it right. By the time the 275GTB came along they were approaching production lines, even if other companies made the bodies. Plus they probably have a GTB with roof attached that they are referring too, or the original wooden buck? This restoration is no harder than repairing 275GTB's car, and I applaud again the owner for spending the bucks to have this done.
Pete

 

If you've ever been involved in replacing a windscreen in a 275, you'd know that copying the panel shape from one car to another doesn't necessarily work!

 

There are many stories of L/R doors ..etc being an inch (or more!) different. many kudos to the owner for starting what may become a trend.. rebuilding all of these 275/365 GTBs !!

 

Understood ... purchase windscreen first and make panels to suit would be the way to go for a hand built car .

Pete

 

found this on the web
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Steve,
I am not sure. I think that age, condition, etc., would play a part. I am not even close to being an expert on these cars.

George

 

The outer shell welds are not visible because the are ground down flush and under layers of primer and if necessary filler, but internal welds are very much visible. Have a look at 275GTB's thread about his restoration as the welds that company did to restore the body are what we are talking about.
Pete

 

Yes, it is.

 

But still, where are the facts to substantiate that this car was once owned by Steve McQueen? As 4891GT has shown, ownership by McQueen can add about a million dollars to the value of a vintage Ferrari, so it should be an issue.

 

Thanks. I'll look at the welds in 275GTB's thread. Is filler used in the welds in the construction of a new body/car?

 

Not as much as in those days. Nowadays larger pressings are stamped so there are less outer welds required that need time consuming finishing with a grinder, or they design the panels so a plastic trim piece covers the spot welds.

If you compare a 275GTB and say an Alfa Romeo 1750 GTV with a modern car it is amazing how few visible seams these old cars had and thus how expensive it must have been to clean up all the welds. For example most modern cars you can unbolt the front guards so they are easy to replace in the case of accident damage and we all happily live with a visible seam at the bottom of the front windscreen.

BUT the biggest difference is a Toyota Corolla probably has 25% of the number of panels required to make a 275GTB or an Alfa Romeo 1750 GTV. Even with the 275GTB having a separate chassis there are still many little panels used to seal up the passenger compartment, etc. My Alfa, for example, amazes me with the number of little panels that have been welded (usually by spot) together to make a shape that Ford or Toyota would just stamp in a single piece. No wonder Alfa Romeo is dead.
Pete

 

This 4 cam, #10621, was originally Nocciolia (106-M-27) with black interior. It was supplied new via Chinetti to Harrah, MCM.

After McQueen's original NART Spyder was damaged in a road accident, he bought the GTB from Hollywood Sports Cars to use whilst the NART was being repaired and modified.

It was repainted a fairly dark red in his ownership, as per the photo above.

The car was sold and one of the subsequent owners sustained some damage to the rear and following some time in storage the car was sold to Bob Panella, a Ferrari collector in California, who had it converted to NART by Richard Straman.

I got the car from a subsequent owner in San Francisco for a friend of mine here in the UK in 2001. He repainted it from yellow to silver and retrimmed it from brown to red inside.

It was sold in 2009 to a Australian gentleman (Not Fox) and last year was sold to another Australian gentleman who has comissioned the current work.

The only people I did not speak to whilst carrying out this research were Steve McQueen for obvious reasons, and Richard Straman who appears to be missing.

Mark Shannon

 

Interesting!

 

It was yellow with brown when I looked at it in 2005 at a dealer called Oakfields. They were asking 500K pounds from memory.

Not nice to drive, lots of chassis flex.

 

So was there any documentary evidence to support that this car belonged to Steve McQueen, Mark? I'm not doubting what you say at all. I've come across a few Ferraris and Lamborghinis over the years that were alleged to have belonged to Elton John, Paul McCartney and Peter Sellers but there was never any written proof. Just heresay.

 

Did the poor quality of the steel available to the Italians (much of it Russian supplied) have anything to do with the smaller panels being used or was it all down to the limited size of the presses available?

 

the Russian steel didn't come along until the 70's, blaming it is something of an urban myth.

Vintage Ferrari bodies were entirely handmade, pressed panels didn't happen in 275/Daytona days, because the cost of making press tooling couldn't be justified by the small production volumes.

Sheet steel was hammered over wooden bucks to get the required shape. Where you need a compound curve, a scoop, door handle recess, etc, you made the individual curves than welded the lot together. This type of fabrication dates back to making suits of armour for mounted knights - the northern italians were renowned for this and hence the skills translated into vehicle body manufacture.

 

Ever come across one owned by the Jon Voight?

I think most celeb titles get 'lost' and framed. Can't blame them (but that pic with Steve and the dark red 275 is a pretty good clue).

 

Steve

The next thing I was going to do was get on a plane and get it all in writing from the various people involved, and perhaps also video interviews, but the car got sold and I was no longer being paid.

So right now the only documented evidence is the picture.

Mark Shannon

 

Thanks for your reply, Mark. You've sold some great cars btw. So you actually physically had the car here in UK, presumably on SOR, and you were going to get written and video proof from the various people involved in the US that it belonged to Steve McQueen because there was no written proof that it had actually belonged to him other than the above photograph and before you got any proof the owner you were selling it for sold it to someone else?