365 BB Chassis 17553 Nut and Bolt Restoration

A joy to behold. John

 

Test coat on which is a single stage paint. Yellow is very transparent so this initial yellow will help hide the primer and seal it of course. Its a nice material to block the car dead straight with then the base / clear will go on. More blocking, polishing then the black!
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Curing out in the sun. They blocked it a bit, next will be the base and clear.

The coach builder painted more than just the exterior when they painted a ferrari and thats how we're doing this one. The best way to determine the original colour of a Ferrari is to scrape some black paint off a section of the frame or look under the dash, inside the doors etc. They painted everything which is smart. It provides a great base for the chassis paint and protects the metal by sealing it. We took the same approach in a sense, slightly different order because we have the luxury of taking better care during the restoration. The chassis was blasted so right away we wanted to seal it with primer and paint before the floor was installed. We put black on the rest of the chassis at that point as well knowing we would be going over the black again after the body is painted. With the floor in we're now painting it like they did in that the yellow goes everywhere but because we already did the yellow under the black on the chassis, doing it all over again doesn't make sense so we just did the cabin and interior like it was back in 74. Once the black is done it'll have yellow on everything and black over it where required. The end result mimics the coach builder's approach but with better more thorough coverage.

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Injected boxer before black back in 84 when it was being built.

I had a red 308 here last week for a few concerns and after digging around under the dash it didn't take long to know it was white originally. The long term owner thought it was red from the factory.


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Why did the factory paint black inside the doors etc. after color?

 

They didn't paint the insides black back then, not sure about newer cars. Everything was body color.

 

Took these pics a while ago so its more complete today than it looks here.

I never get tired of looking at these engines.
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It really pops! Great color combo.

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Silver rear firewall is next then I get it back for reassembly.

 

Ready to start going back together.

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A before pic

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Did you keep the "federalization" door beam?

 

Yes we did but you can't tell on the outside. I always leave the beams if it had them.

 

Makes sense... and can’t be worse than as received, ha-ha. Funny R&T didn’t comment on that.

Again, fantastic effort and amazing work on this iconic car. Especially grateful to be able to follow and learn so much.

 

I love it when every surface is refinished, even areas you'll never see when its together. Its the closest thing you can get to a new car. Driving a "new" boxer is a great thing

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The least fun stuff to do, the cabin, wiring, ducting etc.

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The main wire harness splits in two, you can see the two humps under the material which hides them well enough that when the dash is in you don't notice them so much. When the car arrived here the harness was over top of the material - ugly.
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Beautiful!

 

So only about 1 year after this post and because I get hung up on such details, I’m wondering how you sorted the steps on either side between the cabin and rear clam.

Also as you said you expected the rear clam was replaced and the center louvers added to it (or is this from another year?) did you consider getting a correct clam on or is this unobtanium?

Finally, what did you conclude about the inside rear-view mirror bracket—original or not?

Thanks for the insightful postings and again, amazing work.

 

We straightened the rear clam forward edges out and addressed the shut lines with minor welding, not sure why that wasn't done in the past.

The rear clam was for a later car (looked like a new old stock part), after build number 247. Its not unheard of on the 365 and 512 prior to 79 before Ferrari changed the rear latch design and added a clamshell ajar warning lamp. It's not the first boxer through my shop with a replacement clam shell front or rear. Finding an early 365 clam may not be impossible because Im sure someone somewhere has one that isn't for sale like the 512 clam I have hanging on my shop wall as wall art. Finding one for sale is the problem!

I couldn't find another example with a mirror like it so I eliminated it. The belly pan is also incorrect for the car which some factory assembly line photos confirmed for me. Its so well done like a race car builder fabricated it but cosmetically its wrong. Being an early car I had some doubts as to what was correct as there are several differences vs later 365's.

 

Brake booster looks dirty no matter what angle I take the pic from but its not. Ill try without a flash in natural light.

The brake lines on this car were yellow zinc, again the camera loses that detail a little but they were yellow zinc no question.

Rear intake louvers are supposed to be anodized, they had been painted so I needed to strip them before they can go to the anodizer.
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Original anodizing now showing.
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A better pic, no flash.

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Getting closer with all the work done so far! Will this be a 'show car' or just for the owner's enjoyment?

17553 should be a feature story for Cavallino magazine!

 

Fantastic work! Incredible to see the parts come back looking better than new.
I recognize that over center clutch assist spring and lever from the Back to Black thread. On that car it looked like it was originally way out of adjustment causing the spring to work against the operator making the clutch more difficult in the 1st 30-40% of it's travel. You of course corrected that in the rebuild.

I've heard many people comment about how heavy and "binary" the clutch is on the 365, 512 & 512BBi boxers. I've only driven one (a 512BBi) and although it was no Miata I didn't think it was that heavy (could've been my enormous legs from skiing... not). Given that you have restored and worked on so many of these cars, how many come in with the lever oriented incorrectly on the spline further propagating and aggravating the stories about how heavy the clutch is in these cars?

 

The 365 clutch is heavier than the 512's. All 512's are hydraulic and the injected car is the least effort because of a modification / helper spring Ferrari added to the pedal box to reduce effort. I also prefer the Borg and Beck pressure plate over the AP Racing unit for feel and modulation. 84 had the helper, I haven't researched when they added it.