Tom Yang's Ferrari Restoration

6/30/09: Ferrari Perception

6/30/09
Ferrari Perception

There has not been a lot of Ferrari work for me in the last couple of weeks. We are in between cars going out and coming back into the shop. A Lusso is coming back from paint along with a GTE, and a California Spyder will be arriving back from the upholsterers. The timing on these long term projects have left holes in our schedule where there just wasn't anything to do.

I had a dentist appointment yesterday, so I decided it was a good excuse to drive the Ferrari. We've been getting so much rain in the Northeast, that driving my cars has not been much fun, but there was break in the weather to take the 330 America out for a drive.

The ownership of my Ferrari has never been about status, and even though I share my experiences here on this website, I'm am very private about it in my regular life. I sometimes find perceptions change about you when people find out you own a Ferrari, so I find it easier not to let on about the car. As I sat down in my Dentist's chair, he immediately asked if that was my car in the parking lot. He really liked it and began asking all the usual questions most of us have experienced. How fast is it? How much does it cost? I explained that the Ferrari market has seen a correction in the last year, and the value of my car may have fallen by 50%. I also explained that I bought my car in boxes an pieces about 10 years ago when prices were a lot lower, and put the car together largely by myself. My doctor told me how much he too would love to someday own a car like that, and that he would start by suggesting I needed a couple of crowns. Luckily he was joking, and I left with a clean bill of oral health!

Just a reminder, I'm looking for a new Vintage Ferrari Project. If you have, or know of a restoration project, please let me know. It would be great to restore another car on this website! My E-mail.

6/19/09: 5053: Home Again!

6/19/09
5053: Home Again!

I finally got a chance to bring my 330 America home this week. It has been 8 months since a valve seat worked itself loose which precipitated a complete overhaul of both heads on my engine. My wife dropped me off at François' shop and I took my time getting the Ferrari home. We had some spectacular weather that day, so I took the long way back to reacquaint myself with my Ferrari and to enjoy the drive. It's coming up on 10 years since I bought this car in boxes and pieces in 1999, and it would be an understatement to say this car changed my life. I felt like giving up at some points, but it was times like the drive home this week that made it worth every minute!

The next day, I drove the Ferrari to the Post Office. After leaving with my mail, I rounded a corner to find a deer bounding in front of the car! I hit the brakes in an instant, trying to figure out a few things. First, which way the deer was intending to go, and second, where were the others! As I figured out there was only one deer, and that I needed to stop harder, I pushed even harder on the brakes, locking up one wheel. I watched in slow motion the deer cross my bow with my left headlight missing her white tail by mere inches!

I drove home thinking about the entry I might have been writing to my website if things turned out just a little differently....

Just a reminder, I'm looking for a new Vintage Ferrari Project. If you have, or know of a restoration project, please let me know. It would be great to restore another car on this website! My E-mail.

6/12/09: 1747: Brake Bleeding, 5053: Small Coolant Leak

6/12/09
1747: Brake Bleeding, 5053: Small Coolant Leak

We're coming down to the final stretch to delivering the PF Coupe to its owner. As I said last week, the booster and calipers were back and ready to be installed. Once everything was hooked up, I filled the system to check for brake fluid leaks.

The Banjo fittings on the booster were really a pain in the butt. Although rebuilt, the mating surfaces sometimes do not seal up as well as when they were brand new. Even with new copper washers I couldn't seem to get the darned thing to seal in the brake fluid. Worse yet, I couldn't see if the fitting was leaking until the system was filled with brake fluid and pressurized. Taking a closer look at the booster, I found the washer had to seat on just the right position to seal the banjo fitting. After a third set of copper washers, the booster sealed, and I proceeded to bleed the brakes.

With the brakes nearly completed, we'll be able to mount the new tires and wheels to the car. These are brand new Borranis, fresh from Italy with Blockley tires from England. It'll be interesting to feel how these tires perform on the PF Coupe when she's finally back on the road.

My 330 America and this GTE are both real close to going home. The major coolant leaks in my 330 America seem to be repaired, but I found a small leak from the thermostat housing.

I was ready to make a new one from some gasket material, but decided to look in François' stash of gaskets. Luck was on my side when I found exactly what I needed!

Just a reminder, I'm looking for a new Vintage Ferrari Project. If you have, or know of a restoration project, please let me know. It would be great to restore another car on this website! My E-mail.

6/4/09: 1747: The Brakes are Back, Finally!

6/4/09
1747: Brakes are Back, Finally!

The PF coupe we've been working on has been on the back burner waiting for a few brake components to come back from the rebuilders and platers. With all the pieces back at the shop, I began assembling the brake parts to complete the brake system. The longest wait was for the brake booster, but it's finally back and was installed in the engine compartment. For eagle eye spotters, the knock off is not the right one for this car, as they should be back from the platers this week. The spare octogon knock off was used so we could roll the car around on the old tires. With every step the list of things left to do on this car is getting shorter and shorter!

