Refurbishment of my Maserati Mexico

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The Surveyor

Original Poster:

7,576 posts

237 months

Thursday 9th October 2014
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Delivery of some new Weber needle valves and gaskets today from the very helpful Fast Road Cars today. Small job for the weekend that will hopefully stop the petrol pumps continuing to prime and petrol from weeping out of the Carb bodies.

Even came with instructions on how to set the float level.....



Another small job to be ticked off.

Paul

The Surveyor

Original Poster:

7,576 posts

237 months

Friday 10th October 2014
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Carbs off and new needle valves fitted, all back together with the exception of the trumpet fixing bolts.









Paul

dbdb

4,326 posts

173 months

Friday 10th October 2014
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It's strange. Ferraris and Lamborghinis don't interest me, but Maseratis of this era, I adore.

ChasW

2,135 posts

202 months

Saturday 11th October 2014
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Agree

I think during this period Maserati had the edge in styling and the cool factor.

The Surveyor

Original Poster:

7,576 posts

237 months

Saturday 17th January 2015
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It's been a while since the last update and things have been moving forward at the same glacial pace.

The little details are taking forever. For example, I've had to have some new stainless oversills made as the old ones were too badly scratched and damaged to re-polish. New ones arrived and were perfect, one fitted beautifully, one was 10mm too short! The reality was that one of the new structural sill was longer than the originalbanghead

It's also running much better now, actually on all 8 cylinders after finding that 2 plug leads were wrong on the distributor. I had set it up exactly as it had arrived from Italy which was wrong....

Loads still to fettle but it's looking more and more like a finished motor thumbup


TooMany2cvs

29,008 posts

126 months

Saturday 17th January 2015
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The Surveyor said:
The little details are taking forever. For example, I've had to have some new stainless oversills made as the old ones were too badly scratched and damaged to re-polish. New ones arrived and were perfect, one fitted beautifully, one was 10mm too short! The reality was that one of the new structural sill was longer than the originalbanghead
There were probably variances like that when they were new, too...

That is one bloody lovely car.

The Surveyor

Original Poster:

7,576 posts

237 months

Saturday 17th January 2015
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TooMany2cvs said:
There were probably variances like that when they were new, too...

That is one bloody lovely car.
Cheers, it is beautiful and I feel privalaged to have it. The error in the sill was my fault, I should have checked that both originals still fitted before sending them off to use as patterns... Doh!

neilbauer

2,467 posts

183 months

Saturday 17th January 2015
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Looks bloody fantastic, great job smile

DocJock

8,357 posts

240 months

Saturday 17th January 2015
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Love this thread.

Such an elegant car and fantastic attention to detail.

brimble

38 posts

148 months

Saturday 17th January 2015
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Wow!!! Just....... Wow!

Keep it stiff

1,765 posts

173 months

Saturday 17th January 2015
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Heck! Has it really been three years? I remember looking at the original post and thinking that I wish it had been me that found that one. Stunning car and a labour of love, looking forward to seeing it finished and maybe bumping into it in the flesh one day.

The Surveyor

Original Poster:

7,576 posts

237 months

Sunday 18th January 2015
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It's been closer to 4 years, so much for a quick refurbishment....

To cold to be in the garage today so looking at whether the rear number plate trim is salvageable. Somebody has clearly used it to push down the boot lid and cracked the mazac casting. The chrome isn't perfect but it's presentable but can anybody advise if this can be repaired?







I was thinking of maybe making a steel sub-frame to sit behind it to reshape it and hold it in position if it can't be straightened.

RichB

51,573 posts

284 months

Sunday 18th January 2015
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Can you turn it upside down to hide the crack?

neutral 3

6,485 posts

170 months

Sunday 18th January 2015
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Well done Surveyor she's lovely and that colour combo is beautiful, the light met blue really suits it !
So elegant and such a rare car here.

Were any sold new here ?

Any early History on your one ? Did you contact Maserati for the orig build and Owner details ? They were very helpful re my Late Dads 67 GHIBLI.

imagineifyeswill

1,226 posts

166 months

Sunday 18th January 2015
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I may be wrong but Ive allways been led to believe there is no real way to repair mazac.

buzzer

3,543 posts

240 months

Sunday 18th January 2015
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The Surveyor said:
It's been closer to 4 years, so much for a quick refurbishment....

