The panels look great well finished off and i think the kit will sell if the panel quality is as good as the photo's. One key area i think will be the transition from fiberglass to the donor steel and how the interior looks so hopefully there will be a finished demo to take a look at.

Silver would also be my first choice, looking forward to following a build hopefully very soon.:cool:

That looks good - just like a real one!:smile:

Painting this car silver will make it disappear into the background of those 50 million other modern silver or black cars................silver is so 2015.
Early Ferrari dark red for me..........

Dark red would be my second choice -

http://i1301.photobucket.com/albums/...ps1m8uapyi.jpg

Nice.

As for silver being 'so 2015' and a silver 250SWB disappearing into the background of those 50 million other modern silver or black cars I have two issues with that, really -

1 - It's a 250SWB. It'd even look stunning in beige!

2 - Have you been outside and looked at the new cars driving around in 2015? Clearly not, as they're all bloody white. I blame Apple.

I did have a look in Google Images, but couldn't find a beige one, although I did find an "Apple" white one. :icon_wink:

http://c.fwallpapers.com/images/big/...wb-1959-62.jpg

However, my favourite search result was this photo, as it could almost be the Tribute stand at Stoneleigh. :cool:

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-y...d6be_hh_03.jpg

One thing for sure is that this car does look great in any colour.

So I'm really looking forward to all the new builds starting.

Cheers, Paul. :)

Beige??????it is'nt a Volvo...........
2015 cars may be white,all the other cars are silver or dustbingrey/black.
Don't forget it is not a real SWB.............only Red will make this forget...
The red would't look nice next to your silver car.

It might not be real, but it's going to be the closest I'll ever get to owning, or even driving a Ferrari 250SWB.

There's always the possibility of a big Euromillions win I suppose, but even then I'd have to find one for sale, and I'm afraid I might struggle to get over the non multi-millionaire mindset that eight or ten million Euros/Dollars/Scrotes (RAF slang for any local currency when on operations abroad) is an awful lot of money to spend on a car, even if you can afford it.

As for Ferrari red paint giving the car a more believable identity, one of the big things that throws people off the scent of my Spyder not being a genuine 1953 Lancia race car is that it isn't red. After all, who in their right mind would build a replica of an Italian sports car and paint it silver?

But on that subject, back in the day the racing car manufacturers sold a lot of their cars to wealthy privateers who had them painted in their own team colours. Ferrari might've run their works cars in red livery, but far more of their cars ended up in a myriad of other colour combinations on the track, and as silver was the only metallic finish available in the 50's it was quite popular with the wealthy clientele that could afford to park their backsides in something exotic.

Ultimately, if, like me, your intention is to build something that will convince most people that you're driving something that was hand-crafted in Maranello while Enzo watched from his office window, then the colour is relatively unimportant.

Go with what you like. Your choice of dark red will look stunning. If Phil J built one I'd be prepared to wager hard-earned money that it'd be a dark, Jaguar green, and the finished car would look like it had been run at Le Mans in 1959 by an English Lord. Mine will be silver with white roundels over my self sprayed, patina paint job because that's what I like, and from twenty paces they'll all look really convincing.

No, the biggest giveaways that these cars aren't what they seem will be the wheels and interior. 20" pimp rims will ruin the illusion (it's got to be 15" wires or Dunlop racing style for me) while Z3 seats, dash, door panels and plastic tunnel covers will give the game away the moment anyone, even non classic car people, look inside.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing some build threads starting on these SWB's so I can pinch ideas for my own build and marvel at the transformation from ugly duckling (Z3) to beautiful swan, no matter what colour that swan happens to be.

So, I've just got to find the funds to get started myself. Now, where did I put that lottery ticket?

Mr Towed is right. The interior is the biggest give away.

Unless you rip the whole dash out you are stuffed. Mine has period steering wheel, simplified leather clad interior, fugly plastic binnacle and passenger airbag cover. Kind of ruins the illusion. Fortunately I am not trying to pretend mine was watched over by Enzo so I can live with that.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/2I...=w1358-h764-no

I do like the wood rim wheel WCA, where did you get the adaptor boss?

