330GT 2+2 Series I Parts WANTED

Thanks Martin, Its like a million piece jigsaw with no picture on the box and most of the pieces missing!
Simon I was very grumpy yesterday after a well known trader declining to sell me parts for my car, and another telling me to "give up" and sell on the parts I have. So apologies If I came across a bit strong.

Today I got up early and spent the day cleaning up the second of the two rear bumper irons to remove all the rust and pitting. After lunch I gave them a coat of etch primer and used the heat of my oven (after cooking lunch) to bake the paint.



After a couple of hours in the oven while I worked on some other parts, the primer was flatted and the silver final finish applied.

 

While my irons were in the oven I was working on the interior door handles.

At the end of last week I unwrapped the interior door levers that I’d got back from the chrome platers. They looked superb so I started to re assemble.
Here’s how they looked as bought. The chrome was completely shot and pitted badly they were very rough to the touch and quite nasty. The frames, pivots and springs were badly rusted too.





I started last week to clean up the metal frames and after about 4 hours on each they were ready to paint up. After Etch prime and flatting the satin black was re painted and the threaded holes re-tapped.



The springs and pivot tubes were sanded and filed free of rust and repainted zinc silver coat. The small M4 nuts and bolts were very rusty so these were replaced with stainless steel.
Ready for assembly



The finished Interior Door Handles look superb and tactile without ripping the skin off your fingers on the old razor sharp chrome blisters!

 

Thanks for the kind words Mark. The more times traders tell me to give up, or refuse me parts, the more determined I become to restore my car!





I spent the whole day today working on the Bonnet (hood) hinges. If you left click on the first picture above you can use the zoom feature to take a good look at how rusty they were.
After several hours preparation the hinges were painted in satin black. They came up far better than I was expecting. The rust was terrible on them and they were seized solid, but a little perseverance and I managed to free them off.

Here’s the final result.





What I didn’t realise until I started work on them, was that they pivot on Brass Washers. These were cleaned up and great care taken when painting to ensure they didn’t get clogged up with paint. The brass would have originally be chosen to provide a bearing surface that (like bronze) gives a “self lubrication” and nice glide movement to the hinges.
This has now been restored and they really hinge beautifully. Here’s a close up on the brass washers.



I wonder how many restoration shops know these are even here or overlook them and fill the bearing washers up with paint!

 

Thanks for the kind words Chris. I trust you spotted a few of the parts I had from you in their renewed condition!

Yesterday after work I started to look at the front grille again. The one I have is in very bad shape and has been painted several times silver and once black.





I spent a few days early this year paint stripping and carefully dismantling it.



After much sanding and cleaning it became apparent that the grille was really too far gone. Once apart you could see very deep corrosion in vane slots where one piece slotted into another. This is most probably due to capillary action where water is held in the tiny slot. With time this just eats away at the metal and on my grille it was almost all the way through and on the verge of basically falling apart.



Along with the slot corrosion there was some serious pitting.


This was all hidden under the paint but I suspected it wouldn’t be good news once it was stripped.
I took a few parts to a local anodiser, and even anodising would not hide the corrosion so unfortunately it’s no good. This is obviously an expense I can do without.
After much thought I have decided to make a complete new grille.
Now it would be quite easy to just cut one out with a hacksaw and file it to shape, but I had a better idea. If I get one Laser cut I could make several at once and use them to trade for parts I’m missing maybe?
So after a visit to a local laser cutting business I walked away very disappointed. They wanted an absolute fortune to “write” the program that plots the shapes. The laser cutting takes seconds but they wanted almost a months pay to write the program alone.
After much thought I contacted them again and asked how the plotting program for the laser is done. It is basically X & Y co-ordinates to put into a CAD drawing.
Providing the parts are measured accurately this is just monkey see monkey do repetition to input into a CAD file. Anyone could do it!
So I have decided to “plot” the 330 grille myself.
In this way I can hand over the data which should just mean I pay for just the sheet aluminium and a couple of minutes use of their laser cutter. Based upon a 2.4m x 1.2m Aluminium sheet I reckon I can make multiple grilles for about £15 each.
I also got a price from the Anodising company to silver anodise them upon completion, so all in all I plan to go into production.

