Refurbishment of my Maserati Mexico

[The Surveyor]

For anybody who's interested, here are some pictures of my recently purchased Maserati Mexico, 4.2 V8. In need of some light refurbishment and a fresh coat of paint, needs the interior cleaning and a few repairs, and the brakes making good. The carbs have been fully refurbished and it runs, sounding fantastic in a cultured way....:-





















Paul

[The Surveyor]

dave de roxby said:

Lovely! I always wanted one. A proper, elegant gentleman's coupe. And this one looks to be in an excellent state. Very jealous!

It's very solid, a little rust in the bottom of the wings and doors but the wheel arches are solid just like the rest of the car. Has done very few miles and still has the Maserati logo's on the pedal rubbers and heal mat. It's beautifully made, stunning to look at and I'm chuffed to bits with it..

Paul

[The Surveyor]

tog said:

That's beautiful!

Does it really need paint though? Looks nice and original to me

The paint is very flat and isn't the original paint as it had a respray about 20 years ago, the photo's flatter it and it does spoil an otherwise lovely car.

Paul

[The Surveyor]

[quote=dave de roxby]Wonder where those rear lights came from. /quote]

Glad you like it, the rear lights are exclusive to the Mexico and the Quattroportte of the same age. I'm going to be buying a pair of replacement lenses as these are faded and the off-side is damaged. Also need to replace the missing 'Maserati' and 'Mexico' scripts off the boot lid. Shopping time

Paul

[The Surveyor]

tog said:

The Surveyor said:

The paint is very flat and isn't the original paint as it had a respray about 20 years ago, the photo's flatter it and it does spoil an otherwise lovely car.

Paul

Fair enough Photos always seem to make paint look better then it is. Are you going to change colour? I quite like that blue.

No, the plan is to keep it the original light blue, may sharpen up the interior with some dark blue carpets but that'll be the only change. I think the light blue paint matches the cars understated looks nicely.

[The Surveyor]

neutral 3 said:

Very pretty , Great colour combo. Opal llight blue suits the shape well.
Unusual I'n having a light tan interior with light met blue. Is the trim colour original ? Although Ime sure an Indy I viewed last year was the same colour combo.
If you get the chance to see the Original " Gone I'n 60 seconds" ( nor the dire re make ) there is a brief shot of a Ghibli I'n the same Opal Light Blue. It looks stunning, only one I have ever seen I'n that colour.

The Maserati Factory were very helpfull when I rang a few years ago for info re my dads 68 Ghibli.. They gave me first owners details, paint and trim colours and codes .

Cheers, yes the colour combo is original, the seats were originally slightly darker, less cream, more tan if that makes sense as the leather has been bleeched by a few Italian summers.

Totally agree that the blue suits the understated nature of the body shape. It would look stunning on refurbished and polished Borrani's but that may have to wait until funds allow, they will have to stay silver painted in the short term

Cheers for the tip with the factory

Paul

[The Surveyor]

Slade Alive said:

That's a lovely Maserati. The 3500 goes really well - must be very quick with 4.2 V8!

I'm hoping it'll be nice and sporty but as the owners manual suggest 14 mpg, I don't think my wallet will appreciate too much spirited driving, anyway the TVR takes care of my hooligan side

Slade Alive said:

Where in the NE are you Surveyor?

Based in the Newcastle area

Paul

[The Surveyor]

nonplussed said:

That is epic, congrats. Will you refin it in the same colour? It suits it.

Yes, the new paint-job will be in the same colour, I agree that it suits the relaxed styling of the car nicely.

Paul

[The Surveyor]

Slade Alive said:

Paul am I right in thinking these are twin plug heads? Looks like there's a set of leads missing in the pic. Would like to see the distributor on that one!

It's a standard 8 plud distributor and the heads are not drilled for a twin-plug set up from what i've seen so far. Could it be that the 4.9 / 4.7 versions used the twin-plug set-up and the baby 4.2 version shared a common head casting?

I'm still finding my feet with the car and spotting something new everytime I see it....

[The Surveyor]

Slade Alive said:

Not familiar with the V8 Mexico. It just looked like the hole next to the foremost plug lead has the tip of a spark plug visible was all.

Here's the engine from the otherside:-


Note the bloody awful mess of wires comming from the electronic ignition unit. Something else on the list for further investigation.....

Paul

[The Surveyor]

doodlebug said:

Hi The Surveyor

Bill McGrath in Kimpton should be able to help with sourcing bits and repairing these.

I've also found these websites to be particularly helpful with my GT. They have a lot of info about the older ones as well.

http://www.maserati-alfieri.co.uk/
http://www.maseratiforum.co.uk/
http://www.sportsmaserati.co.uk/

Hope you enjoy the car. If you ever want to get rid, PM me.

Cheers Doodlebug, i'll take a look on those sites later if I get time. Chris McNabb in Bill McGrath's parts department has been very helpful including getting a replacement 'Mexico' rear badge made from the factory. Their prices appear quite reasonable too especially compared to the aspirational prices on US Ebay...

