2008 Belle Macchine d'Italia at Pocono

2008 Belle Macchine d'Italia at Pocono. Check out this blog for an interesting write up and veeerry nice photos of this year's event.

Ferrari Club 'Spring Fever Run'

We drove our 1977 308GTB 70 miles to gather with 25 other Ferrari owners for a late March drive up to High Point State Park. Anyone else have spring fever?

One of our latest projects is this 1960 Fiat Abarth with a hand made aluminum body by Zagato. I flew to France last spring for a long time client to perform a PPI (pre-purchase inspection) on this car and actually rode around in the streets of Paris with this car. Our client was able to negotiate a purchase after the inspection and the little car arrived at our shop in Frenchtown NJ a few months later by sea container.

The car had been refurbished in the not too distant past so it didn't need a so called "frame off" total restoration. The exterior re-paint was actually not bad, over-all, but several areas of the body showed signs of swelling under the paint. Removing paint and filler from the offending areas revealed pin holes in the aluminum, caused by galvanic corrosion between the aluminum skin and the steel skeleton. These pinholes had been filled with polyester body filler during the previous work. This is a no-no since polyester filler will absorb moisture if it is not completely sealed front and back. The filler was pulling in moisture from the back-side and swelling up.

To avoid damaging the minimal upholstery inside, the whole interior was removed.

(Post by Wil de Groot)

Hello Paul

We welcome Paul Weinberger, our new fabricating guru. Paul has an expert background in restoring vintage racecars: Bugatti, Ferrari, Maserati, Alfa Monza, Miller, Pre-War MGs, Allards, Pebble Beach contenders and other vehicles with provenance. But can he blog...?

Paul is putting the finishing touches on the Aston Martin DB2. We're just waiting for all the refinished chrome pieces to be reinstalled and then the car will be on its way home.

Goodbye Randy....

We said goodbye to Randy Tartanian, who penned the majority of our blog since its inception in late 2005. Future blogging will be by Wil or Sandy de Groot. Thanks for your good words, Randy, and good luck.

Aston Martin Back From Paint

The DB2 is green! Having color on the car is obviously a huge milestone in any project. Now we can see the result of all that preparation.

The body has already been color-sanded. The final grade of sandpaper used is 2500 (that means 2,500 ‘grits’ per square inch’) but then the paper gets turned over. Yeah, the backside of the paper is used to start the polishing process. You might laugh but it really makes a difference in the ease with which the paint buffs up. And by the way, the careful technique that was used earlier while blocking the primer flat still applies even though the sandpaper being used is so much finer. Many good paint jobs have been ruined by careless color sanding.

Compounding (the color sanding scratches are removed) is followed by polishing (the fine haze or, ‘swirl marks’ left by the compound are removed) and the result is a deep, sharp shine.

Why is so much time, money and attention given to wave-free body work and perfectly level, shiny paint? It’s only when the surface of the paint is free from waviness and the defect known as ‘orange-peel’ that the lines and curves of the car can be fully seen and appreciated.

So even an admittedly dated design such as the DB2 looks striking when you stand back and see the way the lines and curves flow and blend.

We still have to paint the firewall and chassis before we can start reassembling.

More on the Aston Martin DB2

More on the Aston Martin DB2

The DB2 is nearing the end of the body work phase. We removed the finish and the underlying filler to bare aluminum. We fabricated new panels to replace parts that were beyond repair. Spray polyester was applied and block-sanded to achieve a wave-free surface.

The bonnet was particularly time-consuming. This is a large, complex piece that hinges at the front to reveal the entire engine and front suspension. It was necessary to fabricate components of the mounts and hinges for both cosmetic and structural reasons. This led to countless installations and removals to confirm fit. Adding to the critical nature of the bonnet is the fact that the inside surface is completely visible to scrutiny when open.

The original color was a rather weak metallic green. The new finish will be British Racing Green. BRG, as it is called, does not represent a specific paint formula. While many manufacturers offered a color by that name, Aston’s version was not identical to that of Jaguar or Triumph or MG. Anyway, this car is going to look stunning in this deep green color.

About the original finish, or I should say, the finish we removed as part of this project; the paint was shiny enough, but as you can see in the picture where the green is being removed in sheets, not well-applied. This appears to me to be the result of sanding the primer with too fine a grade of sandpaper prior to painting. The result is that the topcoats have nothing to grip to and over time this finish would have failed prematurely.

