Hello again I have been poking the Lusso and have discovered rust, its not as if I did not know it was there and I was hoping to just replace one floor outrigger and some of the floor panels but unfortunately the rot has eaten away at the rectangular box section that makes up the bottom of the sill "truss" section. My problem is its a bit of a weird section the appears to be imperial rather than metric, its 1 3/4" x 7/8" or 45 x 22mm, it would seem I can get 45 x 25mm and maybe I can use that as the height is critical whist the extra width can be lost on the outside, is that what people do or is the absolutely correct stuff available? Oh and I need to make up an outer sill as its rather mangy too, mercifully the rest of the car is not too bad.
In my limited experience it seems that, along with the seamless thin wall oval tubing used for Ferrari main frame rails, several "non-standard" rectangular tubing sizes (including 22mm x 45mm x 1.5mm) were also used in manufacturing some of the chassis, outrigger and space frame structures. I believe these were specifically engineered/made for manufacturing of these cars and should not be substituted, but then again, what do I know ? I don't know what "others" do, but awhile ago, I had some 22mm x 45mm x 1.5mm and 15mm x 60mm x 1.5mm tubing made in relatively small quantity for cars I'm working on. Talk about a headache. I'm sure there are restoration shops in Italy, UK, US and elsewhere who probably have had various "odd" sizes made in larger quantities, but... And 1 3/4" x 7/8" is not a standard size either, so don't bother looking. Also, I'd like to add caution based on my limited 35+ year experience restoring vintage vehicles that any easily visible corrosion problem on most 30+ year old cars often require at minimum 3 to 5 times more attention/repairs than one would initially think. And this minimum is on really good cars kept out harms way (dry garaged in moderate climate, etc) most of their life. Good luck, Timo
If you have found some rust there is bound to be more. I see you say that the rest of the car is not to bad. Well Lusso's are now worth the money to be invested in them, so the rest of the car should be spot on. You have one of the nicest Ferrari's there, so it is worth the time and effort to do everything perfect. However wait until after the Pebble Beach auctions, there price may change for the better or worse.
