Still Looking for that Center Console!



I’ve been calling around for the last several weeks to all the usual suspects looking for a center console for a SII 330 I have at my shop, not having much success. Here’s a picture of one that belongs to another car so you know what I’m looking for.

My first choices to call in the States would be T Rutlands or Partsource. Rutlands started business years ago from FAF when Ted Rutlands started selling Ferrari parts. Rutlands was purchased by Motion Products in Wisconsin a few years ago about the same time Ted passed away and most of its inventory was moved out of Atlanta. There was a large stash of used parts that was moved, and Motion Product continues to buy inventory around the country. The phone staff at T Rutlands is the access point to these parts. Partsource is run by Geof Ohland, and his business stemmed from Chinetti Motors in Greenwich CT, the North American Distributor of Ferrari since the 50s! Ohland had been single handedly selling parts for Ferraris out of Camden Maine. I know Geof has a stash of used parts, so he’s always on my list to call when looking for parts. Another person on my call list would be Tom Shaughnessy. Shaughnessy is another one man operation, but deals mostly in parts and some reproduction tools for the Vintage Ferrari tool kits. He’s bi-coastal these days, and if you thought he was a hard man to reach in the past, try him now! I’ve had luck with Tom in the past because his hoard, uh collection, of parts, is from years of collecting with varying degrees of selling. I’m still waiting to Tom to take a look in his California warehouse for a center console!

Speaking of Vintage Ferrari stashes, another oft forgotten company is Mostly British in Chaumont NY. Fred Petroski ran a British Parts company up by Lake Ontario, but loved Vintage Ferraris. He bought and sold all sorts of Vintage Parts and amassed quite a collection of parts. I visited Fred years ago to take a look at shelves and shelves of gauges, trim pieces, and chopped up Vintage Ferraris. I even bought a whole nose section to a SI 330 to ship to Europe to help with a restoration. Unfortunately, Fred passed away several years ago, leaving his wife Paula the business and the task of selling the parts. A lot of the parts have been sold, and since they’re really not buying anymore, the pickings are slim, but it’s still worth Calling Mostly British.

A fourth stash I know of in States is GT Car Parts in AZ. Bill Young is another one man show selling parts for Vintage Ferraris. He’s not an easy man to reach, let alone ask to look through his parts stash while is phone is ringing from paying customers looking for tune up parts! Luckily I have a friend Ed Montini, who lives near GT Car Parts and visits Young on a regular basis. Ed restores Vintage Ferraris, and even owns a SII 330, so he knew exactly what I was looking for and could poke around Bill’s parts stash with relaxed permission. Even with great help from Ed, we still didn’t find one!

I have cast the net even wider to England and Europe looking for this console by calling Suzie Pilkington, of the Pilkington Glass, a company her father started making automotive glass. Many Vintage Ferraris were bought, sold, and parted out while the father was collecting and now Suzie is trying to liquidate the parts. Her father dealt with mostly 250 parts, but there are a few 330 parts mixed in, but unfortunately I had no luck with Suzie.

I was told Ital-Spares in Germany had parted out some 330s and reached out to them a couple of weeks ago and turned up blank. I’m running out of the leads I was suggested, and am asking for everyone to think a little harder to help find this elusive center console. I know somewhere in the world there is a parted out SII 330 where the center console is waiting to be rescued and put back into a 330 again, but where?

I have a plan “B” if I fail to find a good used one, and that is to fabricate a new one from scratch. It will take some more work than reupholstering a used one, but it’s all possible. Since I have this original one that will be restored and reupholstered for another car, I can either have it scanned and 3-D printed, or have a mold taken off the original one to make a fiberglass copy. Either technique is a viable option, but one I would only take after searching the world over for a good original one!