'The Ratarossa': The Testarossa Spider Rebuild Project

Elbow grease:

While I'm waiting on the springs I decided to start the clean up on the suspension components...... Actually thats a total lie, I'm doing it because its an inside job, under a warm hot tap and not in the frickin cold garage outside where its minus 3

Anyway started to scrub everything up and remove all the old muck, its always nice to see the difference a bit of elbow grease can make to all these old parts.


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No problem mate. Loving your resto on 26805 ....great work

 

Finished grinding back the excess weld on the column housing, test fitted the lock barrel and everything is nice and snug. Need to source a couple of new bolts and circlips to refit it all together.

Forward thinking on these things is essential, stupidly I didn't plan the entire welding repair. The steering shaft that fits inside the column is tampered with a must larger diameter in the centre, one of the main reasons for repairing the old column was due to cost and speed. Ferrari price on the bearing at either end is an astonishing £745.88 each !! Obviously I could have got a replacement bearing elsewhere that matched but it was the time involved hunting one down.
So the Column was welded with the two bearing cups either end still in situ. Now when I started to look at the rebuild I suddenly realised the shaft would go through without removing the cup. My worry was damaging the bearing cup when removing it, thought of various way on pulling it out but in the end after soaking in penetrating oil overnight a very gentle tap gradually around the lip was enough to pop it out undamaged .....phewwwwwww

Have now fitted shaft and cup, repacked the bearings either end and started fitting the washers springs to test smooth movement.

So far so good.

Lesson learned; think ahead, take your time and don't panic.
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Reassembly
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In the process of striping down the Wheel Hub to give it a clean up and refurbish it.
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Steering column all rebuild and once again rewired that ignition barrel (I'm becoming an expert) now ready to reinstall.
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Back onto the suspension & removed the old bushes, ready for the new set to go in.

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Testarossa Barchetta



Found this on YouTube a while back. It gets the thumbs up from me. Personally I would have kept the original mirrors and a few other factory items.

 

Agreed, thats a serious project and overpriced with so many bits missing and practically unobtainable now with some many bits not available from Ferrari.

The appeal for my Ratarossa project when buying it was its a pretty unique car being Ferrari only made the one official factory Spider and a handful of aftermarket chops were done and in existence. But mainly for me the car and parts were 95% all there to get the project built and back on the road.

 

Some final cleanup touches to the steering column before reinstall.

Then some spray work on Suspension arms and Hub
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My youngest is ill today and at home, so sadly no progress on the car.

Couple of bits I started yesterday afternoon to update here though:

Firstly started to reassemble the steering column. Again just as fiddly as removal. Ive tested and everything seems to work so far.
The one thing I tried to test fit that was previously missing from the car is the black plastic steering column cover (two halves) with the classic badge on top. It seems no matter what I do there are to many wires in the way to get this to fit without snagging something. I gave up in the end as figured its going to need to come back off shortly while I add more bits from the box of goodies.
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Next started to rebuild the suspension in prep for the new coil overs and springs.
New Bushes installed and top arm refitted in place.

I also need to fit the new complete wheel arch liner, but as usual before I can do that need to complete a couple of other jobs (Aircon pipes & Brake System) while its out and have good access.
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Need some help here if anyone knows the answer to this or can take a quick look at a TR. Graham has my old one now so miss it when it comes to these things

On the Left Side of the Dash amongst the working I have three cables I cannot account for they are:

Single sleeved brown/white cable ?

Double sleeved cable with 1x Green 1x Green/black cable - Im suspecting this is maybe speaker wires ?

Any help would be very handy.

Pics below of the items
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