Aloha Robert! I just went through this thread that started 2 years ago! I thought you had already repaired your diff and had it back on the road??!? I guess you have a few more things to do?? I just wanted to say thanks again for the CAD drawing of that side cover shim. Saved me a bunch of trouble. My diff is fixed and my car is back on the road and driven regularly. (except I still need a new clutch) Yours looks phenomenal Robert! I hope you get to drive it soon. Take Care Aussie! Scott
Nice Mel. For 1000 Euro you would feel like you had been bent over a chair and raped with a sharp stick. Just nuts isn't it?
G'day Scott. Yeah, the diff was the easy part mate. It's all this restoration work that takes the time, and naturally this has to fit into the other workloads, hence the time involved. Fortunately at present I can spend some time on it as work is slow, but once that picks up I may have to shelve it again for a while. Make hay whilst the sun shines as they say.
Hey Sam. You got me thinking about this caliper colour question. Just because mine are black on two car's doesn't mean they came that way. I started to do some more research on this. It's really hard to see the calipers through the original 16" wheels but I managed to find a picture of a low mileage USA car with 512 wheels fitted that clearly show a grey caliper. Image Unavailable, Please Login
And on this UK spec 1988 car you can just pick out the grey caliper on the front wheel. I can't find any images of rear calipers yet. Maybe someone here with a low mileage car can chime in with the colour of your rear calipers? Image Unavailable, Please Login
Here's a pic from another USA car which appears to have a grey / silver coloured caliiper. Maybe they were actually silver which just fades to grey with time and heat? I'm pretty sure that VHT do a grey caliper paint>need to be sure first. I hate undoing finished work, but if it's not right then it's not staying! Second pic below is clearly a front caliper from a 1990 UK spec car in really good condition here in Australia. This front caliper actually appears to be silver zinc in that picture. The plot thickens! Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Rob, I believe that the standard Testa finish on all callipers was a light yellow (cad) zinc coating. It does not last very long and thats why most get refinished in whatever colour the owner wants!
My 89 UK car has 34k and front are def grey/ silver I will check the rears and report back Great thread Robert Tr boy Ps have driving withdrawal symptoms here In the uk as the weather is awful and has been for 2 months - lots of salt on the roads so she stays in the garage
This. Here is some photo support. 1st photo is during assembly, 2nd is post-road certification but before delivery, 3rd is a brochure photo. Based on this, and several other cars I have viewed I believe all Testarossa calipers were gold (yellow) cad or zinc. Additionally, over the plating there was a gray (likely primer) paint sloppily brushed over the ends of the pad retainer pins and bolts, appears to match the light gray color of all the chassis ground points. You can see it in several photos. I believe this was an additional anti-corrosion treatment. The 4th photo is a recent photo of a 177 mile original car, you can see the gold but also where the finish is starting to turn gray/silver. The last photo is my car. I removed much of the gray paint with lacquer thinner as I cleaned the calipers, so what you actually see on mine is the well-preserved gold zinc finish that was under the gray paint--but it also shows the "pattern" the gray was applied. You can also see some of the gray paint on the ends of the pins. The rest of the caliper is badly faded gold zinc but you can see some of the tell-tale rainbow hue. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Regarding the Testarossa caliper finish on a 1989 car that I refurbished....when I removed them from the car they were a chalky gray" color from all the crap that they are exposed to over the years. I washed / soaked them in WD40 eventually I saw that they were indeed yellow cad/zinc plated just as TESTAMON and TIM have stated.
Thats is dead right.....yellow cad/zinc plating or whatever the safe alternative is these days. Go look at a Honda at your local dealership, they just like those but BIGGER P
Go look at a Honda at your local dealership, they just like those but BIGGER. But are they 4 piston? Ago
I'll update this thread with some pictures tonight. I tore down the rear calipers and naturally then had to do the fronts. And then the hubs and all associated hardware. Then the front stabiliser bar looked a bit shabby compared to everything else, so it had to come out. Then there was the rack left. And the chrome finish on the main tube looked ordinary to say the least. So out it all came, and now I'm back to a mess again whilst I clean up and get everything in the front end back to better than new. Pics to follow.
Hi guys. it's been a while since an update so here goes again! Given the debate above regarding brake caliper colour, I had little or no choice but to pull all the calipers off the car, strip them down and have them coated correctly in the light gold cad coat which I actually found perfectly preserved on the mating surface of one of the caliper spacer blocks. This confirmed to me 100% that the original calipers were in fact a light gold plating. Naturally this involved opening a can of worms yet again and I ended up removing every component int he front suspension and steering back to a bare chassis.
Previous pictures on Page 17 of this thread show the condition of the removed front hubs, and although they were pretty dirty on the outside, the working components, bearings and grease were like new when they were opened up. I did; however; need to replace some brake caliper pistons as a few had slight pitting at the top where the hard chrome surface had deteriorated. So calipers were fully rebuilt with all new seals, wipers, some pistons and bleed nipples. Here's a few images as I've gone along over the Ozzie winter. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
The rack also was a bit scruffy as the road grime over the years had chipped the central tube and left it pitted with rust. I'm sure to have a pic somewhere but needless to say, it needed work. So I didn't want to strip the rack as it was operating perfectly and was well lubricated, so I prepped and cleaned it, painted it up and got it ready to put back again. Unfortunately work beckoned and it sat on the bench for a month or two before getting back into place again. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
The upper and lower control arms were stripped back to metal and re powdercoated as per original. The ball joints were refurbished, new boots fitted and the original spring clip retainers were painted in the factory original colours before being refitted. The subframe of the car was cleaned up and the area where the rack sits was painted. It should be noted that this area is not treated at all from factory apart from a blow over with some wax spray and seam sealer. It's actually quite ugly and very difficult to maintain once the rack is back in place. I chose to extend my underbody protection spray to include a proper coating in this area. If you ever get to remove a Testarossa rack you will understand why you never, ever want to go back there again. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Another 400 odd pieces went out for coating, that's over 2500 now! Included in this batch were all the components required to refurbish the front hubs and brakes. Once these arrived back, it was down to business. Re-assemble the hubs, fit the bearings and mount the hubs. Then onto the brakes! Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
