MadaboutKitcars

Feeling a bit guilty about thread-jacking Geoff and Bob's SWB builds, so I decided it's probably a good idea to start my own now that I've begun the process of buying in the parts I'll be needing.

The decision to build a SWB is a no-brainer for me - I need a 'sensible' classic car for rainy days when it's too wet to enjoy driving my Spyder, and the Ferrari 250GT SWB Berlinetta is just one of the most beautiful coupes I've ever seen.

With auction prices coming in at around $10,000,000 to $20,000,000 for the real thing, even a non-rollover Euromillions win wouldn't be enough to bag one, so a close-enough-to-fool-most-people Tribute to the model will do me nicely.

This build may be either quick or slow. I anticipated a six-month build for my Spyder and it actually took two years, but the reason for the rather vague timespan this time is down to my finances - I may be able to afford a donor and kit in a couple of months, or I might have to wait until early 2017.

Either way I will be building one and I have every confidence that Chris at Tribute will still be producing the kit if I have to wait another 21 months before putting a deposit down.

I'm aiming to keep this to a (fairly) strict budget of around £7,500 but will spend less if I can. I'll be keeping a spreadsheet to monitor my expenditure and the hours I put in, and will try to remember to add a tally to my updates as I go along.

I'll be using the images from this site as a handy reference throughout -

http://www.fantasyjunction.com/cars/1584-Ferrari-250%20SWB-3.0%20Litre%2012-Cylinder

Anyway, I'll post plenty of pics and am always open to suggestions/advice regarding whatever I happen to be doing.

So, a few pics to get started with starting with seats and wheels -







Spend so far:

Wheels (BMW 5 series 6.5 x 15 ET20 steels) £78.00

Seats (black leather Rover 45 saloon, rear seats included and the leather from them will be used for door/dash trim) - £100.00

Total spend to date - £178.00

Total hours expended 1.5 (plus about 2,000 surfing the 'net for ideas).

More later.

Rene - Yvette, can you 'old my balls for a moment?

Yvette - Oh, Reneee!

Cheers Redrat, was already watching the seitenblinkers but hadn't seen the Fulvia ones, which have now ended.

Will definitely be adding a pair of original coffin style side repeaters, it's those little details that make the illusion believable.

Inspired by Redratbike's post I did a bit of surfing and found a cheaper alternative to the oem seitenblinkers, the Autobianchi equivalent -

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Nos-Autobianchi-A112-2x-indicators-chrome-side-turn-signal-lights-/261559182751?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item3ce624659f

They don't look as if they'll be quite the same quality as those from Germany, but they're not far off and will look the part, so at less than half the price, £31 delivered, I couldn't resist ordering a pair for the parts shelf.

They're coming from Greece and are new, old stock. Great vfm, Vive la crisis economique!

Cheers Swifty, I won't be selling the Spyder any time soon - I suggested I might do to my wife but she's put her foot down and told me to keep it - so I guess it's the start of a pseudo-classic collection.

Ultimately I'd like to use the SWB as a tow car for the Spyder (it gets a bit blustery on the motorway), but that may not be possible - there may not be a big enough weight differential and I might not be able to safely adapt a (detachable) tow bar for the extra length of the SWB body.

The sticking point for me at the moment is my finances - I'll definitely have the cash for this project in January 2017 as I get a lump sum with my retirement package, but there's something in the pipeline that means it's 90% certain that I'll be able to proceed later this spring or summer.

At the moment I'm just taking the opportunity to accumulate the parts necessary to get on with it quickly when I can afford to buy the kit.

I'm watching both Geoff and Bob's (kebab) threads with a great deal of interest as I can't believe how good the SWB is starting to look.

More later.

Little bit of progress on two of the wheels yesterday and today. They came from Germany with a coat of black paint sprayed over whatever was stuck to them, which turned out to include a fair bit of rust -



After a couple of hours elbow grease with a sanding sponge I marked up and drilled 5.5mm holes between the existing ones before degreasing and giving them a couple of coats of silver smoothrite. The overall effect is quite pleasing as they now have something of the look of Dunlop racing alloys for just over twenty quid each. Bargain.

Before and after shots -





I've also bought a couple of badges on ebay so I'll take some pics of the bits and bobs as they arrive.

Total spent so far: £282.89

Total hours put into project: 8

More later.

Ahh yes, the infamous Dunlop patent stickers. I say infamous because late fifties classic Jags have been marked down in concours d'elegance events because they shouldn't have them.

