6/22/13
365GT 2+2 Plating

I definitely felt the looming deadline to finish a 365GT 2+2 that the owner wants to take to the Ferrari Club National Meet. We’ve been waiting for the arrival of windshield gaskets from Italy, but I had a ton of other things to detail for this big show. This week, I installed the grille gasket that was missing on this car. The bumpers were in the way, but I managed to partially move them without pulling them completely off to get the gasket installed. With fresh paint, I hate taking things off unless absolutely necessary and risk scratching or nicking something.

Looking at the car from this angle reminds me how sexy some of the shapes are on a Vintage Ferraris. These organic shapes were all but eliminated from the design language since the mid 70s.

I prepped a batch of Cadmium plating to send to my plater. The cadmium plating process is pretty toxic, and it is getting harder to find people who do it well. I’ve used industrial plating shops to do this kind of work, but they don’t care much about the small batches I send them so there were some big quality control issues. I finally found someone who does it well and cares about his quality. It’s a little more expensive, but worth the results. I’ve got a rush on these parts, so hopefully we’ll get them back soon!

I have another shop that does my black oxide, and delivers the quality I’m looking for. He turned around my batch of black oxide in one day, so there was no stress about deadlines here!

When detailing the engine compartment, I noticed this 365 had the wrong acorn nuts securing the intake manifolds. Newco Products supplies the correct nuts, but they’re not cheap! These nuts have a particular profile, size and thread pitch that is nearly impossible to find. Neil at Newco had these fasteners made from scratch for him and sells them plated and ready to install. Sometimes it’s cheaper for the owner to pay for the big dollar items than to pay me for my time to find a lower cost alternative.

I also love installing something that looks absolutely right without searching the world over for them!

There are six intake manifold studs on a Columbo designed Ferrari V-12, but the last one at the back of the engine takes a plain fine pitch nut finished in black oxide. This is to allow clearance for the vacuum hose that slides into the port above it.

I had some cad plated acorn nuts in stock at the shop, so I was able to install them without waiting for my cad plater, but there are still some larger pieces that will just have to wait.

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 I would be happy to help guide you through the Vintage Ferrari world so if you’d like to do something together, let me know. It all begins with an e-mail!

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