One After Another – Working on the 1979 Arrow Ferrari Daytona

April 14, 2022

The restoration team at the Bridge Classic Cars Suffolk HQ have been working on making progress on several key jobs to do with the 1979 Arrow Ferrari Daytona.

After fitting the heater matrix in the classic Daytona replica our technician, Scott, hand made a new demister plenum specifically for the car. This had to be put into place for Scott to begin working on testing and measuring for the pedal box of the car.

Scott took his measurements for pedal placements and widths to modify the pedals themselves to make them exacting replicas of original Daytona pieces. While the pedals and lever themselves were being modified, Scott cleaned up the entire pedal box assembly and preparing the clutch and brake master cylinders along with the brake servo to be sent off to a local specialist to be refurbished for the project.

Mounts – 1979 Arrow Ferrari Daytona Brackets for the Radiator, Oil Cooler & Air Conditioning

March 16, 2022

The 1979 Arrow Ferrari Daytona is in the process of the Bridge Classic Cars workshop getting everything fit up and secured into the car.

This time, Scott has been working on getting the radiator, air-conditioning and oil cooler mounts made for the car and the components installed into the car. For this process, each component has to be put into the car to make sure there is no interference between these systems and any others in the engine bay or under the dash of the classic Ferrari replica.

Once each of the pieces was test fit into the car, Scott could take off the brackets and finish welding them and then primer and paint them in durable satin black.

Stronger Together – Strengthening Panels in the Dash of the 1979 Arrow Ferrari Daytona

March 8, 2022

The fibreglass dashboard on the 1979 Arrow Ferrari Daytona is being worked on by the trim team here at the Bridge Classic Cars Suffolk HQ.

Brian has been working on cutting new ply strengthening plates for the fibreglass to make sure it is rigid and strong for not only the retrimming of the pieces but also for when the dash is installed back into the car and allow for perfect fitment in the cabin of the classic Daytona replica.

All-New – Recovering the 1979 Arrow Ferrari Daytona Dash in Alcantara

March 8, 2022

The dash for the 1979 Arrow Ferrari Daytona is continuing its journey with Bridge Classic Cars at our in-house trim shop.

The team have been working on transferring the pattern made on the black vinyl to the black Alcantara the owner has chosen. The new covering has been hand cut and stitched by Lydia to create a tight, elegant fit to the synthetic suede.

With these pieces now in their finishing stages, we’re excited to show you the next stage of the 1979 Arrow Ferrari Daytona.

Before and After – More Pieces of the 1979 Arrow Ferrari Daytona Refinished

March 4, 2022

Both the workshop and paint teams at Bridge Classic Cars have been working together to clean up and refinish several pieces for the 1979 Arrow Ferrari Daytona.

The parts from the engine bay of the Daytona were meticulously sanded, cleaned and prepared the pieces before they were taken into our spray booth to be refinished in glossy and matte black depending on the piece.

After the pieces had completely cured and hardened, the workshop team could begin putting the parts back together and ready to be put back into the car.

The Genuine Article – Real Daytona Wheels for the 1979 Arrow Ferrari Daytona

December 17, 2021

The Bridge Classic Cars workshop here in Pettistree, Suffolk has had an incredible delivery. A set of refurbished genuine Ferrari Daytona wheels.

These will be fitted to the 1979 Arrow Ferrari Daytona which is undergoing a thorough and complete restoration by our in-house restoration teams. These wheels have been refurbished which must be done by specialists due to their magnesium construction.

This is going to be an amazing addition to the car once the restoration is complete by the team.

Back in the Workshop – 1979 Arrow Daytona

November 25, 2021

This wonderful 1979 Arrow Daytona is back in the Bridge Classic Cars workshop in Pettistree, Suffolk from being in storage.

It’s currently under covers while several cars are being worked on around the workshop while it awaits its time with our in-house restoration experts to carry on with the restoration of the car.

Keep an eye out here on the Bridge Classic Cars blog for updates on the Arrow Daytona.

