2/11/12
GTS Floors, GTE Engine

Jay completed the floors on the 275GTS this week, and he did a stellar job. We dissected each piece and he methodically recreated each part exactly. Jay was so conscientious about “doing the way the factory did,” I had to request minor modifications to improve the original work. Pininfarina did not do the neatest work on the floors, and many cars from this era had horrible water traps. I felt we wanted a nice floor pan replacement that looked exactly like an original floor, but fixed some of the inherent problems so there would not be future problems with rust.

Jay coated all the surfaces with weld-through primer, and painted all the bare steel surfaces with paint which was more than what was done 40 years ago.

You can see the bracket on the right side of the picture in both before and after pictures for reference. Jay patched a hole in the inner rocker blown through by an errant torch when this car was being built. The rest of the area was found to be very solid.

Seam sealer was applied, and gaps filled so water could not get inside the car from outside.

More sections were fabricated to match the original panels. Like all of us, new jobs give us more excuses to buy more specialty tools, so needless to say, Jay’s metal forming tool box is growing.

The new panels were cleaned up and prepped for the next step. 

Jay fabricated a pair of seat rail mounts that will need to be welded in place with the original pair that we’ll reuse. I’ll get the seats back from the upholsterer and mount these to the rails to insure a perfect fit before we weld them to the new floors. We’ll finish this job after the rest of the car gets stripped and prepped.

On the other side of the shop, I made good progress on the survivor GTE. The carbs were painted, rebuilt, and assembled, and the linkages were adjusted and connected.

As the engine details were assembled, we found small items that needed to be sourced and purchased. Even though this car came largely complete, there were still a bunch of parts missing. Items like a fuel rail, throttle linkages, clips, and ball sockets were collected. I still need to find the cap nuts to secure the fuel rail, and the correct acorn nuts that secure the intake manifolds. We’re getting close to firing this engine up for the first time in over 40 years!

A client of mine has a Lusso Transmission for sale. It’s a 250 4-speed transmission. If anyone is interested, let me know.

Reminder: If you have a Ferrari related project, car, or idea you’d like to explore, I’d love to talk to you. I can also help if you’re thinking of buying or selling. This website represents what I love to do, and now it’s how I make a living, so if you’d like to do something together, let me know. It all begins with an e-mail!

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