To cold to be in the garage today so looking at whether the rear number plate trim is salvageable. Somebody has clearly used it to push down the boot lid and cracked the mazac casting. The chrome isn't perfect but it's presentable but can anybody advise if this can be repaired?







I was thinking of maybe making a steel sub-frame to sit behind it to reshape it and hold it in position if it can't be straightened.
I have never seen Mazac repaired... I have had some similar trim parts re-made in brass... there was a small local foundry close to me in Wolverhampton who would make things quite cheaply for me in both Brass and Aluminium. Often I would use the original part as a pattern, first spraying it with a few coats of polyester spraying filler to build it up and get a nice finish. Aluminium in particular shrinks during the casting process by 1/77 I seem to remember, Brass less so I think. the filler went some way to keeping the new part the same as the original in size and take into account the shrinkage. the brass parts were then easy to get chromed.

for intricate parts, the guy used to use some very fine sand next to the pattern, I was always amazed how much detail would come out on the new part!

I wish now I had taken photographs of parts I made in the past, but before digital it was not so easy and cheap to take and share pictures! here is one though of a batch of footrest plates for a Laverda Joto I had cast, and then machined. Maybe you can find a local foundry that can cast you one... not many about now though, my local one has closed down.





hidetheelephants

24,357 posts

193 months

Sunday 18th January 2015
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buzzer said:
The Surveyor said:
It's been closer to 4 years, so much for a quick refurbishment....

To cold to be in the garage today so looking at whether the rear number plate trim is salvageable. Somebody has clearly used it to push down the boot lid and cracked the mazac casting. The chrome isn't perfect but it's presentable but can anybody advise if this can be repaired?







I was thinking of maybe making a steel sub-frame to sit behind it to reshape it and hold it in position if it can't be straightened.
I have never seen Mazac repaired... I have had some similar trim parts re-made in brass... there was a small local foundry close to me in Wolverhampton who would make things quite cheaply for me in both Brass and Aluminium. Often I would use the original part as a pattern, first spraying it with a few coats of polyester spraying filler to build it up and get a nice finish. Aluminium in particular shrinks during the casting process by 1/77 I seem to remember, Brass less so I think. the filler went some way to keeping the new part the same as the original in size and take into account the shrinkage. the brass parts were then easy to get chromed.

for intricate parts, the guy used to use some very fine sand next to the pattern, I was always amazed how much detail would come out on the new part!

I wish now I had taken photographs of parts I made in the past, but before digital it was not so easy and cheap to take and share pictures! here is one though of a batch of footrest plates for a Laverda Joto I had cast, and then machined. Maybe you can find a local foundry that can cast you one... not many about now though, my local one has closed down.




Alternatively, if you can draw it, it can be printed and then polished and plated.

DonkeyApple

55,292 posts

169 months

Sunday 18th January 2015
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The Surveyor said:
It's been closer to 4 years, so much for a quick refurbishment....

To cold to be in the garage today so looking at whether the rear number plate trim is salvageable. Somebody has clearly used it to push down the boot lid and cracked the mazac casting. The chrome isn't perfect but it's presentable but can anybody advise if this can be repaired?







I was thinking of maybe making a steel sub-frame to sit behind it to reshape it and hold it in position if it can't be straightened.
The joys of diecast.

There are certainly firms who claim they can braise zinc diecast.

Making a new cast from something previously cast is a bugger obviously because of the shrinkage.

I'd prefer to laser cut a facimile in brass and work the edges down on a belt.

buzzer

3,543 posts

240 months

Monday 19th January 2015
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DonkeyApple said:
The joys of diecast.

There are certainly firms who claim they can braise zinc diecast.

Making a new cast from something previously cast is a bugger obviously because of the shrinkage.

I'd prefer to laser cut a facimile in brass and work the edges down on a belt.
That is a great idea... or even cut from Stainless Steel. I had a custom air filter cover laser cut in stainless recently... the cut, precision was amazing! the people I used for that are still trading if you need there address I can get it.

P5Nij

675 posts

172 months

Monday 19th January 2015
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neutral 3 said:
Well done Surveyor she's lovely and that colour combo is beautiful, the light met blue really suits it !
So elegant and such a rare car here.

Were any sold new here ?

Any early History on your one ? Did you contact Maserati for the orig build and Owner details ? They were very helpful re my Late Dads 67 GHIBLI.
I read somewhere that there are (or were) only six RHD Mexicos built, which market they landed in though I'm not sure.

Beautiful car OP, just beautiful cloud9