Next we applied primer, performed a lot of wet-sanding, then sent it off to the paint shop. Here is the DB2 back at our shop after wetsanding the final color:

Pantera - progress

Pantera progress

We have made considerable progress on the Pantera. New fenders, door skins, rocker panels and quarter panels have been fitted. It might seem like it should be a simple job installing all this new sheet metal. If this were a mass-produced car it would be a relatively easy task. The first fender that GM produced for, say the ’69 Camaro, was for practical purposes identical to number 10,000. Not so for the Pantera or any other hand-built exotic.

I never actually saw any of those Italian craftsmen building these cars. I have to imagine that Luigi’s fenders were maybe just a little different than Giuseppe’s. Enough so, so that one is not interchangeable with the other. Not at least without a little, or a lot of, massaging.

So it’s a matter of install, check fit, remove, adjust, install. Repeat this until everything lines up and gaps around the doors, hood and engine cover are uniform. The panels get held together with small sheet metal screws or preferably (and if space allows) we use clamping devices called ‘Clecos’. These are ingenious tools developed for the aviation repair industry that permit the technician to repeatedly remove and install panels without having to deal with a bunch of small screws.

When we are happy with the fit of the panels the welding begins. For the most part, MIG welding is used to attach the panels to the underbody. Where the outer surface of panels join, like where the front of the fenders meet the valance panel, gas-welding will be used.

The welds get ground down and cleaned-up. This is an important step because primer will not stick to weld ‘scale’. We took the time to media-blast almost the entire underside if the car. (If you recall, this car had been dipped to remove the old finish, along with undercoating, seam sealer and rust.) We also sand off the existing primer on the new panels.

Since this is a long-term project we need to prevent rust. Two coats of epoxy primer are applied. This will protect the surface while work progresses.

The next steps will be repairing damage to the floor pans (caused mostly by improper jack placement), addressing rust at the leading edge of the hood and installing a reproduction front valance panel.

Fabricating a windshield for a 1958 Devin

This project encompasses all the skills needed to fabricate much larger pieces. We will cut, bend, stretch, shrink and weld this small item. That is everything that can be done to a piece of sheet metal whether forming a small patch panel or a complete car.

The Devin was one of many sports cars being manufactured in the fifties. This particular car lacks a windshield and the owner wants a small but functional windscreen to make driving the car less an act of self-punishment. Try taking a small stone or insect to the face at 60MPH to see what we’re talking about.

The actual shape of the windshield must foremost be aesthetically pleasing while providing protection for the driver. Since I will use the cowl of the car as a ‘buck’, the first step was to protect the area I would be working on with masking tape and cloth fender covers.

Consulting photographs of similar vintage sports cars reveals that the windshield frame will be about 1 ½ inches tall, I’ll make the portion that attaches to the cowl the same dimension. So I need to cut a strip of aluminum a bit wider that 3 inches and long enough to reach all the way around the instrument cluster pod. I measure this to be about 34 inches. We are using .063 thick material; this gives plenty to work with when it comes time to remove the tool marks.

With the strip cut and de-burred the next step is bending it the long way which basically gives us the ‘rake’ of the windscreen itself. This is a straight forward bend on the brake which I just kind of do by eye.

Now it’s time to shape the frame to match the curve of the instrument cluster pod. I’ve marked the masking tape with the smooth, sweeping curve I want to accomplish. I have to stretch the bottom flange I order to bring the ends around. This is done with the help of our stretcher (yes, the name is obvious). The jaws of this machine actually spread the metal apart a small amount each time pressure is applied to the handle. Another machine does the opposite; gathering up and thereby shrinking the material.

But the effect of stretching the bottom flange is to push the ends of the frame down. The thing that’s needed is some shrinking to bring the ends of the frame back into alignment with the marks. The thing to be aware of is that performing an operation on the work piece will cause a reaction somewhere else. So generally it’s a matter of a little back and forth to get the metal to go where it’s wanted.

Once the basic shape of the frame is complete I mocked-up the windscreen with a piece of cardboard. This will become the pattern for cutting the windscreen material later on so I made it oversize. We are ready now for the owner of the car to look things over, sit in the driver’s seat and make adjustments based on personal preference. We decide on the contours and a finished height just below eye level.

I said earlier that this project includes all the operations one can perform on a piece of sheet metal. ‘Where is the welding?’ you ask. Well, the customer wanted the left side of the frame to sweep farther back on the cowl than I had allowed for. So…I have to add to the frame, a small amount of welding but welding none the less.