So yesterday I started to draw up the plot and get all the dimensions required for the laser cutter. I used my school technical drawing skills to “develop” the curved section of the grill surround into a 2D drawing for rolling once cut. I could have simply flattened what parts I had, but to make the grille properly I need it in its curved form to bend the new parts accurately.
First I needed a sheet of paper large enough, so a neat trick is to call into your local DIY (hardware) store and go to the wallpaper section. They allow you to tear off “samples” of wall paper free of charge. I got a couple of metres (best to use non embossed and not pre-pasted). Next I needed somewhere to lay it out to draw up. Since I only have a tiny table at home the only place I could find was my kitchen floor. The Vinyl floor is ideal to lay paper on and draw! Albeit my kitchen is only 7’6” x 8’ with a free floor space 5’ x 4’6”. But there’s just enough space to do it, even if it is murder on your knees!
So after 3 hours last night and 4 hours tonight I have got about 1/3 of the way through plotting the parts.

 

Today I took the door frame trims I’d bought earlier this year out of storage.
The stainless steel trims were very badly bent. They looked like they’d been taken off a car by Uri Geller!



They should be flat. So to get them back into shape I needed to make a former. So after measuring the “C” section of the trims the internal size averaged out at 16.8mm. Next I cut off some 5mm plate steel and filed it down to 16.8mm wide.



Then I very very carefully beat and bent all the trims back into shape.





It took most of the day to get them back straight without kinks or deformation, but with a little patience they straightened up well.



I had discovered a lot of dents and scratches in the trims, so now that they were straight I set about getting the first one of many out before I ran out of daylight.



First I got a piece of oak. I’m the guy you see at the local recycling dump taking stuff away while everyone else is throwing it out. It’s amazing what good solid oak furniture people throw out in favour of cheap MDF or Chipboard Scandinavian flat pack rubbish. Well, I used a piece of oak from a smashed bookcase to make a former to hammer out the dents against.



After a small amount of hammering and dressing with a planishing hammer against the oak former, 90% of the first dent was removed. Next with a very fine Swiss file I draw filed the surface to remove the last of any imperfections.



Next with wet & dry from 240 to 400, to 800 and finally 1200 and polish the dent is completely gone and the trim is like new.



So for the next couple of weeks every evening I plan on going over all the door frame trims, mm by mm, removing all scratches and dents.

In the meantime has anyone got any quarter light catches/levers for a 330?

 

I went to get the aluminium sheet yesterday to make the new grille from. The metal stockist had quoted me £78, so I have taken the last 3 weeks to save up for it. Much to my dismay when I went to pay for it they said “plus VAT” that’s another £16! So I had a wasted journey and will need to wait now until the end of next week to buy it. Why oh why don’t companies give you the full price when you ask, it does annoy me, what’s the problem? We all have to pay the VAT, so why make things sound cheaper than they are it’s just deception and wastes peoples time!

Rant over.

Any way, despite the small setback I have spend every evening last week and most of this weekend working on the mangled door trims. After about 30 patient hours getting out the dents, bends and hundreds of scratches they have come up really well.

The Finished Door Frame Trims

 

Yes Simon, I could understand if I were in business, but I turned up in my £200 Volvo special from ebay with 1 rear door painted another colour from a scrap car with a roof rack I'd made from reclaimed timber, just to hold the sheet of aluminium. I doubt anyone would expect me to be in business or VAT registered, so it was a shock when they wanted more money than they had quoted me.

The weather here in UK has taken a turn for the worst, and in the last week we’ve seen our first frosts and ice in the mornings. This slows my progress and forces me into the house from my shed in the evenings. In an attempt to save what money I have spare, each winter I have to limit heating my home, particularly as the fuel bills have gone up so much this year. It’s a damn miserable existence particularly when the temperature in my house is now below 5 Deg C when I get home from work. Someone said that there’s no such thing as the wrong weather, just the wrong clothes. This is fine to a point but when I can’t even stir a tin of paint in my living room it really does annoy me. So I have to warm water on my stove in a pan and sit the paint tins in it for a while to continue working.



