4/27/01 Collecting Parts for the Big Day

One thing about car restoration that is paramount is the collection of parts. Sometimes parts do not arrive on time, or something needs to be checked before ordering, and the process of restoration can stall. Today was one of those days when not a lot got done because I didn’t have parts to work with.

I wanted to order heater vent hoses this week for the heater assembly I installed a few weeks ago. Partsource has the hose, but I forgot to measure the inner diameter of the various hoses I would need, so I had to wait until I got back to the shop to measure the ducts so Geoff could get me the right hose. The defroster hoses are 40 mm I.D., and the fresh air hoses are 60 mm., so with this information, I can call Partsourse on Monday, and place my order. This project will have to wait until next week.

Geoff did send me a new master cylinder for my brakes, but before the MC can be installed, I still needed to get some more parts for it. François had an old brake light switch (installed on the right side of the master cylinder) but it needs to be checked to see if it still works. François says that this part is no longer available, but a certain VW switch can be modified to work in this application if this one does not.

The next thing I needed to find was the the push rod that inserts into the other side of the MC. François, like most mechanics, has a junk box full of miscellaneous hardware, and he remembers vaguely seeing an extra push-rod in there. I sat down, rolled up my sleeves, and began digging. A few years ago, this drawer of hardware would have looked like a bunch of greasy, dirty bolts, but now having worked on my Ferrari, I can spot all sorts of recognizable Ferrari parts!

Today, I was lucky. In five minutes, I found the push-rod!

The brake calipers also arrived in the mail this week. Originally, I thought François was going to have White Post Restorations do the resleeving, but he sent them to another specialist in Georgia instead. The bores were sleeved in bronze, and the Lucas rubber seals were included to complete the reassembly.

Back at my shop, I tried to find another project to keep myself busy. I decided to work on the door sill plates again. These aluminum pieces were anodized when they were new, but have gotten quite scuffed up over the years. Re-anodizing aluminum is almost impossible with good results, so the only option is to remove the old anodizing and buff the pieces to a high shine. The concept is easy, the process is not.

The anodizing process makes aluminum slightly harder than it’s normal state, and is only a few thousandths of an inch thick, but sanding it all off is not so easy. I do not want to use too coarse of a sand paper because I will only have to sand even more material away to remove the sanding marks, but removing the harder layers of anodizing is a slow process with 220 grit sandpaper. I soon ran out of sandpaper, and had to stop for the day. Next week: more sanding!

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