I Kissed Damian Forbes "Ferrari-Tech"

Ok It is now out in the open ! (Please note it was on his cheek and he had one arm in a sling from recent surgery)
Damien's Fusion MotorSports 20835 Nordhoff in Chatsworth takes care of my Ferrari as needed. Many of you are familiar with my !968 365 GT 2+2 Blue Sero/Tan that I bring frequently to Supercar Sunday and various FCA events including the recent Concorso Italiano. We were fortunate to take third in Vintage Class there in a car we drove up there, drove all around Monterey that weekend etc. etc. The fact that Jason "Love2Detail"on F-C detailed her had something to do with it as well
In a 42 year old Ferrari occassionly things go wrong; I went to turn down the A/C while outside Paso Robles and it quit. thus pleasing my wife who made the ride up with me. We then reverted to the old days turned the vent windows to catch the wind, popped open the back ones, used the electric window switches to put the side windows down and drove much, much faster (bending the side mirror)until we got stuck in the traffic, outside the turnoff for the Monterey Peninsula, kept going without overheating into Carmel. Long,story,short; Damien came over at CI with some tools but thought it was easy once we were back in LA to fix.
Old Blue was very overloaded when I purchased gas at the same Shell station in Carmel 6th and San Carlos that I have traditionally used for over 40 years it was full of Ferraris, Classics and such and was having a few pumps repaired that Monday after Pebble. Instead of making a u turn in the station to go out the safe flat driveway. I after a zillion kilometers at the wheel of Ferraris and other sports cars took the easy way & high centered her older rusty exhaust pipes but made it into the motel to pick up my wife stopped at a jewelry store, picked up a picnic lunch and drove home effortlessly but a little noisier down Highway 1 without further mishap.
She went back to Fushion for a few minor things and Lucas Brosilow, Damian's Ace right hand man easily fixed the A/C but in doing so may have loosened a wire between the ignition and the starter so the next night when I started her with difficulty when I wanted to test how much brighter her headlights were after we had just rewound the alternator I did a second thing I never do, but did park on Ventura Blvd in Front of Menchies Yogurt with no one parked in front of me to get my wife some of her favorite Yogurt. Of course the Ferrari did not start after stopping for a minute (!) so after doing everything I could I called Damian on his cell and 30 minutes later at 9:45 pm His big Black Pickup pulled up with his Wife, Daughter and Visiting Mother from England who was of couse once married to a mechanic and was familiar with the experience. They Loved the Yorgurt it was about 95 out that night & I had a shiny old Ferrari in front of a crowd answered more questions then a Monterey auctioneer and after a half hour of trying with a quick start etc .Damian and a few carefully trained volenteers pushing, started her up hill she fired and I drove her home a few blocks to my garage.
I parked Old Blue in the garage which the following week broke trapping her inside After shopping for a new quality steel one (naturally my garage is not a normal size) Damien came out with Jeff Littman of Century Tow 818 974-4455 in his secret weapon trailer in which an FXX or Fernando Alonzo's latest F1 car or an Old GTO would be confortable in. We pushed her out Jeff safely took her to Fushion, I got the door replaced after a few weeks.
I also ordered a set of Mufflers from a disreputable SOB Patrick Sellers of Ferrparts inc.
WARNING :NO ONE SHOULD EVER DEAL WITH HIM OR HIS COMPANY 916 308-2260 who in my Opinion made me a "deal" on them, promised them in a few days delayed us for weeks, didn't deliver on it charged my credit card screwed me around when I wanted a refund required visa to get involved etc.
While the Ferrari was up on the rack pulling the old exhaust system off, We discovered it had a big previously unknown crack in its left rear wheel that had been hidden by paint a tiny bit of which peeled off then we peeled off a little more etc. many calls followed including one to Tom "Shaughnessy" who sold me my car a few years ago and no matter what you think of dealing with him, is really a great guy when you need him, He was kind enough to furnish me..... a set of New Ansa mufflers no one else had and throw in on an exchange basis two very toasted old 10 hole Campys ( + a ride in his T d' F at a future date) one or both of which could possibly be usable after exten$ive restoration or as interesting glass coffee table bases. To Top it all off he personally drove them up to my store with his son who is now as tall and will be soon taller then Tom.
