Assembling parts on the chassis

Been throwing parts on the chassis as I found them hanging from pipes and lying on shelves. It's nice to have the feeling at least, that these parts are going on for the last time.

Installed original Quattroporte front sway bay. I think it might be just the right size for this car but we'll see. The rubber isolators attached to the sway-bar mounts are supports for the rear of the radiator (which lies almost flat). I managed to mount only one Brembo caliper - didn't have enough bolts for the second. The extra nuts on the forward A-arm bolts are there for attaching the front sub-frame which supports the radiator and clam-shell nose.

I didn't buy shocks and springs yet so that rusty bar is holding the chassis in ride height position for now. The castle nuts came with the new ball joints and tie-rod ends. I'll replace these with nylocs at some point but for now everything comes apart without wrenches. The right side of the sway-bar was left disconnected to keep the suspension free moving in case I need to disassemble anything on the front suspension and for alignment.

Tilton brake and clutch master cylinders and pedals (one MC is actually a Wilwood and is completely interchangeable with the Tiltons) This set-up comes with adjustable brake bias. I have similar pedals and MCs in my 308 and they're very nice for fine tuning the brakes. I sprayed chip-guard on the forward floor panel since it'll be getting plenty of wear and tear.

The elegant accelerator came out of the donor car. I just removed the rubber pad, drilled some holes in it and painted it silver to sort of match the other pedals. The steering column came from came from the donor car too. The steering wheel is temporary.

It's a little lost here between all the black chassis tubes but I installed the parking brake lever, shortened linkage and cables (also from the donor car). The intermediate lever was mounted horizontally under the donor car but works well here in the vertical (sort of) position.

I made the fuel surge tank out of a section cut from an aluminum drive-shaft. The aluminum fuel tank sits just above the differential, once installed. The spacer tubes on the old Konis maintain ride height until the new coil-overs go on. The brackets on top of the rear sub-frame, near the ends, are for the roll-bar braces.

The paint on the suspension doesn't really look this sparkly. The photo flash did that.

I also installed brake hydraulic pipes in the back. The rear suspension sub-frame is attached to the chassis with the upper shock bolts and the lower control-arm, inner fulcrum shafts.

I'll probably attach a few more mechanical parts but the next step is to rivet the aluminum interior panels in place and then to install the exterior body panels. The engine and trans will not be going in for a while since I need to do some work on them yet.

Front suspension

When I assembled the suspension on the chassis I basically threw the front suspension on there just so the chassis could be mobile. Since then I've been spending a little spare time here and there to set it up a little better. Early on in the project I bought a set of urethane bushing for the front control arms. I didn't really like the way they were engineered though. The Energy Suspension brand urethane bushings sold for Ferraris have a steel sleeve in the center that the urethane bushing rotates on with a little silicone grease and that seems to work OK. These bushings here came with coaxial steel center sleeves. An inner sleeve that the bolt passes through and another sleeve around that, which fits tightly in the center of the bushing. Basically it was steel rubbing on steel which didn't seem like a good idea. I wanted longer inner sleeves anyway so I machined a set from drill rod and bought a set of bronze bushings to ride on the inner sleeves. Except for having to cut the bushings to length, they fit perfectly. The sleeves were a bit more complicated since the outside diameter of each one had to fit in a 5/8" bushing and the insides had to fit a 12mm bolt. Each length had to be custom sized to fit the mounting forks on the chassis and they all vary a little bit. A lot of futzing around for a seemingly simple job but it's coming along. I'm looking forward to attaching larger pieces to the chassis so I can see it grow again.

More nose photos

Nose

Did some more work on the aluminum nose yesterday. It's close to being ready for a skin coat of filler to hide minor imperfections, then primer and paint. The nose still needed some baffles inside to help stiffen it and direct hot air from the radiator out so that's one of the jobs I did. I still need to add some stiffening members in the area behind the front tires but that needs to wait until the nose can be fitted to the car again. The two baffles were made from .048" (1.2mm) aluminum sheet (3003 H14). Most of the body is made of 3003 sheet It's basically pure aluminum and is easy to form. Higher strength alloys were used in other parts but only where radical bending and forming wasn't required. For example, 6061, a popular alloy for a lot of parts, will crack if bent at a sharp
90* angle.