I posted a couple of new things on this website that you may not have noticed. Jimmy Chen Shibs sent me some pictures of a new aquisition, as very nice 275GTB and you can see them in his owner's gallery entry.

A new podcast was posted that I recorded with Jay Fontanella in his Testarossa about how he came about buying it. You can hear about it here.

Just a reminder, I'm looking for a new Vintage Ferrari Project. If you have, or know of a restoration project, please let me know. It would be great to restore another car on this website! My E-mail.

5/22/09: 4151: Finishing Up a Tune Up

5/22/09
4151: Finishing Tune Up

The valves were adjusted with the new lash caps, the tuned distributors, rebuilt carburetors, and and valve covers were installed on the GTE at the shop. The only thing left was to wait for the radiator to come back from the radiator shop so we can finish up.

As I put the carbs back on, François asked if these nuts were the ones that I took off of the car, and I confirmed these were the incorrect ones that I found holding the carbs in place.

The correct nuts would have been black oxide nuts measuring 12 mm across the flats, but François had some 13 mm nuts in a box of freshly plated hardware. Even though they were the wrong size, they looked a lot better on the carbs than the ones that were on the car. This is not a show car, but at least it'll look closer to "right!"

Just a reminder, I'm looking for a new Vintage Ferrari Project. If you have, or know of a restoration project, please let me know. It would be great to restore another car on this website! My E-mail.

5/13/09: 4151: A General Inspection and Tune-up

5/13/09
4151: A General Inspection and Tune-up

A GTE was dropped off at the shop this week. Ron has owned 4151 for several years, and found a radiator leak that needed to be addressed. Since it was coming to the shop anyway, a tune up and oil change was requested.

After the hood was removed, we quickly found the seam on the radiator that was leaking. The radiator was drained and removed to get patched or recored, depending on what the radiator shop finds.

The distributors were removed and inspected. The bearings were in good shape, but it was time for a new set of points.

The centrifugal advance was checked, and although packed with old grease, seemed to be operating smoothly. The old grease was removed and the advance mechanism was cleaned and regreased.

By the second day, I turned my attention to the valve train. The carbs were already removed and disassembled to clean out the gunk and checked.

Before a valve adjustment can be performed, I wanted to check the condition of the tappets and valve stems. The tappets didn't look right, and on closer inspection, it looks like someone ground away some of the surface hardening.

These doctored tips didn't treat the tops of the valve stem very well. This intake valve stem showed a little pitting, and the beginning of valve stem wear.

The exhaust stems were worse, with the top of the stem wallowed out. If this wear continued, bad things will happen.

With that much wear on the tops of the valve stem, it is impossible to do an accurate valve adjustment, and if left alone, would continue to wear out the top of the valve stem at an accelerated rate. There were two options, with one of them being very expensive. Replacing all the valves with new ones would require the heads to come off. Needless to say, but this was the expensive route, but the other option was to fit lash caps on the valve stems. These hardened caps fit over the the valve stems, and can extend the life of the stem without the need to replace the whole valve. Since this engine did not seem to smoke and the compression numbers were fine, option two was a no brainer.

Measurements had to be made to make sure the rockers did not touch the caps, the caps did not touch the valve keepers, and the adjusters did not touch the valve cover when everything was installed, but we were safe on all clearances. It was nice to know we saved the owner from having to replace the valves.

Just a reminder, I'm looking for a new Vintage Ferrari Project. If you have, or know of a restoration project, please let me know. It would be great to restore another car on this website! My E-mail.

5/8/09: Dodged Another Bullet!

5/8/09
5053: Dodging Another Bullet

After a great couple of days down in Maryland for the Radclife Motorcar/Tomyang.net Party, it was time to come home and face my 330 America. I needed a couple of weeks off from the car after the discovery that I had a bad coolant leak between the head and the timing chest when I reinstalled the heads. The leaks kept me from bringing my Ferrari to the show, but that's life with owning an old Ferrari.

After reading some suggestions from my Vintage Ferrari Forum, especially one written from Jim, an owner with a similar problem, I started to think there might be another option than pulling the heads again. Jim had managed to get silicone sealant to these water passages from the thermostat housing, and stopped the majority of the leaks. I discussed this fix with François, and although he felt this method would offer limited success, he wanted to try something. He instructed me to loosen all the nuts securing the front timing chest to the block. We then drove some screwdrivers and wedges between the two surfaces to gain access to the o-rings. With a pick and several tries, we managed to get the o-rings out of their grooves!