The frame gets more fitting and adjusting to get it to lay flat against the cowl. Then some pick and file work to make it pretty followed with sanding to remove the tool marks left by the shrink/stretch and filing operations. The holes to mount the frame are drilled into the cowl.

The windscreen itself will be made of 1/8 inch clear polycarbonate (Lexan). This is very tough material that can be cut and drilled with ordinary tooling. After tracing the pattern onto the Lexan the piece is cut-out a little oversize on the bandsaw. This material shapes nicely with files and sandpaper so that is how the edges get cleaned up. Next, I measure and drill the mounting holes. We’ll use slotted screws because this type of fastener was prevalent in the fifties.

Here’s the completed product. We will leave the finished ‘brushed’ although we could just as easily polish it or paint it the color of the body.

Panel Fabrication on a 1952 Aston Martin - continued

The right side wheel arch was the first area to be repaired. I started by annealing a piece of aluminum. This process leaves the metal ‘dead-soft’ and relatively easy to work. The 90 degree lip of the wheel opening is formed first since this is the most extreme bend. This operation was performed on the bead-roller with some help from the stretcher. The rest of the shape is made with the shot bag, hammers and a bit of e-wheel work.

When the piece has the proper shape I file the edges nice and straight. A curved tooth body file works well here. Lines are scribed on the existing fender and cuts are made to the inside of the marks. I’ll file the opening to size so that I have a very narrow kerf. This makes welding much easier and results in an all around better job.

After TIG welding the repair panel into place the weld beads are dressed down so that the thickness of the weld is similar to the sheet metal. Now the fender can be straightened and metal-worked.

Strip paint

Removing paint. I will come back and comment on this later.

Panel Fabrication on a 1952 Aston Martin

This car is undergoing a complete re-paint. The existing finish, while shiny, was not of the greatest quality. It was completely removed using a combination of chemical stripper, plastic media-blasting and sanding. We discovered that the bodywork beneath the paint left a lot to be desired (this is my way of being kind). Actually, the patron saint of Bondo must have visited whatever shop had previously worked on this car. That’s all I have to say about that.

The body itself is a piece of artwork. Those Brits were masters at forming and welding aluminum. Unfortunately, the previous fifty-four years had dealt a few blows. The bonnet had taken a bit of a pounding and the repairs done over the years were not something we could apply a new finish to. Besides, the underside of the bonnet is completely exposed when open so the appearance inside has to be just as good as the outside.

We mounted the bonnet in a large dolly using the same attaching points as the car. This gave us a stable platform while providing one-man mobility.

The Biturbo has been painted

, color-sanded and polished and is now in the assembly stage. Many new parts are still available for these cars and the supply of good used parts is also fairly plentiful.

These cars have a considerable amount of bright-work; polished stainless steel trim which gets dented and scratched over-time. Generally, if the item is available, it is more cost efficient to buy the new one than to spend several hours repairing and polishing the original. In our case there were a couple pieces that we elected to repair because the damage was minor.

Working dents out of trim is essentially the same as metal work on a fender, just smaller. Low spots are carefully raised until the surface is level. Progress is checked by sanding using small sanding blocks, this reveals the low spots and the high spots. Naturally, the use of abrasives in this way leaves scratches which must be removed by using progressively finer grits. Stainless steel is pretty hard. Once the scratches are softened we can start buffing. This is the tedious part but worth every bit of time spent.

We will be installing the engine and the interior in the next few weeks. I was able to purchase a nearly complete used interior in good condition. Since this is not to be a show car we can save the expense of a new, hand stitched interior.

Scuff and Buff on a Cobra

This is the real thing. Even though it is not a sixties vintage car the eighties version is an actual Cobra, not a replica. This car is in good shape and just needs a little help with the paint finish.

We have washed the car, removed the trim that would otherwise get in the way and wet-sanded the entire body with 2000 grit. The goal is to remove just enough material to level any orange-peel. We took the opportunity to touch-up the small chips that any car collects if actually driven on the street. I for one would rather have to deal with chips than to own a museum piece.

Carefully compounding and polishing the sanded paint leaves a brilliant shine. This job took only about two days but the result was really striking.

Here is a job we recently did refinishing a complete set of wheels for a 1970 Lamborghini Muira. The original cast wheels are pretty rough on these cars; the appearance is that of a bad stucco job painted flat silver.

We started by dismounting the tires. Although it is certainly possible to refinish a wheel with the tire on, the amount of work needed in this case made tire removal necessary.

