Ferrari 400 Repairs

Here are Jonns notes on the repairs he has been making to our 1979 Ferrari 400 GT:

Rebuild door handle and test. Remove striker/ actuator i made and bend slightly and refit. Seems to be ok but lock stiff and key nearly broken. Stop and wait for new keys to arrive. Investigate passengers seat back insecure. Found inner hook for relaesing seat back been wired 8n open position. Cable inside seat broken. Make small bracket to fit to hook so able to lift manually. Fit and paint black. Coolant leaks. Start with corroded jubilee clips on heater pipe. Remove pipe and found pipe split badly, and connector corroded. Remove connector and clean. Use JB weld chemical metal to repair holes on connector and leave to set. Clean mating surfaces and make gasket for connector.

Strip and remove exhaust system. Cut of rear sections and cut and remove what’s left in rear sections. Re rivet heatshiels to floor both sides. Fit new P clip to secure offside handbrake cable. Fit water connector to rear of head and leave to go off overnight.

Fit coolant hose to heater. Pressurise system and trace leaks. Rad hoses leaking and all jubilee clips corroded and won’t tighten. Remove rad hoses and inline thermostat. Thermostat broken inside housing. Clean all pipe connections. Wash down front of engine waterpump area. Fit new hoses that we had in stock and order new thermostat and hoses we don’t have. Rek9ve offside front wheel and strip and remove brake flexi hoses fro replacement. Fit 2 x new hoses to offside front and secure.

Bleed offside front brake and pressure check for leaks, ok. Top up brake fluid. Refit wheel. Attend to horn not working. Connector missing inside steering wheel. Remove steering wheel and work out way to make it work. Drill out rivet from connector behind steering wheel. Fit wire andfeed through steering wheel. Tighten steering wheel and fit spade terminal to wire and connect to centre push. Fit centre and test, ok.

New keys arrived so refit nearside door handle and test lock with key. Stiff to operate but does work now. Secure handle in door.

Refit door handle fully and lubricate mechanism. Test functions all ok. Refit door panel.

Fit new coolant hoses and secure. Vacuum system and check for loss of vacuum. Fill system with new anti freeze mix. Attend to oil leak. Trace to gearbox cooler pipes fractured. All pipes seized and while attempting to remove direct from cooler, cooler split. Cut off pipes and remove system complete. Remove broken cotton reel mounts.