'The Ratarossa': The Testarossa Spider Rebuild Project

Its true TJ

I buy 1000 pairs of those gloves at a time, must use about 10 sets every time i'm in the garage on this car

 

Happy New Year 2018 folks !!!!

2018 is the year for the Ratarossa to get the project out, enjoy it on the roads and at some events.

 

Get out and drive it ...
This was the first drive out the Ratarossa project had after not being on the road for over 25 years.

 

Wipers:
Bit by bit I have managed to get the systems on the Ratarossa working. My previous milestone was those windows and all the age old wire cables that drive them up and down, after replacing the drivers door glass that I accidentally dropped and had to get a replacement shipped from the US it was amazing to get the motor moving millimetres to start back and forth then eventually all the way to the top, those 80s Ferrrari window systems are interesting for sure, im doing a 308 at the moment that is dog slow.

I couldn't get the wipers to work on the Ratarossa, I had purchased a box of spare Testarossa parts from a Breakers here in the UK mainly consisting of pipes, nuts, bolts and anything that looked usable on the jigsaw puzzle project. Part of that spare loot was the wiper motor, I switch it over but again no joy with the motors. I had already cleaned up the fuse board and checked the cabling. Finally I got around to the steering wheel switch gear, this has been sat exposed in the car for all of those years but inside and out in the elements. Contacts had corrosion on them, the stalks were rusty and the whole assembly was caked in years of dust and grime. After figuring out how to first remove the steering wheel then the switch gear assy, I slowly stripped it down used contact cleaner and a bit of lubricant to clean the point and get some movement back into the levers and springs.

Once again the project Testarossa surprised me as the wipers jumped into life



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First proper drive out in the car

 

The switchgear all now working correctly. Happy as it’s very costly to replace.
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There will be parts of the exterior for sure that I will have to do something with, maybe a clear coat. You are totally correct we do suffer with the dreaded rust here in the UK. Having said that as car nut pointed out most of the car is aluminium and infact currently a vast amount of the car is already in a primer type finish. Since getting the car here from over the pond a couple of years ago now there are zero signs of anything starting to rust out.

The car is always garaged and will never go out in bad weather, unless I'm caught short by the UK weather. With no planned roof on the car it will be a fair weather only driver.

 

Another wiring job and mini rebuild on project Ratarossa: Mirror Wiring.

When I received the car very little was actually fitted to it, most of the necessary parts were in the crates.

After going through the initial pictures I received from the seller I thought I had both mirrors, on arrival I had overlooked a small point and it turned out I had 2 of the same side. I was still missing one mirror which quickly got sourced online. I then had one complete scuffed up mirror and a box of mirror 'parts'
I pulled the pieces together ....

1. Mirror housing all battered up
2. Mirror mount - no pivot bolt
3. Rubber black cover
4. A wiring loom
Missing- Mirror lens with black plastic backing plate

Built it all up and now I have a spare that just needs the lens. Trying to figure out how to use this as some sort of cool office/garage furniture


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The Ratarossa spent some time in storage during 2017 while I had to take care of some other things, heres how I discovered it under a mountain of garage parts and then finally pulled out to bask in the sunshine before finally coming back home again.
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Such a shame Ferrari didn't put the Testarossa Spider into production.

I mean look how damnnnnnnnnnn cool the car looks on the road
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Now I have two of these 'testarossa' badges. They are not cheap and sadly I plan to cut both up to make my 'ratarossa' badge in original script
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something like this ....
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Even a dusty old Pocher Testarossa Spider looks cool
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Always handy to have an extra pair of hands in the garage. Here's my youngest Nicole working on the old Testarossa coupe (Now Graham's car, apologies for her finger prints mate)
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And then my eldest Mya running some diagnostics, deep in the 430 Scuderia's belly
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Annoyingly I used to have access to the best 3D printers and unreleased technology in my old job. Like the idea of not hacking up an original, might see if I can pull some strings and call in a favour

 

That was was taken a little while ago now, sadly I sold the Scud .....literally a perfect 6k miles all the trimmings Scuderia

However I will say I much preferred the raw drive from my Strad over the Scud, was a little to tame for me

 

Spent the afternoon having a little tidy up in the confined 'Ratarossa HQ' garage, I hate working in mess and everything was taking 3 times as long to find. Not finished yet as need to bring some more cupboards and my toolbox over, but getting there and much better environment to work in.
Can also see the car again from under the mountain of previously stuff piled on top of it.
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Found a tool kit that came with the car

Not quite the right one for the Monodado Testarossa but it will do for now.
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