A Visit To The Rolling Road At Hangar 111
December 20, 2022
Our 1979 Arrow Ferrari Daytona recently visited Hangar 111 to make use of their rolling road. This was the best way for the 6 carburettors
daytona
Glovebox Radio Installed
December 12, 2022
Classic car technician Brian recently installed the glovebox radio in our 1979 Arrow Ferrari Daytona. He started by making the cardboard patterns for the inner
Axles fitting time for the Daytona.
August 11, 2021
Scott has now finished re-assembling the front axle for the 1979 Arrow Ferrari Daytona. The rear axle was re-assembled last week, which you can see
Daytona Dash, Trim And Suspension
March 18, 2021
Lydia and Brian have been working on various panels for the Ferarri Daytona. Lydia has taken off the original leather and the screws from the
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
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.
Daytona Seats
March 3, 2021
Lydia has continued making the seats for our Ferrari Daytona. Now with a whole new colour pallet, this is more than renovating the seats, its
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Daytona Chrome
January 15, 2021
We’ve sent off the chrome to be re-worked and polished at Tony Wyatt Polishing. Once these come back clean and new, we can set them
A Visit To The Rolling Road At Hangar 111
December 20, 2022
Our 1979 Arrow Ferrari Daytona recently visited Hangar 111 to make use of their rolling road.
This was the best way for the 6 carburettors to be correctly set up.
Our Daytona is a very eye-catching car and it always draws lots of attention from any visitors we have to the workshop.
Lots of progress has been made on our 1979 Arrow Ferrari Daytona and we look forward to seeing it returned to its owner very soon.
Glovebox Radio Installed
December 12, 2022
Classic car technician Brian recently installed the glovebox radio in our 1979 Arrow Ferrari Daytona. He started by making the cardboard patterns for the inner section of the glovebox that would hold the radio.
He then cut out the base from mill board and the centre sections from plywood. To make sure everything was exactly the right size, Brian trial-fitted the front panel and radio before moving on to the next step in the process.
After a successful trial-fitting, Brian went on to fit the side panels of the glovebox as well as making and fitting the rear bracket. Once this was complete, he could cut and glue the Alcantara (a synthetic suede-like material that is referred to as a “material of the future”) to the front edge of the glovebox.
The radio was then put into the box and everything was ready to be installed in the car.
Once the glovebox and radio were in the car, Brian turned his attention to the glovebox lid. He first fit a piano hinge to the lid and screwed it in place before fitting this to the dashboard in the car.
The finished product of the glovebox and radio look very impressive and we are very pleased with the result.
Our 1979 Arrow Ferrari Daytona is getting closer and closer to being complete and we are extremely excited to see this beautiful car drive out of the workshop and back to its owner in the very near future.
Axles fitting time for the Daytona.
August 11, 2021
Scott has now finished re-assembling the front axle for the 1979 Arrow Ferrari Daytona. The rear axle was re-assembled last week, which you can see a blog post about here. A blog post showing the front axle’s progress from yesterday can be accessed here. Now both axles are re-assembled, they were able to be fitted to the car!
The front and rear axles have both been rebuilt with all new bushings, bearings, shocks and springs. The brake calipers have been refurbished and Scott has replaced all the brake lines. The car was then lowered down onto the newly built axles and they were bolted on with new mountings.
Daytona Dash, Trim And Suspension
March 18, 2021
Lydia and Brian have been working on various panels for the Ferarri Daytona. Lydia has taken off the original leather and the screws from the sun visor panel to clean the fibreglass, ready to be recovered. She has also been taking the covers and foam off the A, B and C posts and sanding off the old glue. She then glued on s fresh 3mm of foam before wrapping the posts in new stretchy vinyl. Brian has removed the old cover from ‘c’ posts, sanded and filled any fibreglass to make it smooth before recovering in new vinyl. He has also removed the cover from the ‘a’ posts and cleaned the metal so it’s ready to be recovered. He did the same for the B panel too. Brian then removed the cover from the rear window top bar and cleaned up the fibreglass. He added new foam onto the top bar and glued new vinyl onto the rear of the panel. He repeats this process on the a, b and c panels too.
Kath has been recovering the head rests with new updated modifications to make the head rests a slimmer design on the clients request.
Kath has made the skirt and clipped the four sections together in position before sewing all the parts together. After sewing the mock together, Kath could refit the foam. She then unpicked the skirt ready to cut out new parts to then sew together. Once all sewn together, Kath could place the cover over the frame to see how it’s going to fit. With a few modifications, the cover fits perfectly and the skirt folds over the back of the cover. For the inner piece, Kath drew around the centre of the foam, marked out new leather, clipped together the pieces and finally sewed them all in. Once she ensured it fit perfectly, she could assemble all the pieces. She repeated the process on the second headrest.
Lydia has also been working to make the centre rear carpet section. The original carpet was red, which she needed to remove first before cleaning all the glue off the base. She drew around the original pieces of carpet to make out the new template which she then cut out new leather from. Once this was done, she sewed around the edges of each carpet to bind, then glued around the surround section. She then glued the fabric into place.
James has just started making up a brand new bespoke dashboard out of fibreglass for our Daytona. This will be a detailed and difficult process but worth it in the end.
Scott has been working to add new springs into the front suspension. He is also working on removing the front cross member mount bolt which has seized. This eventually will be holding in the front suspension.
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 Seats
March 3, 2021
Lydia has continued making the seats for our Ferrari Daytona. Now with a whole new colour pallet, this is more than renovating the seats, its a total make over.
Lydia had to position the black insert strips onto the leather in the marked places for the squab covers and sew them into place. Lydia then punched holes out of the Insert Strips and stuffed scrim foam in-between the insert strips. She then sewed all round to seal them into place. She then sewed the middle strip between them.
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.
Daytona Chrome
January 15, 2021
We’ve sent off the chrome to be re-worked and polished at Tony Wyatt Polishing. Once these come back clean and new, we can set them aside to be re-fitted once the car is painted.