Our Ferrari Daytona: Details And Dedication

March 12, 2021

The body of our Ferrari Daytona has officially left the paint shop and found its place in our main workshop, ready to begin the next step in its mechanical journey. The doors, boot and bonnet are set to be completed imminently and will join the body to be fitted.

Scott has been working on re-aligning the front suspension of the Daytona as well, making sure all the elements fit back together nearly after its refurbishment.

The trim shop are continuing with the interior with Lydia focusing on the rear quarter panels. She started off by taking the original leather and foam off them both, glued new 3mm foam onto each one and placed new leather over the top. She then turned her focus to working on the bottom sills where she started off by taking the original leather and foam off and sanded off the surface rust.

Brian has continued to strip down the old door panels and has added new foam to the panels as well. He’s then marked out new leather for the doors, glued the cover around the edges and pulled the leather tight. Brian also turned the fabric over the edges of the hole for the centre section and speaker hole. He has also fit rubber grommet for the door lock button to finish.

Lydia has also continued to take the covers off the seats. First, she undid the bolts holding the wide bars down which hold the seat in place in the car, then she drilled the rivets outs holding the covers into place. Next Lydia took out all the rusted staples which originally held the covers in place. Lydia had to twist the hog rings out, which were holding the inner seat cover tight around the frame as well as cutting the strings holding the inner seat tight in the middle and at the top. She then took the metal bars off that hold the rubber webbing over the frame and took the inner cover off, and then had to drill out a couple of more rivets to get the surrounding cover off.

Daytona gets new suspension, trim and paint

March 9, 2021

Scott has been working on the suspension for our Ferarri Daytona. He’s replaced all the UJs, bearings and bushes on the front and rear suspension. He’s also started to reassemble the front and rear axles.

Brian has been marking up the old armrest covers ready to make new covers. He used the old pattern as a template to cut out the new leather, glued in the new metal trim for inside the handles, added the foam and glued up the edge of the arm rest. By pulling the arm rest tight and stapling it down, Brian can get a neat finish.

Lydia has been working on putting together the seat covers by adding pipping around the outside, adding calico underneath which gets pulled over the bars in the frame to keep it tight. Lydia then marks out the new back and skirt on fresh leather. Lydia sews on the hem to the skirt and adds the pieces back together.

Kath has been working on making the test run for the head rests. She starts by drawing around the inner section and adding the seam allowance. She then makes up the skirt, clips it together and sews it in place. Kath then makes the pattern for each part of the head rest, marks out the positions on the leather and foam and sews it all together. Once all the parts and skirts as sewed up, she fits it onto the foam head rest and adjusts it to fit. Once she’d modified it to fit perfectly, Kath can then sew round the inner section and fit that. Once that the pattern is made, Kath finds she needed to unpick the stitching and mark out the parts in he sage green leather.

Matt and Chris in the paint shop have smoothed and flattened the paint so its looking really shiny and even. Once the doors and panels have been painted, it can all be fitted together.

Daytona Goes Green

March 1, 2021

Our specialist classic car painter, Matt, has been working on spraying our Ferrari Daytona its new green colour. Having sat in primer, Matt could then mask up the body, apply a base layer and then finish by applying the final colour. The doors, bonnet and boot still need to be done separately however we’re very excited to see this major development in the Daytona’s restoration.

Chris has also been working on the Daytona paint work and has sprayed many of the internal components black.

Kath has been working on the seats for the Daytona. Last week she rolled out and marked all the leather for two seat faces. Once she’d marked out the foam ready to stuff into the fluted panels, Kath cut the calico out so that all the seat faces were ready to be sewn together. All the parts for the seat face with the black strips were then laid out ready to be added to the frames.

Daytona Seats Get A New Lease Of Life

February 25, 2021

Kath has been working on the Daytona seats again. The face of one of the seats wasn’t sewn straight originally, so Kath found that all of the red strips were uneven, and the centre strip wasn’t centralised either. With this in mind, Kath roughly drew around the original to get a basic shape before then making a template. Kath had to work out the distance between the black strips to make sure all the holes in the strips are even all the way down each strip.

