1/13/09
The Final Push for 3553, Part One

This was the last full week before we had to send the car to South Florida for the Cavallino Classic. The list of to-dos were getting shorter, but we were still pretty busy. On my last entry, I forgot to photograph the finished brake reservoir cap, so here it is. Strike that off the list!

The peeling paint was addressed, and I think the repair was successful. We blended the paint so it would match what was painted on the rest of the under hood area.

What the heck is this you ask? It’s the oil pan! As I went to drain the oil on this car, I found an incorrect drain plug with some slivers of aluminum around it! This was not a comforting sight, and a stripped oil pan drain plug was confirmed when I went to tighten the plug. These aluminum pans are very susceptible to stripping, and we had to pull the pan and rethread the pan plug hole. Luckily, this is one of the only repairs on a Vintage Ferrari that is straight forward. The bottom half of the oil pan drops straight down after unbolting all the nuts. We also lucked out by having an oil pan gasket in stock. Even though this repair only set us back a couple of hours, it was not what I wanted to do with only a few days left before our deadline!

With new oil, and Baldwin Filters installed, the car was ready for a test drive!

It’s been very cold here in the Northeast this past couple of days, and there was a fresh four inches of snow on the ground from earlier in the week, but the roads were clear and dry. With snow forecast in the evening, we took our window of opportunity to drive this GTE.

As François drove, I checked all the gauges from the passenger seat. I started a mental list of little things we still needed to address. My life has been all about making lists and crossing the items off as I completed them. As one list got shorter, this drive was adding more things to the list! I was happy to feel the overdrive kicking in on command, and the Ammeter flicking in the right direction. Electrical gremlins often arise in cars that sit for long periods of time, and I was happy to see nothing major to fix. One problem I had to address was the large draft of fresh air coming in from the passenger side foot well. The control knob was not moving, so I had to endure the freezing cold air on my ankles until we got back to the shop!

The engine oil and water temperature gauges barely moved off their pegs because it was so cold, but the car performed well. Once we got her back inside, I got back to crossing off the items on the list!

Just a reminder, I’m looking for a new Vintage Ferrari Project. If you have, or know of a restoration project, please let me know. It would be great to restore another car on this website! My E-mail.

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