I had new exhaust tips made for the SII 330 we have at the shop by TimeValve Manufacturing in Florida, and they looked great. These pieces are stainless steel with polished tips to look like the chrome ends found on the ANSA tips found on Vintage Ferraris.

The ANSA exhausts are not very durable and have a tendency to rust from the inside out. The owner tried to prevent moisture from building up inside this system by drilling small drain holes at the low points of the exhaust, but you can see from this picture, the rust still occurred. I also feel whatever mild steel they used was also not very high quality, so winning the war against rust on an ANSA system is a loosing battle. The tips are also chrome plated, so as they age, the chrome starts to pit and corrode. No amount of polishing will bring them back, and once the plating fails, there’s no saving them.

There are 4 aluminum spacers on every pair of exhaust hangers on vintage Ferraris, and many of them were missing on this car. There are about 6 hang points per side, so you would need 24 spacers totally.  I don’t know if they’re available in reproduction, but turning a set on a lathe out of aluminum round stock is quicker and easier than spending time on the phone looking for parts and waiting for them to arrive in the mail. The first couple I turned on the lathe had me fixing Francois’ tool stand, but once I had the lathe set up correctly, things came out a lot better!

The aluminum washers replaced a lot of flat washers that were used previously to space out the hangers!

Fitting the exhaust tips required cutting the old tips off, trimming the new tips as close to the old welds as possible, reinstalling the exhaust to line up the length and angle of the exhaust to the body of the car, tacking tips in place, removing the exhaust again to permanently weld the tips all the way around the four pipes, painting the welded areas, and reinstalling the exhaust. I think the results were worth the effort without replacing the complete exhaust system, and the stainless ends should last a lot longer.

The wheels for the SI 330 came back from Precision Wire Wheels and as usual, they looked great! We’re going to be mounting a new set of Pirelli Cinturatos very soon to get the car back on the ground!

The interior of this SI 330 needed some attention and since the crumbling front seats will be addressed by my upholsterer, but I also needed to remove a scuffed piece from inside the car. The rear portion of the transmission tunnel had a scuff right in the middle of the leather cover and was annoying the owner. I wanted to remove the panel to see if my upholsterer could match the leather to replace just this piece, but most of the interior of the car had to come out to get to this piece!

You can just see the scuff in the center of the panel, but with the rest of the interior looking pretty good, it was an eyesore the owner couldn’t stand. I hope we can match this color with leather stock my upholsterer has in his stash instead of ordering a whole hide to replace this piece. Fingers crossed!

Monterey Car Shows

I’m all registered and ready to attend Concorso on Saturday 15th of August and the FCA event on Monday August 17th. Please contact Concorso, or the FCA to register for their respective events.

We’re planning a tailgate party after the show at Concorso to avoid the traffic leaving the show. There’s nothing worse that sitting in bumper to bumper traffic watching the car overheat trying to leave Concorso at the end of the day, so since all the GTEs and 330 Americas will already be parked together, we can stay a little later and leave when the traffic dies down. As always, everyone is invited!

If you want more information on the car shows contact:

David Wheeler, Editor of GTE Newsletter : David@Ferrari250GTE.com

Tom Wilson, Registrar of GTE Newsletter : tom@ferrari250gte.com

Tom Yang, Webmaster of tomyang.net : tom@tomyang.net

At last count, there will be 13 GTEs and 3 330 Americas! If you have one of these cars, don’t miss the opportunity to join us!

Here’s a rough schedule of events:

Thursday August 13th, Tomyang.net Cocktail Party at Quail Lodge 6-9 (I will confirm exact time as I book the venue)

Saturday August 15th, Concorso Italiano Gathering of the GTEs (and 330 Americas)

Monday August 17th, Ferrari Club National Show and Concours.

The Thursday early evening Tomyang.net event is open to all and begins roughly at 5:30 and goes until 8ish. There will be appetizers and a cash bar. It makes a great meeting place to connect with old and new friends and plan for the week ahead. See you there!

I also plan on trying out Twitter again to see if it will work for our group in Monterey. Follow me at tomyangnet on twitter, and you’ll be able to keep up with where we all are over the week. I’ll try to get it started in the next week or so.