Parts Shipments

Some more parts have been arriving.  Every box is an adventure to see if the items are in good shape.

Two very important items came from a find at Ferrari UK.  My friend was there and happened to notice a tag starting '242...' sticking out from underneath a shelf.  All of the Pininfarina body parts that are unique to the 330 GT start with the 242 number.  When he pulled out the tag, two NOS headlight trim rings were attached.  If you remember, I've been working on fixing up some damaged or incorrect ones.  The new ones will need chroming as they suffered from sitting for 35 years.

The next package came from an eBay auction.  My front turn signal housings need chroming and one had a crack from an old minor accident.  I bought a pair on used ones that are in excellent shape except one the lenses is cracked.  The cost of these was probably less than fixing and chroming the old ones.  I'm not worried about the damaged lenses as the ones I have are fine.

Not only were the housings in good shape, the lens gaskets were too.  My old ones had deteriorated so much that I had to replace them with some foam ones I cut.  This one is so good that you can still read the Altissimo part number on it (37.5540 - S)

The last package had a pair of new mirrors that are identical to the one original I have on the car now.  After driving for many years with cars having mirrors on both sides, I really felt out of place driving the 330 and only having one on the driver's door.  I had gotten a Talbot mirror a long time ago, but never installed it as I would have had two different types.

Now it would be nice if one of new ones had a convex mirror in it for the right side, but you can't have everything.

More reproduction rubber parts have arrived from the Italian rubber factory.

One of the things that I've been looking for are the rubber filler strips that fit into the overriders on the front and rear bumpers.  An original was provided to the rubber factory and they made a stainless steel mold to fit it exactly.  I believe that the originals were actually made of a soft PVC (plastic) whereas these are made from a fairly hard rubber.  But the consistency and finish look very much like the original.

My car was missing the spring loaded hood bumpers when I bought it.  I was able to find one original one from Dennis McCann but it was missing the rubber top.  I made a second one and found some rubber parts that were approximately the right size which I've been using.  Lowell Brown was kind enough to loan one of his original ones which was sent to Italy to make a mold.  In this case, they made a brass mold that would make ten of these rubber tops at one time.  Given that each car only takes two, I thought that a couple of dozen would supply the whole 330 GT market for a few years, so I was surprised at the mold.  Here are the results along with Lowell's original.

As you can see, they are molded in strips to be cut apart and trimmed by the purchaser.