1968 Ghibli questions

Hi,

I have bought myself a project Ghibli and my first challenge will be to get the car registered and roadworthy here in Australia. One of the most obvious jobs will be to replace the LHD headlamps. Can anyone tell me if the lamps are common to other cars of the period? I will be removing the current pairs from the car this coming Thursday and can get the part numbers. Anyone need a swap?
I will also be selling the mid series rear overriders shortly if anyone is interested
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is it any relation to this one for example?

HEADLIGHT JOD diam.136 mm. EXTERNAL (GLASS CARELLO) PAIR - Epoca Car


Many Thanks


Julian

 

I really should look online before I post... I might have found the answer and saved a few $$$

540 118 - headlamp unit H1 - 136 mm - Fiat - Lancia - Alfa Romeo - Ferrari

Julian

 

Julian,

Perhaps I am misreading the webpage but I do not see anywhere that these lamps are for a RH car. The Ghibli lamps are the standard 4 headlight variety. Unless you want to install the original Carellos most of your local auto parts stores should have RH lamps that will work.

Ivan

 

Thanks Ivan,

It would be nice to stick to the original if I could. It seems one of the lights at least is available RHD [ and I am still looking for the other ] but the total cost for a set of original spec Carello looks to be around $400 for a set which doesn't seem too bad


Julian

 

MIE in Washington state has a four-light set of beautiful Carello lights on their website. I'm not sure if this is specifically for LHD or not. You could call or contact them to see. Maserati Club, Maserati Parts, MIE Corp. MaseratiNet Store - CARELLO HEADLIGHT SET

Good luck with your new toy! I just got mine back from the shop after winter and some additional sorting. The car runs better that ever and is a blast to drive.

David

 

Great thread just arrived from Italy to see one project Ghibli SS for sale probably i will buy it in close time i will add some pictures.

Julius

 

Hi,

I did see the set on MIE, I suspect they will be LHD. I will see if I can source the same parts so I will need to check part numbers carefully but I have found these on Superformance UK which are for the Fiat Dino. They have a full Carello set for LHD but not the full complement for RHD

FIAT LIGHTS Superformance ferrari dino ferrari v6 ferrari v12 specialists 308 246 206 fiat dino 355 328

 

The rear mid series overriders are now on Ebay. I have them starting at $50 for the pair

Maserati Ghibli MID Series Rear Overriders | eBay

Cheers


Julian

 

Hi Again,

I have had another look at my car. It looks like it is very original but in a kind of scary way.... The sills in particular are so very original that they now have generous ventilation which I know isn't!! So a sill rebuild will be needed.
I also have another question.
The headlamps are very lazy and lift only 40mm or so . Should I be looking at the motor or is there a simpler solution?

Any suggestions gratefully received


Thanks Julian

 

Hi,

I managed to find an older post from Ivan on the Web about headlight / motor refurb so I can look at this soon.

Another question about an early Ghibli. My car has no front fender indicators at all. Am I missing a pair? The US cars have a domed round indicator which for once doesn't seem to come from Alfa [ unlike the early GT junior / GTV indicators on Euro cars ] Does anyone know what they are shared with and also would any RHD Ghibli owners be prepared to share the Carello numbers on the headlamps please? I have found one pair to be 82282367 and can source these but I'm not sure about the others.
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Fiat 124 spider?

CARELLO 14.101.717 Side Marker Light Maserati Laborghini Fiat Spider NICE | eBay

Still don't know if the car was built with nothing at all though....

Julian

 

Regarding your headlight motor, i gave up on the original headlight motor and designed a simple mechanism using a german electric motor, if your interested i can send a photo, i don't like to stray to far away from the factory design but the headlight motor is so cheesy that it will never be dependable, all those micro switch's getting wet can't be good, mine is totally sealed and i've installed it on 3-4 Ghibli's and it works well.

 

Hi Julian,

The original unit works fine when adjusted properly. The electric (Magneti Marelli) motor is powerfull enough to lift and close the pods. The micro switches and relay are normally sealed with a rubbery mastic and can stand a lot of water. Once adjusted you never have to touch them again. (Some '70-'80 Alfa Romeo window motors can be fitted one to one also for the Ghibli windows, as a hint)
However when looking at your pictures, specially the front view picture, I get the impression that your car has had some front damage which is not well repaired:
1. The gap around the grill is a-symmetric and far from what Maserati would ever deliver. Look at the left top side of the picture (right side of the grill). You can see that the upper panel is higher than the other side. This may also explain the head-light raising problem you described: When the pod's hinges and tube with lever in between are not well aligned there is more friction in the system than your electric motor can cope with. Make sure that the hinge pins, accessible from the inside of the pods, are well greased.
2. Your car is a early car with the square corners on the pods, however, the grill has the bigger openings for the position/trafficator lights of the later models. Your car is correctly fitted with the small lights.
3. also in the early sixties it was mandatory that the turning signals could be seen from the sides therefore Ghibli's were fitted from the beginning with the side lights, either round or long rectangular. I have seen cars without them but normally these were modified whilst (also) taking these (ugly) side marker lights off, these were only fitted for the US versions.

