I’m Back at It!



12/01/00 I’m Back at It!

As promised, I was back on Friday working on my car. It was very relaxing to go up to the Ferrari in the quiet of the shop, after the last hectic weeks.

I stopped by François on the way up to my shop to pick up his snap ring pliers. They made easy work of removing the rear seal of the transmission. Once I find a replacement seal, the transmission will be finally ready to be installed.

A fellow restorer came to my rescue on a tip for painting my horns. If you remember, I was looking for a method to recreate the translucent red coating used to paint the FIAMM horns. I asked around on the Internet with no response, and even asked some local professionals, but no real clues came my way. Then I received a tip from Bard Wolfe. He used a “Testors Candy Apple Red” model paint found at hobby shops with decent results. Ah-Ha! It was the best idea yet!

I stopped by a hobby shop to look for this paint, but they were out of “Testors,” but had another brand. It was a lacquer paint, but I figured it was worth a try, and bought the small can.

Back at the shop I realized that for the translucent paint to work, the metal horns would have to be buffed to a high shine. Any scratches would surly show through the semi-transparent paint. I proceeded to sand the horns with 600 grit sand paper.

After sanding I buffed the two horns to a bright shine. I took out my Dremel tool to buff down inside the horns where the buffing wheel couldn’t reach. I wiped everything down with lacquer thinner, and began spraying on the paint. A thick coat had to spayed on so the paint would flow correctly, but I had to be careful not to let the paint run. After painting one horn, I was pretty satisfied with the color, and the finish, so I continued painting the second horn. The next time I’m up a the shop, I’ll spray on another coat of paint to give it a darker, richer tone.

François is going to pick up my chrome work on Monday, so the next phase of my restoration can commence. I’ll have to order window channel seals, and window felts. François showed me the difference in window felts, and explained that these were the correct ones to get. His regular supplier only has a later model window felt, without a chrome strip, but the older Ferraris had this strip. He would try to locate the supplier he used that had this correct felt. I took some pictures, and made some measurements to try my luck out on the Internet. Any ideas?

T-shirt Update!
A large order of blank t-shirts came in the mail the other day, and I’m getting them over to my T-shirt printer. I’m trying my best of get them done and ready to ship for X-mas, but no promises!

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