330GT 2+2 Series I Parts WANTED

Hi Cory,

You are my new best friend! A picture speaks a 1000 words.

That's great, the grille is identical to mine. Whats with the gauze at the end? I haven't got that on the mangled bits I have. Is it on both ends? I presume its made of brass?
Did you re-rivet it all together, I find it hard to understand the rivets holding the stainless bezel fit from outside - in so that when the grille is in the car the bottom of the rivet is seen and not the head? Is this right? Mind you it's easier to get the rivet gun in this way around.

Thanks again Cory. Much appreciated. What's your plan on restoring the finish on the vane section?

 

Very, very nice Cory,

I have just done a third night in the back garden with paint stripper and a small brass bristle wire brush cleaning off all the paint and crud. It's holding the vanes together and I need to get it all off before I can finally dismantle it completely.
Yes I see the vanes are crudely pinched with side cutters/snips to close the slots and hold it all together. It's going to take some care to get it all apart. I plan on trying to keep as much as I can but unfortunately there is a lot of white powder from galvanic action where metal used to be, so some parts will need remaking.
I love the polish look, but here in UK with the damp and salt used on our roads it wouldn't last 5 minutes, hence the damage on it already and the previous numerous paint jobs.
I'm still not decided as re-anodising would be good, but not last as long as possibly satin silver powdercoat, but that would make the slots close up and I'd never get it back together.
The one thing I have is plenty of time to mull it over while I spend time cleaning it up.

Your restoration looks superb by the way.

 

Thanks Mike,

My car has wind down windows and I still need the handles and mechanisms.

Things are moving slowly, took the grille parts to my local anodisers today and they said that there was nothing they could do with them. I'd like to keep the original grille, but the corossion is so bad now, it looks like powder coating is the only way to save it. Its a choice between making a new one and loosing the originality of having the real thing, or powder coating satin silver to save what I have.

 

Hi Mike,

My 330 centre console has the blank plate over the speaker and radio mount positions with the Crosed Flag emblem (emblem missing but imprint in leather is clear) so it never had a radio fitted, so I'm keeping it that way.

I also have a 365 plexiglass Daytona, I have the "original" radio in the centre console (running sideways) and a modern radio/cd hidden in the glove box and amp in the boot. You can always put the guts of a modern radio in side a broken old becker. I have also seen them fitted under the ashtray. This means modifying the ashtray so its just a cover flap.

 

Thanks Cory,

I'm sure the crank must fit other old cars like Fiat, Lancia, Alfa etc. If I can cross reference it then I'm sure I can get a set at the fraction of the price!

 

Thanks Pete,

If only I'd known a year ago. I've already made a new chassis from old parts and some new metal tubes.

 

I got a few parts back from the chrome platers this week, so I started with completing the door handles. The hinge pin in mild steel had also badly rusted, so I got a length of 4mm Stainless bar from ebay and made two new pins on my lathe. I replicated the tapered ends and grove for the snap rings. (Picture 1)
The original pins have a mild steel snap ring that holds the whole assembly together. These were difficult to source until I had an idea to use Fishermans snap rings, the bonus was that they were not only available in 4mm and only a couple of pennies each they were Stainless too, so the whole thing wont rust or seize up or break the paddles again. (Picture 2)
The next stage was to prepare the Mazak handles for re-chroming. Over the years I have tried many ideas and platers to get a good job with Mazak, it’s horrible stuff to re-work. In the end I find that the Mazak is best to be electro stripped which is the reverse of the chroming process then good old fashioned hard work filing, sanding and 1200 grit wet & dry papering to remove pitting. Any deep pits are best filled by copper plating the item several times with sanding down and polishing each time in between. This eventually fills the pits and you can level the surface by sanding and polishing.
The handles were then handed over to be chrome plated. As I couldn’t afford to have all the bits I need plated in one go, I have an agreement with the platers to put odd items in with other work they are doing.
Again I had to do all the fettling afterwards and always re-tap out any threads and re-drill the hinge pin holes after chroming otherwise things simply won’t fit properly. (Picture 3)

I’m very pleased with the final result as the handles are now functional, flawless and ready to go onto the car one day.
(Pictures 4 & 5)












I am still on the look out for the bezels that fit around the interior door handles (large chrome plate sheet steel pressings) and the quarterlight catches and window crank levers...can anyone help?

 

Thanks Vincent,

Private message sent with pictures.

