7/8/04
Window Crank Assemblies

On my last entry, I was complaining about how long the last bits of this restoration was taking, Today was was good example of why things are taking so long. I’ve been collecting the pieces necessary to put the window cranks together for the car, and I finally got to a point where I could put the window cranks on the doors.

Of the two different springs I bought, I found one to work better than the other after some modifications. The base needed to be wider to fit in the larger base, and the cone shape allowed the spring to collapse onto itself when compressed.

I soon ran into a problem with the key that is supposed to keep the crank attached to the window crank shaft.

With the key in place, it catches a grove in the splined shaft. The escutcheon is supposed to keep this key in place with the spring.

If you remember, I only had one original escutcheon, and the inner diameter is fine for the window crank, but…

the reproduction a friend of mine had made, has a larger inner diameter! This escutcheon will not keep the key from falling out. I had to find another way to make this part work.

For other cars, I’ve seen these clips used to hold the window cranks in place. The design of the crank is slightly different, but I felt I could modify these enough to make them work for a Ferrari crank. Luckily for me East Coast Trim had these clips in stock for me to experiment with!

After some fitting, and fiddling, I came up with this shape.

The clip snaps in place, and does a great job holding the crank in place. With the wider escutcheon, it hides the clip pretty well, so one side got this set up, while the other side of the car used the original method.

The Window Cranks are now mounted, and look pretty good. I have to work a little on the vent window knobs, but I’ll save that for next time.

Since I mounted the rear ashtray last time, I went ahead and mounted the front one today. The transmission tunnel is still a little wrinkled but it smoothing out with every passing week. I left it folded in my apartment for the last several months, so it got some wrinkles. Hopefully they’ll go away with time. I also believe leather as a tendency to shrink a bit as it ages, so this will work to my benefit.

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