BTW, when you open the rear lid: is the rear panel straight between the rear lights or does it drop? I think straight because your hood has the ventilation openings already.

Good luck with the work!

Ciao,

Bart

 

Thanks for the suggestions Bart. I have a few images from when the car was originally for sale back in 2009 when its second owner was selling it. [ thanks Walter! ] It does have distortion around the LHS headlamp but there seems to be no physical sign of interference here. The previous owner had the grille surround repaired and refitted it as you can see by comparing the early images to the latest image at the top

Julian

PS the boot opening runs horizontal beneath the drop down bootlid.

Can you confirm that this drop down boot would mark out this body as being produced in the original batch of 100 cars built by Ghia or is this a myth?
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Hi yet again. I am still trying to understand the front side markers on an early Ghibli. It seems you either got a fiat 124 spider round one or a rectangular one from a Sprint veloce depending on what side of the Atlantic you lived in. However I am still slightly unsure that 100 per cent of cars had one. I have the brooklands reprint of the contemporary roadtests and it does look like a few of these Ghiblis had no indicators at all on their front fenders. Am I misguided or did they airbrush these out in the 60's?
Also quite a few of the earlyish cars on Enricos photographic register also do not feature any indicators. Of course they could have been removed over the last 45 years or so. I just want to return my car to its original state and am no expert

Julian

 

Here are the pictures of the front wing fender area. I know most cars did have them, but was it all of them
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In some European countries side indicators were not mandatory unless a tow-bar was fitted to a car. For which market was the car originally produced?

Best,

Jack.

 

Hi Jack,

The States as far as I know. The 3 images above are from 3 different US reviews


Julian

 

Wikipedia

"Side marker lights and reflectors
In the US, amber front and red rear side marker lamps and retroreflectors are required. The law initially required lights or retroreflectors on vehicles made after 1 January 1968. This was amended to require lights AND retroreflectors on vehicles made after 1 January 1970"

 

Hi Julian,

You beat me! Excellent research work. Welcome to the club of people who take Ghibli's serious!

Never before I heard about bodies originally being produced by Ghia, so cannot confirm or deny the myth!?! Can anyone confirm? The overriders indicate that it is not a very early car. it also has the vent openings in the hood. BTW what is your VIN?

Question remains: was your car fitted with the front fender indicators?
Suggestion: Lift the car and take a torch and look if you can see a repair on the inside of the fender. Or put your arm in from underneath in front of the inner wing shield and feel if there is a repair spot?
Look at the picture of the prototype car, the car without the doorhandles!, it does have the side lights!:

http://www.omniauto.it/foto/popup/187758/maserati-ghibli-coupe

Ciao,
Bart

 

Hi Bart,

I do agree most cars did have indicators including the first one but it is amazing how many between # 300 and 1000 on the Enrico photographic register

Registro Fotografico Maserati Storiche

don't have anything which still does not tie in perfectly if the dates of build had to be before 1 Jan 1968....since those old road tests were around 1969 and again nothing there so who knows? !! Mine is #376
I bought an article which features a rebuild story on car bought in boxes and restored and was I think # 276. I enclose part of the article which refers to the Ghia build myth [ ? ] I tend to think my own car should not have the mid series overriders but I can't really be sure unless I can dig out some old photos. The car was registered Beastly [ !! ] around the mid seventies in California....anyone got any shots? My car had been updated with the plastic air vents but the original early ones are still down low in the driver and passenger footwells which confirms the swap for me

1969 Maserati Ghibli - The Resurection - PistonHeads

I did see that this magnificent thread that you must have seen by now features another car which appears to be bare too! Hats off to this superhero, hes doing a magnificent job



Julian
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Interesting - it seems that Enrico changed his VIN-"policy" on his site. Until not long ago he photo-shopped-out all VINs on photos that he published...! Good that he changed his mind.

 

He's been showing VINs on other cars since as far back as I can remember?
I never looked at the Ghibli registry but on the Ghibli II, Ghibli Cup and Open Cup registries it's always been listed AFAIK?

 

Hi ,

Surely all the Ghibli bodies were built by Ghia? I haven't read about the build being take in house except in this sole article so please do inform me either way if you do know

Secondly Martin Buckley seems to think it was the first 200 had drop down bootlids in his book on Maserati not 100

Julian