Dunlop only stuck them on while the patent was pending, which was apparently around 1953-4. Once they got their patent they no longer needed to protect their copyright by labelling the wheels.

So I'll give them a miss as this is supposed to be a '59 to '61 car.

Good luck getting your seats trimmed Bob. I can recommend Brockwell brothers in King's Lynn if you can't find anyone out Norwich way. Proper old school craftsmen and they don't charge the earth.

Will have a think about the wheel branding - 'I say, ding dong' have a massive range of such things.

Thanks guys, the additional holes were worth the effort (and a couple of broken drill bits).

It took about three hours per wheel. They needed quite a bit of sanding and the steel between the holes is about 7mm thick. Drilling each 2mm pilot hole took around 3 to 4 minutes, but the 4mm and 5.5mm bits then powered through in around a minute each.

They look close enough to the original Dunlops to fool most people - the main giveaway is that mine have 20 holes while Dunlops have 15.

When you look at the price of replicas - Image Wheels Billet 46 alloys, for example (gorgeous though they undoubtedly are) come in at £309 + vat each. That's £1,483.20 plus delivery for four compared to £100 all in for my 'home made' alternative.

You pays your money, you takes your choice...

£370.80 each -


£25.00 each -


http://www.imagewheels.co.uk/pages/prices_billet.html

Just to answer a couple of pm's publicly, the wheels I got were fixed price buy-it-now on ebay.

I've just done a bit of surfing - couldn't find any more E34 sets for sale, but there are a couple of E39 sets that have an ET of 18, and actually have the right number of holes (15) -

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/261796777092?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/251602722537?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

BTW, I can't guarantee that these will fit the 250 as I haven't tried them myself yet. Based on Tribute's wheel information thread I think they'll fit, but please do your own research before purchase.

On another matter, I'd be interested to know how much clearance there is available to fit taller tyres.

The Z3 'standard' tyre sizes all seem to have a diameter of between 63 and 64cm, while I'm thinking of going with 185/80/15 Vreidestein Sprint Classics (an original SWB tyre size), which are 67.7cm across.

This means that the 185/15's will be around 20mm closer to anything that might foul them, anyone know if there's more than a 20mm gap between the standard Z3 tyres and the chassis, suspension or bodywork?

Just found this interesting link -

http://www.alfabb.com/bb/forums/gta-1965-1975/144714-original-gta-campagnolo-wheels-7x14.html

So, Campagnolo branded wheels they might well become...

I know what you mean about the chicken-skin seats. BMW did (still do?) some bloody awful colour combinations inside their cars, the bounds of which are only limited by the lack of taste of the person ordering the car new, which appears to be unlimited.

Never really been a fan of BMW's or their owners for some reason.

P.S. Not sure how I managed to quote myself, I'm not usually quite that vain, I meant to quote Bob's (Hurnleft) link to the Campagnolo stickers above.

Jay Leno? Chris Evans? Bill Gates? Who knows...

This just arrived -





NOS genuine wheel centre cap, which will be modified to become a feature of the steering hub. It even came in a branded plastic bag.

Ha ha, I suppose I could always change the background colour to green if I get an angry letter from Maranello's solicitor. After all, I'd rather get on the wrong side of one of the biggest banks in the world instead of the Cosa Nostra.

I'll be keeping a running total of hours put into this project Paul - I estimated that I put about 2,000 hours into my Spyder to get it on the road (about 1/4 of the total you and Scottie have put into your own cars?) - but I'm hoping to keep the hours down to three figures this time round.

I'm also aiming to keep a better grip of the budget this time too - my garage is full of parts I bought for the Spyder but decided not to use - so there'll be no more alcohol fuelled 2am ebay impulse buys, instead I'll be careful to choose only the parts I need and look out for the bargains, like the seats and a set of wheels at only a hundred quid a piece.

I can't wait to see it started!

Off to see a potential donor today.

It's a...

It's a... 1.9 eep:

Struggling to find a 2 litre with a/c and cruise control (both pretty much essential for personal reasons). There was a 2.2 with a/c in Coventry but it sold yesterday.

I've never driven a BMW of any sort before, so I'll reserve judgement until I've given the M44 engine a chance to prove itself.

After all, if your daily driver is a 500bhp AMG Merc, pretty much any of the Z3 motors are going to feel a bit tame, even if you are merely a passenger in the AMG as the electronics do all the gear changes for you, back off the throttle if it thinks you're caning it too much and applies the brakes if you try to corner faster than Mercedes think you should.