Looking at the dried silicone, and the dimensions of the o-rings, we could see the o-rings were not thick enough to seal these passages. I felt a little vindicated because it wasn't my fault these heads were leaking! As the apprentice to this type of work, I'm ready to take blame for problems, but there was enough evidence that it wasn't my doing. Either way, however, the leak had to be fixed!

Taking a closer look at my heads, one gap for the o-ring looked wider than the other, maybe by a few thousandths of the an inch. This slight difference was probably all that was needed to cause my leaks with an o-ring that was just a little thin or crushed.

Using thicker o-rings, and lots of silicone sealant, we sealed up the water passages and bolted the timing chest back together. After drying overnight, the block was filled up with coolant to test for leaks. After a day of sitting, no coolant was found leaking from any of the water passages. François saved me dozens of hours of work, and a $400 dollar set of head gaskets!

Just a reminder, I'm looking for a new Vintage Ferrari Project. If you have, or know of a restoration project, please let me know. It would be great to restore another car on this website! My E-mail.

5/4/09: 5063: An Appearnce at the Party

5/4/09
5063: An Appearance at the Party

Every year at the Radcliffe/tomyang.net a Ferrari shows up that sends a stir throughout the crowd. Last year was Patrick's largely original 275GTB short nose, but this year Patrick had some competition for "most talked about Ferrari." The car was a 1964 250 Lusso owned by Richard Trebelhorn. This car had been owned by Richard for 35 years, and was bought at a time when she was just another used Ferrari.

Matt Trebelhorn, Richard's son e-mailed me years ago to tell me about his father's car, and tried his best to motivate his dad to fire up the old Ferrari to bring out to the Radcliffe Event. Through the years, the car has been showing her age, and the dents, scratches, and mishaps were beginning to add up. Almost embarrassed to drive the Lusso, Richard parked the car for 4 years until a few weeks ago when he began the process of getting her ready for the show.

Dad does value the car, though. Every car guy looks back at the late 60s-early 70s, and sees old ads offering a GTO for $8500, and think about the missed opportunities. My dad picked up his Lusso around then, when it was just some noisy old car -- I'm sure he told you the story. He has driven the car at Mosport, Lime Rock, Watkins Glen, Summit Point, and I think at Road America, too. And my mom has picked me and my sister up from elementary school in it, when our Fiat wouldn't start. I've seen him turn pieces of 5063 over in his hands, sitting on a stool in the garage, marveling at the casting, the complexity, the craftsmanship. He appreciates the car -- he really does.

After an oil change, fresh battery, and general tuning, the Lusso fired up for her first spin around the neighborhood. Soon, she was ready for her 40 mile trip to Radcliffe Motorcars in Reisterstown, Maryland.

When Trebelhorn Sr. arrived, the true gear heads stopped in their tracks to see this car pull up in the parking lot. We all see so many Lussos with fresh paint and new interiors, but our eyes couldn't wait to explore the years of patina that accumulated in this car. To the uninitiated, it looked like a clapped out old sportscar, but I saw something that still had many of the original finishes and details from the factory that was not obliterated from a full restoration.

As I poured over all the details special to this car, from the pronounced tail and side vents, Richard also pointed out the impromptu bumpers made from MG leaf springs! The owner had the original bumpers rechromed, but felt they were too nice to put back on a car with needs.

Richard plans to give her some attention in the near future, but we didn't need a freshly restored car to see the love. Good on you Richard!

Just a reminder, I'm looking for a new Vintage Ferrari Project. If you have, or know of a restoration project, please let me know. It would be great to restore another car on this website! My E-mail.

5/2/09: The 2009 Radcliffe/Tomyang.net Spring Party

5/2/09
The 2009 Radcliffe/Tomyang.net Spring Party

The day started out much like last year where it was a little wet and rainy. I awoke a little worried about the turnout, but knew the die hard gear heads would show up regardless of the weather. Richard and I put a lot of work into this show, and it's always great to know a lot of our show-goers are not fair weather gear heads!

The focus on my website has always been Vintage Ferraris, but that definition is always changing. Lamborghini Countachs and Ferrari Testarossas are pushing over 20 years old and it was great to have them join us in the celebration of old cars. Even a Lamborghini Jalpa came out in the wet weather. The owner told me that he rarely drove his car in the rain, but this was an event worth getting his car wet!

Richard and I arranged for several vendors to do some tech seminars. A Meguiars representative came out to show us their products, and Richard's detailer was also available to field questions from the audience. There were also sessions on automotive charging systems and cylinder heads. I tried my best to participate in sessions, but we were scrambling to avoid a potential disaster.

