3500 GT Spyder Vignale thread

It appeared to be a simple contact issue. When I removed and replaced the fuse, the contact became better and solved the problem. The original fuse is still in the car. Just cleaning.
I have not had any other issues with these pumps and highly recommend that owners keep them with the car.
You may need to give them a good cleaning, including all the electrical contact points and replace the diaphragm's every 30 years, but thats about it.
Good luck.
Ciao,
FGM

 

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I hate this new format!!!
My post should have read like this.
I am enjoying driving the VS here in Palm Desert CA.
So as you can see the tuning continues, with the removal of the front bumper and grill in order to be sent out to be straightened and re chromed to a very high quality. At the same time I am replacing all the rear suspension bushings having the speedo recalibrate and a couple other odds and ends.
I call it "Tuning" Chassis tuning, body tuning etc etc. Just slowly bringing the car to a very high state of operational readiness and originality.
Pictures above.
I still hate this new formate.....
ciao,
FGM

 

I have now removed the front bumper and grill to be sent tomorrow for chroming.
Poor car looks striped of its smile...
Ciao,
FGM

 

1 more photo.
FGM
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Hi Portenos,

This will be the next step.....pls check if you can find the body number on the grill.
Ciao,
André
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I have now sent the Vignale bumper and grill shell off to Jon Wright's Custom Chrome Plating,
Located in Grafton Ohio.
Jon did all the chrome work on the Americas best Roadster at the 2017 Pomona Roadster Show. Yes, the winning car.
His work can easily be considered one of the "Best" in the USA, if not the best.
After inspecting my bumper and grill shell he quoted $1800 each. + shipping each way. I thought that was high but...
The way I figure it, most top quality shops would charge $1000 to $1500, so to get the very best is worth the extra bucks.
And yes the Maserati Vignale Spyder #101.1121 deserves the very best.

 

As luck would have it the newly re-chromed front bumper and grill shell arrived as agreed and have now been installed.
Here are some photos of the parts and on a drive today to my favorite photo shoot spot up on Highway 74.
This car drives so dam well now it is just amazing!! The dark green looks almost black in the sun light.
Ciao,
FGM


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While VS #1121 was in the shop getting the chrome reinstalled, I had the transmission removed so they could reseal it with new gaskets and front and rear seals - I hate oil leaks.
The insides looked new as it had been rebuilt several years ago with new syncros and bearings - nice to know.

The scavenger oil pump which was installed a little over 2 years ago began to leak as well.
I had the original one that came off the car so we rebuilt it to a very high standard. We sourced and used a new double lip VITON seal and machined a bronze bushing in the rear. We also cut a deeper snap ring grove in order to instal a larger snap ring which holds everything in place. I am hoping this new higher quality rebuild will provide many years of dry motoring.
Remember to leave the scavenger pump belt a little on the loose side.
Ciao,
FGM

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I got up early and took the VS #1121 for a morning drive out on Interstate 10 and headed East.
I put 63 KLM on the clock and she ran great! I feel that this car is now fully sorted and ready to go on a 1000 mile road tour.
When I returned home I pulled it in the garage and parked it on a sheet of white paper and after 8 hours, NO LEAKS.
I hope it stays that way.
Ciao,
FGM Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Maybe that's because there's no oil left!

Very impressive Frank. Not many can disrupt that continuous flow undercoating that comes standard with so many vintage cars ...

 

6 Days & 1150 Miles A Maserati Road Trip
The Car
1960 Maserati Vignale Spyder # AM101.1121
When:Sat June 16th– 21st. 2018
Mileage:Starting @ 46286 KLM Ending @ 48202
Total:1916 X .6 = 1150 Miles


