1984 Ferrari Mondial QV coupe - a sensible vehicle for Alaska

crankwalk (Forum Supporter) said:

The other 5-6 AK Ferrari guys have sent over a couple pictures from last year's meet in Portage and it was driving me crazy. Pretty sure this is a scan of a print which makes it look like it's from 1988....

It's been 75 and sunny for week straight and I have been so bummed the car isn't here yet. BUT this afternoon, I got the call that the car has made it off the boat. I ran home, got a jump box, tools, and phone charger and took a cab to the port.

 

Super industrial area that was not flattering at all among the rusty ships and barbed wire. It stood out.  

I filled up with $100 (dang!) of ethanol free premium fuel and drove it straight home for a wash, touch up paint, and interior clean out. It was filthy and I had to get this thing semi-churched up immediately. 

 

Taking inventory and it looks like the side marker lens I ordered is gonna work:

Black paint pen 99% of the black trim:

Local color (i added) from the car's home state. A little period memento.

Official:

 

Ignore my hard water spots from my wonderful well. 

Interior slightly cleaned up but nowhere near detailed yet:

We're gonna go through all this later:

golfduke said:

I love this so much.  I was sad when you sold your Z, but this makes up for it.  Can't wait to see this car in front of some amazing Alaskan Hardscapes. 

 

Grab the good camera and lets tour the neighborhood for some of those good 'ol Alaska Hardscapes. I like that phrase.

 

How you'll know it's me:

And my favorite spot at the base of McHugh Peak in the Chugach mountains. In hindsight, I should have popped in that side marker first. 

 

This is seriously wacky stuff even for the weird things I try and it checks ALL my boxes. Unloved models, gated shifters, Alaskan hardscapes. A project car in the same timezone again. 7500 rpm, 4 cam flat plane crank V8 noises..... I'm berkeleying thrilled that I was able to pull this off.

This weekend is a deeper detail, some maintenance, and then finding out what I really have gotten myself into. 

That's cool.

390MM TRX wheels? Those arent fun to replace

Those photos are what I didn't know I needed but really needed this morning!!!  Just a beautiful car on such an inversely beautiful background.  You could take a million photos of this thing in your region, and I'd never get sick of it. 

Congrats, man.  It's a seriously cool car :)

cfvwtuner said:

390MM TRX wheels? Those arent fun to replace

Yep and they aren't that bad. $1600 ish for a full set. Coker and some others still makes them. Mine have 3 years and 500 miles on them according to receipts so I won't have to do it for a long time. Knowing me, this car will have a set of 16" wheels eventually anyway. 

Is this getting tucked away all winter every winter, or can we expect to see a Ferrari on studded snows?

That Alpine head unit brings back some memories. Absolutely gorgeous car!

Once gravel gets laid down this gets put up. Probably a hard stop the first week of October.

Pete Gossett (Forum Supporter) said:

That Alpine head unit brings back some memories. Absolutely gorgeous car!

Back in 84, they were very proud of it.

This fellow Atlanna boy appreciates your tag and frame 

What a beautiful car against an equally beautiful background.  I've always loved that body style.

Beautiful pictures! The car looks great!

Swapped out the broken side marker assembly and replaced the marker and reverse bulbs.
 

Added an appropriate air freshener hidden inside. 

Fuel filter on order. 1980s Mercedes gas cars with Bosch K jetronic shares the part number but for less than $20.

I'm posting a lot but not really *doing* a lot yet. I finally cleaned the car out and detailed it a little. The leather was, to quote VGC "drier than Betty White's back".

So much cleaner and has moisture in everything again. When you're surrounded by dusty dry leather it's a weird place to be. Instantly things softened up a lot and I plan on taking it to work tomorrow and letting the sun warm up everything.

Since I'm parking it in the sun I figured it needed wax. I hand waxed this thing which I haven't done on anything since high school. I'm afraid to use a machine because old Italian paint but I will have a pro do a real nice detail one day. Results after one pass:

While in the interior more, I start digging in to these giant speakers. They are already cut in so I need something there but I think I'd like something smaller and lighter to not stress the panels so much.. These things are HEAVY. I don't plan on listening to music in this thing regularly but maybe some period Alpines, Nakamichis, or MB Quart 6.5s or something?

The car isn't plugged in to the block heater but instead it's an old Sears battery maintainer from 1999 according to the manual I found. 

 

I was going to add the Battery Tender on it but I guess I'll roll with this for now since the battery is in the most inaccessible location anyway:

Making the maiden voyage to work tomorrow with all the necessities. I'm not sure how many Ferrari owners pack this much for a 13 mile trip but I probably always will.

Hopefully all goes smoothly and I can start on more touch up paint this weekend.

In reply to crankwalk (Forum Supporter) :

Oh a/d/s plates!  If you're not to going to use them I'd be interested in buying them.

I occasionally get Mondial vert day dreams.  I love 'verts, but the next car has to have dog seats in the back.

What are you treating the leather with?

Adrian_Thompson (Forum Supporter) said:

I occasionally get Mondial vert day dreams.  I love 'verts, but the next car has to have dog seats in the back.

What are you treating the leather with?

Using this stuff. Seems to work really well and doesn't immediately get soaked up and disappear. I'll keep throwing this at it and see how it goes.

The first work commute went well with no drama! Finishing up the initial housekeeping stuff and I was able to find the Fiat Ilco blanks in a dusty box at a hoarder locksmith here in Anchorage. $8 and now I have a spare set. No need to spend hundreds on new folding blanks. Never understood the folding novelty.

There have been a few Rosso Corsas over the years but my shade (Fer 300)  I heard from a few old time owners who said just get a cardinal red Ford paint pen and it's dead on. Sorry Enzo!

