1/19/08
Restoring Resistors

François gave me a box of ignition resistors to find a couple of the best ones for restoration.

Many of them had chips or cracks, but I managed to find a few that were good enough for stripping and painting. I know some owners have had luck filling and fixing these resistors, but we’ll save that process for when we run out of the ones we can simply paint.

Media blasting the paint off the resistors is too strong and would have removed some of the lettering that was cast in the ceramic, so I slowly stripped the paint off with chemical stripper until they were fairly clean.

I lightly coated the resistors with spray paint that I got from Kilimanjaro Designs. Parker supposedly matched this paint with some original untouched resistors, but looking at our box of resistors, none of them had the same shade of red paint! Parker’s paint was close enough, and if he’s selling it as matched to the original, it’ll be good enough for us!

I was careful not to spray too much paint so I wouldn’t loose the detail in the Marelli logo. The paint was still wet when I took this picture, so hopefully, there will still be some evaporation before the paint settles into the details of the lettering.

The next step is to stamp the top of the resistor with the correct stamp. Here’s another resistor with original paint, and the original stamp. Parker had these as well from Kilimanjaro Designs. Once the paint dries, I’ll try my hand at stamping them, and I’ll let you know if there are any special tips Parker has to share.

If you own an old Ferrari, and don’t know who Parker Hall is from Kilimanjaro Designs, you’re missing out on a supplier that has a lot of stuff for your car! Parker makes a lot of the stickers, decals, stamps, and little doodads that finish off a complete restoration of a Vintage Ferrari. He’s not on the internet, but he still publishes a nice catalog. Here’s his contact information that can also be found in my Supplier’s page:

Kilimanjaro Designs, Ltd.
Parker Hall
940 Warrenton Rd.
Vicksburg, MS 39180
(601) 638-7856

Previous Restoration Day
Next Restoration Day
Home page