While the wheels could have been chemically stripped, we decided on media blasting. Glass bead had hardly any effect on the existing finish which had a kind of gravel guard consistency. I switched to garnet, a very aggressive material which will readily damage machined parts if improperly applied.

Even with the garnet the job took what seemed like a long time. An unexpected benefit was that the surface of the casting itself was considerably less rough when I was finished. The goal here was to re-paint not to metal-finish and polish to a shine. That would have taken several days per wheel. That said, I did want to smooth-out the rougher portions of the casting. I used my die grinder along with various sanding drums and rolls to carefully remove the high spots.

The other issue concerned voids and missing material. Some of the castings on the older exotics leave a lot to be desired. We have seen oil leaks in engine blocks caused by porous castings. I used ‘All-Metal’ to fill voids and chips. This is pretty tough filler that I think will stand up well to the abuse a wheel can see. Again, I was not trying for a perfect finish; I definitely left most of the original ‘character’ as it was.

After the filling stage, it’s pretty much standard refinishing work with a huge amount of inside corners. We love sanding them, don’t we? The backsides of the wheels were prepped for paint to the same degree as the fronts.

The two-stage polyurethane silver I applied has way more bling factor than the original finish and is far easier to clean.

DeTomaso Pantera - complete restoration

DeTomaso Pantera, an exotic name for a potent combination of ground-pounding American muscle and Italian style. An ‘in your face’ kind of car straight out of the seventies.

This car had been in storage a long time. And time had not been kind. But the owner, having been informed of the extent of the work required, was committed to the project.

A couple words in support of seemingly unworthy projects: Here’s the thing, exotics, along with American muscle cars and European sports cars, were designed for people who are passionate about cars. Since there are very few cars worth restoring from a strictly dollar and cents point of view, it is passion for the form that accounts for all the work being done on cars that a mere bean counter would send to the scrap yard without a second thought.

And another thing, it is easy to say that a specific car is not worth restoring given how much one could spend on some other car in better condition. That may be true, but that other car is always somebody else’s. Somebody else’s choice of quality, of time and money invested; everything right down to the color. So if I’ve held onto the car my Dad owned, and thirty years later want to restore this rust bucket, some other car just won’t do. Price doesn’t even show up on the radar, it’s a non-issue


So this is a total teardown, rotisserie restoration. In fact, we determined that the 351-C was salvageable and that the ZF gearbox needed minimal work, the support structure of the unibody was sound and that it was mainly the exterior sheet metal that had taken most of the abuse, along of course with the interior.

Panteras, like most of the exotics of that age, were built with absolutely zero regard to long term corrosion protection. There are simply too many instances of dead air spaces with no allowance for drainage. Combine this with a tendency to neglect to paint or otherwise protect the inside surfaces and it almost seems like a conspiracy on the part of the Italians. You know what, they went fast and looked good and that’s all that mattered.

The crew at Exoticars-USA in Frenchtown, NJ got started completely disassembling the car down to its component parts. Phil Murphy handled the task of researching the availability of parts. He was able to order all the major panels including fenders, door skins, quarters and outer rockers.

Having obtained exterior sheet metal, the task of putting it all together is in the hands of Randy Tartanian, the resident panel beater. Fabricating inner panels out of cold rolled sheet metal is sometimes difficult when there is little of the original piece to follow. “The goal is to duplicate the function of the original part” says Randy. So using a wide variety of tools including the bending brake, English wheel, shrinker/stretcher, plasma cutter and an array of hammers, the needed panels are formed and fitted into place. Welding is accomplished with the best method for the particular job. MIG, TIG, Spot and Oxy-acethelyne welding are used.

Currently the Pantera is in the process of having the sheet metal installed. The engine is partially rebuilt and the gearbox has been serviced and resealed. The choice of color is yet to be made.

Maserati Biturbo - more pictures

More about the Biturbo

We have repaired a major amount of rust. When faced with extensive corrosion a good approach is to obtain a donor car. Rather than fabricating complicated panels and structural assemblies from scratch, it is almost always easier and less expensive to obtain used parts from another vehicle. Granted this is not always possible but in the case of our Biturbo we found a rust-free car that was being parted-out. We specified where to make the cuts so that we had plenty of material to work with. In this way we were able to replace large portions of the floor pan and adjoining rocker/sill assembly in complete sections.