This year, Richard, Patty, and I decided to arrange for a local Barbecue joint to come out with their truck to sell food to the show goers. Having a third party handle the food would have allowed us to focus on the show, and save us from having to deal with feeding 200 people. After every call to the vendor in the time leading up to the party, the owner assured us he was coming, but as lunch approached, there was no sign of the truck. Richard even drove by the shop to make sure they were preparing to feed us. 12 o'clock rolled around, the seminars were well under way, and we felt a disaster was looming. Richard's wife, Patty, called another barbecue restaurant and ordered a few hundred dollars of food. By 1 o'clock, the food had arrived, and our guests were fed. The original vendor did not show up until after 1pm. Needless to say, we turned him away, and asked him to go and sell his food somewhere else.

The highlights of the show was a well used Lusso ( more on this later) , and this Isotta-Fraschini! How often do you get a chance to take an up close look at a pre war classic like this?

At the end of the day, some local gear heads stopped by with this project Lotus Europa. We joked with the owner that this must be a Superleggera version of the Europa!

What I loved about having a car like this show up at our show was that 90 % of the guys in attendance knew exactly what this rare car was, and didn't need any explanation why this car was so cool. It was such a fun time!

The party wrapped up about 5 pm, and we were all spent. The weather had cleared up for the afternoon, and we even had some breaks of sun. We had about 69 cars pre registered for the event, and knew that there would be a few that would not show due to the rain in the morning. I took a quick count of the cars that came in for the event and found 55 cars in a wide variety of machinery. The contrast of a row of Alfas facing a row of Panteras was great with the mutual appreciation of all things mechanical. As usual, we had a great showing of Vintage Ferraris with a Lusso, a short nose 275GTB, 330 America (not mine :-( ) a Daytona, and pairs of series I 330s, series II 330s, 365GT 2+2s, 365GTC/4s, and 400is! Modern Ferraris were also in attendance from a 550 Maranello to a 612 Scaglietti. Let's not forget the group of Testarossas and 308s! Bill Proctor and Ken Visser took many more pictures than I and have posted them on Ferrari Chat, so if you want more pictures, look here: Bill Proctor, Ken Visser.

As we cleaned up the shop and got ready to go home, there was one more thing to do. Richard needed to get his Ferrari 330GT 2+2 home, along with his Alfa Romeo Sprint Speciale. Since I drove the Ferrari over in the morning, I got the keys to the Alfa for the drive over to the house. What a sweet little car! The free revving four cylinder engine made a great noise and the car felt so well balanced.

The interior was done with typical Italian flair. It was very functional but the details had an understated elegance.

We headed home the next day in Jay's Testarossa. It was great stand in for my 330 America that we took down last year considering it rained the whole way home and Jay's wipers worked like a modern car!

I want to thank Richard, Patty, and all of Richard's friends and customers that lent a hand to put this Radcliffe/tomyang.net party on for 2009. I also want to thank everyone for coming out to join us in a gathering that I only hope to improve and refine for us gear heads. With all the positive reaction and attendance to the Radcliffe/tomyang.net party, it looks like we're committed to putting another one next year! I look forward to it, and hope to see you then!

Just a reminder, I'm looking for a new Vintage Ferrari Project. If you have, or know of a restoration project, please let me know. It would be great to restore another car on this website! My E-mail.

5/1/09: Prepping for the Big Party

5/1/09
Prepping for the Big Party

I spent all of Friday preparing for the Radcliffe/tomyang.net party. A crew of us cleaned, mopped, and moved cars into position.

A Ferrari 360 was the most modern car at the shop, but most of the cars present were pre-1972.

Richard even had a customer's Delorean at the shop!

Just a reminder, I'm looking for a new Vintage Ferrari Project. If you have, or know of a restoration project, please let me know. It would be great to restore another car on this website! My E-mail.

4/29/09: Two Days to the Radcliffe/Tomyang.net Party

4/29/09
Two Days to the Radcliffe/Tomyang.net Car Show!

Well, I'm going without my 330 America to the party. I was too dejected to try and get the coolant leaks fixed in time, but it looks like we'll have plenty of cars at the show. I spoke to Richard Garre this morning, and he has 65 cars pre-registered! We know that number will be higher with guys showing up the day of the event. We'll try our best to accommodate everyone. There's plenty of parking for non-show cars in the parking lot next door, and remember, it's a free event for spectators and a small $15.00 entry fee for show cars!

We're setting up an area inside for vendors and demonstrations. The show will start about 10am with Meguires showing off their car care products. We'll also have seminars with Mammocks discussing charging systems, and battery care. Baltimore Head Works will be discussing component wear in Ferrari heads, and I'll be bringing some parts to show from some past engine rebuilds. I also hope to have some time to speak to some special guests who will be attending the show. Let's hope we can get them to share some stories from the days of Ferrari ownership before the Internet!