I dropped the exhaust heat shield and sanded/painted high heat low gloss black to get rid of the flaking factory paint. Hopefully with this high temp paint will keep up with the heat from these two catalytic converters. Replacement high heat metallic tape Ansa replacement decals are added. 

That should be good enough for now until I address the lighting up front and do an oil/fuel filter change.

Alright my posting has been every day for a little bit and I guess I'm just excited to do more with the car. 

Started the day headed to meet up with another owner that ironically I have already met at a wedding of his niece who we are friends with. Once I found out he had a car made a couple after mine, we had to meet up again.

First stop:

This is a pretty rare sight anywhere but in Alaska, it's a unicorn moment:

This hits different up here:
 

In our comparisons, we noticed my intake boot was falling apart.

Before the end of the day, I was gifted hundred of dollars in maintenance parts. So incredible. I'm glad I brought the Krispy Kreme. 

The Ferrari community on this end of the spectrum is comprised of people who do it themselves and know all the tricks to save money. Super humble and helpful folks and I'm thankful I have some close by.

Afterwards this was the cruise home:

Now I've got no excuse to start working under the hood next weekend. If you can't tell, I'm having too much fun.

MAn, how was it running with that torn boot?  HAve you got the new one on yet?

Adrian_Thompson (Forum Supporter) said:

MAn, how was it running with that torn boot?  HAve you got the new one on yet?

It was and is running fine with it torn. It's just a boot connecting the outside vent to the air box before the filter. With mechanical fuel injection and no mass air flow sensor, it doesn't know the difference. It's still fully sealed, it just looks bad. I'm going to work on replacement this weekend when I tackle a few other things.

i have never liked these cars until this thread.  seeing coupe and convertible together must have blown some minds up there!

AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:

i have never liked these cars until this thread.  seeing coupe and convertible together must have blown some minds up there!

I'm going to try and be the Mondial ambassador for the GRM board. We will change minds one thread at a time! 

In the spare parts kit, there was a new radiator cap which appears to fit so I threw it on tonight.

One thing that always bothered me is somebody put in my turn signals upside down. I also wanted the yellow French Cibie foglights instead of the clear ones so I decided to knock both out at the same time. 

Current front light situation:

What I want:

I pulled off the stock fog lights and cleaned up the frames with Bar Keepers Friend and cleaned the contacts for the bulbs:

The actual yellow Cibie lenses were expensive and hard to find so I decided to continue the "aerosol overhaul" and do them myself. Instructions were in Japanese but I think I got it figured out.

It's all reversible if needed but I like the look better.

The car has a worsening oil leak I need to address now as well. It goes on jackstands this weekend but all the exterior visual things that were bugging me have been solved.

Love it sir.  You are a brave soul to take on the Italian insanity there.  Beautiful ride and glad to see it being properly enjoyed.

I can remember when Ferrari people hated Dinos.  Boy did that ever change.

Mondial design has aged well.

Starting the weekend off with an honest to God Italian tuneup. The oil leak was something dumb but reasonably easy to address for now. The banjo style fittings on the oil cooler line were replaced with a rubber hose (oil resistant luckily)  and a clamp at some point in it's life. The old clamp wasn't up to the task so I replaced the hose with a longer one and added an Earl's clamp that I had left over from the oil lines I just replaced on my CBX. I may go back to the banjo style eventually but this is on pretty solid now. I'll continue to put more miles on it checking oil pressure and and for leaks. 

Supplies:

Synthetic 10w50 AGIP isn't happening so I went with the Mobil 1 15w50 that most owners use these days.

Shove rags around the filter since there is an open clutch inspection cover right below.

Checking the space age electronic oil level sensor to make sure I got 10 liters in:

The air filter was clean but faded so I swapped in the new one because it's brighter yellow and I'll know it's in there.

Boot replacement time:

Replaced with some worm gear clamps for now (maybe forever). It's not going to a concours ever.

Spark plugs look new and it runs great so I left them in. The last thing I wanted to tackle is the windshield washer fluid leak. I have an instrument warning cluster and the washer fluid is the last thing illuminated.

The washer motor is dead and leaks and I hate it when the dang 'ol lavacristallo motore goes out.

FUN FACT: A 1997-2001 Jeep Cherokee washer motor is the same part. A used working replacement was $7 shipped. I'm reminded of the stickers "It's a Jeep thing, you wouldn't understand."

Holding fluid and the light is off:

Queue the "U.S.A." chant:

Time to get some shakedown miles and make sure I didn't screw anything up. I woke up at 4 a.m. to hit my spots and avoid summertime tourists (old people in RVs)..... and the rock chips they cause. No traffic and the sun is already up this time of year.

Head out of the neighborhood:

MPG check:

About 11 mpg and there was a LOT of Italian tuneup time on that first tank. I'll be more sane on the next one.

While I'm filling up I confirm there are no leaks:

Hit the hills and take the scenic route:

I headed to the water at Beluga Point on the Seward Hwy on AK 1. This is the drive I envisioned doing once I had the car up here. Nothing but mountains, whales breaching in the Turnagain Arm, my Sammy Hagar tape, and an old Ferrari. Top 3 car moment ever for me.

Historic plates came in so the ATL plates are back on the truck. Can't beat $25 permanent registration. 

Back home and still no leaks, no warning lights, all the oil pressure.....so far so good. 

In reply to crankwalk (Forum Supporter) :

I'm glad you didn't have to deal with the traffic that Sammy did. 

I recently discovered the retractable steps on the RV use a late-80's/early-90's Ford Taurus power window motor. It's cool to find odd automotive parts crossovers.