The first step is to get the undercoating and seam sealer out of the way. Scrapers and propane torches work well but a great (although pricey) tool I like is the rotary wire brush available from several manufacturers. The hook shaped wire bristles are very aggressive (and re-sharpenable). I prefer to clean more than what might seem needed. Later on, during the welding and hammering stage, I have less smoke and drippy undercoating to deal with. Once the pieces are cleaned up we went ahead planning our splices.

We used existing bends, especially in the floor pans to help plan the cut lines. Also, we took advantage of the structure to help make the job easier. So instead of cutting the floor pan just anywhere, we spliced right over an existing stiffener. This gave us a readily identifiable place to cut as well as resulting in a stronger seam.

As you can see, we replaced a large section of the left side floor pan and inner rocker. ‘How did this much damage occur?’ you may be wondering. It seems to us that a few small rust holes opened up high on the firewall. This allowed water to run inside the car which was combined with a long period of outside storage (never a good idea). And of course ‘rust never sleeps’. Quietly doing its job 24/7, happily providing work for those of us foolish enough to go into the auto restoration business. That and, of course the fact that the car was built by the Italians. It must not rain in Italy.

After the welding and grinding were done we applied two-part urethane seam sealer liberally. I’ll back-up here and mention that inside surfaces were painted with either rust encapsulator or zinc-rich weld thru primer prior to welding. We anticipate a tough life for this car so the floor pans and inner sills got two coats of ‘Rustoleum’ enamel. Not historically correct but then this is not to be a museum piece.

The bottoms sections of all fours doors were re-skinned. In addition, I had to fabricate the bottoms of the door frames. Is there polyester filler (bondo) on these doors? Yes. Modern fillers mixed in the correct proportions and applied and used properly, that is, among other things; nothing thicker than 1/8 inch and never forming an edge, will last practically forever. Metal finishing a panel to near perfection takes a lot of time, time that may not be warranted.

After all the body work is flat and sanded with 180 grit, the car gets washed with wax/grease remover followed by a coat of self-etching primer and three coats of surfacer. That’s where we are now. The car has been allowed to dry for over a week so the next step is dry blocking the surfacer with 220 grit on the longest sanding boards practical

Ferrari Daytona

Refinishing the cowl panel on a Ferrari Daytona

The cowl panel on this car detracts from an otherwise clean vehicle. The area between the windshield and the engine bay has suffered several amateur spray can touch-ups and looks rather shabby.

After removing the windshield wipers and washer nozzles I applied masking tape to protect the brightwork around the windshield and also the painted surfaces of the fenders. I definitely do not want to be painting body color or trying to buff sand scratches out of the trim.

The older Italian cars often have some kind of seam sealer applied to fill the gap between windshield moldings and the adjacent body panels. I needed to carefully cut and scrape to remove what appeared to be black silicone. Now I’m ready to start sanding but first I cleaned the whole area with wax and grease remover. That done, I sanded off several layers of flat black paint. The area was too small to use air-powered sanders so I just worked by hand. Starting with 100 grit and finishing with 220, I ended up removing almost all the existing paint and primer. I should mention that I dry-sanded in an effort to reduce the potential for making a mess in an otherwise tidy engine compartment.

Satisfied that I had a good surface to accept primer, I chemically cleaned the area again before masking-off the engine bay, fenders and windshield. The whole car has to be covered to prevent overspray. (Not like in the bad-old days of lacquer primer, that stuff was practically dry as soon as it came out of the gun.)

After a third cleaning, I applied two coats of high-build primer/surfacer. Tomorrow I’ll sand the primer and prepare for paint.

Murcielago exhaust

Back in 2005 when this car came in, all Murcielagos were under warranty. As an indepent shop, we were happy to install Hamann wing and spoiler, upgraded Quicksilver stainless steel exhaust and an ECU upgrade which necessitated using LaRA-AS factory software to ensure the engine and all sensors were performing correctly.

Lamborghini 400GT 2+2

Hard start problems on a Lamborghini 400GT 2+2

This is a pretty car that is in great condition and doesn’t need any body or paint work. I just think it’s got a striking look. As far as I’m concerned Lamborghini styling never got better than this.

This car is in the shop because of hard starting problems. The tech on this job performed an inspection and compression check and, given the good compression numbers, feels the car should perform better than it does. The older cars, more often than not, have problems with carburetor and distributor adjustments. After all, many technicians (previously known as mechanics) have never had to adjust a carburetor and have never even seen a set of ignition points. What the heck is dwell angle?

We will probably do a complete tune-up, set valve lash, adjust cam timing, put the distributors on the machine to make sure the advance curves are correct and adjust the carbs or possibly rebuild them.