Sing la la la la, la la la la...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0nlygb1Qfw

Cheers Redrat, I'll take a look at the retro-fit cruise control as it'll open up the field of potential donors for me.

People who bought six cylinder Z3's seem to have ticked all the show off options: nasty colour combination leather seats, vulgar 18" black alloys, chrome windscreen surrounds etc, but skimped on things like a/c, cruise control and servicing.

That meerkat sticker did make me smile, I might try to get my hands on a pair of these instead though -



...but I'll probably fit more authentic badges to the car.

Speaking of which, this turned up in the post today -



Genuine late 50's/early 60's part which looks suitably weathered for my preferred patinated look. Bit of a bargain too as it was roughly £300 cheaper than the only other genuine script I could find for sale -

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ferrari-Metal-Trunk-Badge-Fresh-Re-chrome-for-1950-to-1964-Cars-/321244004175?pt=Vintage_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item4acba27f4f

So, back to the issue of a potential donor. ebay had a 98,000 mile car in silver in the dealer classified's for just under £2k, and it was only 35 miles away.

It looked pretty good in the pictures so I took my better half and went to test drive it today with a view to potentially buying it. OK, it was a 1.9 M44 engine car but I wanted to give it a chance to impress me despite the poor (undeserved?) reputation.

The ad stated it had air conditioning, cruise control and service history, calling it a 'stunning example'.

On arrival it was parked right at the front of the forecourt, presumably to attract people in to view the other stock, and I have to say we were stunned when we saw it. In fact my wife was so stunned she refused to get out of the car. Our car that is, not the Z3, which was a mess.

It had no air con, no cruise control, it was full of fag ash and there was mildew on the seats. The service history turned out to be a sheaf of MOT failure sheets padded out with Chinese restaurant menus and the MOT had expired.

Under the bonnet the engine looked fine - no oil leaks and the oil was nice and clean - but some boy racer had fitted an aftermarket induction kit that looked cheap, nasty and unnecessary.

To be fair it started on the first turn of the key and sounded fine mechanically and not bad aurally (I think the four pot might even sound pretty good with the right exhaust fitted), and I was surprised how quickly it picked up and lost revs (I expected it to have a much more pronounced flywheel effect).

I'd asked the dealer if I could take it for a test drive (even though there was no way I was going to buy it) as I wanted to see if WCA is right about the M44 both sucking and blowing.

Key in hand, a quick walk round the car to check a few essentials revealed a tyre that was balder than me and a handbrake that didn't work.

So, I still haven't ever driven a BMW as I didn't want to risk my licence or my life driving a piece of crap death trap on the public highway.

I appreciate your post btw WCA, I know you don't rate the driving experience the 1.9 gives but I still want to see for myself as one man's meat, etc.

Oh well, the perfect donor's out there somewhere...

Thanks Gaz, that one's actually in my ebay watch list. The mileage is a bit high for my liking at 130,000 and it is a bit far to travel (albeit just down't rerd from't inlaws in Blackpool). I'm sure I'll be able to find a decent example a bit closer, but thanks for the offer to check it out for me.

Don't get me wrong, my ideal donor would be a 2.0 or a 2.2, but I won't turn my nose up at the 1.8 or 1.9 until I've driven one, which I wasn't able to do today.

I want cruise control as I suffered an injury at work back in 2007 that means I need to be able to move my right leg around while I'm driving longer distances. I get by with the Spyder as I only take it on longer runs two or three times a year, but I want the SWB to be a daily driver.

As such, a/c, cruise control and reasonable insurance and fuel economy are more important to me than outright powerrrr!

I'm in no rush to buy a donor at the moment as it could still be another 21 months before I can buy the kit, so I'm going to take my time and test drive a number of different cars/engine sizes before taking the plunge.

Having said that I'm kicking myself for not acting on this one sooner -

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/391082190262?_trksid=p2060778.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

All the reviews I've read suggest that the 170hp 2.2 is the pick of the Z3 engine range. And there's one for sale 8 miles from my house...

Cheers Danny, I've bought cat D cars before and never had a problem.

With the Spyder I ended up spending more time restoring the donor than building the car, so this time I want something that is fully mot'd and roadworthy to start with. Plus I've promised my wife that she can drive it around for a month or so in the summer before I start ripping the wings off, so it needs to be roadworthy.

I've decided I might need to up my budget slightly to get a decent donor and I've now shortlisted a handful of 2.0's. None of them are particularly close though, I'd have been gutted if I'd driven 100 miles + to see the piece of crap I looked at today.