Tuesday 31 December 2013

The Hunt part XII

On Sunday I went back home and managed to squeeze in another visit in Germany which was on route. I even got ahold of someone else but they were on holiday leave. So it remained one visit only. If I remember correctly it was listed for about  22.000 Euro. And as always it looked ok on the pictures. But in reality it was a technical neglected car and with poor body work. The interior was however looking very good. What I remember most of this visit was the nice route I drove back home via A60/E42 to Belgium. I don’t recall driving that road before. Usually it’s the boring A3. In any case, here are some supporting pictures of a few findings:


Resprayed, including door rubbers:

 
All wheels corroded:

 
broken trim:

 
sunweather-beaten blinking lighst:

 
torn headlights (both sides):


 
resprayed in a different color gray with rust underneath:

 

 
rusty and damaged headlight housing:


 
dirty engine bay with lots of corroded and rusty parts:


 



 
remarkable interior in very good condition:


 
rear shocks require replacement

Monday 30 December 2013

Vorschau: Drei Ganz Starke Typen - Auto Classic German article

One of my Dutch readers was so kind to inform me about this upcoming article - Danke!
According to the blog stats I do have German followers, so they might be equally interested as well.
Watch this space.





Dubbel test | twee keer V12 - Jaguar XJS vs Ferrari 400i - Autoweek Classics (Dutch article)

I just added this article in the download folder. Sorry, in Dutch only. I did happen to visit this 400i as well which was for sale at the Gallery in Brummen.





Sunday 29 December 2013

400 maintenance : bonnet struts

One of the maintenance items that required attention was the replacement of the bonnet struts. The previous owner had fixed the issue with a dirty hack, which is a known one: drill a hole and put a pin into it. Cheap and effective - like it. But I preferred to have it rather fixed as it looks more decent.


I didn't expect it would be very difficult to obtain these type/size of struts. But I was wrong. Eventually I found them on Eurospares for only 191,- Euro each, excluding shipping:

Ferrari 400 GT (Coachwork) - SUPPORT Part No. 253-28-550-00
So I figured the currently solution wasn't so bad after all. But luck was on my side as my radar found this company who sells them for 25 GBP only:

http://www.sgs-engineering.com/gsc1263-ferrari-400-bonnet-strut

Needless to say I ordered them instantly. I will add this piece of work on my todo maintenance list:




Saturday 28 December 2013

V12 maintenance costs

Just added the following German article to the online section:

http://www.motor-klassik.de/bilder/v12-kosten-wartungsstau-5643147.html

It does have a very nice overview on some costs aspects. And the winner is:

Preise für Wartung und Ersatzteile
  BMW 850 CSi Ferrari 412 Jaguar XJ12 Lamborghini Jarama Mercedes 600 SL
Jahresdurchsicht mit Öl- und Filterwechsel ab 300 Euro ab 850 Euro ab 700 Euro ab 500 Euro ab 350 Euro
Große Inspektion nach Herstellervorgabe ab 850 Euro ab 4.400 Euro ab 3.300 Euro ab 2.700 Euro 700 bis 1.400 Euro
Ventilspielkontrolle und Einstellen entfällt ca. 2.400 Euro ca. 1.800 Euro ca. 1.600 Euro entfällt
Kupplungswechsel ca. 1.300 Euro ca. 1.900 Euro entfällt ca. 2.400 Euro entfällt
Wechsel Bremsbeläge vorn ca. 310 Euro ca. 400 Euro ca. 260 Euro ca. 300 Euro ca. 220 Euro
Frontscheibe (ohne Montage) ca.550 Euro ca. 1.800 Euro ca. 250 Euro ca. 1.200 Euro ca. 600 Euro
Kotflügel vorne links (ohne Montage) ca 280 Euro ca. 1.500 Euro ca. 800 Euro ca. 3.200 Euro ca. 350 Euro
ein Satz Reifen (ohne Montage) ca. 1.100 Euro ca. 1.700 Euro ca. 1.000 Euro ca. 1.500 Euro ab 1.000 Euro
Auspuffanlage komplett ab Krümmer - ohne/mit Kat (ohne Montage) 2.400/5.700 ca. 4.500 Euro ca. 1.300 Euro ca. 4.200 Euro 1.100/3.500 Euro



Friday 27 December 2013

Ferrari 400 Parts Manual + Automatic THM400 Manual

Some items I purchased recently. Just to be complete and handy to have. Digital copies of both the owners manual and parts manual can be found easily online on various locations. The Automatic manual is harder to find. I have scanned the latter and will create a section on this blog so it's easily accessible for anyone with an interest. I will use the same folder to store any other articles.




Thursday 26 December 2013

The Hunt part XI

Our last visit was in Lichtenstein/Swiss. Before moving on to the next one in Swiss we decided first to have a decent lunch. Since we were very close to the Austria border we decided to get proper Schnitzel's overthere's (not to mention it's much cheaper as well). We visited a very nice village and found a nice restaurant in the centre. We placed an order and not much later we heard the hammering sounds from the kitchen. We guessed they were making fresh ones. In any case they were delicious. The next 400 is for sale at: www.finecars.ch

In fact, I noticed it's still for sale: http://www.finecars.ch/labels/verkaufsangebote/car13/index.html
I was very curious to visit this one as it looked to be a very complete, Original and in pristine condition. And a very cool color setting. With only 58.000 km and 4 previous owners. The inspection revealed only very small points. Although the owner claimed it was not resprayed I had a different opinion. I could not see any sign of damage but some parts had been resprayed as far as I could Judge. See a few supporting pictures with some of my findings. Time for a test drive. The car did not start up well but once running it sounded very good. A very nice ride through the country side. The only remark I had is that the automatic gearbox did not went smooth (if my memory serves me well). Just like the previous one, the biggest downside is the import tax that has to be paid (20%). In this case, the car had little or no big items to be done but the price was significant higher. In the end I decided to skip it although I liked this one very much.

Update: Somehow it only just became apparent to me. The back side of the trunk is gray as well, instead of being black. So yes, clearly resprayed. But I can only say it has been done very well.

                                                            Jos in front of the candyshop


 
Extremely clean engine bay:


Wow, how beautiful is that:
 



 
missing fog lights:


Worn out door rubbers:

 
On this picture you can see quite well the leather has been repainted:

 
Original Ansa exhaust pipes:
 


on this picture you can see the blanc varnish sprayed (on the edge)

 
with toolkit:

 
clean interior and midconsole:


 
difficult to inspect but it looked ok:

 
Bumper bend to the chassis, likely parking incident:

 
leather slightly torn due to sun, only at the air ventilator box:

 
Rubber resprayed: