10/26/10
Scuff Plates, Shocks, and Stuff

Several years ago, I had a friend of mine make up some scuff plates for 250 and 330 cars. These plates are polished stainless steel, and often lost when the carpets are taken out of a Vintage Ferrari. Mike made a couple extra blanks for me when we made one for my car. The original ones have a bevel to them on three sides, and I decided to talk to Mark at The Panel Shop to teach me how this lip is applied.

In metal fabrication, there are several ways to do the same job, and it doesn’t always need special or expensive tools to get the job done. Mark decided the right tool he had for this job was the “Jenny Machine,” but a simple block of steel and a metal forming hammer could have done the same job.

Mark fitted the appropriate dies onto his machine and forced the plate through the rollers with a hand crank on the other side of the machine, following the outside edge with the guide. After the work was done, Mark explained how the rollers could distort the flat plate, and bolting the piece to a piece of flat steel and hammering the edge down could have done a better job. If we were making dozens of these things, the steel plate might be the way to go!

I filed and sanded the tool marks out of the pieces and began polishing the parts. 

The Houdaille Shocks came back from Apple Hydraulics that go on the PF Coupe, and I painted them in semi gloss black.

I took a look at the cooling system on the GTC, and found a very corroded water neck. Some of this might have been from the offset hose leaking a little bit, so we’ll need to address this area a bit.

Once the powdery corrosion was removed, I found some deep pitting. This is a direct result of infrequent coolant changes. The anti corrosion properties in the coolant breaks down, compounded by not driving the car, causes the coolant to stagnate and corrode the aluminum pipes.

Looking closely, this rot had gone all the way through the pipe with a small pinhole on the inside of the pipe. With a sharp pick, this pinhole soon became a much larger hole. We’ll have to patch this hole before putting everything back together.

Reminder: If you’re looking for a Vintage Ferrari, or have a Vintage Ferrari for sale, please let me know. I would be happy to help you in any way that I can. I am not a broker, but occasionally hear of a good car for sale and can get them to the end user!

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