The Moto Lita web page currently shows the Z3 boss as unavailable for some reason, so it'd be good if you could post a link if you haven't already please. :)

read his thread sure a friend machined an adaptor for him?

save you looking try reading on from here

http://www.madabout-kitcars.com/foru...t=4253&page=29

as for colours how about this to be a little different
http://mycarquest.com/wp-content/upl...-1-550x366.jpg
also another was raced in gold Spinedi’s car from the 6-Heures d’Auvergne race at Clermont which was painted a very fetching bright gold with a red and white stripe and carried its Swiss owner for fifth overall..only got a pic of the model though http://www.grandprixmodels.com/shop/.../MDY43002M.jpg.
.
http://www.influx.co.uk/blog/not-only-red/.
"not only red"
We’ve never understood why it’s so important for Ferraris to be red. Always struck us as a little silly to spend hundreds of thousand of pounds on something a whole bunch of other people have got. And there’s something about the 250, especially the SWB version of the classic GT, that works so well in colours other than the usual.

The cognoscenti will argue for hours over wether or not yellow (giallo modena in current range parlance), is, in actual fact, the original colour of Ferrari (notice the prancing Ferrari horse is set agains the dominant yellow shield). But then, with blue being the traditional colour of French racing, then the fact that the blue 250 above is in powder blue livery seems wholly appropriate.

But it’s perhaps in the bare sheet metal grey of a true competizione model where this particular ferrari shines brightest. The most beautiful car is, to quote Enzo Ferrari himself, the one that wins!
http://www.influx.co.uk/wp-content/u...e2-251x167.jpg i dig the blue one
http://www.influx.co.uk/wp-content/u...WB-251x167.jpg

Steering boss was this from Demon Tweaks. Nice and shiney

SRAALL.524.20 Simoni Racing Steering Wheel Polished Alloy Boss Kit
BMW Z3 1 £68.70 £68.70

http://thumbs2.ebaystatic.com/d/l225...2Ib7pr18-Q.jpg

and then discovered the holes didn't line up. Fortunately my mate machined me an adapter out of aluminium.

Thanks for the replies about the boss adaptor. Digging that groovy gold SWB and the super seventies duds of the owner. Did he mature into the guy in speedos from the Southern Comfort ad?

Oh la la la la la lalala, oh la la lala, oh can't you see, I gotta be me...

Dark blue for me along the lines of this. I'm going with 17" steels though.
http://www.madabout-kitcars.com/foru...&pictureid=220

Great to see there's already a range of colours chosen, not just the predictable (but still very lovely) red.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1815700206...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT
I bought one of these wheel bosses. Not tried it yet but it covers lots of the smaller fittings. Just black but only £30.

Here's some more colour options someone may like to consider including beige (although I think that's just the light)
http://www.madabout-kitcars.com/foru...&pictureid=223

http://www.madabout-kitcars.com/foru...&pictureid=222

http://www.madabout-kitcars.com/foru...&pictureid=221

Cheers, Bob.

The beige car looks like a Volvo p1800:hurt:
Go with the color YOU like best,for me a Ferrari must be red.....dark red.
@Towed.....If i decide to build a SWB the interior and dash are going to be period correct as possible,also wire wheels are a must........:eusa_dance:

Ooh, I do like that gunmetal colour with the red stripes. Very nice.

Agree about the wires, these from MWS are the closest I could find to the look of the original Borranis (without actually being Borranis at $1500 each) -

http://shop.mwsint.com/product_details.asp?id=490

With adaptors and three eared spinners a set of four will be something like £1100 (plus tyres), which isn't too bad but would blow a big hole in my intended budget.

I'll initially go with 15" steels and then start saving my pocket money for the MWS wires once it's on the road. I can always fit winter tyres to the steels and keep them for when the weather turns cold.

Oh, and I always rather liked the P1800 Volvo. If it was good enough for The Saint...

Keep your eye out on eBay. I picked up a set of 15" Aston DB4 wires for £80.

