5/29/01 Fuel Pickup and Exhaust Shields

I gave François the brass tube I got for the fuel pickup, and as I was busy doing something else at his shop, he soldered the new tube in place of the old one. I didn’t even have time to photograph the process!

Last week I saw a set of exhaust shields for sale on E-bay, and I seriously thought about bidding on them to replace the missing ones on my car. After further investigation, I found out they were incorrect for my car, so I passed on the auction. François and other Ferrari restorers feel that this is an item that can be made from scratch, so I decided to give it a shot.

The ones pictured above are off an early 330 GT 2+2. I attached my exhaust headers to the engine, and tried them on for size. The attachment points, and access holes line up well, so I will be using these as a template for my replacements. These shields are made up of two layers of aluminum, with a heat resistant material sandwiched in between. The edges of one side are folded over to hold the three layers together. The other detail is in the scallops where the spark plugs go.

As with any hand made piece, there are several was to go about copying the details. If I were make several sets, I would cut out two plywood templates, and hammer the edges over the sandwiched wood, but since I will only need one, François showed me how to work the aluminum with simple pliers on a piece of scrap.

The scallops are marked, and hammered into shape using whatever is in the shop that will make the right profile. With some patience and time, you can see the aluminum taking the shape that we want. To make a clean scallop, I may cut some wood to get the shape just right.

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