Once Kath had worked out the correct measurements, she cut out the template and laid it into the seat. She found that the sides needed more as the frame came out, so she amended it to run along the seat frame in a nicer fashion.

Once Kath was happy with it, she cut the template up to make individual parts, and worked out the seam allowance around the frame and punched holes.

The pattern was then ready with all the parts to be marked out now for the final trim. Lydia is up next to make the cover.

Daytona Details

February 24, 2021

The Ferrari Daytona is currently sat in primer and is being smoothed and prepared for its final paint step: the official colour. Before it can be painted, it needs to be masked. We hope to see the shell painted by the end of the week which will mark an exciting milestone in this restoration.

Here are some examples of different stitching options for the interior of the Daytona. The trim is set to be a similar tone of green to the exterior.

Scott has also been continuing his welding to the front subframe of the Daytona. The bottom of it was heavily damaged so he cut the damaged area out and straightened the supports inside. He then, cleaned up the rust inside and treated it by applying a zinc primer. Scott then fabricated a new panel and welded it in. Finally, he dressed the welds so it was ready to go to paint.

Daytona Catch – Up

February 19, 2021

With Scott’s Land Rover hiatus now over, he can get back to the Daytona. Today he’s been welding the front cradle that holds the suspension as the element was suffering from some intense rust and corrosion. With new patches welded in, Scott can put it aside to fit once the Daytona has come out of paint.

Scott has drilled out the spot welds that held the spring locator into the spring seat to gain access to the rot underneath. He then cut all affected metal out and cleaned up rust off the sound metal and applied a zinc primer to the parts he knew wouldn’t be able to access after its welded back up. Scott then fabricated a new piece and welded that in place. After repairing the spring locator, Scott lined it up perfectly to where it came off and then placed it back on. He finished by grinding flat the plug welds so that once its painted it will look like it’s never been touched. Success!

The Daytona shell is sat in the paint shop in a bright green primer as we prepare it for its final paint. Chris hand made the green primer by adding a tint of green paint into the body primer. This allows the final green paint to sit more naturally.

Meanwhile, the interior trim has landed in the trim shop for our team to begin tackling. Lydia has begun taking apart the seats by removing the old and deteriating staples. Lydia then drilled out all the rivets, hiding the bottom flap in place and the sides. the next step was to undo all the bolts with a spanner which were holding these metal bars in place. These metal bars hold the seat down into the car on the floor. Lydia then begun undoing all the laces that run through the back straps and the inner seat cover. After more staples were taken out, Lydia had to undo these metal bars holding the edges of the rubber straps in place going along the back. Before Lydia could start to get the covers off, she had to then cut the strings running down the middle, which help the cover keep tight. Lydia could then take off the middle cover from the foam and frame, peeled the foams off the rubber straps that were held in place with glue and took the outer cover of the foam and frame. Once the covers had all come off, Lydia could then look at the construction of them properly and start marking them up to help make new ones in the future.

Blocking Our Daytona

February 11, 2021

Scott has continued blocking out the Ferrari Daytona after its recent visit to the paint bay. All the primer has now been blocked down on the body. There’s a few more imperfections to smooth down before the next primer coat but otherwise, its almost ready for the next step!

The term blocking out refers to smoothing over the body and filing out any imperfections to make sure the body is all straight and ready to be painted.

Smoothing Things Over With The Daytona

February 8, 2021

Now that the Daytona has been primed and prepared in the paint shop, Scott has taken it back into the fabrication bay to continue smoothing over the body. The primer allows for any imperfection in the lines of the body to be seen more clearly and can therefore be addressed easier. Scott can make sure that the body lines are straight by sanding it down using a block.

Heres some progress photos from inside the fabrication bay and the paintshop. Its exciting to see such a huge project progress so well.

