bare metal respray – Quattroporte3

December 3, 2013

First drive

I’m not going to quote the Joe Walsh song, we all know it and it’s horribly cliché. But it’s the only song I know about a Maserati (if you happen to know of another one, leave a comment!).

No, I didn’t make it up to 185, have to keep things real, as well as within local speed limits.

"...does 185", but *we're* not doing 185. Not today. — “…does 185”, but *we’re* not doing 185. Not today.

Sylvia performed marvelously, aside from a temperamental starter – I thought that was fixed?!? I noticed at the start of my drive that there were a lot of rattles, creaks and noises in general. After a while everything seemed to settle down, and even later things were perfect, the only noise coming from the shifter badge that rattles once in a while. I notice that the asphalt quality has a lot to say as far as noise levels in the cabin go, and taking a few really nice long drives helped shake things down and allowed everything to settle in.

The first drive was in a downpour, and I was happy to note that not a single drop of water entered the cabin anywhere. Dry as a bone. The new seals perform perfectly, and also help to keep noise out.

A long drive on the freeway was uneventful, the car performing admirably, cruising along smoothly and rapidly for hours on end. Because of the comfort of the interior, you don’t really notice the acceleration or the true speed you’re traveling. 80mph feels more like 50. Hit the gas and you can see the speedometer gain rapidly, but the acceleration feels effortless. It’s very refined.

There’s still a bit of vibration between 2200 – 2800 rpm in 3rd gear. One guy I spoke with said he suspects it’s the prop shaft and commented it immediately when we went for a drive. He thinks it probably happens in 1st and 2nd as well, but isn’t as noticeable at lower speeds. It’s not a huge deal, and the prop shaft went back into the car in the exact same orientation as when we took it out to overhaul the transmission (we marked it), but it is something I’d like to have checked and make sure it’s correctly balanced.

The new front headlights are brilliant! Literally. They light up the road so much better and are extremely precise in their throw, you can see exactly what area they cover perfectly, and it’s exactly the area needed to drive at night. The high beams only increase the reach and are nicely constrained to the road and shoulder. Kudos again to Daniel Stern, this is one of the best improvements I’ve made to the car.

Hit a double rainbow on the last drive, don’t know if you can see it. It’s lovely how the water beads on the car and simply rolls off.

I’m very pleased with the color, it suits the car so much better than the purplish blue it was painted in before, and the depth and richness of the Blu Sera is truly striking.

All in all I’m extremely satisfied, and really happy to have the car back on the road.

Please don’t be tempted to think that this is the end of this blog – this is after all a 33 year old car! Next up is to put her on the dyno and see how many horses have escaped over the years, and if we can get them all back in the corral…

Comments are open!

November 29, 2013

The final result

is stunning…..

Lots of time spent getting all the last loose ends taken care of. Headlamp washer jets fitted, mirrors painted and mounted, correct lenses fitted to front blinkers, and much more.

I’m ready for a drive!

November 28, 2013

Bumpers back

in place, EU spec. Note how the front and rear end look so much tidier and more integrated with the body. It changes the overall stance and look of the car, even though the difference is more subtle than say on the Bora, Merak, or Khamsin.

Forgot to put the EU spec front park/turn light lenses on, the US spec all-amber ones are still in place in the picture.

We’re rapidly approaching completion!

November 23, 2013

Back on track

Been a while since I’ve posted anything, but a lot has happened. Will do my best to fill in patient readers and followers of this humble blog.

I decided we needed to do the bumpers right, which meant re-doing some work.

“front bumper mounts re-drilled/cut, new metal sections welded in to ‘fill’ the gaps and filled/shaped smooth ready for priming.”

“A little good news on the rear bumper corners – the holes in the body were the same measurements on Mr X’s car as yours which completely confused me for some time until I compared the rear bumper corners from your car with his, all of the rear bumper corners have provision for THREE mounting holes, even though only two are used and have threads fitted, this allows the bumper corners to be interchangeable and no need for different spaced holes from Euro to USA spec. Whilst the holes are there though, there is no thread for the bolt so we have spoken to the engineering company a few workshops down from us and they are going to fit thread inserts in both rear bumper corners to align with the existing holes in the rear of the body.”

Mounting system for rear side bumper bits.

The shop and I both agree that the EU version looks much better than the US. While the differences are much more subtle than say on a Ghibli, Bora or Merak, the bumper placement and H4 lights does change the entire balance and feel of the car as a whole. All in all I’m glad we took the extra time and effort to complete the transformation.

(p.s. for those of you wondering if “Mr. X” is the same as “Racer X”, we can’t be 100% sure, but the fact that he drives a QP3 and not something more exotic and sporty would indicate that he probably isn’t the mysterious driver known only as Racer X)

September 9, 2013

“if at first you don’t succeed…”

we tried again. Looking better this time, but only measured and trial fitted so far.

side bumperette moved back closer to wheel arch

tucked in correctly, looks much better this way

The rear bumper finally looks like a bumper, integrated with the body, whereas before it was more like a shelf sticking far out from the rear. At least it was handy to sit on at picnics 😉

Now to strip all the paint away, cut the mounts out and move them to the new positions, weld everything back up, prime, shape and prep the areas for paint.

August 11, 2013

Blu sera metalizzato

The pictures speak for themselves. First the color itself:

After a few coats, a clear top coat is applied, rubbed down and polished:

Looking good, and there are still 2 more polishing stages to go before she's done — Looking good, and there are still 2 more polishing stages to go before she’s done!

As is probably apparent from the pictures, the color is quite different from what she came in with, which was a purplish blue from a respray in the USA many years ago. This is the 1980 model year correct Maserati “Blu Sera metalizzato” that the car came with originally. It’s quite close to the 5000GT color, although the metallic flakes appear a bit larger, giving a livelier impression. On a car this size, that’s a good thing.

I’d love to hear what you think of the color – thumbs up? Thumbs down? What’s your opinion of the color? Does it suit the car? What color do you think works best on this car, and why? Comments are open!

July 3, 2013

The usual suspects (rust)

Rumor has it that the communist government in Italy during the 70’s – 80’s made a deal with the USSR for steel to supply their automobile production, resulting in cars that rust more readily than their competitors. Hopefully any historians in the audience will be able to verify or refute the accuracy of the rumor, but as anyone who’s ever owned an Italian car knows, they rust like no others. I don’t even think that a Jag could rust faster, and that’s saying something.

Meaning that 33 years on, mother nature has had her say in the matter, and the results aren’t pretty. The expert’s assessment is that this is no big deal and pretty common and far from the worse they’ve seen, and I’m comforted by the fact that they know their way around a pair of tin snips and welding machines. Blindfolded.

E.g. “The car is pretty well as I expected, PLEASE don’t feel in any way downhearted at the seeming extent of the metal repair work………….this is very much the norm.”

“First few pics show the stripping completed (including the ‘detail’ stripping of the body suages, glass reveals, rain gutters and all of the other difficult areas).”

“As you can see I have begun the metalwork on the most complicated areas…….the lower front wing/sill structure and having cut away the corrosion on the left side we found the lower A panel support had rusted out also, so removed a larger section of the front wing to enable access to cut the rust out and repair properly. I have also drilled a hole in the support panel so that we can fully protect it with a cavity wax at the end of the job. Finally new sections made for the outer panelwork (sill and lower front wing) and welded in.
Next stage is to do the same on the right side.”

Excellent work. I’m looking forward to seeing how this continues.