Coupe Rear Suspension and Phillips Head Screws

[Tom Wilson]

So Rudy, does that mean you are voting for black or bare metal?

[Rudy van Daalen Wetters]

Definetly black. I can not see the factory leaving it bare.

Rudy van Daalen Wetters
1963 GTE s/n 4001
1966 330 GT s/n 8705

[T308]

Most of the unmolested cars I've seen have painted latches. As for the screws, I've seen both slotted and phillips.

[T308]

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[T308]

Tom - the photo below comes from the GTE Owners Manual and it looks like the catch and the plate behind it are black. What do you think?

The GTE Manual's a good source for some things, but changes did come after the feature car (s/n 2339) was built in 1960. Some things, like the wrinkle paint over the Fiat label on the brake fluid cap might have been done just for this or on a limited basis. I've seen very original cars with the Fiat label intact.

[kare]

[quote="tyang"]It's was pretty hard to find those sheet metal screws that hold the stainless rain gutters on. I think they were really tiny oval head screws, but it would be interesting to find an original car to tell us if it was flat or phillips.[/quote]Mine are flat oval heads. All four, my cars been apart but I can't see why these would have been changed. Length 5.5 mm, diameter of the head 4.3 mm, diameter of the thread 2.0 mm.

At some time they would run out of screws in a box. Another box was not always of same type. One of my center console switches is Hella. I think the box ran out and the next box held Hella switches. It has a date stamp 10/61 (my car was completed in 02/62) so I think it is original.

Last winter a friend parked his 355 in my garage. Soon I noticd that when assembling the interior trim, the dude working on left side of assembly line had been using different type of screws than the one working on the right side. If this was going on in 1997 then... Best wishes, kare

[John Vardanian]

Here's my two cents on screw heads. Most of the Italian cars I've owned or repaired, up to approximately 1964 to 1965 used slotted screw heads. Somewhere around 64 or 65 Italian car manufactures appeared to have switched. My 61 Giulietta Sprint Speciale uses slotted screws everywhere. In fact when I restored the interior I had to find slotted screws for the door panels and other areas. Yet on the 66 330GT they are all phillips. By the way this is true for Lancia, Maserati and even Fiat of that era. The exact date for the chnage may be difficult to find.


Richard Garre, Radclife Motorcar Company

My Lusso is a late 64 model and it has Phillips head screws on the door panels.

[JAV]

I hate to make the water murky- but my 1964 Lusso (I don't kow if it's late or early) has slotted screws in the door panels.

[8339]

All these details get murky as time goes on. How many times has a door panel been removed to fix something or any other panel with slotted screws originally. Slotted pan head screws are also not easy to come by unless you know where to get them, so alot of shops and or mechanics through the years grabbed the most convenient fastner. On top of that, Italian car manufacturers used whatever was on the shelf that day. It's the classic story of a red wire becoming a blue wire half way thorugh the harness because the factory ran out of red wire. This is what makes these cars so much fun!


Richard Garre, Radcliffe Motorcar Company

[kare]

[quote="8339"]It's the classic story of a red wire becoming a blue wire half way thorugh the harness because the factory ran out of red wire.[/quote]Finding this kind of messing on a 50 year old car, I would not dare to bet a penny on it came out of the factory like that.

I don't think I've found many slotted pan head screws on my car. Most of them are phillips and thank god the standard hasn't changed; the same type screws are still available at the local hardware store. Oval heads are harder to come by, but luckily most marine shops stock them.

Best wishes, Kare

[330GT]

It's the classic story of a red wire becoming a blue wire half way thorugh the harness because the factory ran out of red wire.

Finding this kind of messing on a 50 year old car, I would not dare to bet a penny on it came out of the factory like that.

I don't think I've found many slotted pan head screws on my car. Most of them are phillips and thank god the standard hasn't changed; the same type screws are still available at the local hardware store. Oval heads are harder to come by, but luckily most marine shops stock them.

Best wishes, Kare

Kare, you need to enable BBCode in your profile to get the quoting to work right. Go to the User Control Panel, select the Board Preferences tab and then Edit Posting Defaults on the left. Click the Yes for Enable BBCode by default.

[daffy]

Toolkits from 330 series I and series II have two straight blade screwdrivers and 2 philips screwdrivers.
Maybe they found out that the cars had both kind of screws when they made the toolkits.

Dag

[tyang]

O.K., after looking at T308s pictures, and seeing Michael Greenspan's unrestored 330 America this weekend, I agree that the latch mechanism should be black for most (we can never be 100% sure with these cars!) GTEs and 330 Americas. Thanks to everyone for looking and contributing. Now what I'd like to survey is PF coupes. SN1747 has its latch mechanism unpainted. This car is unrestored. Perhaps Pininfarina started painting these latches after making PF Coupes? Your ideas are greatly appreciated!

Tom

[330GT]

O.K., after looking at T308s pictures, and seeing Michael Greenspan's unrestored 330 America this weekend, I agree that the latch mechanism should be black for most (we can never be 100% sure with these cars!) GTEs and 330 Americas. Thanks to everyone for looking and contributing. Now what I'd like to survey is PF coupes. SN1747 has its latch mechanism unpainted. This car is unrestored. Perhaps Pininfarina started painting these latches after making PF Coupes? Your ideas are greatly appreciated!

Tom

Here is a picture of the latch assembly on 2017, a platinum winning coupe. I believe that the actual latch and backing plate are cad plated. At least, that's how I'm finishing mine.

[kare]

[quote="tyang"]Perhaps Pininfarina started painting these latches after making PF Coupes? Your ideas are greatly appreciated![/quote]Quickly looking through pictures I have, maybe 4 out of 5 cars have it painted black. Those that don't are mostly restored cars, and I don't wonder why that is: first time you close the bonnet the paint has rub marks on it. Best wishes, Kare