Together with Colin Craig of Vancouver BC as my trusty copilot and navigator we signed up for the Alfa Wannabe Road Tour. The Tour is organized by Tom and Mark McGirr out of Portland OR. 70% of the guys on the Tour own 1 or several Alfas but only 3 or 4 of them actually drove their Alfa’s in the Tour, shameful. There were a lot of Porsches, an Aston Martin and other collectable type cars. We were the only Maserati. It was a fun, enthusiastic group of Car Guys.
To be continued...
Ciao
FGM
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Day 1.Starting from Mercer Island on Saturday June 16thColin and I headed East on highway 2 winding through the majestic Cascade Mountains along the Wenatchee River to the quaint Bavarian village of Leavenworth. (Google it)
It was a beautiful day in the low to mid 70s and of course the top was down all the way - we only drove one day with the top up.
We stopped for lunch in Leavenworth then departed in the direction of Wenatchee and on to Walla Walla on the Oregon border, arriving just in time for happy hour.
We checked into our room and headed to the bar to meet up with others people on the Tour.
The car ran very smooth and felt solid. It was a great first day.
Image Unavailable, Please Login We put 491 KLM on the speedo on day 1.

 

Day 2. We departed Walla Walla early with the group, heading north on Highway 95 toward Coeur d'Alene Idaho. This was a great drive on an old back road highway winding through the little villages and hamlets of the Washington countryside. Again it was sunny and in the low 70’s – just perfect!
Colin and I both enjoy those cool sunny mornings loping along at 45 to 50 miles an hour. We shared driving, switching off every couple hours or so.
It was on the way to Coeur d'Alene that we experienced a fuel pump issue. Colin was driving and all of a sudden the car ran out of gas. I got out tapped on the OEM Monoflux fuel pumps and bingo they started “clucking” again, so off we went. About 50 miles on the same thing happened and I again tapped on the fuel pumps and again they started working. We arrived in Coeur d'Alene and checked into the beautiful Coeur d'Alene resort hotel on the lake.
Below is the view from our suite.
To be continued...
Ciao,
FGM

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With only 2 weeks remaining until I depart to Italy for my annual Car Guy Tour, I pulled the rear bumper off of the Vignale today along with the door handles and sent them off to Custom Chrome Plating in Grafton Ohio.
When I return home the parts should be on my door step.
As some of you may have read in another post I sold both of my 3500GT Coupes #707 and #916, but will keep the Vignale.
There is a new car coming into the collection which will be a big surprise to most of you. Stay tuned.
Ciao,
Frank

 

Just started getting nervous.

Greetings from Germany.
The Don

 

Well it arrived today.
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Remember I still have the Vignale Spyder.
Ciao,
FGM

 

Fantastic car!

 

Frank,

Congrats on the Daytona, cut or original you still get the wind, the sun, the pleasure, and don't forget, if need be, to reroute your Italian itinerary to steer well clear of Genoa as the bridge collapse is creating a traffic nightmare in that whole area. As an event organizer myself I can confirm this is just the sort of logistical problem you don't want. It was already a nightmare with the bridge so now that city is cut in half and there will be major traffic repercussions a long way out as the entire highway traffic that was going through Genoa has to be diverted to other highways and smaller roads.

Best regards,

M

 

Whoa Frank, congrats, a Daytona. Does that mean you are tending from the discrete charme of Maseratis more towards the "in your face i am red and fast" section?
Just kidding, car looks great and will certainly be a lot of fun when sorted.
And i can second Marc on the Genoa area: If you can avoid it at the moment, traffic is chaotic - and i don't mean the regular italian chaos, but a real one....

 

Anyone doing Monaco Florence for example via that coast road has to face a 120km detour: yes 75 miles because of the bridge collapse! This is due to the mountain meets the sea type of terrain which caused the need for such bridges in the first place.

Frank, in your face?! Lbird never...no?;-)

Mr cigar I wish you much pleasure in your steed

 

Day 3. We decided to stay on another night in the beautiful 4 star hotel suite we had been assigned rather than depart with the group to Wallace Idaho and the Motel 6.

We found a shop very near the hotel where the owner allowed us to put the car on the lift and with the help of one of his mechanics troubleshoot the fuel pump issue. We decided that rather than take any chances of having the fuel pumps quit again, it would be prudent just install an over-the-counter Bendix style electric fuel pump.

