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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