Frank, My car originally came with the sanded cam covers. I also have seen it both ways. Personally I prefer the sanded look ... but that is simply a personal choice. I too do not like too much bling under the hood. Most of the hardware was originally parkerized (black finish) and not plated. These days you see too many cars with shinny hardware everywhere. I am still debating what to do about the exhaust manifolds as I do not believe they originally had any type of coating. I could paint them with the Eastwood manifold paint, but that would not be 100% original. As far as I know, all differentials from the 3500GT up through the Ghibli/Indy were originally this pumpkin color. To achieve the proper color you paint it with red primer and then apply several coats of low gloss clear. The differential cover is black. Take some lacquer thinner to the differential of your 3500GT and you should see the original pumpkin color. Ivan
Hi Ivan... You raise some interesting questions regarding the red diff.... We are finishing up my Ghibli, and I want to make sure I get this correct... Do we have consensus on the Diff being red and the Diff cover being black??? I have never seen this before and want to have this correct before I get the car back... Maybe it really doesn't matter.. Perhaps cars even left the factory with red or black Diffs, depending on what paint was available the day Diffs were painted... This would tend to make more sense to me in light of such a small producer, who was somewhat known for using whatever was on the shelf on any given day... I will take a close look a t my Mistral and see what I find.. But that doesn't necessarily mean anything... Mike
Hi Mike, It is a pumpkin color, not red. Do not take my word .. what do I know about Ghiblis You have available three very well versed Ghibli people you can ask ... Steve Claassen, Martin Loge, and Jacques. Perhaps some diffs were painted black at the factory, I do not know. Take a rag and some degreaser, or lacquer thinner, and check out the fleet of Maseratis in your garage and let us know what you discover. Remember that diffs are normally very dirty and sometimes covered with undercoating. Ivan
Ivan... Name dropping...my, my, my!!! I was afraid of what the answer would be.. I will check my Mistral, if it ever warms up enough.... I just talked to my paint guy, we're considering our options... We don't want to have to drop the rear end again... He did indicate that he saw a burgandyish color on the diff, but not necessarily pumpkin... If I recall correctly, you indicated you used a red primer and some coats of clear to approximate the color... What brand and exact color of primer and what brand of clear did you use? Merry Christmas.... Mike
Ivan I agree with you. I think what most people have seen is the cars that have been undecoated, which most of then are. Both my 3500 and Mistral have the off red or pumpkin color, I am not sure about my Ghibli since it is covered with undercoating. I do know the rear cover was black and I did not see any of the pumpkin color even though I scraped the front when I put a new seal in. My Ghibli is very late so black may be correct for it. And of course with Maserati they could have done it both ways from early on
Hello Gene... Good to hear from you as always!!! MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU AND YOUR FAMILY!!! My Ghibli SS is a 1971 model and I think you hit on exactly what I was wondering about. I will see my car again this upcoming week and we will take another careful look at the 'pumpkin'.... Obviously, because of the work I would love to keep it black, but on the other hand, I want it to be correct!!! Ivan will pick on me if I don't!!! (just kidding!)... In the meantime, I will check my Mistral, QP1, and Mexico, and see what's going on under there!.. I do also wonder how and if this applies to Khamsin's.... Mike
This is a restored dif (of a Mistral). We just gave it the colour it already had. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Hello and Merry Christmas. For the record, all three Mexico cars that I have owned were 1967, 2 are 4.7 and all have the pumpkin paint on the differential. All three cars had never been apart and were very original with a nice layer of protective oil and grime that preserved the diff paint perfectly. I will try to post a picture of my 4.7 in morning for the archives. Chris
I used the Duplicolor red primer that comes in a rattle can. Three coats of primer should do it. Then applied three coats of Krylon satin clear to protect the finish. The cover was powder coated in satin black and the cover bolts were parkerized. There usually is a metal tag with the diff ratio which is attached to one of the lower bolts. This is a photo of my dif after pressuring washing and before it was totally cleaned. You can see the original color under the dirt and grease. Ivan Image Unavailable, Please Login
The orange pumpkin with the black cover is correct. the problem is that most pumpkins get coated with grease/dirt combination and undercoating so people assume that they are black. Ivan the engines look great! Jacques