Kind regards
Darren

 

I thought you might like to see an alternative method of restoring Borrani wheels.

I am on a very tight budget and since my car came without wheels I’m on a mission to find some, as wooden planks and heavy duty casters can only do for so long!

With a budget of £200 to spend on one wheel every 3 months (I gotta save up for each and every one of them!) I managed to find a nasty silver painted Borrani 3801.

I took it down to my local Tyre dealer and we spun it up with my dial clock gauge and sure enough it ran out of true. I’ve been here before so knew what to do. With a little tweaking and a just a couple of new spokes we got it running within 1.5mm.
Next it was paint stripped (previous owner had rattle caned it silver badly) to reveal some nasty pitting and corrosion.
This was Tig spot welded up and filed and sanded smooth.
Following many hours of sanding it was obvious the wheel was beyond polishing.
I have had this before on other wheels I’ve bought for little money or recovered from the scrap bin, so I knew exactly which way to go with this wheel.
Since I had sorted the run out, spokes and pitting the wheel was fundamentally sound, but looked awful.
This was an ideal candidate for powder coating. It was never going to be concours so I opted for a neat process I’ve used before.

Now I know some of you will dismiss this thread straight away, but bear with me on this. The wheel was ready for scrap when I got it, and I have invested about £50 in restoring it, and take a look at the pictures below and honestly tell me it wasn’t worth £50!

This IS NOT POLISHED ALLOY it is a very clever powder coating that mimics polished alloy or chrome.
It does not need any polishing or hard work to clean and maintain, it’s a painted finish that is as hard as nails and you just wash it off with soapy water when its dirty. The powder coating encapsulates the wheel and stops any further corrosion.

So all I need now is another 3 Borrani 3801’s.

I am appealing to anyone out there that may have a single wheel or a set of wheels in similar condition to how I bought this one.

Please, Please let me know if you have one or more.

Borrani as bought Front



Borrani as bought Rear



Coated Borrani Front



Coated Borrani Rear

 

Today after picking up my Borrani wheel in the post above, I started to put back together my 330 GT 2+2 Dash Heater Levers.
Again these were parts missing from my car that I have had to find. I was lucky enough to get an email from a guy who saw my wanted ad on Ferrari chat, that had a job lot of parts left over from a 250GTO recreation build from a 330.
I didn’t have enough cash to buy all the things I wanted but did get the Heater Control Dash Levers.
Here’s a picture the seller emailed me of them (bottom left)

Levers as a job lot of parts



I’m not sure if you can zoom in on the picture above, but they were very, very badly pitted and the lever arms were very rusty with chrome flaking off. Generally quite nasty little things.
I stripped them down and as I did with my door handles spent hours fettling the Mazak (Monkey or Pot metal) surrounds to get them ready for chrome plating. The handles too were stripped and polished along with the pins, springs and washers.

Lever parts dismantled



The plastic ends to the levers were problematic. The plastic over the years (They’re almost 50 years old) suffers UV damage and the surface “peels” and flakes

Lever end damage



I discovered however that the plastic is quite workable. I then held my breath and took a file to it. Once you get through the crumbly and flaky surface layer you can wet and dry it with finer grades up to 1200 then using T-cut polish the plastic to a very very high gloss finish. I went over all 4 and they came up better than new. The plastic ends are cast onto the levers so with care I got my friendly chrome plater to re-chrome them with the ends on. A tiny bit of fettling where chrome meets plastic was needed but the result was fantastic

Lever end Polished out



Once every bit was cleaned up they were ready for re-assembly.



I am going into my local sign shop tomorrow to get some new little coloured vinyl dots made up. (The originals are just vinyl stickers that I peeled off before cleaning the parts up you can see them in the sticky tape above)

That should finish them off beautifully.

 

Could someone kindly explain why my thread has been moved to this section of the forum?
It is the story of my personal journey against all odds to restore 6727 with a genuine request for help in locating missing parts.
I do not understand where it fits the criteria below:
Quote …Please use this subforum to start threads dealing with:

- Past, current, and future prices and/or values of vintage Ferrari automobiles
- Vintage Ferraris currently offered for sale on the market
- Upcoming auctions and past auction results
- Market trends
- Requests for advice on purchasing a vintage Ferrari
- Anything else related to the vintage Ferrari market


Surely a section dedicated to personal restorations would be more appropriate, or simply leaving it where it was?