My 250TR build

ITS ON WHEELS

A major milestone was to get the car on its wheels. Suspension arms had been made and were now fitted, along with the dampers. Whilst it was up on axel stands the freshly refurbished engine was put back in. The diff, uprights, splined hub adapters were all fitted and pedal box made up and fitted.
I had booked a suitable set of tyres to be fitted at the local tyre fitters and with the tyres on I slid the wheels onto their splined adapters and hammered on the spinners.
Axle stands out and lowered to the ground it was time to grab a cuppa and take stock of what was sitting in front of me.
I had the seats sitting in my parts room and couldn’t resist, seats offered into position I stepped over the chassis rail and slid down into position for the first time.

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ODD JOBS
The next few weeks was taken up with tying up all the odd jobs.
Brake lines, calipers, radiator, fuel system. Measurements had to be taken for propshaft and draftshafts, these would be custom items. Fuel tank had been made which fitted easily. The transmission, central tunnel area needed covers so again bucks were produced and subsequent moulds made. The panels came really well.


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308GTS ARRIVES

In the midst of building the TR normal work continued, we had a 308GTS in the workshop that needed stripping ready for a respray. I great deal was learnt whilst stripping her down. I had no idea how many items were fiberglass on even the later 308’s. The plan was to start taking moulds of these fiberglass parts and start reproducing them unfortunately time got away from us and the car was needed at the paint shop.

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A VERY BIG DAY.

Whilst the 308 was at the paint shop I took the opportunity to offer up the body and get the fixings on. With the body on I could work on the the exhaust system which exits the bodywork just behind the front wheels , runs down the sides and then tucks back in and exits the back of the car. Frameworks needed to be made for the boot, bonnet and door panels.
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Seen the ITB kit looks great. Didn’t know there was an adapter for Borg Warner T5 do you have a link for it?

 

Maserati is a great unit my brother owned the 4200. There was a few manual ones as well

 

BODYWORK CONTINUED

Other jobs whilst the body was on was to add the bonnet straps, bonnet pins. The front grill was made. Most importantly the windscreen was made, this was made using aircraft grade acrylic which has a lot higher impact resistance than normal acrylic. A buck was constructed in fiberglass and covered in felt and the acrylic sheet was heated and drape formed over the buck. Im really happy with the outcome of the screen really makes the car come alive.

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MY FIRST COMMISSION. *WALL ART*

After test fitting all the brightwork prior to the car going to paint a chance meeting and conversation about the TR project with a car enthusiast resulted in him visiting my workshop to see the TR. The result of the meeting ended in a commission being placed for a TR but with a twist. This was going to be hung on a wall in a house in the U.S. so also needed to be LHD format. So I then started work on the 2nd chassis. Meanwhile the 1st TR was back from paint.
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BACK FROM PAINT - YES ITS RED

It was great to get the TR back in the workshop. I was debating whether to have the headlight areas painted in silver whilst it was away, It appears some were painted silver others were left in body colour. The car came back with body coloured headlight areas, I fitted the headlights and immediately thought they would be better silver. Headlights back out area masked and repainted silver. Rear lights were fitted and instrument plate put back in place. It really is nice when things start to be put back on the car for the last time.

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SHINY BITS

The chrome plated parts came back from the platers very pleased with the outcome. Bonnet hooks and windscreen supports, with the supports back I could now get on and fit the screen.
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There was actually about 6 months of research prior to the build. The build itself was actually started in Dec 22 it’s taken me this long to finally get round to posting on here. It was a very good friend of mine who I often do work

 

I’m not entirely sure. From what I do know is that a digital 3D image was used to make the buck, and the moulds then came from that. The mould was made so it could produce LHD or RHD variants.

 

Image Unavailable, Please Login BACK ON ITS WHEELS

Back in its wheels. One of the big jobs to do now she’s back on her wheels was to wire in the suspension. Also needed to wire in a change over relay for the dipped and main beam lights. Rear indicators have also been subtly fitted in the rear of the car. Rear fog light has been fitted not original in any way but it’s an MOT requirement. I’ve deliberately fitted it in a way it can easily be removed at a later date. A few minor areas needed trimming but the finish line is in sight. Image Unavailable, Please Login
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Hi
Yes it will be full sized 1:1 scale in LHD. Essentially a full car minus the drivetrain obviously to save weight and potential fluid leaks. Everyone locally will know of the guy who has a 250TR hung on his wall that’s for certain.

 

HEADLIGHT HEADACHE

Headlight covers for a Ferrari 250TR are not an on the shelf item it would appear.
After searching the internet it boiled down to 3 possible ways forward.
1.) find a company who make or can make the covers
2.) find a car that has similar covers and modify them to fit
3.) research how to make them and do it myself.
I ended up going for option 2 and went out looking for covers. After a great deal of searching the closest were Alfa spider covers which looked damn close. £160 later and a lot of fettling, no dice, they were close but no close enough. Then by pure chance I saw a company on the internet who make headlight covers for the TR eureka! Email sent I would soon be on my way with a pair of headlight covers. They came back with a price of £1350.00 plus tax & shipping. And no that’s not a typo. As you can guess my response might have been a little harsh, something along the lines of I could probably get blown by Pam Anderson for that.
Anyway this left me with option 3, make my own. Before painting the TR I went about making the headlight cover shape on the body. Then made a male and female version in fiberglass which were trimmed to match the body. These would be the formers for the plexiglass covers. The idea is to heat the plexiglass in an oven at the correct temperature until floppy then drape the heated plexiglass into the female former and then gently press in the male sandwiching the plexiglass between the two until it cools and goes rigid. Then trim the edges polish, make brackets and fit to the car, simple. With the formers finished they needed to be covered in felt to prevent scratching the hot plexiglass. Here’s the finished formers. Wish me luck
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