The rear springs were put back together and the differential re-installed. I could not find a perfect match for the plastic material that fits between the leaf springs. The material that is normally available is white while the one on my car was black. I found some black material but the profile was not the same. Luckily my original stuff cleaned out well and I was able to reuse it. Ivan Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Front suspension is in but the toe and camber are WAY off! I screwed the tie rods in all the way and the tires still point outwards (toe-out). When I originally removed the suspension, I noticed the tie rods were screwed in almost all the way. That seemed strange as it provides very little adjustment. The new tie rods are apparently just a little longer and the wheels cannot be adjusted to point straight forward. I can shorten the center link and that will fix the problem ... but, I am first going to try and rebuild my original tie rods and see what happens. The camber problem is a bit more of a mystery. The amount of negative camber indicates that something is completely out of whack. The suspension did not have camber adjustment shims, so I know that is not the problem. Notice that the top of the tire points in. Can I remove the upper ball joint with the spring installed? Any ideas what could be causing the problem? Ivan Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
You're sure the camber issue is not at all related to the 500+lbs drivetrain being installed? I stared at your pics for some time and while nothing looks off, I can't think of anything other than the upper ball joint perhaps being incorrect? I think those are Ferrari upper ball joints and some Maser's used a ball joint which did not have quite as much angle to the portion which mates to the a-arm. Can't be sure...... The tie rod issue seems more simple. Something can be cut to make that work. Obviously a last resort.
I have seen how the car sits without its engine installed, before I took the suspension apart; this is different. I bought the upper ball joints from one of the usual Maserati parts sources. Initially I though the problem was being caused by the new upper rubber bump stop but even removing it does not correct all the negative camber. I think the next step is to put back the original upper ball joint and see what happens. I am not sure if the upper ball joint can be replaced with the springs installed. I would hate having to remove those springs! Ivan
I have seen a lot of cars look strange without the weight of the engine. The engine in and a drive around the block often fix these problems.
I would like to see what it looks like with the old ball joints, but that's obviously going to be a pain. The new units are possibly just very tight and not moving in the socket much just yet. I rebuilt the suspension in the Ferrari a couple years ago and was taken aback by how tight the new joints were. I'm hoping it's something simple like that.
I think you are correct as everything is super tight. I will address the toe-out problem but I am going to wait until the engine is in before addressing the camber issue. If I need to replace the upper ball joint it will be easier with the weight of the engine Ivan
The replacement tie rods and drag links available these days are the sealed type without the grease nipple. One thing that was bothering me is that they look a bit too modern for this car. Since I was planning to swap the original components to test if that corrected the toe out problem, I decided to rebuild the originals and use them instead. It turns out the balls and cups hardly had any wear. Some cleaning and painting, new rubber gaiters, and these components are ready for 50 more years or service. I have yet to install them on the car. Ivan Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Great stuff Ivan! Thanks so much for including each and every detail on your well documented restoration here. Thankfully, a lot of it pours over to Touring 3500s. I just took my 3500 out today after a major fluid change, wheel cylinder redo, and addition of a larger front sway bar (via Larry Rubin). The handling actually seems well improved, and thankfully, as a result of a mere "bolt-on". Anyway, I don't wish to dilute this Spider thread, but perhaps we can start a new one on improvements, and acceptable alterations to the 3500 series? Any thoughts out there? RF AM 101 1512
Sounds good to me. I suggest you start a new thread by posting your sway bar improvements. Postings should indicate the benefits of the improvement, cost, steps to install, any modifications needed, suppliers, if it is reversible, and if it maintains the original appearance. Ivan
Good work Ivan, I think you did the right thing by rebuilding where ever possible and not replacing with newer parts. Your progress looks to be coming along very well and your car is truly spectacular. Like others, I am enjoying your thread. RedFred, There are no acceptable alterations, just alterations. It is very easy to improve these cars, and very difficult and time consuming ($$$) to rebuild them to original spec. Having said that, it is YOUR car and you can certainly do what ever you want to it. My $0.02. Now lets get back to the restoration of 504. Ciao, FGM