Daytona’s First Day In The Paint Shop

February 4, 2021

The Daytona entered the Paint Bay today under the trusted hands of Scott, one of our classic car technicians. We’re very fortunate that so many of our engineers are multifaceted in their skills, allowing us to, at times, dedicate one technician to an entire restoration. We of course get our specialists involved in these instances, but its great to see an individual technician lead a restoration from start to finish. This is what we’ve done with Scott, who’s a very experienced and talented classic car engineer. Assigning him to just one restoration means that he will see the total project from start to finish, taking on multiple disciplines. Under the supervision of our paint specialist, Scott tackled the primer stage of painting our Daytona.

Here we see him focusing on masking up and cleaning the body of the car, wiping clean all the elements in the preparation of the primer.

The cleaning process is an important part of the primer preparation as it removes any dust or debris that may interrupt the primer.

The next step was for Scott to apply the black epoxy primer on the chassis and engine bay. This black layer is a non-porous, high-bonding, anti-corrosive primer.

Scott’s next task was to spray on Polyfan Primer which is a polyester filler primer.

The final step was to apply an anticorrosive primer onto the underside of the Daytona. These steps can take all day as each layer must dry before applying the next. The advantage of this is that the paint booth is kept warm, making a cosy workplace during these cold winter days.

If you’ve been following us for a while, you’ll know we love getting behind the scenes shots and behind the behind the scenes shots! Here’s Ellie, our in house photographer and latest member to the marketing team, snapping Scott prepping the Daytona.

Daytona Masking

February 2, 2021

The Daytona is days away from entering the paint shop and we can’t wait! Scott is currently masking it up to protects elements of the body we don’t want to be painted such as the sills.

We’ve also engineered a frame for the Daytona to sit on to allow Scott to get under and around it easier.

Preparations On The Daytona

January 29, 2021

Scott has continued to prep the body of the Daytona by preparing the chassis and engine bay for paint.

Scott has removed the heater blower to gain access to repair the rotten battery tray. The repair was done by cutting the rotten metal out and making a new panel to be welded in.

Scott has continued to clean up and remove rust from the chassis and engine bay to get it ready for paint. He’s also removed rust from the A posts by using a rust treatment. Scott has then repaired where the fibreglass of the body meets the steel framework of the ‘A’ posts that had been damaged by rust.

James has also been working on our Daytona. He’s removed the lower part of the left rear lower subframe mount as it had a snapped and rusted bolt. He made a replacement and location bracket to ensure that the new thread remains centred. Once this was made, James then welded it back in place.

Kath has been working on creating a custom dashboard by refurbishing the existing parts and designing elements as the client wishes. After stripping the dashboard, Kath will then start to recover the parts. The client has requested a custom dashboard with piano hinges. Many of these components are also original Ferrari pieces that the client has sourced, making this project not only a Ferrari Daytona Replica but a custom replica.

Kath removed the cover from the glovebox and dashboard to reveal the wood underneath meaning it is now ready for one of our workshop engineers to modify.

Here is Kath’s process:

The steering rack has been sent off to Kelly Bray Steering to be refurbished as it was leaking and the steering arm is bent.

Ferrari Fabrication

January 26, 2021

Scott has continued with the fabrication and bodywork on the Daytona. This mostly includes going over the entire shell with filler to make sure all surfaces are smoothed over and perfected to allow the layers of paint and primer to sit correctly on top.

We’ve also sent the chrome off to Tony at Wyatt Polishing and hope to have them back soon so we can begin fitting them after the body has been painted.

Stripping back the interior of the 1979 Arrow Daytona

January 21, 2021

Brian has begun to strip down the interior of the 1979 Arrow Daytona in at Bridge Classic Cars.

Carefully Brian and the trim team have removed all of the carpeting and necessary trim panels to get access to both the dash and centre console which will be removed and stored before their restoration starts.

Along with the interior trim pieces, the wiring for the cabin has also been removed and catalogued for future reference once the car is back in the workshop to be reassembled.

Work In Progress

January 20, 2021

There’s a long list of work that’s going on with the Daytona, which mostly has Scott at the helm. The brakes have been sent off to be refurbished at Norfolk Brake and Clutch, the chrome work will be sent to our friend Tony Wyatt and we will do the stainless steel refurbishments in house. As seen in a previous Daytona update, Tom has taken apart the rear axel so it is now ready to be sandblasted. We’ve also found a leak in the differential which needs to therefore be rebuilt, as does the steering rack after finding a leak there too.