Paper (thin cardboard) templates were made, traced out on aluminum sheet, cut and bent. The tops of both baffles required an arched flange to conform to the curves of the outer skin. These were hammered over a piece of 3/4" (19mm) plywood with the correct curve cut into it. The baffles were then riveted in place (flush rivets in the outer skin) on iether side of the radiator outlet duct in the top of the nose. You can see a lot of seams on the back side of the nose. This is due to me chopping it up several times and changing it earlier in the project. I'm still not totally happy with it but it's time to just get it done.

sub-frame and headers

Rear sub-frame before final disassembly for media blasting, primer and paint. I also rebuilt the brake calipers. The differential was gone over with a cursory inspection, new out-put shaft bearings and seals, new pinion seal and a finned aluminum rear cover with a new gasket. The half-shafts received new U-joints. The hubs received new bearings and seals. The shocks are a set of old Konis with temporary ride-height maintaining spacers. They'll be replaced soon. Most likely with a set of externally adjustable VariShocks with new springs. I'm still waiting to see how much heavier the car will get before chosing a spring rate. Right now the car weighs about 2,000 lbs assembled. The brackets on top of the sub-frame anchor the roll-bar braces. The new, longer inner fulcrum shafts for the lower control arms also anchor the bottom of the sub-frame to the chassis. The upper shock bolts also connect to the chassis.

Modified Quattroporte header after media blasting in preparation for JetHot coating.

Exhaust header primary pipe extensions after media blasting in preparation for JetHot coating.

Clyde, cutting a sheet of .080" #6061 aluminum to make the cover panel for under the transmission and drive-shaft on a band saw.

Aluminum panels to cover the center, bottom of the car (under trans and engine) for streamlining and chassis rigidity. They're being held in place here by temporary quick release fasteners called clecos. The panels were more permanently with flat-head stainless machine screws.

Front lower A-arms in preparation for disassembly, media blasting, primer, paint, new ball joints and hardware.

Chassis in rotisserie after media blasting in preparation for primer and paint.

Bell housing

1) This is the bell housing that was sawed off (with a Saws-all) of the Chrysler 727 Torqueflite transmission that came with the Quattroporte. The hacked up back end is being squared off in the milling machine here.

2) Bell housing fitted to back of engine after machining and media blasting. The new flywheel is for a Chrysler Hemi to keep the ring gear the same for the starter motor.. The bolt circle was changed to fit the Maserati crankshaft and an adapter was machined and installed to locate the clutch pilot bearing. A heavy duty 10" Mcleod/Borg&Beck clutch, for a Chrysler Hemi, bolts to the fly-wheel. The big Chrysler starter motor that came with the Quattroporte can be seen mounted down on the lower right. That has been replaced by a later Dodge light-weight, gear-reduction starter as used on newer Dodge Ram pick-up trucks.

3) Adapter plate, to fit the Tremec to the bell housing, machined from 6061aluminum plate, ready to be TIG welded in place.

4) Final boring the locating hole for the transmission after checking it for concentric mounting with a dial indicator mounted to the crankshaft. The plate, which became the rear face of the bell-housing, was milled square with the front face, that mates with the engine, after the boring operation.

My plan is to post occasional updates with fresh photos as the Mazzer hot rod project moves to completion. Wish me luck.

Engine

1) Front view of the Quattroporte engine after revising the accessory mounts to narrow everything before drawing the chassis on paper (no CAD here but the old way works too). This engine should make over 300 HP for now with some cam timing changes and a much more efficient exhaust system. Plans for a significant power increase are in place. Right now I just want to get this thing running. I'm retaining the power steering pump (tired of "arm-strong steering") and left the air pump optional. For now I'm using the awful OEM style poly-belts which make snapping noises when cold, due to the "memory" of the material. The noise goes away as the belts warm up but it's annoying. When I finally supercharge this thing, all these pulleys and V-belts will have to be replaced with a multi-ribbed serpentine belt and pulleys and that should kill two birds with one stone.

2) Top view of Quattroporte engine with the Tremec 5 speed hanging off the back. The stainless braided hoses poking out of the bell-housing are for the hydraulic clutch release bearing. One reason for picking the Tremec TR - 3550 was the two extra optional shifter locations. It came stock with a rear mounted shifter but either of the two gold colored covers can be taken off to relocate the shifter forward. This was very desirable since I wanted to move the engine far back in the chassis. It's basically a front-mid-engine design and at the moment I have almost perfect 50/50 weight distribution front to rear.

3) Side view of the engine. That is the original (but modified) right exhaust header mounted on the left side. That allowed the engine to slide back further in the chassis and still leave room for a driver and passenger. The rest of the primary pipes were cut off and a flange welded in place. The parts that were cut off were replaced by a "nest of snakes" style bundle of primary pipes, on each side of the car, which wrap around the foot-wells. By varying the lower primary pipe lengths to compensate for the un-even length original primaries, the end result was, true equal length headers with 31" primaries. A lot of manufacturers claim they make "equal length" headers but if you actually measure them you'll often find significant differences in primary pipe length. The Tremec 5 speed is hanging off of the customized bell housing.