When Damien and Lucas took off the old mufflers the always rattleing heat shields were exposed and shot as was the starter, which since we were under there already, was cheap to rebuild as was the undercoating which needed scraping to remove and Lukas to reapply, when the heatshields were not easily available Damien found a sheet of aluminum from which Lukas without even throwing one wrench beautifully fabricated four new ones that are a concours perfect match to the originals for less then the price of a fancy Italian dinner with a good bottle of wine in a high end restaurant. The previous owners had raced her so some racing parts were used between the headers and the mufflers they looked good but proved to be a nightmare requireing many text message between me and the previous owner Bill Bowdish, some to and from airports as he is a pilot for an unnamed airline, I just emailed John O' Boyle who brought her over from Italy years ago and ran her up and down the Virginia City Hilclimb and a few other tracks, blew her up and rebuilt her the first time, also repainted her the Beautiful Blue Sero she is today even Frank Z who did the work and is restoring another knows she was never Grey as Marcel Massinni insists. The factory has made a lot of mistake in it's paperwork for years and will probably continue to do so in the future.
I found a perfect wheel else where from a nice man who will sell it to me at a reasonabable price once he remembers who left it in his shop 4-5 years ago and has his business card someplace, he will also repair, check and refinish the other 4 wheels for me at some time in the future. ( Hint to Ed Niles, and all my FCA and FOC and SuperCar Sunday, Chrystal Cove and Calabasas friends etc. who was the owner of several Pebble Beach quality cars and switched his 365 GT 2+2 Campy 10 hole wheels for Wires around that time ? Small Reward offered for correct answer ! )
We then needed to put the leather covered cardboard door panels back on the car since they had been taken off too many times over 42 years to fix the Electric windows. The clips both male on the panels and female on the doors are naturally a differently a different size then what is easily available today and Damien needs a new upholstery shop for 42 year old cars as oppossed to new to 30 year old cars. A world wide search commenced to all the usual suspects since I cannot take my car back to my friend Fernando unless I use a Flatbed to get it up his damm Driveway or a helicopter to lower it in place there carefully.
ps many thanks to "Prance" Morris Halperin, Norbert Hofer, Larry O' Rourke, Bruce Meyer Dustin , Eric Bernardi, RIch Rosenfeld,Bob Salvaria Mark Process,Tony S, Eric Sander "FerrariFXR" the other Marc, whose Queen I am trying to help him sell et al who have had to listen to parts of this story.
I missed Motor4Toys, My store manager who was pregnant had her Baby and came back to work, so I could get a day off after about 2 months. My wife did not divorce me, and fixed my iphone after it crashed and Apple, Time Warner Cable and At&T couldn't even do so, though they got together to try and figure out why a simple Apple software update could cause so many problems. I weighed 278 in Monterey got serious about my diet after someone posted a very accurate fat photo of me, went on my diet very end of September & Now weigh 237 a loss of 41 lbs in 11 weeks so far with at least 20 more to go. HOW ? go to www.athomeinthevalley.com and look for The Steinhardt Diet on the left side of the page.
End of story someone sent Fushion a box of clips that fit, the door panels went on the spare went on the left rear even if the paint dosen't match. Damien called me, my new assistant Jonathan drove me to see her shining and ready.

I paid Damien a small but fair amount and I was so excited I actually Kissed him on his right cheek ( Not his ass..)!

I drove her for 2 hours put her in the garage which opens when the Wind Blows and closes mysteriously Enzo's Ghost ? detailed her with microfibers and Quick Detailer as best I could, only called Larry once,
Drove her out to SuperCar Sunday without a rattle, sounding great with the new Mufflers feeling tighter then any 42 year old should. the tach races to the redline thanks to Lukas
and I am VERY VERY Happy.

Merry Christmas, Season's Greetings

HO HO HO, HO HO HO,HO HO HO, HO HO VROOOOM !

Steve Steinhardt aka srslusso

 

To Buxton: So did Hemingway, but this was an outpouring from my head and heart !
To SRobertMaser
At one time he did and they put up a banner ad in exchange for such, Now you have to ask Damian, I think I know the answer but cannot speak for him.

ps. to all; I think SRobertMaser belongs only on Maserati-Chat.com where he can post to himself.
!
Jon is a great "Enzo" quality moderator, IF I may say so Myself !!!