Scott has also been focusing on doing filler work on the Daytona body. He’s been repairing any imperfections in the body and getting neat panel gaps. This is done before we prep the body for paint.

We also discovered a large amount rust on the chassis which will need to be repaired and fabricated.

Scott has also removed the radiator and oil cooler, and stripped some elements out of the engine bay to make it easier to prep for paint. He has also removed the front and rear windscreens too.

Tom has also stripped down rear and front axle ready for it to be sandblasted and painted. He’s also checked the bushes and sub-frame condition. Tom has prepared the power steering rack to be repaired as well as the brake callipers.

Across The Colour Wheel

January 15, 2021

Our 1979 Arrow Ferrari Daytona replica has some big colour related changes coming it’s way. It’s been sat comfortably in a stunning red however shades of green are on the horizon that is sure to turn passers-by a similar shade of envy.

We understand that the exterior colour is likely to be an Aston Martin Sage Green which means the interior is likely to be a similar shade to match. As it stands, the choices are likely to be between the patches below.

We’re excited to see this what this already stunning red Ferrari Daytona will look like after it’s dramatic jump across the colour wheel.

Ferrari Daytona’s First Steps

January 14, 2021

Scott has been working on preparing the Daytona door frames by welding the bottom to correct the rust damage. He’s essentially grounding out the rotten parts before we send it off to chrome.

Here’s a closer look at the Daytona engine we have sat here waiting to be installed. This huge piece of machinery is what gives the Daytona its iconic power.

Tom has been stripping down the rear axel by cleaning and preparing it to be refurbished.

Scott has removed and repaired the sash on the door glass as it was rotten. It was then painted it and bonded it back onto the glass. Scott then cut any rotten bits out of the door frame and welded in some new metal and then got it ready for chrome. Scott has also removed the door handles and got them ready for chrome.

Scott has also removed the complete front axle assembly and the radiator to start checking over to see what needs to be refurbished.

Here’s the rest of the work Scott has been doing to the Daytona:

Ferrari Daytona’s Debut

January 8, 2021

We received the engine for our unique 1979 Arrow Ferrari Daytona Replica. This kit car is going to be a particularly large restoration with the process expected to take a while but we know for certain it will be worth it!

Ant, one of our fabricators has been working on stripping the body. It originally had a lot of stickers on the side which have now been taken off, allowing ant to prepare underneath for new paint. The current plan for this Daytona is to be painted Green – stay tuned!

This is what it looked like before we started the stripping process:

One of our technicians, Scott, has also been stripping down the Daytona by focusing on the doors and removing all chrome and lights.

Scott has also been working on the removal of the complete exhaust system and rear axle which will be refurbished.

Tom, another of our Classic Car Technicians has been sorting all the parts, which are a mix of new and old. He has ordered and filed all the components so we know what we have and if we need to get anything else. It also allows us to see which bits need refurbishing and cleaning.

The Engine’s Out!

September 2, 2020

The 1979 Arrow Ferrari Daytona has had her engine removed this morning by our expert technicians Ady, Mauro and Tom.

“The engine is the heaviest we’ve ever dealt with here” explained Ady, our engine specialist. “We’ve had to source a heavy duty crane especially to lift it out.”

The car came to us as a non-runner, the engine was completely blown. Ady diagnosed a water leak from the bottom hose, causing the engine to completely overheat. It’s sadly spent many years not being driven.

_{^{Ady and Mauro carefully remove the heaviest engine we’ve ever had at Bridge Classic Cars!}}

The spare Jaguar V12 engine is currently being worked on by our specialist engine partners. Now the old engines out, it’ll be stripped for parts and whatever that can be salvaged will be, ready to be used on the new engine.

One way or another, our talented team will get this baby back on the road. We can’t wait to hear that engine roar!

classic arrow daytona