I called Stuart at MIE who gave me the part number of a replacement fuel pump and lo and behold the local Napa dealer had it in my hand in less than 20 minutes.
We remove the two Monoflux fuel pumps and the special copper lines and installed the new fuel pump together with new rubber fuel lines and clamps.
Altogether the completed job took about two hours, including a hand wash next door. We drove back to the hotel parking garage and spent the afternoon leisurely enjoying Coeur d'Alene.
Ciao,
FGM

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Day 4. The next morning with the car running great, it was off to Wallace Idaho where we met up with the group. Wallace is one of those interesting silver mining towns that sprung up in and around Kellogg Idaho.

At about 2PM all 15 cars headed out for the drive to Priest Lake in the northern Idaho panhandle.
The back road we took was extremely winding and rough, climbing to a higher and higher elevation. Then at a certain moment the wipers began working on their own! A very odd condition.
OK I thought just pull the fuse. Not so easy. The wipers kept working even after pulling the fuse. WHAT THE HELL!!! So I got out my trusty test light and found the hot wire going to the wiper motor. Using my Swiss Army Knife I unscrewed the terminal and pulled out the red wire from the terminal block. Bingo! Wipers off!!
End of crisis. Side note: After returning home my tech found the Lucas motor had a bad ground. It took 20 minutes to troubleshoot and repair.

Now what came next was depressing and hilarious all at once.

Driving along all fat, dumb and happy, we unknowingly took a wrong turn only to drive about 25 miles along a beautiful winding country road following the Coeur d’Alene River.
The first sign something was not right was when the road began to narrow to a 1 and a half lane road… Then to our surprise, we came upon the worst sign any car guy could imagine “Caution Pavement Ends” yes we actually begin driving on a 1 and a half lane gravel road which became narrower and narrower to the point were we stopped and asked a fly fisherman wadding in the river “does this road eventually go to Highway 200?” He didn’t laugh but politely informed us that it did not.
At this point a white pickup truck coming in the opposite direction stopped and the drivers wife got out – hip waders and all - and informed us that we needed to go back about 25 miles and take a left hand turn at the giant FOOD sign.
“That road goes to highway 200 and onto Sand Point and Priest Lake Idaho.”
You can imagine how deflated we were to hear this news, but we took it in good humor laughing about it all the way as we headed back.
Because we had lost so much time we decided to keep going the additional 16 miles directly to Interstate 90 where we could have a straight shot and the fastest route back to Coeur d’Alene and then on to Sandpoint and Priest Lake our final destination that day.
We put another 488KLM on the car driving to Priest Lake arriving at 7:00PM.

We checked into cabin 15 and then headed over to the bar, for a much needed cold beer and a great appetizer buffet set up by the organizers.
As we drove into Elkins Resort, one of the guests flagged us down and informed us that he has seen a bear or two around the cabin area.
I had this vision of a black bear climbing into the Vignale or worse yet clawing into the convertible top, so we made sure to get all snacks and sweets out of the car for the overnight stay which turned out to be just fine.
We put the top up, rolled up the windows and parked the Maserati outside our cabin all night with no problems. It had been a very long day.
At the time the below photo taken by the river we were 1 mile from hitting a gravel road and that horrible sign!
Ciao,
FGM
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Wow! Sounds like you are having a blast! Can you please disclose the over-the-counter fuel pump replacement? I would like to keep one in the trunk, for just in case!
Do we see you during Pebble Week at all?

Thanks for all the fun reports, RF.

 

The one I used is the Facet Pump which is the old Bendix one. Facet bought Bendix.
It bolts in nicely and with some new fuel hose and clamps, it works well and has the correct 3 Image Unavailable, Please Login
to 4 lbs pleasure.
No I will not be in Monterey. we leave for Italy on Thur the 23rd. for the Car Guy Tour.
FYI the 2019 Car Guy Tour is 50% sold out already, a new record. Only 14 seats remaining.
The Tour includes the Monza F1 races.
Ciao,
FGM