Crazy Task #3: Painting in an invisible spot

It's been a while since we have profiled a crazy task but the insanity has not eased up a bit on our end. Here is a photo of Paul painting deep inside one of the balance holes for the engine's main pulley. During spray painting it was impossible to get paint properly in the bottom of the holes so we decided to go back with a brush to touch up the missed spots. 

Of course this is totally nuts as the holes are all bit invisible on the assembled engine but we don't call it a crazy task for nothing.

The gift of sound on a sad day.

Today the world remembers the founder of Apple Steve Jobs as his passing yesterday reminds all of us what a profound impact his ideas had on the way we live our lives today. You may be reading this blog on one of his devices and with the invention of the iPod and iTunes, he made music more accessible to the world.

On that note I decided to surprise Paul today with something I had been putting together for him as a surprise gift for several months. Yesterday the last piece of the puzzle came in the mail from Italy and with it completed the original audio system for the Dino. Front and center is the Voxson Stereo 8 radio and 8 track player. Voxson was an premium Italian radio manufacturer that was fitted to Ferrari's and some Maserati's in the early 70's. I was able to find an incredibly intact unit that still had all of the original wire ends and Voxson labelled fuse holder. When I opened the package I was astounded to the condition of the radio and all of its ancillaries. This includes a factory powered amplifier with outputs for the left and right audio channels.

The other item I sourced was an NOS Voxson antenna. Incredibly rare, these were often damaged and changed so to find a brand new unit was a real stroke of luck tied to a lot of creative persistence. It will adorn the rear flank of 01464 nicely.

Stay tuned for a future post where wiring schematics for iPod integration will be revealed. 8 tracks are great and all but we will be making provisions for modern digital music. Don't worry it will be 100% hidden and will not involve cutting a single wire.

The blog catches our goof

Paul always enjoys reviewing the blog entries and upon looking at the photos from the last post regarding the fan motor re-build, he realized that a tiny mistake was made. The main bolts that hold the blower motor together were re-installed backwards compared to how they left the factory in England.

Of course this makes no difference to how the motor operates however it was not correct and had to be fixed. As such, after an un-settled night of sleep, Paul made his way to the shop early the next morning to again dis-assemble the motors and turn the bolts around.

An insignificant detail to most but totally un-acceptable to us. Let's hope we put the pistons in right :)

Smiths fan motors. What happens when the Italians ask the British for help

As the restoration continues it was time to work on the Smiths fan motors that ventilate the cabin and feed air to the previously featured heater core assembly. The restoration of these items is an exercise in futility because their proper operation in no way allows for the adequate volume of air that is required to keep occupants properly ventilated. The Italians undoubtedly assumed that if anyone needs more air then they can just open the window and went on to use these most un-impressive English built fan units.

That said the fans are what they are and in wanting to keep the car original, we decided to restore what was there. As always a complete dis-assembly and restoration of each component was undertaken. All painted parts were powder coated and hardware was plated or replaced as necessary. Once assembled the motors were bench tested for 10-15 minutes each and then packed away awaiting final assembly.

Another part done and now on to the photos.

NOS parts steer us in the right direction

Vital to maximizing the driving feel of any sports car is ensuring that there is no play in the steering system. Most old Ferrari's never drive as they should because the steering rack is overlooked during the restoration process. As such the car is never as precise as it can be. The steering racks on these cars can be very tricky to re-build and original parts are increasingly hard to find. Many people fit generic racks which are never as good as the originally fitted units.

01464's rack was sent to specialist re-builder John H. and we did the final exterior restoration. John was able to not only re-build the rack, but supply NOS tie rods and original tie rod ends which are very hard to find and complete the restoration nicely.

Before and after photos follow and it is hard to believe that beautiful rack was hiding under all that crud.

Restorers Note:

The main parts of the steering rack body should be painted black and not left silver like in the photos. We corrected this before installing our steering rack but never updated the photos.