1969 Maserati Ghibli - The Resurection
Discussion
lamjon said:
Nice to see someone's looking after my old girl, had l seen martin's advert l would have bought her back....
John Britton
Hello John, what a great surprise to hear from a past custodian of Ghibli AM115/992. If you've read the thread from the start you'll see your 'old girl' is doing her best to become an Italian Diva once more and demanding equal doses of attention and patience in a quite unreasonable way - you'd expect nothing less of a lady of such class!John Britton
Any past information you have on the car, no matter how small, would be great. For instance was she still green when you bought her? I'm still undecided on paint colour and a photo could tip the balance. The mileage on the car now is 47k could that be correct?
I'll mail you, very nice to meet if only virtually.
Roger - Chadspeed
PS I must thank fellow PH'er Sanjay for making contact possible - Top Bloke
With the body stripped of paint and filler and with all visible rust cut out I had already made the decision to have the shell surface treated. A number of services are available but all employ either chemical stripping or mechanical abrasion, so which one to choose?
After much research this is the way I saw it:
Chemicals get to inaccessible places but can also get trapped in those same places potentially causing problems later on. I have seen first hand brown residue seeping out of chassis welds 2 years after treatment.
Blasting meanwhile can cause distortion, doesn’t remove underseal, and may not get to hidden places but it has no long term issues.
Choosing the ‘right’ company is also essential; a friend’s Ghibli came back from a well known classic car chemical treatment company with a dent in both the rear and the front that necessitated removal of the nose cone for repair. I’ve also heard of another stripping company sending the shell elsewhere for post dip anti corrosion coating and the time between strip and coating was over a week.
So, weighing up the pro’s and con’s I opted for blasting at http://www.blast-cleaning.co.uk/index.php?menuid=5... which by good luck is only 10 miles away. The risk of distortion is minimized by using low pressure, high flow air to propel abrasive garnet media through a 1” nozzle (in contrast to conventional blasting that uses high pressure). The process is so controllable that paint can be removed from aluminum and even GRP bodywork layer by layer, a Lotus Elite monocoque was being stripped at the same time as the Ghibli. A phosphate acid etch/primer is applied immediately after stripping which will hold the surface in the stripped state for up to 6 months in a normal dry-ish garage.
Note the pale grey areas are lead loading, most of it factory applied but some clearly from past work.
At about £1k for stripping and treating the shell, bonnet, boot, doors and headlight pods it wasn’t cheap but I was well pleased with the result and it was so much better that what could be achieved at home.
After much research this is the way I saw it:
Chemicals get to inaccessible places but can also get trapped in those same places potentially causing problems later on. I have seen first hand brown residue seeping out of chassis welds 2 years after treatment.
Blasting meanwhile can cause distortion, doesn’t remove underseal, and may not get to hidden places but it has no long term issues.
Choosing the ‘right’ company is also essential; a friend’s Ghibli came back from a well known classic car chemical treatment company with a dent in both the rear and the front that necessitated removal of the nose cone for repair. I’ve also heard of another stripping company sending the shell elsewhere for post dip anti corrosion coating and the time between strip and coating was over a week.
So, weighing up the pro’s and con’s I opted for blasting at http://www.blast-cleaning.co.uk/index.php?menuid=5... which by good luck is only 10 miles away. The risk of distortion is minimized by using low pressure, high flow air to propel abrasive garnet media through a 1” nozzle (in contrast to conventional blasting that uses high pressure). The process is so controllable that paint can be removed from aluminum and even GRP bodywork layer by layer, a Lotus Elite monocoque was being stripped at the same time as the Ghibli. A phosphate acid etch/primer is applied immediately after stripping which will hold the surface in the stripped state for up to 6 months in a normal dry-ish garage.
Note the pale grey areas are lead loading, most of it factory applied but some clearly from past work.
At about £1k for stripping and treating the shell, bonnet, boot, doors and headlight pods it wasn’t cheap but I was well pleased with the result and it was so much better that what could be achieved at home.
With the body back from the surface treatment process I could see where there had been rust it had more or less completely eaten through the steel, and where there had been little or no rust the body was perfect. This leads me to think that most of the corrosion was caused by lack of paint application at the factory on internal panels; the chassis by contrast was perfect.
Blasting had also revealed many areas of the body that would need more attention than I was expecting – should have know better really.
The front valance had taken a few knocks over the years and been repaired a few times as well. It was so rough that replacement was the only realistic option. My sheet metal working skills were rapidly brought back up to speed and it took a few attempts to get right.
Original valance cut out showing previous repairs.
Nose with valance removed
First attempt, hammer formed and planished single piece centre section eventually scrapped in favour of three piece fabrication
New and old valance
Valance clamped in place for welding
New valance in place (the white staining is phosphoric acid wash used to keep the tin worm away)
Blasting had also revealed many areas of the body that would need more attention than I was expecting – should have know better really.
The front valance had taken a few knocks over the years and been repaired a few times as well. It was so rough that replacement was the only realistic option. My sheet metal working skills were rapidly brought back up to speed and it took a few attempts to get right.
Original valance cut out showing previous repairs.
Nose with valance removed
First attempt, hammer formed and planished single piece centre section eventually scrapped in favour of three piece fabrication
New and old valance
Valance clamped in place for welding
New valance in place (the white staining is phosphoric acid wash used to keep the tin worm away)
Someone buy this man a beer.
My father has worked on some absolutely cracking rare exotica over the years (he is a trimmer), such as DB5's, 50's Merc SL's, a couple of 30's Astons etc, but I've never seen an old Maserati in there, even thinking back from when I was a kid.
In fact, I'm not sure I ever recall seeing an old italian motor in there, nothing that really springs to mind anyway. They've had newer lamborghini's in (by 'newer' I mean the odd Countach and Diablo) but I don't recall ever seeing anything of this vintage.
What a gem.
My father has worked on some absolutely cracking rare exotica over the years (he is a trimmer), such as DB5's, 50's Merc SL's, a couple of 30's Astons etc, but I've never seen an old Maserati in there, even thinking back from when I was a kid.
In fact, I'm not sure I ever recall seeing an old italian motor in there, nothing that really springs to mind anyway. They've had newer lamborghini's in (by 'newer' I mean the odd Countach and Diablo) but I don't recall ever seeing anything of this vintage.
What a gem.
Thanks for the encouragement guys it's been needed over the last few months, finalising the bodywork is dragging on but more on that later
The level of interest has indeed spurred me on, thanks to all.
williamp said:
fantastic. And how do you keep the garage so tidy?? 
I had a look back at the photo's I've posted and most show the garage in the worst state it ever gets. I cant work in a mess it just doesn't work for me, I hate being held up on a job whilst finding the right tool under a pile of bits.Baron Greenback said:
Take my hat off for your expertise and hopefully a drop dead gorgeous car in the end! Question how long and where you got your metal work experience from? Can't wait to see more!
I'am a Mechanical Engineer (IEng) but haven't been hands on since the second year of a Technicians apprenticeship at Silentbloc over 30 years ago, it included tool-room machining of rubber injection moulds and press tools but no sheet metalwork or welding. I then went on to design and draught those very moulds and press tools and that was the last of the workshop stuff. I then moved through Water Treatment, Industrial Gases, Power Station and now Pharma, Gases and MOD. So I'am essentially self taught, employing the read up on it and give it a go approach, like with most things prepare for a few failures and you get there in the end. Some of the techniques I use may not be the most conventional or fastest but it's how I've taught myself and it works for me.The level of interest has indeed spurred me on, thanks to all.
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