1/14/09: Here are some photos taken over the weekend:

Some history: This hot rod is Maserati based. It started out as a very shabby 1980 Quattroporte I found at an auction in the DC area. It had a $500.00 "resale red" respray, lots of rust and about a quart of water in the glove box due to a leaking windshield. It was just what I was looking for. I always kind of liked this series 4-porte (quattro tank) because it had cool parts underneath what looked like Italian Detroit iron. The engine is an aluminum 4.9 liter, 4 cam V8 with four 2bbl Weber DCNF carburetors. The Euro version came with a ZF 5 speed manual trans but the US versions came with a Chrysler 727 three speed automatic (good for station wagons and police cruisers but I would have preferred the "Zed Ef"). It had sports-car type front suspension (components similar to Detomasso Pantera) with coil-over shocks (which the 4-porte is too heavy for). Rear suspension was basically a copy of the famous Jaguar IRS with a heavy duty Salisburry differential and vented inboard disk brakes. Steering components include a ZF power rack & pinion and an adjustable Saginaw steering column. Except for the trans, the car had heavy duty sportscar type parts at a very attractive price. These cars were popular with high-rollers in the eighties for their luxury and exclusivity but there isn't much enthusiasm for them today.

I took the donor 4-porte back to New Jersey and proceeded to remove all the mechanical components like the engine, trans, steering, suspension, brakes, instruments, door latches.... much of the remainder was parted out or went to the scrap yard.

After removing a lot of grease and dirt I designed and built a sports car chassis and body to go around all the components. Because the engine is a close cousin of the original V8 designed for the mighty Maserati 450S sports racing car of the mid 1950s, I designed the body of my sportscar to vaguely resemble the 450S in silhouette. I say vaguely because I didn't want to build a replicar.


One problem with the US spec 4-porte engine is that the back end was reconfigured to mate to the Chrysler 727 trans. It's virtually useless in any other Maserati for that reason and makes adapting the Tremec 5 speed over-drive trans I bought, difficult to adapt to it. Today, there might be a used Dodge Viper bell housing to fit it, I don't know, but when I started this project used Viper parts weren't to be had. After messing with a steel aftermarket Chrysler bell housing unsuccessfully I sawed the bell housing off of the 727 automatic trans, welded a plate to the back end and machined it to fit the Tremec.

The engine itself seems to be in pretty good shape and I'm not planning on rebuilding it for now. It's been thoroughly cleaned and it's getting a valve job and a major tune-up for now. Later down the road I'd like to build a monster masserati V8 with a supercharger. I've got an extra 2 liter Lysholm, screw type compressor (like new) on the shelf which will be perfect for it.


11/15/08 Here is the frame in fresh
primer, yesterday we painted it black.







10/15/08 The Maserati based sports car I started building a number of years ago is back on track. The project has been interrupted numerous times, including a couple of years I spent partially restoring and hot- rodding my 1978 Ferrari 308GTB, but we're back on it now and I hope to push it to completion without interruption now. Pictured is the aluminum nose which is now receiving final metal finishing work before prepping it for paint. I made the stand for it out of some surplus exhaust tubing so it will be rock steady during the bumping, filing, sanding while it's off the car and to have it at a comfortable height. While Bob, our body man, gets the nose ready, I'm prepping the chassis for media blasting and paint. First I need to weld the new roll bar hoops in place.

The car had roll hoops already but I didn't like them anymore and cut them off. I did the same with the nose at least 3 times. I would have it all together on the car, decide I didn't like it anymore and cut it apart. That's the reason for the multiple seams in the nose.

The big bulge in the center of the nose wraps around the carburetors on top of the engine and comes to a rounded point down in the radiator exhaust opening.

Speaking of carburetors: The 1980 Maserati Quattroporte 4 cam V8 will go into the car with the carburetors rebuilt and set up but the stock out-put is only about 300 HP. We have an almost new Lysholm type supercharger sitting on the shelf which, at some point after the car has been on the road, is destined for this car along with electronic fuel injection and ignition for a fairly painless 450 HP. Since the car only weighs about 2000 lbs dry at the moment, so it should scoot right along.


Also pictured are the new Wilwood front brake rotors and brembo calipers I just adapted to the front spindles. The original iron Girling brakes and hubs from the Quattroporte would have stopped this car just fine but they weighed a ton and had to go.

Chassis in paint