[348] Long process of restoration

As you can see from the pics above there is not much left from the Spider's engine while I think that gearbox is still in working order. For now I'm not going to disassemble engine & gearbox with a will to keep 'em safe from loosing parts. When my car will be on the road again I will return to this matter cause I have some similar ideas with you.

 

Thanks guys. You keep me motivated to go on further.

 

This is how front bumper of the spider looks. It's seriously damaged but mine doesn't have bracket on one side and is also damaged and repaired at the lower area. Will try to repair this one and see what it will look like.
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All the front is finished with anti-gravel coating so it's ready to go back on wheels. And the pic of fender being made out of 2.
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Car is back on it's wheels for ease of rolling it around. And I'm starting a list of things I'll need for my engine service... long and pricey. Any suggestions are welcome.
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Thanks guys. To be honest I thought that cutting a third of the car and welding it back will be more difficult but it went smoothly.
BTW a friend of mine and myself were participating in a classis car rally on a previous weekend in his Aston Martin DB6 and we took a first prize in an absolute and 'post WW2 - 1970 class', doing the whole distance best of all. (I'm on the right)
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Don't you know that co-driver is the Boss? Thanks for congrats.

As many other 348 owners I had cracks on both fenders so we checked them and after some discussion decided not to weld anything and leave it as is. In the end pic of a stripped front bumper. To me it looks like an overcooked pasta but the guy who's doing the work is pretty sure he'll be able to save it.
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Previous photos were taken something like a week ago but today I've already got some more progress. Front bumper was brought back into one piece and now it awaits lots of more work. The front trunk is almost ready.
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Well...
The shortest answer is the fact that I'm a dedicated to moto/auto culture person.
I touched this matter several times but will try to explain everything more clearly. I'm the current owner of the family business of a car care center. It is rather big with around 100 employees. I'm not currently managing it on a daily basis cause of my being involved in a 100 000 sq. meters construction project but I've spent all of my childhood there browsing around and repairing my two wheelers. I received a 50cc honda for my 5th birthday and bought my first motorcycle with my own savings when was 13, first serious accident the same year and 6 months was not able to walk with most of the bones broken in my left foot but I kept on riding. Than cars, some fast cars, drag racing, challenges and so on and on. I've got a gasoline in my vines. Some people help children, some animals, others help old people, I also feel for everyone that in need of help and try to do something for them. But I've got a similar feeling for legendary cars and bikes that are dying slowly and hopelessly and any Ferrari car is one of legends.
In most parts of the world a 348 is an entry level Ferrari but here in Russia there maybe 5 or 10 of them. There are lots of modern Fs, Lambos, thousands of Porsches and Bentleys, millions of Ms and AMGs, several Veyrons and so on. I think all of you heard about 'iron curtain' that separated us from other world for 80 years so we had no chance to buy any foreign car until end of 80's. At that time there were quite strange tastes and only german cars would be thought as good cars while everything else would be just toys. (Here I'm talking about European part of Russia, Eastern part is completely different with mostly RHD cars) First official F dealer came to the market in late 90's- early 00's so during this 10 years most of exotic cars that were grey imported were killed by poor maintenance, bad roads, accidents or criminal affairs. And now we've got restriction customs for cars older then 7 years and engines more then 2000 or 2500 cc, can't remember. It is 5,7 euro per cc import tax so just customs will be around $25000.
Concerning labour, it is not cheap in Moscow. Moscow is one of the most expensive cities in the world (usually 1-4 place in overall ratings). But since I've got my own business I'm paying to myself and in the end it's just a salary of employees that are doing the job with no extra. My car cost me ~$30k + burnt Spider $3k + €500 for the bonnet + labour = complete car, everything else that people do in their 348 resto projects will cost me practically the same in parts and much less in labour. So everything is not so horrible as it seems. It's possible to find some filters and belts here in stock but any other part should be ordered from abroad for 348 but tons of parts for 360, 430 and further. I expect $70-100 for tracked shipping for 30k service kit as an example so you can understand what's going on with expenses on ownership of a 348.

P.S. You should have seen my next project in person and you wouldn't think that my 348 having any special amount of work. This one is a complete mess.
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