To make matters worse we had storms last week and the wind and rain rattled through my attic and a section of my already fragile ceilings came crashing down. I had to make a temporary repair, but it’s a little draughty through the gaps!



Anyway it all goes to make me more determined.

To cheer my self up I got the dash vents back from the chrome platers. After all my hard work and more polishing before plating the Mazak came up flawless again.

Before:



After:



So with paint warmed up and a small table lamp with a piece of mesh over the bulb to rest and warm up the vents, I set about detailing the vanes by re-painting the lost black areas.



During dismantling I found that there was a very thin foam used in the vents between the moving parts, presumably to stop them rattling. I thought long and hard about where I could get some from, until last week I opened up my tap and die set and saw a foam insert in the lid of the box. This was ideal at 2.5mm thick, so I carefully cut two 10mm wide strips off it. Next I needed ideally some spray impact glue, so I called in at my local carpet shop and asked if the fitters had any left over tins. Luckily they had just emptied their van into the skip at the rear of the store, so they said I could have a look in there. I found two tins almost full, the nozzles had blocked with dry glue, so they just threw them away. After a quick soak in cellulose thinners and a prod with a pin, they were clear. Result! Two tins of spray glue for free. So after sitting the tins in some warm water to bring the temperature up to around 20 Deg C, I sprayed the rear of the foam and some glue into a cap to carefully apply with a small brush to the vents, then fitted the new foam inserts.

Foam insert



Tomorrow when the glue is dry and the solvents released I plan on cleaning up the retaining spring clips and assembling the vents.

 

With the weather warming up a little this week, I finally managed to clean up the vent knurled locking rings and spring clips.



Then assemble them prior to bubble wrap for the final big assembly when the shell is finished.

 

Here are a few photographs showing the task ahead and progress so far in repairing my 330 GT bodyshell.

6727 was cut apart to be used as a donor for a 330LM replica. By sheer chance I was talking with Callum Hewitt (DJ Chris Evan’s new Son-in Law) when Callum admitted to being the person responsible for cutting up 6727 to obtain the chassis!

The shell had been moved several times before I purchased it and had been lifted unsupported. With no chassis/backbone, stress cracks at the base of the windscreen pillars had appeared and left unsupported on a wooden pallet it had twisted and drooped.

The first thing to do was brace the shell so that it could be manipulated back into line. This was done with angle iron and box section steel. Hours and hours of measuring and jacking into place. Ironically I reckon it’s now more square and level than in was when it left the factory!
The floor had been burnt out of the car with a gas torch and what remained showed signs of massive corrosion. Although a previous owner had replaced the sills, wing and quarter bottoms at some time in the past, they hadn’t been done particularly well and simply covered over rusty steel.
With the shell supported the remaining rotten floor was cut out and the inner sills removed. The outer sill steel was good but unfortunately the chassis had been hacked out taking along the rear jacking point and centre tunnel. A square cut had been made approximately 8” long around the rear jacking point. The whole area was now missing.
If you look carefully below at the photo of me loading 6727 onto the trailer you can just see the square cut holes around the missing rear jacking point.



So the only thing to do was remove the whole inner sills and centre steel sections inside, leaving just the good outer sill. New steel parts were folded and welded into place. After carefully measuring a 330 I saw in a carpark (for jack point position) I turned down some heavy steel tube on my lathe to make two new jacking points. Holes were cut in the new inner and centre steel of the sills and the tubes passed through into place and welded in. Next a new square plate outer section was rolled to fill the cut-out and welded in place on both sides.

Left rear jacking point repair



Right rear jacking point repair



With new steel in the sills, strength was returned to the shell.
Braces still in place I then looked to replace the chassis tubes so that I could begin to fabricate new outriggers and eventually put in the layered floor, back to original specification.
Here is a picture of the Boot floor with rear chassis rails removed (picture as shell purchased from seller’s advertisement)
If you look carefully (you can left click on image then zoom) you’ll see the two gaping holes where the chassis tubes ran and a butchered boot floor!



