Watch This Expert Pick Apart a Restored Ferrari
Vintage car and truck restoration is an incredibly nuanced and complicated activity. More often than not, even very expensive and extremely time consuming restorations are not 100% accurate when it comes to returning the car to exactly how it rolled out of the factory the day it was completed. Is that a bad thing?
This topic comes by way of a recent YouTube video from Ferrari master Tom Yang. A recent visitor to Yang’s shop is a beautiful green Ferrari 330GTC. I say beautiful because the car is assuredly that, but after you hear Yang start in on the items that an expert (and veteran concours entrant) of his background so quickly and easily points out, your perception might change.
Not just acorn nuts, the correct acorn nuts.
Yang has driven this car in previous videos, and according to his experience, it functions and drives like a vintage Ferrari should. By functional standards, then, this car is restored. But there is no better example of articulating restoration objectives than hearing Tom talk through the hardware and small-part finishes on this car. This piqued my interest as someone who prioritizes function of a vintage car.
As you would expect, the judging standards of the Platinum Concours level for the Ferrari-only Cavallino concours events (and other top-flight concours as well) require that not only the experience and function need to be correct, but the appearance does, too. Like many points-based judging events, the exacting details of original cars has been documented and a restoration is compared to those. Points are deducted for incorrect items. Yang is the kind of knowledgeable person that calls out five or six items that would need addressing under the hood before even getting closer than five feet away.
In this case, he shares bits of hardware that are the incorrectly finished or are the wrong type of hardware completely. Some covers and pivots on the engine should be held with acorn nuts but instead have regular nuts, while a few spots have acorn nuts but not the right shape of acorn nuts. It gets that specific.
Is this kind of thinking too much?
I say no. It’s fascinating to me the level of detail that is known and how that information was figured out, confirmed, and agreed upon by those who care. If this seems like a uniquely Ferrari or at least an “expensive car” problem, you would be mistaken. Look no further than the Model A Restorer’s Club and its amazing documentation of the finishes and details of the significantly more attainable Model A Ford. Knowing exactly how these vehicles were assembled prevents the creep of inaccuracies into restorations to a minimum, and fosters the preservation of historically accurate vehicles.
Add in that restoring to this level is a task taken on willingly—no one is forcing anyone else to do certain things when restoring their own car—and suddenly the picking apart of a restoration like this Ferrari becomes fascinating rather than frustrating. The fact that we collectively know exactly how these cars were built down to the finish of each piece of hardware is darn cool. If you don’t want to restore to that level—I personally choose not to—that doesn’t mean we can’t appreciate those who choose to document this history for us. After all, they are only original once, and some restorations are more thorough than others.
At first I was thinking, “sheesh, gimmee a break – it’s a darned car, and you’re going to pick apart an acorn nut?” I mean, really? But then, I read Kyle’s next-to-last sentence, and it kind of hit me. Yes, not for me, but appreciate the level of knowledge and dedication of those to which this IS important. Thanks for the reminder for me to acknowledge this expertise, Kyle!
Just take it to your local Saturday parking lot car show and you won’t have to change a thing.
Tom, nice presentation! I noticed that the front upper shock tabs are un-braced. The factory put out a bulletin shortly after the cars came out (1971??? I no longer have the books) to weld a tab to the upper tab-supports because they would occasionally break off and really screw up the handling.
The oil filters should be Frams (just repaint them and put on the stickers) the distributor cap hold-down screws should be hex/flathead waisted screws, missing grommets on plug-wire guides, as well as the plug tubes, as stated. Yes, the car has MANY little details incorrect. Remember, I was doing PDi’s on these cars, as well as 58 years in the business with my father, Bill Rudd. Email me a phone # if you want to talk, as I’m now retired…..
the clamps on the heater valve @ back of engine are incorrect.
Hi Don,
I met you years ago with your Dad in the Bay Area when I was introduced to you by big collector. It’s good to hear from you. my email is tom@tomyang.net
Thanks
It can be too much for the average person but for some collectors it is everything. I try to install the correct parts but my level of OCD is not at this high of a level.
My ’59 bug is by no means a perfect restoration, but there are details to which I’ve paid attention. Curiously I’ve had so called experts challenge many details, only to find documentation that mine are correct. For example, the car was originally purchased and lived in Germany, before moving to CA. My aunt was the second owner and lived next to the couple who bought it, and picked it up at the factory where they had a gas gauge installed (american ’59s didn’t have a gauge). And that gauge is electric, not a float
There are a few other things that also throw the ‘experts’ like my rear window size matches an American ’60 and steering wheel is more similar, though not a match to an American ’58.
Then there are those of us who do strive for this level of perfection and in so doing so get it right about 75% of the time. Thinking we are there we are happy. Ignorance is, indeed, bliss.
Nothing ever wrong in striving for perfection as long as you keep your perspective. I try in all six classics with varying degrees of success depending on make. Oh, but to see me restoring the USS Hornet Island is a whole other matter in trying to get it right.
My cousin told me how tough the Model A judges were over 50 years ago