A Series I 330 was delivered to the shop the other day because the brake pedal went to the floor. The new owner bought this car from a customer of mine about a year ago, and it’s been about four years since I last saw this car. It was nice to see an old friend, and to see she’s still in good shape. The previous owner didn’t but a lot of miles on this car, but the new owner has big plans for his Vintage V-12 Ferrari!

This car was restored sometime in its past life, and from the evidence, probably done sometime in the 90s. Things are holding up well except for a few details like a crumbling seat cushion. We’ll have to see if it’s possible to re stuff the seats, or will it require a complete rebuild. The previous upholsterer reused the old foam which was probably already crumbling from age, and is only getting worse 20 years on. The trick will be to match the red leather if new seat covers will have to be made.

The engine compartment will be the biggest focus of my attention. The owner’s complaint is when the hood is opened, it shows a very crusty engine compartment. When I worked on this car last, I did a valve adjustment and carburetor tune, but the previous owner didn’t mind all the rusty bits. It’s all cosmetic, but will require me to take a lot of parts off the engine, clean, blast, paint, or re plate.

The good thing is the engine compartment is not missing a lot of original parts. The battery hold down is missing, along with the washer bag, but thankfully no big parts hunt. The valve covers and spark plug tubes, however, are going to have to be wrinkle painted ALL Black!

I pulled the master cylinder from under the pedal box to get the brakes sorted. The bore of the cylinder showed it was sleeved already in stainless steel, so it looked like a seal failed.

This particular master cylinder on a SI 330 is a dual circuit unit with a 1 inch bore. Hopefully new seals will get this car happily down the road.

Since I had the brakes drained of fluid, I wanted repair a “shade tree mechanic” fix of the brake light switch. The original brake light switch mounts on the end of the master cylinder which you can see at the bottom of the picture of the M/C. It must have failed, and the mechanic working on the car discovered this switch was no longer available. His solution was to install a “T” fitting in the engine compartment and install a readily available switch. This repair is such and eyesore and will not work with the plans we have for the engine compartment, but undoing this previous work will not be easy. I will have to replace the front brake line which runs in some very tight places, and modify a replacement brake switch to fit the original location. The last guy took the easy way out, but left us with fixing all his damage!

Mark these Dates!

May 2, 2015
Radcliffe/tomyang.net Spring Car Show

Richard Garre and I have hosted this car show to celebrate all types of machinery, focusing on Italian Cars. There’s parking for about 100 cars, so call Richard early to register a space.

Radcliffe Motorcars
12340 Owings Mills Boulevard
Reisterstown, Maryland 21136
Phone: 410-517-1681

August 15th, 2015

Concorso Italiano

August 17th, 2015

FCA National Event Concours

The Monterey Week in August is starting to build momentum. I heard there will be at least 15 GTE/330 Americas scheduled to attend Concorso. If you want more information, contact

David Wheeler: David@Ferrari250GTE.com

Tom Wilson: tom@ferrari250gte.com