I look forward to seeing some old friends at this show, and meeting some new ones. This show is becoming an event not to be missed, and is going to happen regardless of the weather. There's plenty of indoor space and activities if the weather outside gets wet, but just remember one thing about driving your car in the rain, it's just water!

See you Saturday.

MARK THE DATE: Saturday, May 2nd 2009
The Tomyang.net/ Radcliffe Motorcars Spring Event
12340 Owings Mills Boulevard
Reisterstown, Maryland 21136
Read about last year's event.
Information on this year's event.

Just a reminder, I'm looking for a new Vintage Ferrari Project. If you have, or know of a restoration project, please let me know. It would be great to restore another car on this website! My E-mail.

4/26/09: 1747: Seat Belts, and Twitter

4/26/09
1747: Seat Belts, and Twitter

I finally had a chance to install the seat belts we got from Andover in the PF Coupe. The previous owner had only lap belts, and we decided that a three a three point harness would be better. I also wanted to install some better reinforcement plates behind the seat belt anchors to insure things were not going to pull out in the event of a crash. These belts come with a retractor reel, and makes the belts work very much like a modern car.

The shoulder anchors on Ferraris are always a little low, and not an ideal location. I would prefer a higher mount, but that would require welding extra brackets with more reinforcement. We're trying to make these cars relatively safe, while trying to preserve some of the originality, a tough order to fill.

The new Borranis came in this week, along with fresh tires. David decided to go with new wheels to replace the original metric rims that limited our tire selection. For the price he paid for these wheels, they came with these nice wheel cozies! I'll reveal the new wheels when we get the tires mounted.

I'm trying out a new piece of technology and I want to see how it works out. Some of you heard I started a "Twitter" account, "tomyangnet" . For those that don't know what Twitter is, it's a social networking website that links users together via text messaging. If you sign up to Twitter, and subscribe to my "Tweets," you will receive text messages on your mobile device whenever I send out a message to the Twitter Service. Now, as much as I have been accused of building a website to waste your time, I try to use technology to richen our Ferrari experience. Twitter is something that may be useful, and at the very least entertaining...if used wisely. I do not plan to "tweet" about what I'm having for lunch or to tell everyone I'm heading to work, but I hope to use Twitter to inform people when I am headed out to an event, or on another one of my road trips. This will allow people follow along, or even meet up if they are nearby. You can try it out, and the best thing is if you don't like it you can always turn me off!

See you all next week at the Radcliffe/Tomyang.net Party!

MARK THE DATE: Saturday, May 2nd 2009
The Tomyang.net/ Radcliffe Motorcars Spring Event
12340 Owings Mills Boulevard
Reisterstown, Maryland 21136
Read about last year's event.
Information on this year's event.

Just a reminder, I'm looking for a new Vintage Ferrari Project. If you have, or know of a restoration project, please let me know. It would be great to restore another car on this website! My E-mail.

4/24/09: 7919: Head Installation, Spark Plug Wires

4/23/09
7919: Head Installation, Spark Plug Wires

We got new exhaust valves and spring shims in, so we could continue with the rebuild of 7919's engine. New valve stem seals were installed. Vintage Ferrari engines did not originally have these valve stem seals and relied only on the clearance of the valve guide to keep oil out of the combustion chamber. With about 50K miles of wear, oil would easily leak past the valve guides, and burn up in the cylinders. By installing valve guides made with modern materials and a synthetic rubber valve stem seal, rebuilt Ferrari engines smoke a lot less and last a lot longer between rebuilds.

The springs and keepers went on next. François showed me his technique, and it took me several tries before I got the hang of his spring compressor tool, but by the time I got to valve 24, I had it down pat!

Next came the rocker assemblies, but we found a slight problem. The history of this engine is suspect, so occasionally we'll run into issues that need to be fixed before we can continue with the rebuild. Some of the studs that hold the rocker assemblies to the heads came up short. Someone may have exchanged a stud or two for shorter ones. The force of the cam lobes working against these nuts could force these studs to strip if there is not enough thread to hold things together, so we had to look for longer studs.

After the rocker stud issue was resolved, we installed the heads. François worked with me closely, installing these heads to show where I may have made the mistakes on my 330 engine. Practice makes perfect, or at least leak free!

We found more mismatched valve cover studs, including a threaded rod for one of them. There are supposed to be two pairs of long studs that secure the spark plug tubes to the valve covers, but there were a couple extra ones in this batch. Long studs in the wrong places will ruin the acorn nuts that secure the valve covers by popping the tops off of the nut, so getting this right will, um..be right.

Although we still have to time the cams and distributors in, I installed the valve covers and spark plug tubes to get a jump on installing new spark plug wires.

