OEM Plug wire protective sleeving color

I was faced with the same dilemma when restoring the ignition wires on my '83. My car had darker boots and lighter sheaths, presumably factory. However, the difference in shade was much smaller than what your photos show; it was only a subtle difference and they both tended toward the brighter shade in your photos.

For the restoration, I also had available a used set of sheaths and boots from a 328 which had the lighter boots and the darker sheaths (!). In the end, I used the darker shade (i.e. my original boots and the 328 sheaths) which color matched quite nicely. I went for aesthetics rather than historical accuracy (on a very minor issue).

The coil boots should be black.

If you find a source for new sheathing, let us all know!

 

There seems to be an assumption here that every car Ferrari made with red silicone wire covering had exactly the same product.

The wire sets were made by a subcontractor in small batches and the silicon parts were made by a subcontractor to them in small batches with no one really caring if the wires made in 1984 looked exactly the same as the wires made in 1989.


That's a little like getting a color code for the yellow paint proof marks. The people at the factory get a good laugh at that.

 

Spark Plug Wires for Ferraris|Ferrari Spark Plug Wires

Back in the day when I had to work with Ferrari sparkplug wires we used parts from kingborne to rebuild or remake the wires. Look like they now have ferrari wiresets too. Does this website help you??

 

I just took my 85 Euro QV in for a cold misfire issue. Turned out to be one bad wire. They told me a new set of wires would be $600. I said no thanks, I'll find a used wire for now and shop for some myself. On the link it looks like they are around $400. Is that a good price?

 

watch the kingsborne site. make sure you buy wires for your '83. they list two. lengths do vary between model years.

 

I need one long red sleeve only to replace one on my front bank that got damaged.

Since it is on the front bank it is not really "seen" but you know how it is, lol!

If anyone has one to spare, let me know.
Alden

 

jdamon... so do you have a 250 GT slot car for that track of yours?

 

This is just a guess but due to slightly different materials and decades of heat and age could the colors of the wires, boots, etc have changed colors differently? My guess is yes.

I have an 84 and bought new wires and yes paid up the ying yang for them. If someone wants to buy the old wires let me know...

 

Mine are the brighter red color.
Alden

Sent from my VS986 using Tapatalk

 

+1

 

Yes that is a problem in all the collector car restoration hobby. Someone tell somebody his is not correct because the other one is different. Then everybody try to copy the one they THINK is correct. That is why I often say cars are very often over restored. Everything gets overdone, metal finish, plating, paint etc etc. New cars are never perfect more especially Ferraris that were all test driven by the factory before delivery.

Many different suppliers, with different finishes. Different period of production etc etc. Every super low miles unrestored cars I've seen in my life were much less perfect than the restored ones.

 

Very true, over restoration is a big problem. Owners add things or get things finished because they see others at a show or concorso event and think they need to add it too. Then more and more cars have those very same add on's and after a while people think it is factory, but it never was.

 

Fortunately, there are a few unused cars in museums which provide a benchmark regarding what the cars are supposed to look like.

I don't think of over restoration as a "problem" per se. It is just a form of modification. I wonder how many cars at the Pebble Beach concours came with from the factory with $100,000 paint jobs like they have now. I would dearly love a paint job like that on my 308.

 

Many cars from Ferrari from the 60's, and 70's were repainted after a few years or even less as the original paint job was so poor.

No original flawless, $100,000 style paint jobs back then (or even today) for that matter.