Using photographs I found online I set the two new chassis tubes in position and fabricated the rear of the new chassis. Once in place new steel plates were folded and formed to make the boot floor and close up the openings. The old cut floor was cut-back to the existing panel seams on the rear quarters and tyre well floor so that the new metal closed off the opening without showing any signs of repair.

Boot Repair Left hand side



Boot Repair Right hand side



There are still lots to do and this is only part of the pictorial record, I am keeping, and hoping to post on the forum as and when I get chance.

Here are a few daunting pictures of the scale of the work required.

Engine bay



Front passenger footwell LH



Drivers Footwell RH



Drivers side rear floor RH



Passenger side rear floor LH



You can see in the above pictures the newly made inner sills and angle flange that I plan on using to weld in the new floor.
If anyone has any photos of a 330GT 2+2 steel floor laid bare, I’d appreciate it as a reference to use to manufacture my new floor.

Thanks.

 

Thanks Simon,

Seasons greetings to all. Yes it's been very cold, very, very wet & windy here, so progress is painfully slow. It's been so cold in the evenings when I get home from work that I've not got much done and only the last few weekends from 1pm until 3pm when the air is at its warmest have I managed to get out and work on the shell. Just plodding on with the engine bay inner arches and re-manufacturing the front chassis.

 

Thanks Graham, I'm not certain what they will do with the 330LM replica that is being built on the remains of my cars chassis, and to be fair I don't want to know. Yes I'm curious to see the end result, but have no desire to pry into the legalities. I just hope they do the same when I come to register my car. Whatever happens I would like to think that both vehicles can be registered by some means or another.

I'm still in search of some good photographs of a 330 floorpan with carpets removed, so that I can replicate it correctly. I have the first 4" along each side of the car, (so have the levels and one side of the seat runners, so all reference points are there to start from) but thereafter its completely missing!
Can anyone help with some photo's please?

 

Hi Graham,

The photo's would be much appreciated. Particularly the footwells, front & rear, left & right.
With regards to running gear, I have managed to get hold of complete 330 braking system, discs, calipers, handbrake etc, suspension arms, and rear axle. The jury is out on the engine, but with a very limited budget I was thinking possibly a 400i as a stop-gap get the car on the road, then look for an earlier V12. Do you have any parts?
Regards
Darren

 

Thanks Pete,
Unfortunately I have no space at home for another car to break and cannot afford to rent a garage. The 330 shell sat under my car cover on my driveway while the weather was fair; last month the winter drew in so I was forced to look at alternative storage methods to allow me to continue working the car. Needing to weld, I couldn’t use a nylon gazebo type enclosure, and securing it down to the block paved floor presents its own problems. With very little funds I purchased 10 x damaged 6’ x 6’ fence panels and some mini plastic roof sheets and built a 18’ x 11’ garage for less than £200! It’s only TEMPORARY as it’s tight to the house and blocked all light into my windows. I can just about squeeze past it to get through my front door and the local planning enforcement officer and neighbours are already up in arms. However I was careful to build it in such a way that it meets the regulations/criteria of a temporary structure, so as long as I take it down in 12 months I should get away with it. So buying a 400i to strip out a chassis on my budget of only £30 week plus the lack of space and issues with neighbours and the local council make it a non-starter. Also the work involved in removing a 400i chassis that could be rusty is far more time consuming than making a new chassis in new metal for my car. The shell had enough remains of the old chassis to use as reference points, namely the out riggers, suspension tops, bump stops, front chassis forwards of cross member and so on to make it “easy” to fill in the missing pieces. So with regards to legalities it’s a tough question. You could argue that what I’ve done is no different to cutting out and replacing sections of a rusty chassis during a restoration, particularly as a percentage of the original still remains in place. Identity is the issue, not the physical form. Putting in a 400i chassis although simple in regards to registering the car (if you don’t say too much) is not the answer. Besides the log book (title) would always say 400i and not have the same Road Tax exceptions, and draw attention to the car at MOT time or whenever a Police check was done. I don’t have all the answers, but I propose to offer a completed 330 Ferrari to DVLA for inspection & registration and hope to simply get an age related registration & identity based on the physical form and evidence presented.