Im New here, thtought id introduce myself and pick your brains.

[ngrybrd]

Hi Everybody,
Im very new to the kit car world, so my knowledge is literally non existent. ive been dabbling in the muscle car and jeep world for a while, so a mid engine fiberglass vehicle might as well be a spaceship to me. but its incredibly fascinating, and just plain cool. i cant wait to get started learning and working on the car.
well this weekend, i was helping my body guy move cars around his yard with my tractor and for helping him out, he said i could have one of the cars in his big pile. i haven't picked it up yet but hope to this week sometime, and i don't have much info on it. so bear with me.

he gave me a Ferrari Testarossa kit on a fiero. the car has been sitting for 8 years and needs alot of tlc. (the paint is faded to a pinkish orange and chalky,the tires are dry rotted and flat, the windshield is broken, and there are a few chips and cracks in the fiberglass that need attention, etc etc etc.)

at first glance, it appears to be a very nice quality kit but id have to get it on the pavement to really get to look around it to learn more. my body guy said, they guy bought the kit for around $8k, had it installed professionally for another $8k but then put a crap paint job on it and just didnt take care of it. so he brought it to him to repaint it and freshen it up a bit after a few years. but then ended up giving him the car to pay for some other bills he had to settle up.

based on its dimensions, it looks like the kit is one where you stretch the car to fit the body and not one of the ones the "shrinks the look" of the ferrari to fit the fiero, where do i look to find out how things were done? and if they were done correctly?

basically id like to know about some options for finding information, parts, etc.

for example, where can i find the brand of kit that it on the car so i can find parts? the right taillight lens and grill are missing, as well as the gas cap door. and i know you cant just go to pepboys for those kind of things, so thats where i need the help. anything you guys can offer would be great.

[davecymru]

Welcome to the wonderful world of mid-engined kit car ownership!

I'd say you need to start by trying to identify the kit in order to see if you can find anyone still making them, or bits of them. There is a good a-z of kit cars book published by Haynes that may help. Otherwise its Google all the way!

If that fails then the options turn to fabricating bits yourself, or depending on what it is you're after, possibly buying OEM.

If you want new bits then there are many sites only too happy to take enormous amounts of your cash in exchange for just about everything you're after.

If you don't mind 2nd hand bits then there are a number of companies stripping old cars for bits. Or as a lot of the old Italian manufacturers swapped bits (I.e lots of bits of the Countaches were Fiat!) Then a bit of detective work and an eBay trawl should throw up all sorts.

Lastly you can say stuff it and just go for "alternative" options for things. E.g the fuel tanks, rads, fans, pedal rubbers and gear knob in my Countaches are all from the original Mini

Whatever you end up doing, good luck to you and let's see lots of pictures!

DaveM

[ngrybrd]

Thanks for the welcome. It's a very interesting world. A lot to absorb,

Is there any way to tell what kit I have? Place they put name tags or emboss any logos or names/serial numbers?

I'm happy with new parts, but have no problem refinishing old parts to save money, and I'm certainly not too shy to try and make parts if I have to.

I've seen on top gear how many super cars tend to use parts from other cars. Are there any resources as to what parts might be interchangeable to the testarossa?

Do you know the name of the Haynes book? I couldn't find what you described on amazon.com.

As for pictures, hopefully either one night this week or this weekend I can bring it home and take lots to post here.

Thanks again for your help and anything else anyone can offer

[ngrybrd]

Another quick question, are testarossa kits more rare or less popular or something? It seems they have the least amount of info on them. Ive found plenty of info on other kits, but I haven't found very much at all about these cars. The most I've found is there was a company called Koenig, don't know more then that, then there was a company called cool custom cars? I think, that no longer makes them but does make golf carts. And the last thing I found was a company in Texas, that Ferrari made destroy their molds and Kia because they were too close to the design and broke a lot of patents, And I literally haven't found more info then those three little tidbits, doesn't anyone have more history they can offer about them?

[davecymru]

Here's a link to the Haynes book:

http://www.haynes.co.uk/webapp/wcs/s...3821&langId=-1

ISBN: 9781844256778

Even if it doesn't exactly identify your kit, it is still a fascinating read! and if you can get it via your local Library then result!

As far as i know Koenig made bodykits for _real_ cars?

The sort of research you're doing now, i did for my Countach and i added a load of links to different companies i found on the following thread.

http://www.madabout-kitcars.com/foru...ead.php?t=4166

Most of those should be relevant for you as well, especially Eurospares as they have all of the diagrams of the cars with links to the bits so you can at least see what it is you're looking for


and while i remember..... have a nosey at the galleries over on the Italian Replica car club site, that may help track down what you've got?

http://www.italianreplicacarclub.co.uk/

[woodsmith]

You sound like you are American, whereabouts in the States are you?

It might have been a US specific kit that we don't know as much about in the UK.

[ngrybrd]

Yup, what gave it away? Hehe I'm in New Hampshire. But I've been to the uk. Have a customer in Swindon. So I've been there a couple of times. Great place.
Any ways, as promised:heres the update for you. Picked up the kit car today. The vin says its an 88 fiero formula, it's got the 2.8 v6 and its an automatic. Here's a pic. The kit looks like the car wasn't stretched but the nose was made longer to get the over all car Long enough so it makes it looks kinda dumb, nothing that can't be fixed i guess, I had more pics, but switching between tabs on an iPad makes the last one refresh so ill have to add more then one on a real computer Monday. Let me know what ya think. And any advise or info on an 88 fiero formula would be great




Any idea on the type of kit this is? If I could post more then the one picture, you'd see the back has a stock fiero lid molded into the stretched and widened testarossa Rear end. I hope to rectify that, at least with a full vent style lid. Any suggestions of where i Can stretch it so it doesn't look as silly? Bring the front wheels forward or shortening the nose and stretching the engine bay like Most do? I'm thinking about getting a BMW v12 with a Porsche g50 transaxle. Also I can't open the trunk lid, there's no battery and I can't find a manual release. Also no key in the extra fiberglass. So I have to find another way to open it to get a battery in there.

[ngrybrd]

Here's the back