The Ferrari Bloodline

Happy that you enjoyed, Andrew!

 

A long (but happy) 8-hours at Maranello today working on some F50s to take them a further 0.1% forward and also on a couple of extra sets of silencers.
The cars were prepared the night before for an early 8.30am start
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Then we got the silencers ready (third day we work on them)
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I took on the silencers (least tricky job given my skill level…)
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and Master Detailer Bradley started with stone chip paint correction and then machine polishing (we had the paint prepared earlier according to the Ferrari paint code depicted on the cars)
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On the joint between the pipe and main body of silencer you can remove a lot of grime
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As well as inside the tips (before)
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and after
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Plus a patient rub/clean throughout
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Cont’d.

Brought to mirror-shine some of the bolts at the rear
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As well as some tyre dressing (I do that only every 3-4 years to avoid unnecessary build-up)
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Then a nice English breakfast (for lunch)
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And, of course, enjoying the lovely line-up…
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Today. Still working on it…
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And two days ago, still correcting stone chips to as good-as-can
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And the joy of bringing back the past a to how it was, in the smallest detail.
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Just an adventure to be shared, Christian.

 

Today was another full day with the F50s. The cars were arranged differently for our 8.30am start
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We focused on freshening up all the carbon fibre on the inside. Here are a couple of pics with scratches on the door sills
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After machine polishing I Swissvaxed it
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The results were great
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Cont’d…
And it extended to the many carbon fibre parts on the inside (there is a lot of it). Here are some pics of the various cars
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I discovered there is like a fin in carbon fibre next to the throttle pedal (I guess to keep the foot where it should be)
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I also managed a Swissvax outside for 2 cars
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Finally, I moved few flight boxes from one floor to the other (heavy with their contents of hoops and tonneau) and lined them appropriately behind the cars’ parking slots.
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For the carbon inside, as many as was needed to get it right (circa 1hr to1.5hr per cabin).

 

Today we started with flight cases.
We decided to handle two at a given day. So we started by removing the tonneau.
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We first machine polished and then Swissvaxed the painted part.
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Then we cleaned the inside (silver protective layer). When rubbing one has to be careful not to disturb the edges of the strips as they criss cross.
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Cont’d
Important to check the rubber as in some parts the glue detaches after all these years (1st pic), so you need to re-glue (then scotch tape it and leave it overnight). It is also good to soften the rubber with appropriate liquid.
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We also removed the rust from the screws.
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Then we softened and replenished the small Schedoni leather bag which holds all the screws and bolts for roof swapping.
Before
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After
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The hoops were all good.
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Then all back in
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It is safer to add a couple of dusters between the straps and the tonneau for long term storage.
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Cont’d
Then we worked a bit on the boot.
First we machine polished then waxed the carbon front wheel arches (as well as the rest of the carbon) to make it less dull.
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Leather straps tend to go hard where some tools are held and can get brittle. So these l straps need feeding (elephant balm) otherwise they could break off. Also the buckles get corroded.
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We did quite more but we will add it when covering tomorrow’s work.
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If you look at the outside of the flight box from various angles
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there are no numbers except the flight case manufacturer’s
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And on the inside you get all lining.
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This week was full of F50 passion.
Let’s start with Monday.
I took the first flight from London to Bologna and then took a taxi to Modena to visit Simone Schedoni.
As I like to gather difficult-to-find F50 parts (like the original exhaust), I have been trying to find the original material used in F50 seats for the last half-dozen years or so. I checked various sources including Zanassi and the cloth material they use is very close to the original (there are 3 types used: the cloth, the leather, and the velour-type around the holes at shoulder level) but it is not the original one.
I found out that Schedoni did the seats for all the F50s (as well as the 3-piece luggage set - which was leather and the same cloth material (and - colour - as the seats).
I met the man who build all the F50s’ seats. He joined Schedoni in 1993 and is still working there (and looking young! - see picture below).
After asking Simone to look deep in their warehouse for any left-over roll of original cloth material (any colour - red, black or yellow), he found a red one. We made a deal and I went on the Monday to physically get it.
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(From left: Simone, the last roll, the original seat - see the side whole filled with red cloth; the man who produced every F50 seats, Karim).

it had to physically travel to Italy as I would not trust a DHL or other shipment. I had to transport it personally and, additionally, it needed to be carried in the cabin and not in the cargo section of the plane when returning to London. However, it was bulky and the plane from Bologna to London is small.
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I was back with my precious roll at Bologna airport at 14.00 and my flight was at 20.15. So to kill the 6 hours and appease the tension of how to get the big roll in the cabin, I settled with a a bottle of wine and some Italian food
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When passing through security, my first challenge, I tried to put the big roll on a tray but the security officer took it off before the scanning machine and in sign language told me to follow her. We went through some dark corridors and I was wondering whether they took it that I was carrying a bazooka of a sort. Then an open area and it was the security screening for crew members! The security officer there looked at the roll and I quickly said (what I was memorizing over the last few hours): “ultimo al mondo materiale sedile originale della ferrari F cinquanta” (last in the world original seat material of ferrari F50).
He grinned and I went through.
then at boarding I tried to charm my way through as well as when I boarded a full plane.
I succeeded and was a happy man back home in London at midnight.