The wires that came on this engine before the rebuild are a little garish, and just won't do for a Vintage Ferrari.

New grommets, wires, and o-rings were installed, and are ready to fire this V-12 up when it's time.

The intakes and carburetors went on, and it's looking very nice. I think Art will like what he sees.

MARK THE DATE: Saturday, May 2nd 2009
The Tomyang.net/ Radcliffe Motorcars Spring Event
12340 Owings Mills Boulevard
Reisterstown, Maryland 21136
Read about last year's event.
Information on this year's event.

Just a reminder, I'm looking for a new Vintage Ferrari Project. If you have, or know of a restoration project, please let me know. It would be great to restore another car on this website! My E-mail.

4/23/09: Bad News about my 330 America

4/23/09
Bad News on my 330 America

I went to work earlier this week to find out a big problem with my car. There was a bad coolant leak from my engine, and I would have to remove the heads again to fix it!! It looks like I was so worried about leaks from the head gaskets on this engine, that I didn't pay enough attention to sealing two o-rings between the heads and the timing case. François chided me in not checking for these leaks before assembling the rest of the engine, and found the leaks when he filled the radiator with coolant. I noticed he was letting me work on my own car largely unsupervised, perhaps to let me loose on my own abilities, but I guess I still need a little more supervision! I also guess the best way to learn is from my own mistakes, and this mistake was a valuable one to learn, unfortunately with the expense of my own time and another pair of head gaskets!

To illustrate my mistake, I'll use Art's engine, 7919, to show where the leaks are. This picture shows the engine block with the timing case installed, just as mine was with my engine still in the car. After the head gasket is installed, the head is slid down on the head studs into place.

There are two grooves where the o-rings sit to seal each head to the water passages in the timing case. With 250 and 330 Ferrari engines, these o-rings seal only by the force of the timing case pressed against the heads. When these engines were new, the freshly machined parts fit together perfectly without sealant, but after years of service, a little (maybe a lot) of silicone sealant is needed on these o-rings to help with the sealing. The other trick is to keep the o-ring in place as the heads are lowered into place with a thin piece of shim stock. Evidently, I did something wrong, and the leaks are emanating from this juncture.

Needless to say, I was pretty disappointed with myself, especially since I was looking at about 20 hours of work to fix the problem and I would probably NOT be taking the 330 America to Radcliffe/Tomyang.net Spring Party. With working on other jobs at the shop, and the party looming in a week, there just wouldn't be enough time to get the car ready. I've had worse set backs, but I'm pretty bummed!

MARK THE DATE: Saturday, May 2nd 2009
The Tomyang.net/ Radcliffe Motorcars Spring Event
12340 Owings Mills Boulevard
Reisterstown, Maryland 21136
Read about last year's event.
Information on this year's event.

Just a reminder, I'm looking for a new Vintage Ferrari Project. If you have, or know of a restoration project, please let me know. It would be great to restore another car on this website! My E-mail.

4/18/09: Year One Car Show

4/18/09
The Year One Car Show

When I met Alan Boe at Road Atlanta, I heard Year One was holding one of their monthly car shows that Saturday, so managed to convince my family to make one more stop before heading home!

I had a chance to see the Year One "Bandit," a tribute to the "Smokey and the Bandit" Trans Am from the late 70s, only Year One seems to be rewriting history! In 1979, the most power you could get out of one of these cars was 220 horsepower, and that was from a 400 cubic inch big block! Thanks to power robbing smog controls, and GM's inability to make horsepower with these restrictions, Late 70s Trans Ams were pretty sorry. Even the huge screaming chicken on the hood didn't make these cars any faster. Thirty years later, Year One offers these rebuilt Firebirds with 600 horsepower under the hood!

Parked between all the American iron was one brave Ferrari and the Boe's at her defense! The only other Italian in the parking lot was a Maserati Bi-Turbo.

MARK THE DATE: Saturday, May 2nd 2009
The Tomyang.net/ Radcliffe Motorcars Spring Event
12340 Owings Mills Boulevard
Reisterstown, Maryland 21136
Read about last year's event.
Information on this year's event.

Just a reminder, I'm looking for a new Vintage Ferrari Project. If you have, or know of a restoration project, please let me know. It would be great to restore another car on this website! My E-mail.

4/17/09: Ferrari Challenge at Road Atlanta and Alan Boe's GTE

4/17/09
Ferrari Challenge at Road Atlanta and Alan Boe's GTE

On my southern trip to Georgia, we swung through Atlanta on our way back to New York. The same weekend The Ferrari Challenge was being held at Road Atlanta, and David Seibert of Ferrari North America was nice enough to arrange my access to the event.

