9/19/03
More Door Panels and Cut Some Rug


Mike Sewell, the person who helped on the grille, came through again and cut the aluminum panels for the door trim.

He did a great job duplicating the original details, even machining new sleeves for the access holes in these panels. This hole is for an emergency crank hole if the car has electric windows. There was an extra step for Mike to figure out how to get this piece to attach to the panel, that I even considered eliminating this piece since my car has manual window cranks. Much to Mike's consternation, I decided to keep everything correct and add the access hole. These sleeves were press fit to the panels and had a slight lip pressed into the sleeve to hold it in place. In the end, Mike figured out a technique that doesn't distort the panel, and give the same lip as the original piece.

This cover slides into the hole, but I only have one. It's a decorative chrome piece that I've noticed missing on a lot of GTEs. This might be another thing that will need to be remanufactured!

I continued insulating the inside of the car, paying close attention to the foot boxes of the car. Having ridden in many Ferraris, one can't help but notice the amount of heat that radiates up into the passenger compartment. In most other cars, the mufflers are hung far back in the car, behind the passenger compartment, but with Ferraris, the muffler cans sit in various positions right under the floor pans of the car. These act like large radiators when the exhaust gases heat the whole system up. Another problem is where the header pipes exit from the V-12 up front. These pipes get very hot, and run right past the feet of the passenger and driver.

When I removed the cover to the pedal box, it revealed one of the collector pipes to the exhaust running right next to the pedal assembly! I could only imagine how hot this area would get if you got stuck in some traffic.

The proximity of the exhaust pipes to the pedals prompted me to take everything out and over the pieces thoroughly with the tar backed "Peel n Seal" stuff. This area may be too hot for the foam, and I figured the tar paper should handle a little more heat...at least until it catches fire!

Here's another upholstery detail: As I cut the various carpets, they should all be cut facing the same direction. The wool threads (pile) of the carpeting lays a certain way as it's attached to its backing. Some carpets will change color if it lays in a different direction. Think of how suede or velvet looks when it you brush the nap of the material. Making sure all the carpets are cut in the same direction insures there is a uniformity to the color of your carpets when they are laid in your car. Here's another detail your upholsterer should be doing if they are good enough to do a Ferrari!

As I was completing my carpets, Frank caught a mistake I made. Since my front carpets were missing, I didn't have a pattern to go by when cutting the new rugs, so I assumed that the front pieces were two pieces (The arrow shows the seam). but Frank told me that this piece is actually one piece. Frank was not with me the whole day, so I had to make some decisions on my own, and this one was a bad one! Luckily I could salvage the the large piece by using it as a mat for the rear floors. Thankfully,  I bought extra carpet!

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