40557

Lynn,

Is your's the brown one from Forza? I thought you parted it out in a hotrod project.

If I recall my comment on the black on black car is based on the pictures and description but I may have called the owner (I don't remember on this car). Look at the car in detail, my concern is that the engine is not the only issue.

When I bought my 330, I was pretty excited as it had a fresh engine rebuild. I then discovered that I needed to rebuild the cooling system (radiator, plumbing, heater boxes, etc), brake system (some parts 3 times), tranny, driveshaft (twice), wheels, exhaust, front and rear suspension, etc. My car is a simpler car than the 400. If you are considering this, buy it for parts and put the front clip and tranny into your car.

Good luck in finding out about the car's prior history. Unless I was certain of the car's condition before the engine was taken apart, knew why the engine was taken apart and knew why the project was abandoned, I would be wary of trying to put the car back together.

Also, do you know how much they are asking for the car?

Regards,

Art S.

 

By the way, I am in favor of recuing the car (on an emotional level) but if you decide to do it, do with your eyes open.

Regards,

Art S.

 

Purchased by a fellow Fchatter who hasn't announced it yet.

 

Dave always KNOWS...

 

<laughing>
Only because he called me asking for advice

 

Dave,

What was your advice to him?

Regards,

Art S.

 

I think it must have been... BUY IT! LOL!

 

Not necessarily...I often don't listen to good advice...

 

<laugh>

Apparently my advice didn't scare him off. We spent quite a while talking about what it could cost to fix it and my advice was to make sure his eyes were WIDE open when considering this car.

Sorry to all those who feel that being vague, or keeping more info to myself, is wrong but I don't think its proper to announce another guy's business. Once he is in possession I'm sure he'll let everyone know.

 

That should be my motto

definetly my kids motto

 

IIRC, it was something like...
DS- " are you serious ? are you nuts ?? are you fu<kin' nuts ???...um, hey, just curious, you got the sellers number handy ? "
BS- " um, er, why ? no, um, no, don't got it on me. "

is that about how it went Dave ? ; )

 

The cat is out of the bag.

<laughing> ok I admit it I did say something along the lines of "if you don't buy it let me know"

 

so, does anyone to care to speculate on what i might have 'signed up for' in buying the E-bay jigsaw puzzle. don't worry, i'm 'thick skinned'. i won't have the car here for a week or two but i'll be completely honest and provide pics when it does arrive. as a bit of background, i did do some digging as far as history and what was done and when. i will do my best to paraphrase and i hope i convey the sentiments as intended.
i spoke to the guys at Pettit Racing who did the removal of the motor and rebuilt the short block due to , in Cams words, a mild overheating. he was adament it was completely unnecessary to open the block based on what happened but the owner wanted to be thorough. as Cam suspected the block was "perfect" upon dissambley but "put a guage on everything anyway", and that it is "100%" ready to go. coming from Pettit, that meant alot. i also spoke to Bill from Extreme Cylinder Heads. while Bill could not endorse the customer who provided the heads, he varified by the pics i sent him that he 'did' the heads. that included guides, seats, seals, retainers and all the work..."they are adjusted and ready to go". according to him, the valves were "totally fine". he's forgotten more about cylinder heads than i'll ever know and was a really cool guy. i'd love to see his operation one day.
Charles Adams was the actual seller and i found him to be friendly, polite and very patient with me as i dotted my i's and crossed my t's. there were a lot of phone calls, several which involved Charles walking around the car and detailing every in inch of it to me even though i did not ask him to do so. he also provided me with a hand writted inventory of the parts, some 2 1/2 pages of notes, and while there were some notable parts missing that were not mentioned in in the E-bay add, he was honest about it after having completed his inventory for me. he did not disassemble the car and he believed it was all there before that. i soucred the parts (a mix of new and used) and we negotiated the price based on that, which proved to be slightly more that the starting bid price on E-bay, but much less then the reserve price.
so this is where my head is at. i've got a fully kitted shop (see profile), a fantastic young mechanic on retainer whose rebuilt 50+ motors (including Ferrari's and Fiat's for our shop ), and most importantly, a BONER to drive a 5-speed v-12 a few times before it goes up for sale : ) . Considering the overall strengths of the car based on the the photos, the completed engine work, the HEADERS, my passion for the model ( 6+ years and 65,000kms on my '78 400a ), and my ability to fix the car to an extremely high standard at my shop, well...what's a guy to do ? of course i bought it. no brainer.
all kidding aside, nothing ventured nothing gained. it won't break me in a worse case scenario and there could be tons of upside if i got lucky.

thoughts ?

p.s. oh ya, i also spoke to Stacey who gave it a 'clean' history as well as other advice...but i don't want him to get all the credit...eh Dave.

 

Brett,

It sounds like you did your homework! The piece that didn't get answered is: why did the owner decide to sell?

I hope you keep us posted on the restoration, I'm curious if it will go smoothly or if you discover something was missed.

Good luck!

Art S.

 

thanks.
what i know already is that i need a clutch kit, flywheel, complete engine gasket set, auxillery belts, hoses and possibly a radiator. i sourced those parts prior to purchase. anything beyond that will be 'news to me' and therefore we agreed prior to the money transfer that $1k would be withheld to cover any further 'omissions' that i might uncover upon doing my own inventory. not much, i know, but he had much, much more into it then he got for it.
what i got from Charles as his reason for selling was the usual "no time, no space, going in a different direction" routine that we've all heard before.
Art, you mentioned earlier in the thread that you thought there could be other issues with the car. what does your 'gut' tell you? please don't hold back.

brett

 

Brett,

Don't get me wrong, I love projects and it sounds like you have done your homework. I hope this car turns out great.

I am always skeptical of a car that was opened up and left because it is much harder to check the health of the other systems. If you have the reciepts, many of these issues may have been addressed.

The things that come to mind are:

exhaust, brakes (booster, calipers, all flexible brakelines), front and rear suspension, AC, PS, cooling (radiator, heaterboxes-or heat exchangers), tires, electrical gremlins.

Secondary things would be drive shaft (u-joints + shaft balance just because it took me a long time to sort this out on my 330) and any rubber bits.

That said, it sounds like you are getting in cheap enough to cover most issues and not be too upside down.


Regards,

Art S.

 

God knows my ego is big enough already

I did enjoy the conversation very much.

 

it was my pleasure, thanks again. (sorry for the typo in your last name...probably years worth of the gas fumes catching up with me...)

 

Best of luck Brett. If nothing else, you'll have an adventure on your hands

 

thanks very much. i just heard from the shipper and the car will be in Buffalo friday, so the 'suspense' will be shortlived but the "adventure" will begin.

 

off to Buffalo today to collect 40557. the guy driving the truck is real car enthusiast and he tells me it's really, really nice. i've also heard back from a few more suppliers regarding the parts i needed to find and the news was very good on availability and price. i'm still keeping my fingers crossed that there aren't too many missing bits when we do our inventory though. stay tuned.

 

Hey congratulations Brett and best of luck with getting it back into road use quickly and with no bad surprises! I can't wait to hear about it after it's all done!

John

 

thanks John,
car is here and work is beginning. there is tons of really, really good...and some not so really, really good. more to come including pics this weekend.
don't touch that dial...