Ferrari Historian Alan Boe agreed to meet me at the track and brought out his 250 GTE 3339. Alan has owned this car for over 30 years and it was nice to see a Vintage Ferrari parked among all the modern Ferraris in the paddock.

This GTE was painted about 10 years ago, with the some of the chrome replated, but it's a largely untouched car. Alan showed me some of the details that were unique to this car, some of which I spotted immediately.

Neither Alan nor I have ever seen tail lights on another car that looked like the ones on SN 3339. The bottom portion of the light where the clear reverse light would normally be had a red reflector.

With only the front seats re-upholstered, this GTE had it's original interior details intact, along with some more unique features.

The electrical switches were not the normal round push/pull knobs found on most GTEs, but rather had plastic rocker switches found in a Series I 330. The vent levers also look like they came from a later car. With no sign these were modifications done after the car left the factory, Alan and I can only assume they were installed from new. Perhaps the best theory is Ferrari was experimenting with new switches slated for the Series I 330s by installing them in this GTE while it was going down the assembly line.

Another interesting detail was the vent knobs below the dash. These are flat plastic knobs on my car but seem to be brass or some kind of bronze on this GTE.

It was hard to get a decent shot of the engine compartment in the bright Georgia sun, but everything was neat and clean.

Alan invited me to come with him down the road from the racetrack to see Graham Everett Motorsports. Graham was working on Alan's low mileage 1979 Porsche 930 Turbo. It's a beautiful Gulf Blue 911 that's another original car in the Boe collection.

Graham works largely on air cooled 911s, and had several projects in the shop.

MARK THE DATE: Saturday, May 2nd 2009
The Tomyang.net/ Radcliffe Motorcars Spring Event
12340 Owings Mills Boulevard
Reisterstown, Maryland 21136
Read about last year's event.
Information on this year's event.

Just a reminder, I'm looking for a new Vintage Ferrari Project. If you have, or know of a restoration project, please let me know. It would be great to restore another car on this website! My E-mail.

4/13/09: Meeting Andy Greene in Savannah, GA

4/13/09
Meeting Andy Greene in Savannah, GA

I took a week off and headed south for a week with my family. I have been visiting my sister in Savannah, GA for years but have never had a chance to visit a shop owned by Andy Greene. Andy is a Ferrari mechanic that opened a shop in Savannah over 20 years ago called Andy Greene Sports and Vintage Race Cars, LLC.

Andy cut his teeth on Ferraris in the Washington DC area, but opened his own shop in Georgia after falling in love with the area. Here's a 330 GTC engine he's building for a customer in California.

Although he prefers to work on the older cars, newer Ferraris can be found in the shop.

Greene's shop works on different makes and models, doing full restorations to race preparing cars for the track.

It was nice diversion from my vacation. Thanks Andy for the visit!

MARK THE DATE: Saturday, May 2nd 2009
The Tomyang.net/ Radcliffe Motorcars Spring Event
12340 Owings Mills Boulevard
Reisterstown, Maryland 21136
Read about last year's event.
Information on this year's event.

Just a reminder, I'm looking for a new Vintage Ferrari Project. If you have, or know of a restoration project, please let me know. It would be great to restore another car on this website! My E-mail.

4/11/09: 5053: Getting the Heads Back On

4/11/09
5053: Getting the Heads Back On

With the May 2nd Radcliffe/Tomyang.net party looming, I really needed to take some time away from my paying jobs to put my 330 America's heads back on the car. Francois had some time last week to check my cam timing in relation to the actual timing marks and set everything for the optimum performance, so I could now continue with the putting the rest of the engine together.

After a whole day of work I completed the following tasks:
1. Retorqued heads and rocker assemblies.
2. Installed headers and header heat shields.
3. Frantically found a set of valve cover gaskets for my 330 that Francois had in his stash after finding out the wrong ones were sent to me by our supplier!
4. Trimmed the gasket set to fit the valve covers.
5. Installed cam chain covers and cam covers using sealant in the right places to insure no oil leaks.
6. Installed distributors with some sealant to avoid leaks.
7. Checked carburator accelerator jets for clogs
8. Cleaned and installed intake manifolds.
9. Installed carbs.
10. Gapped and installed spark plugs
11. installed spark plug wire tubes and wires
12. Installed throttle linkage
13. Drained oil and installed oil filters.

The last few things that needed to be done was to get the fuel rail installed, add new oil and add coolant. I sent the fuel rail out for re-chroming and it should be back by next week, so we're very close to firing up the engine. Francois wants some time to tune the carbs and check the timing of the engine, and I will want a couple of days to drive and check the car over before taking her down to Maryland for the party. It's coming down to the wire, but I hope it all comes together!

