Finally
The next morning before we took off in the van for the tour, I checked on the Ferrari in the garage. There was a strong gasoline odor coming from the rear of the car. A quick look confirmed that the gas tank was leaking from a side seam and there was a slow seep from the bottom. No time to do anything, so a couple of pans were put in place to catch the drips and allow the gas to evaporate.
Now I had two mechanical issues to address when we got home. It's interesting that both get repaired at a radiator shop. I dropped the radiator and tank off on one day and got a call the next morning. They had boiled out the radiator and after the gunk was removed it was leaking like a sieve. So a re-core was required. They fixed the gas tank and pressure tested it, but were afraid to use much pressure as the bottom was pretty dicey. Both came home and I cleaned up the excess solder on the radiator and painted it with Eastwood's radiator paint. I installed the gas tank and refilled it. There were more leaks so back to the shop with chalk lines around each leak. The second pass was much better, only a minor seep that I'm living with. For the continuing saga of the gas tank, click here.
We now had a new target date. We had promised our friends in Whistler that they would see the car on Labor Day weekend since we reneged in July. The test drive up the pass was done in August without any incidents except that I burned out the wiper motor. Click here to find out how.
Now we were down to putting on the jewelry.
The side vents on the front fenders were a problem. I had the chrome trim plated and this made the studs on the back that are used to hold the trim and vents on too small for the 3 mm nuts that were supposed to be used. A quick trip to the local hardware store yielded some nylon speed nuts that would more or less go on. There are eight studs per trim piece and some are in impossible places even if you could use the right nuts. I finally got speed nuts on all the studs but I wasn't sure that they would hold. Later, I fixed these the right way.
The day finally came. I was still sanding and polishing the stainless steel trim around the front and rear windows the night before. It's amazing how long it takes to sand scratches out of stainless steel. That trim didn't make it onto the car. I eventually did finish the trim.
We left early in the morning as we were hosting reception at our place in Whistler before dinner. At a rest stop, I checked the scoop nuts and one came off as I was checking it. I just put it back on and crossed my fingers. The rest of the trip was uneventful. The road from Vancouver to Whistler is mostly 2 lane with some 3 lane passing sections. Usually, you can only pass in the 3 lane sections, so you catch up to someone slower and then just mark time until the next passing area. However in the Ferrari, I found that people would just pull over as I caught up to them. I don't know if they were worried that I would just pass anyway or wanted a better look at the car. In any case, it was a pleasant drive.
330 GT in Whistler