'The Ratarossa': The Testarossa Spider Rebuild Project | Page 12 | FerrariChat

'The Ratarossa': The Testarossa Spider Rebuild Project

Discussion in 'Boxers/TR/M' started by spiderscott, Sep 15, 2015.

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  1. spiderscott

    spiderscott Formula 3
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    Lastly, before starting the front wheel arch I noticed the pull cable from the cabin was not yet fitted.

    Never being a straight forward job, because the car was converted to 'Spider' form and all of that roof strengthening was lost, huge solid bars were welded into the lower area to make the car solid (The car has almost zero flex on ramps or jacks). Because of these structure enhancements The handbrake housing where the two chrome release pulls reside needed to be cut back and modified, this is now almost finished and ready to refit with the pull levers for front and rear hoods.
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  2. ago car nut

    ago car nut F1 Veteran
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    The fender is aluminum, and if you don't want fasteners showing. Epoxy? They make all kinds of body work epoxies these days. I know some body shops in the US. are gluing door skins and quarter panels on insurance wrecks instead of welding.
     
  3. turbo-joe

    turbo-joe F1 Veteran

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    look on some newer cars - they also glue a lot of parts
     
  4. Al1exx

    Al1exx Rookie

    Nov 1, 2003
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    What an amazing project, keep up the excellent work! Truely inspirational.
     
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  5. spiderscott

    spiderscott Formula 3
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    Thank you
     
  6. spiderscott

    spiderscott Formula 3
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    Just going through my iPhone photos and found some from when I purchased the car.

    Being across the pond the decision to buy this project was on pictures alone along with have some nice conversations with the owner.

    You can see that the original first pictures at the time I pulled the trigger and agreed to buy, I just saw pictures of a rolling shell and many boxes and bits laid out in the back yard of a house. I spent many hours zooming in on all those parts trying to identify them along with a Testarossa parts manual, just to get an idea of what parts I had and anything big that was missing.
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  7. spiderscott

    spiderscott Formula 3
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    I then got the seller to empty the box contents, spread the parts out for me and take some more pictures.

    quite a fun job identifying everything. I had to wait almost 2 months for the car to arrive during which time I must have looked at these pictures a thousand times.
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  8. spiderscott

    spiderscott Formula 3
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  9. spiderscott

    spiderscott Formula 3
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    Short video of the car last summer
     
  10. spiderscott

    spiderscott Formula 3
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    A while back I was fortunate enough to get up close to the only official Testarossa Spider produced by Ferrari for Gianni Agnelli.

    I took the opportunity to take pictures of the car detailing areas of the car not normally published, in the process giving me a few ideas how to finish some of the areas of my project car.


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  11. turbo-joe

    turbo-joe F1 Veteran

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    large puzzle for grown up boys :)
    but you are lucky: imagine the engine and the gearbox also would be dismanteled in such boxes :) :)
     
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  12. spiderscott

    spiderscott Formula 3
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  13. spiderscott

    spiderscott Formula 3
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    Upgrades:

    With no stereo in the car apart from the beautiful flat 12 in the rear, I have decided to go with a slight upgrade to the original (not having that available).
    Amongst my Aladdins cave of various Ferrari parts from over the years I have this Becker Ferrari headunit from my old 430 Scuderia sat around doing nothing, so have decided it will go well in the 'Ratarossa', keep a Ferrari genuine theme and also upgrade at the same time adding SatNav as a bonus.

    Will likely be some time before I get around to doing the Stereo system but nice all the same to have these jobs and parts lined up ready.

    One of the parts I am missing is the two panels in the footwell walls that house the speakers. I have seen these available on ebay in the states but ideally would like to find some to retain the same interior carpet colour.
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  14. spiderscott

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    Tonight I found this small piece of plastic and have just figured out where it belongs. Its the plastic gasket that sits either side of the rear grill ends by the taillight housing edges and Im guessing its function is to protect the metal grill from rubbing against the metal bodywork.

    So far Ive just located one and hoping to find a second in the box of goodies as it looks like this is no longer a spare part available from Ferrari
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  15. spiderscott

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    Driving Gloves :cool:

    Never owned a pair of these, always been on the fence about people wearing them while driving.

    Are they cool or stupid ?

    Well anyway I think I shall try them out come spring time when I start using the no roof Ratarossa here in the UK ..... Flying helmet and Googles an optional extra if it rains :)
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  16. spiderscott

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    The keyring in the picture above I have had a while and was told its an original keyring that came with the Testarossa, anyone here able to verify how true that is ?
     
  17. spiderscott

    spiderscott Formula 3
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  18. turbo-joe

    turbo-joe F1 Veteran

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    in 1984 I have been with one of customers to pick uo his new testarossa from a F dealer. it was the first in my area here, and this keychain was definitely not with the car. but may be in other countries it was differnt?
     
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  19. lear60man

    lear60man Formula 3

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    Every time I visit this thread, Im thinking....'When is he going to go fully mental and paint it'? Seriously its gonna be the last step, as you cant let a Milan model walk around in Crocs.

    Its like we are watching 'The Swan' before our eyes. The discarded ugly duckling is becoming the belle of the ball.

    I totally understand as I go for the mechanical then beauty stuff next, but I also try to convince myself, 'that will be good.' Next thing I know....its a show piece.

    Im not a fan of gloves, but kinda of thinking of picking up some Han Solo gloves for my Porsche as I hate to see the wear on the shifter and wheel.
     
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  20. spiderscott

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    I think the beauty of this project will be the 'Rat' Look, its going to be pretty unique having a very very rare Testarossa Spider that externally and interior wise looks completely unfinished, yet under the skin mechanically it looks and drives perfectly. :)

    I also don't know of any other Rat Look Ferrari out there, that is to say a Rat look that is purposely left that way.

    Im wondering how many times I get pulled over driving this project car though :D
     
  21. spiderscott

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    Fuse Board:

    A weak point all on Testarossa's (and most Ferraris of this era) is the Fuse Board. Nowadays theres some great guys out there refurbishing and remanufacturing the boards :)

    On the Ratarossa I did experience a couple of issues with some of the sub systems, so part of the troubleshooting was to pull out the complete Fuse Board. I was surprised to see the board was in pretty good shape with no burns or anything bad on the connectors. Gave everything a good clean up though while I had it stripped apart just to preserve it and hopefully have it last a number of years longer. At the same time replaced some of the old fuses.
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  22. spiderscott

    spiderscott Formula 3
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  23. spiderscott

    spiderscott Formula 3
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    Euro Side Lights Conversion:

    As part of making the Ratarossa road legal here in the UK I had to switch the full orange US side light lens to the Orange/White Euro and then do some rewiring so that they worked in conjunction with the Euro Spec lights. Fortunately at the time I had the other TR Coupe so it was an easy operation to copy the cabling, at the same time I drilled and remounted the Euro Side Indicators on the rear edge of the front wings for a cleaner look (see previous post)

    Acquiring a set of these Euro side lamp lens proved to be an extremely difficult search. Ferrari no longer manufacture these and all the other suppliers had nothing in stock or any from testarossa's being broken, so my only route was via the online marketplaces. I was lucky enough to find a new original pair over in Europe after waiting some time patiently a set finally popped up so I snapped them up straight away. Another came up for grabs the other day and knowing how rare these are and how I have to cram everything in my garage with the likelihood of someday cracking one of these plastic lens I bought the spare :cool:
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