It helped that they were listed as "Astin Wheels (Wire)" and had no picture though.

Okay, not Borranis but nor are the MWS ones.

If you do pick up older wire wheels, make sure they are the thick spoke version, Aston or Jag not MG to be sure they are strong enough.

Also jag have 52mm hubs while everyone else has 42mm so make sure you get the right size hub adaptors.

It is great to see so many SWB builds planned and even better that they are all different.

I plan to go a slightly different route again with a mix of 1950's style with a modern twist. I will be leaving the Z3 interior alone simply because I think that it would be too costly to get it "right", it would take more time than I would like to spend and partly because my donor has a decent leather interior already fitted.

I will also be fitting modern wheels, possibly something like these with dummy spinners as a nod to the original Borranis
http://i1107.photobucket.com/albums/...psosngbfl6.png

My aim is to have it built and be at Stoneleigh with it which I think is achievable so long as work doesn't get in the way.

As for the colour, it will be Silver. Or Yellow. Or dark blue. No no it will be silver! Or maybe.......

Plum Crazy???????

Nah, purple wouldn't suit the car at all.

Maybe not plum, but, funnily enough, Triumph Damson Red is on my shortlist -

http://i1301.photobucket.com/albums/...psse6gkjpg.jpg

Although I'm 99% set on silver, when I come to purchase a donor, if a perfect candidate pops up and happens to be red then, surprisingly perhaps, I'll be spraying the 250 Damson Red.

:grouphug:I guess somebody will come up with ....two tone colour...like purple and. yellow, ......a black vinyl roof already has been mentioned...LOL ....:grouphug:

I rather like the idea of the steels - Maybe dark blue body with old english white stripe and same white for the wheels?

Steel wheels sound like a potentially good retro idea without forking out for wires.
Are there any decent steelies out there with the correct bolt pattern/offset that might look the part?

BMW do plenty of steels, I'm using 17" but 15" & 16" are available.
The bolt on wires used a Jaguar 4.75" pcd which is 120.6mm pcd (BMW is 120mm) and Jaguar is the same as Chevrolet so all sorts of wheels for American cars and hot rods then become an option, subject to offset.

Bob.

On the steel wheel front this might whet your appetite.
BMW steelies with spinners....

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a3...oforza/SWB.jpg

or black...
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a3...a/SWBblack.jpg

I like that. It's the sort of effect I'm after as I'll be using spinners as well.
Thanks for the black version, that's my plan A.

Bob.

Just added a black version too.

Would definitely reduce build costs as well. Could add banded steelies to the back to fill the arches if need be.

That's pretty much the look I'll be aiming for, but 15" with high profile rubber. Not sure whether I'll go with silver or white for the wheels on a silver car, I've been toying with the idea of painting my Spyder's wires white for a while.

I take it the image of the SWB on (17"?) steels is photoshopped? If so, can you do versions with silver and white instead of red rims please?

Mmm, in silver they'd look a bit Dun-loppy which would not be a bad thing.

Silver, using newer beemer alloys

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a3...SWBsilver2.jpg

white

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a3...a/SWBwhite.jpg

The top alloys are taken from a 2002 bmw but probably only came in 13 inch the bottom set are from a much newer bmw and would come in 15 to 17 or 18 inch. Think you would need to source an very old 7 series or something to get bigger old style steels.

I actually prefer the newer ones and they could be banded easily.

Ooh, both those looks work for me. :)

Thanks for doing that VA, I've never tried photoshop myself, must really have a go.

When you say2002 BMW, do you mean the year or the model (as in 2002tii)?

I knew you would like them Mr T!
Banded, they would look superb.

http://www.madabout-kitcars.com/foru...&pictureid=225


Perhaps a bit extreme but banded steels do look good.

Bob.

What makes you think they've been banded?

Ok, ok, only joking. :)

Perhaps they haven't, the car could be sitting on 4 old oil drums....

I like banded wheels, but that wheel design doesn't look in period for an SWB.

Like most things in life, its all down to personal taste, but for me, all wheels have to be silver.

If you're going for a modern look these are interesting

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/231471362785