MARK THE DATE: Saturday, May 2nd 2009
The Tomyang.net/ Radcliffe Motorcars Spring Event
12340 Owings Mills Boulevard
Reisterstown, Maryland 21136
Read about last year's event.
Information on this year's event.

Just a reminder, I'm looking for a new Vintage Ferrari Project. If you have, or know of a restoration project, please let me know. It would be great to restore another car on this website! My E-mail.

4/10/09: The Radcliffe/Tomyang.net Party is Getting Close!

4/10/09
The Radcliffe/Tomyang.net Party is Getting Close!

It's just a few weeks away to the 2nd Annual, May 2nd, Radcliffe Motorcars/Tomyang.net Spring Event. If you've been to Radcliffe Motorcar's website, you would have seen a pre-registration form to insure you can get into the show with your car, and we are just about filled up! If you're planning on bringing your car, Call Richard Garre now 410-517-1681.

We easily have 50 cars of various makes and models pre-registered, and may have at least one of every Ferrari 2+2 made, along with some 2 seaters! We've invited vendors to give demonstrations and answer questions you may have about your car or particular problem. If you're in the market for a Vintage Ferrari, I can't think of a better event to attend to talk to owners and see these cars parked next to one another for comparisons. The only cost will be if you want to show your car, but the event is free to spectators, so I guarantee a good time.

I'll be going down to the Maryland area a couple days before the event and will be staying at the Hunt Valley Embassy Suites. If anyone wants to get together for a drink on Friday night, let me know.

4/4/09: April Road Trip

4/4/09
April Road Trip

I got a call from my friend Mike to go and see a car he just bought. The last bit of winter has not left the northeast, so Mike had the car delivered to Radcliffe Motorcars, the location of the May party. I could use some "face time" with Richard about the upcoming party, so I jumped at the chance to tag along.

The first stop was Rollin' Bones in Binghamton, NY, a custom Motorcycle shop that has been featured in some national magazines. Mike had some chopper parts laying around his garage and had sold them through the bike shop.

Although I'm not a biker, I can really appreciate the craftsmanship.

A neat thing about these kind of bikes is the mechanicals are usually left exposed for the world to see. There's always a lot for my eyes to explore.

In Maryland, we saw Mike's new car for the first time. He was looking for a decent driver, but this car was more than that. The engine compartment was nicely detailed, the interior was new, and the paint was fresh and presentable. This car was ready for spring cruises and local show-n-shines. Now all we need is some dry weather to bring this girl home!

On the way back north on Saturday morning I stopped in Philadelphia to meet Tim McNair at the Simeone Collection at the Philly Airport. Tim is a local detailer that owns GranPrix and is often called upon to detail cars at the Simeone Collection. I couldn't have asked for a better host!

The Simeone Collection is a museum that has only been for the past several months. The collection of cars began with Dr. Fred Simeone's father and continues today with some of the rarest and significant cars in racing history.

Dr. Simeone and local artist have done a great job creating murals and dioramas of significant automotive events. The backdrop of the Bonneville Salt Flats displays some cars that actually raced on the Flats. Tim knew many small details of each of these cars filling in the blanks the plaques could not tell!

The Daytona coupe on the end not only had an interesting life in competition, but continued making news decades after it's first win. Just "google" "Phil Spector Daytona" and you'll hear a story that you just can't make up!

The wonderful displays that showcase these cars have come a long way from Dr. Simeone's old garage. People who have known Dr. Simeone told me that his large collection of cars used to be stored in cold dark warehouse in Philly. He was always happy to give personal tours of his cars to car clubs and enthusiasts, but having them in this new facility has really brought these cars into the light literally and figuratively!

Spanning the decades of racing history the LeMans pit row has room for some fantastic 12 cylinder Porsches and Ferraris.

I think if I had to pick a favorite car, it would have to be this one. It's a 1937 Bugatti 57G "Tank." It won LeMans in 1937, and this is the only one that survives of the three that were made. Although it echoed the Art Deco Movement of it's time, the shape of this automobile was not seen on other cars for years!

Make plans to visit the Simeon Collection if you're ever in Philadelphia. It's well worth the trip. Since 90% of these cars are running and driving, I heard that on certain saturdays, cars will be run on the three acre parking lot in the back of the museum. Now that would be worth the trip alone!

Thanks to Tim and his friend Doug for spending the time with me and Mike and taking us on the tour of the museum. It's a place I will definitely be returning!

MARK THE DATE: Saturday, May 2nd 2009
The Tomyang.net/ Radcliffe Motorcars Spring Event
12340 Owings Mills Boulevard
Reisterstown, Maryland 21136
Read about last year's event.
Information on this year's event.

Just a reminder, I'm looking for a new Vintage Ferrari Project. If you have, or know of a restoration project, please let me know. It would be great to restore another car on this website! My E-mail.