Maserati Mistral restoration

About six months ago I finally put my Mistral into a restoration shop, Custom Cars Unlimited, in LaGrange, Illinois and the work has begun. As is usual, there is metal work to be done in a number of areas, such as the rockers and in an area on the passenger's side where there was collision damage. The drivers door skin will has to be replaced which will be interesting as I have one of the aluminum bodied cars. It is quite something to see the thickness of the aluminum body panels. No wonder when the switch was made to steel, the car didn't get appreciably heavier as the gauge on the aluminum is quite thick.

The engine has been overhauled by Hasselgren Engineering in California but it was a long and difficult process getting the fuel injection system to work properly. The injection manifold was sent to Power Props for overhaul and they also supplied the more modern Bosch fuel pump system to replace the original Lucas setup. The engine was completely refreshed and put on a dynamometer for testing and the final result was 273 horsepower for the four liter engine which I thought was quite respectable.

The transmission has been completely rebuilt by ZF North America which, quite fortunately, is located near where I live. I had them do two transmissions for me. Who knows I might need a spare someday.

Since the car is now close to 60 years old, the decision has been made to rewire the car. To get access to everything the interior has been taken out and better soundproofing and insulation will be put in prior to reinstalling the interior.

There are more items to be done but things are pushing along and the hope is to get the car back on the road by the middle of the summer so I can use it as a daily driver. Next up is my Bora. That's going to be a fun car when it get done also.

 

The transmissions are ZF S5 20 units.

At the time I had the repairs done by ZF directly, they were accepting such work at their location in Vernon Hill, Illinois. Eventually, a few years after they did my work, the decision was made to close up that part of the business. I was offered and accepted a few small boxes of parts which I keep around for who knows what sentimental reasons. As you are probably aware, ZF now remakes the entire S5-20 transmission, as used by Mercedes for the 250 and 280
SL models and for the Mistral and 4.2 liter Indy V-8's, and offers some of the critical parts on a part by part basis. Google it and you should eventually get to the correct website for the reproduced S5-20.