Paul

[The Surveyor]

Progress on the Mexico refurbishment has been a little slow recently due to work commitments, a house move, and TVR driving... however the car's now stripped of it's bolt-on chrome and being prepared for paint. There are some repairs needed to the off-side sill which are now exposed after removing the stainless over-sills, but otherwise it's still proving to be a very solid 40+ year old italian beauty. Sorry for the crappy phone pictures.....





After much thought, we're going to leave the glass in place to avoid the risk of damaging the very delicate and difficult-to-replace chrome trim inserts. The rubber is still sufficiently flexiable to be folded back and i's there is no rust around the reveals and we're not changing the colour, I'm personally convinced it's not worth the risk.

I'll add some pictures of the refurbished interior after I collect it from the Furniture Clinic later in the week.

Paul

[The Surveyor]

Trommel said:

Interested to see how that has turned out - has it just been refinished in the same colour?

Yes, it'll be the original, non-sun bleached 'tan' colour which is close to the 'Ferrari Beige'. They mixed the new colour off a sample taken from the underside of the rear centre consol and is lovely warm rich colour, not unlike a 'Caramac' bar....

Paul

[The Surveyor]

mph said:

If I can find them, I had alot of pictures of my Mexico restoration.

It was a very original car and it may help if you need some detail shots.

That would be hugely appreciated and very useful. I've bought the 'limited' Mexico parts manual off Chris McNabb at Bill McGrath and have a down-load of the Ghibli one, but information on what should be 'right' is difficult to get hold of. For example the parts manual did show that the two cooling fans on my car are original despite the left one being different to the right....

I'm trying to avoid the trial-&-error approach as errors on this car are likely to be quite expensive!!!

Many thanks again

Paul

[The Surveyor]

imuir said:

Hi Paul, looks very nice cant wait to see it back on the road

Cheers Ian and great to hear from you. I hope all's going well for you over there.

[The Surveyor]

The Surveyor said:

Trommel said:

Interested to see how that has turned out - has it just been refinished in the same colour?

Yes, it'll be the original, non-sun bleached 'tan' colour which is close to the 'Ferrari Beige'. They mixed the new colour off a sample taken from the underside of the rear centre consol and is lovely warm rich colour, not unlike a 'Caramac' bar....

Paul

Here is a picture of the seat bases which have been refurbished by The Furniture Clinic, near Gateshead. Very pleased with the results.


If you're wondering about the speaker holes, I've not replaced the rear panels despite there being very little cost difference as it would mean replacing the hardboard, and as the originals are signed by the person who made them back in 1968, I thought they should stay as part of the cars history! Yes despite the speaker holes looking crap....

Paul

[The Surveyor]

Yours looks fantastically original Charles, a nice early 4.2. I may be asking for some pictures of some details to help put mine back together....

Mine should be home after some bodywork for Easter, I've had new sills, new door bottoms and some patch repairs in the lower wings fabricated and welded in and the car will also have a full repaint. The car is very solid with no rust to the floor-pan or chassis tubes at all which was great news and I just can't wait to see it with it's fresh paint. Photo's will follow... :-)

Then the wheels will be sent off for refurbishment and there are some small mechanical jobs to be done including putting the re-cored radiator back in.

The target is still the Le Mans Classic....

Charles, does your car have seat-belts, if so could you get me a couple of photographs?

[The Surveyor]

Thanks for the pictures Charles. Those little rust bubbles look very familiar, but otherwise it looks great considering it's been off the road for the last 12 years.

Mine has the same seat-belt mounts at the top of the rear rear 1/4 panel, only mine still has plastic blanking plugs. I'll need to look at getting some 'belts fitted as I just don't fancy driving without.....

Paul

[The Surveyor]

Here is a little update on the Mexico, progress has been slow, painfully slow at times to the point where it's not going to be heading out to the Le Mans Classic as planned 6 months ago.

I do keep telling myself that it'll be worth it once it's running and looking stunning....



Replacement panels and patches have been done and it's had it's first thin skim of filler, but there are plenty of detail areas to address before i'm happy for the painting to start.

Paul

[The Surveyor]

Bodywork progress continues to be slow whilst the bodyshop guys are away on holiday but i'm pleased with the results so far.

Just been lucky with a purchase of a full set of new tyres to replace the 235/70 Goodyear Grand Prix S tyres which are currently on. These are the wrong size and good old ebay has come to the rescue with a full set of the correct spec Pirelli Cinturato HS CN72 tyres in the right 205VR15 size. Brand new, never been fitted and only a year or so old:-







The seller had bought them for his Mk1 Jensen Interceptor but they didn't fit properly, nice guy with a nice car too. Interestingly the Mk1 Interceptor shares loads of parts with the Mexico including; Numberplate lights (Ferrari 330 as well!), door handles, door locks, quarterlight knobs, dash-top air vents, toggle switches, Ashtrays, arm rests, rear window catches.. All worth knowing when i'm looking for spares.

Job for the weekend is to polish up the side grilles

Paul