1969 Maserati Ghibli - The Resurection

1969 Maserati Ghibli - The Resurection

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Discussion

Johnboy Mac

2,666 posts

184 months

Sunday 17th June 2012
quotequote all
gforceg said:
Seriously though, I'm really enjoying the thread. Keep it coming!
+1, great stuff.

Chad speed

Original Poster:

438 posts

203 months

Sunday 24th June 2012
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Apologies for the tardy posting, life's been a bit busy of late but in a good way - every spare minute I've been flat out on the car. It gets you that way some time.
Anyway a quick update from the last photo's.

Exploration into the near side inner sill.


Previous repair on the rear offside lower arch

The near side rear arch was as bad as the off side so the offensive previous repair was chopped out along with the lower front portion of the wing and the outer sill.


How many more pictures of rust do you guys want?
This was also the largest area of original paint on the car - you like?

Huntsman

8,180 posts

256 months

Sunday 24th June 2012
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Chad speed said:
- you like?
Yeah, love it.

Keep the pics coming, it makes me feel better about buying a fibreglass car!

Chad speed

Original Poster:

438 posts

203 months

Sunday 24th June 2012
quotequote all
Huntsman said:
Yeah, love it.

Keep the pics coming, it makes me feel better about buying a fibreglass car!
I know what you mean about GRP cars, I've had Reliant Sabre and Scimitar, Berkeley B95 and B105, Lotus Elite 501 and TVR Griffith and Tuscan.
Gordon Keeble lovely cloud9

Astacus

3,478 posts

240 months

Sunday 24th June 2012
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Have you ever considered sending the car to Surface Processing in Dudley to get the shell treated?

Great Story by the way

RYH64E

7,960 posts

250 months

Sunday 24th June 2012
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Is there going to be anything left after you finish cutting the rust away? You're a brave man to take that on, I hope it works out well for you.

Chad speed

Original Poster:

438 posts

203 months

Sunday 24th June 2012
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Ok, you asked for it


Nearside front wheel arch, rusted to bits and cut out.

Note remains of original lead filling.

Chad speed

Original Poster:

438 posts

203 months

Sunday 24th June 2012
quotequote all
Astacus said:
Have you ever considered sending the car to Surface Processing in Dudley to get the shell treated?
Yes but too many issues - watch this space.

Edited by Chad speed on Sunday 24th June 21:45

uk66fastback

16,904 posts

277 months

Monday 25th June 2012
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Are you going to get this professionally media blasted? The job will take a lot longer if you don't. I didn't with mine and I wouldn't make that mistake again.

neutral 3

6,504 posts

176 months

Tuesday 26th June 2012
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My dad would be loving this story , his Ghibli was his dream car .

I think you should be considering getting the shell dipped, but ime a bit concerned re distortion with so much of it already cut away .
A Ghibli isnt the strongest of body shells.

McClure

2,173 posts

152 months

Sunday 15th July 2012
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How's it going Chad?

Astacus

3,478 posts

240 months

Sunday 15th July 2012
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Chad speed said:
Bit short of time to do the wordy thing so I'll let the pictures tell most of the story.

Sick of lying on my back and scraping underseal, a more civilised solution was called for:



Now that, is a very clever stand. Smart thinking smile

Chad speed

Original Poster:

438 posts

203 months

Monday 16th July 2012
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McClure said:
How's it going Chad?
Hi McClure
Thanks for the bump, progress is slow at the moment as the current task requires fair weather and we haven't had much of that. Remiss of me not posting sooner though, the photo's so far show progress up to about 2007 so I'll get my act together.
Chad

Chad speed

Original Poster:

438 posts

203 months

Thursday 19th July 2012
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Stripping the body of paint and filler had revealed corrosion and past bodges so extensive that I really had no option but to send the shell away for professional surface treatment. I’ll cover this soon but whilst the body was away I tackled the doors.
I knew all was not well when I removed them from the shell, admittedly they still had the glass and all other attachments but I could hardly lift them. I recon the must have weighed about 50kg each! Removing the trim, glass, locks, lift mechanism and motors still didn’t reduce the weight as much as I thought so I attacked the outer skin with the grinder and wire twill brush. Both doors had previous repairs consisting of brazed in lower repair sections beaten back (hammer blows clearly visible) and filler upto an inch thick plastered over the whole door.

Previous brazed repair section and an inch of filler


I decided to make new door skins so removed the old ones and set the frames to one side (they would also need a lot of work as well). At first glance the skins looked quite simple but in true Maserati fashion they are slightly convex along the waist line crease by about 10mm. After a bit of head scratching I made a steel former to form the curved crease over, it meant drilling holes through the skin that would require welding up later on but that was simple enough.

Door skin bolted into steel former and dressed over, you can just see the curve.


Wooden formers were made from the door frames to get the curves and creases in the right place. It all worked our pretty well, the only hitch was as I removed the skin from the steel former they sprung back a little, undetectable to the eye and even difficult to spot with a 1 metre straight edge so I settled for it. Its one of those things, no one else will see it but I know its not quite spot on.

Wooden formers make sure curves and creases are in the right place.


Finished door skin made from 0.9mm Zintec steel and phosphoric acid/zinc phosphate washed.


New and old


Door skin fitted to repaired frame, note replaced frame sections. The frame repair took as long as making and fitting the skins.


lockhart flawse

2,059 posts

241 months

Thursday 19th July 2012
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Wow - very impressed. I couldn't begin to do what you are attempting.

Following with interest. Thanks.

L.F.

cardigankid

8,849 posts

218 months

Thursday 19th July 2012
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I am filled with respect for what you have managed to achieve. clapclapclap

McClure

2,173 posts

152 months

Thursday 19th July 2012
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Chad speed said:

I decided to make new door skins
bow

And that (together with the subject matter) is why this is the best thread on PH.

Johnboy Mac

2,666 posts

184 months

Thursday 19th July 2012
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Impressive is right. Well done, keep up the good work and posts.

MarkwG

5,081 posts

195 months

Thursday 19th July 2012
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McClure said:
bow

And that (together with the subject matter) is why this is the best thread on PH.
Likewise - for me, "decided to make new doors" = "decided to fly to the moon!"

The Surveyor

7,583 posts

243 months

Friday 20th July 2012
quotequote all
MarkwG said:
McClure said:
bow

And that (together with the subject matter) is why this is the best thread on PH.
Likewise - for me, "decided to make new doors" = "decided to fly to the moon!"
Fantastic work and can't wait to see the stripped shell. Amazing amount of skill shown making the new doors, almost as much as shown originally getting so much filler to stick to the original door laugh

Keep the thread updates coming

Paul