Kerry's 330 GT Restoration
It's now spring of 2001 and the work on the house is almost complete. And it's getting warmer in the garage so I feel more like spending time out there.
In the meantime, I helped Lowell Brown work on the front suspension of his car. I originally thought that it would take three or four hours on afternoon. But remember, we're working on an older Ferrari. Click here for that narrative. After seeing the wear on Lowell's car with fewer miles, I checked on mine. Also lots of wear. So I replaced the worn parts on my suspension.
One of the other things that stopped working recently was the air horn. I mentioned this to Lowell and he said that it probably just needed a few drops of oil. He was right. You simply remove the three screws holding the top plate on and lightly oil the air vanes. Of course, I used the opportunity to clean off some over spray and replaced a questionable ground wire. But the horn now sounds like new.
When the car was overheating, I had also noticed that the non-pressure cap on the radiator was leaking instead of the pressure cap on the overflow tank relieving the pressure. When I had the oil filter wrenches cadmium plated, I included the two non-pressure caps in the batch. The rubber seal wasn't really worn, but I think that the copper fill tube on the radiator has had the slanted edge and locking portion worn down. I had tried to crimp down the tabs on the cap so it would close tighter, but that didn't fix the problem. So I made an extra rubber washer to fit under the seal in the cap. This makes the cap seal quite tightly now. Of course, I hope I never have to find out if it really works as the car would be overheating again.
I just started a welding class in the evenings so I now have access to more equipment than just my little MIG machine. One of the things that I've worked on over the years and never completed was getting two properly sized headlight trim rings. You can read about that story by clicking here. I also got an original starter heat shield and used the tools in the class to make an accurate reproduction. Click here to read about that project.
In checking over some un-installed parts, I found out that the right side inner front fender panels weren't original. Further more, they were made from old signs. For the pictures and narrative, please click here.
Two of the missing parts were the little buttons that cover the access hole for the emergency window crank in the door panels. I ended up making them and here is the story.
The stainless steel trim around the front and rear windshields had gotten marked and scratched over the years. Here's the way to fix these up.
Installing the carpet took a lot longer that I thought it would. Here's what I had to do.
Of course, there are always small things that go wrong and need to be addressed. For some odds and ends, please click here.
I have looked for the 'correct' license plate frames over the years. Recently, I found the front one with its bracket as NOS from Ferrari UK. You can read about that by clicking here.
It's always fun when some long sought after parts arrive. A shipment just came today (winter, 2001). Here're some pictures.
Every time I get a chance to look at another 330 GT, I notice some little item that needs to get done on my car. In this case, I saw that the ends of the visor rods needed plastic covers.
The water pump was always leaked ever since I rebuilt the engine. I made a mistake then, but this time I didn't as I rebuilt the water pump.
The steering box has always had some play in it that I couldn't adjust out. So I replaced it with a spare. Click here for that story.
I had a new title issued with the proper VIN on it.
Started some work and it turned into a series of tasks.
The Last Part was finally located and installed.
This is the last page of the chronological order. The What's New page does detail my continuing work. In addition, the Task List page can be used as an index to find stories about specific systems that I have worked on.