The new parts arrived in the mail for the clutch hydraulics and a new push rod came with the package. The original one was a cut short, but when I compare the dimensions, there were other discrepancies. With the new parts of the slave cylinder in place, I found the longer push rod was hitting the floor pan of the car near the transmission, but there were more problems. Since the old clutch slave had failed, I could not check the amount of free play in the clutch, but with the new slave in place, I could see the clutch adjustment was at it’s wear limit. There was not a lot of life left in this clutch. I don’t know what was worse, telling the owner he was going to need a new clutch, or that I would have to wrestle this huge 5-speed gearbox out of this car!

I took the brakes apart for this 330 for rebuilding. They will get rebuilt with new seals and sleeves if necessary. The frames and brackets will get cleaned and plated as well.

Since the interior would have to come out to move the transmission, I went ahead and removed the seats for my upholsterer to take a look at what could be done with the seats. On closer inspection, we could see the whole interior was dyed to match a replacement cushion, but we couldn’t find a good color to match. I started to wonder how close this dyed interior was to the original blue interior that came with the car. I remembered I have blue interior in my parts stash, and I was pretty sure it was un-dyed, so I grabbed a piece and brought it down to the shop.

The dyed interior is significantly darker than the original color. I know the original panel is a little dirty, but what a difference. I’ll have to speak to the owner to see what direction we’re going from here.

Technical note:
I will try to take more of these pictures next time after I white balance the camera to lock in the color. Most of us set color balance on our digital cameras on auto and forget about it, and it works pretty well most of the time. Photoshop can fix slight variations, but when taking pictures like this which is predominantly one color, the camera will try to over compensate which will throw out the color balance. Look in the lower left corner and notice how yellow it is. The CCD in the camera was adding a lot of yellow trying its best to get the blue in the picture to go neutral. So what you’re seeing in this picture is the difference between the two blues, but not the actual blue. I’ll re shoot next week with a locked in white balance for a truer color.
I’m amazed how many color decisions are made with photos taken with a digital camera, and worse a cell phone, but maybe having a degree in photography is knowing too much!

It’s already April, so don’t forget about the 8th annual Tomyang.net/Radcliffe Spring Car Show!

May 2, 2015

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

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

I just registered my 330 America for the FCA event and booked the transport!