FiFTY's Manual 4200 Build

Mr S

Member
Messages
821
If possible, can you measure the outside diameter on both ends and let me know what they are please?
Keen to get mine on, but have a fitment issue
 

Mike X

Member
Messages
233
I pinged a few emails back & forth with this guy. He seems pretty genuine and spent time “adjusting” the first pair for a friends car, til it was what he wanted.... Unfortunately, he can’t provide a sound clip of his work so you don’t know how loud it 3nds up being...!
He had a set modified, polished and ready to go for £795. They aren’t valved. Expensive risk that they drone like a b1tch....
His name is Jason , he is a really nice guy , I had mine done by him very recently , they looked like brand new when they came back , very shiny , and all bolts , fixings etc , were repaired or replaced , he is a stainless steel fabricator by trade and has done an amazing job . As for the sound , they are spot on , no drone at all , just a really really gorgeous sound . I have a Marios X pipe fitted too , either mod on their own probably wouldn’t make a massive difference but the 2 together , wow ! Just wow , you will not be disappointed , if you want to go offensive you can always alter the cats too but I didn’t fancy that , sometimes it’s nice to be able to sneak about .
 

Mike X

Member
Messages
233
I havnt tried the links, but there are links in that page now, scroll down into details.
The sound clips are from my car , before and after fitting the modded boxes , I am really pleased with them , they sound perfect , not stupidly loud , or droney just a really nice sound .
 

Gazcw

Member
Messages
7,696
The sound clips are from my car , before and after fitting the modded boxes , I am really pleased with them , they sound perfect , not stupidly loud , or droney just a really nice sound .
I am in contact with Jason and he is going to look at my QP boxes as one is rattling. He will see if he can mod and polish. I will update on a new thread as this progresses.
 

FIFTY

Member
Messages
3,100
Front Grille Restoration Pt1 & New number plate bracket

Picking up on this thread again, it has gone a bit quiet mostly because (as some of you who know me better know) my professional life has been a bit of a roller coaster lately so obviously that has taken nearly all of my attention, glad to report things are becoming more settled again.

Back to the build... Back in January/February 2019 I enlisted the help of my very good metalsmith to help me with some odd jobs - the major one was rebuilding the shoddy cats which I will detail in the following post - however I got him to sort out a couple of other bits that needed addressing

I bought the car with a damaged front grille - again thinking that this was some sort of "normal car" where the parts are easily available. Turns out the big metal chromed front grille on the "classic" style 4200 was discontinued by Maserati about 10 years ago! What I thought would be a simple but perhaps a little expensive parts swap became impossible. While second hand ones are very scarce there is a few floating about on e-bay famously there is a 1off "old new stock" which the person in question is asking for in excess of £2k for it! Originally these would have been about £600 for the full calendar grille including the surround, trident and mesh behind it

Therefore it is clear that a repair is needed. After approaching a few dent repair guys and electro-platers with little success I decided to ask Paul my metal smith to see what he could do.

The damage has clearly been caused by someone trying to pry off the grille using a pair of grips on one side - I really do hope that this was an attempt at vandalism/theft of the grille and not a previous owner or technician trying to remove the grill in completely the wrong way - but who knows! If only the car could tell the story eh?

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It's one of those things that if you don't see it you won't necessarily notice it but if you do then you cannot un-see it glinting away in the sun! It has bothered me constantly especially in photos from shows when it was quite annoying like the following from last years April Alton meet:

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So I gave it to Paul explaining the problem and in the typical welding jedi manner he graciously said that he will have a go at fixing it and promised he won't cause any further damage to the precious bit of mangled metal. Using a roller press he very gently and patiently worked the damage out of the corner which was curled up until it was gone - he was so gentle that the chrome didn't even chip away. I showed it to AV and he said that he did a good job at it. That said the rest of the grille does need some further work but that will be saved for when I get it rechromed properly when I hope that they can eradicate the other little dings and imperfections in the frame however this will be at a latter stage maybe next year or the year after. For now this is a huge improvement

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At the same time I got Paul to knock up a new front number plate holder - this is mostly because a new one was £50 with Maserati and I would much rather give my money to Paul to support a local business as he is a sole trader - he only charged me £20 for the bracket and it is identical to the Maserati one:

Old:
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New:

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So as a result of these two little jobs what it has resulted in is making the paint on my front bumper look pretty bad - I guess when you remove obvious imperfections the eye is drawn to the next lot of issues.
 
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FIFTY

Member
Messages
3,100
Catalytic Converter Rebuild

There I was on a cold wet day in February at my local MOT shop fingers crossed hoping it would pass and they awkwardly come out and tell me the car has failed on emissions. The tiny 100 cell race cats the guy had welded in were shot - I guess they did pretty well to last two years.

Upon research I found the 100 cell race cats that were knackered on my car were not fit for purpose as they were rated to a max 2.0L engine pushing out 190bhp - obviously the car is a 4.3 so 2.15l per bank and as it was derestricted it could be pumping out up to 220bhp per bank.

After a huge amount of research and using @Zep as a sounding board I bought some new cats from Top Gear which are rated to 3.0l & 300bhp per bank - the idea is that you do not want to run the cats right at the edge or beyond their max capacity or the engine will quickly wear them out.

I removed the cat pipes and (along with the front grille and bracket detailed above) took them to Paul my metalsmith welding jedi to be installed along with an overall tidy up of the messy MIG welding on the pipes. He grumbled a lot about the poor work but true to form he rebuilt them as best as he could with what he was given

New cats welded in and pipes re-fitted, car passes the MOT - happy days

Before:

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After:

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Old cats off to the smelter:

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FIFTY

Member
Messages
3,100
Formula Dynamics Anti-Roll Bar upgrade

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I picked these up in December 2018 during the Formula Dynamics "holiday sale" - I managed to wrangle 10% off by asking FD nicely if they would provide me a discount via buying through Larini as we are not allowed to buy direct from the USA as Larini are their UK/Europe agent. Money off was pretty decent but it is still a pricey upgrade.

These were installed during the clutch change by AV engineering, the springs and dampers are all stock skyhook, not changed the ride height either - the change in handling is magnificent... The car has so much composure in the twisties I took it out during the Easter Weekend for a long country road blast and so called better handling Porsches were not able to keep up with me.

I find that the best compromise is to keep the sports button off as the ARB's have provided so much stability that it is nice to have that extra softness in the suspension while the bars keep the body roll at a minimum. With the car in SPORTS then it feels like it is on rails almost.

The turn-in ability of the car has increased exponentially, it is really easy to bring the nose in to the apex of a corner, even adding extra steering input mid corner the car just does it no problem.

Then on powering out of a corner there is sh!t loads of rear grip the car just shoots off into the distance out of the apex of a corner; whereas before I had to wait for the car to level out before stepping on the gas or it would kick out the rear due to the body roll - really very impressive how stiffer bars and shifting the balance slightly backwards can fix such wayward handling

Drawbacks of the upgrade? When I first test drove the car on the roads around AV's shop it was a wet cold day at the end of February, I felt the change in balance immediately when the car had cold tyres it just wanted to over steer - this got me a little worried as I thought "oh no what have i done?!" but once I got some heat in the tyres the grip came to the rear axle and it felt very planted. Guess the warning is to be careful on wet cold roads in winter (when the car is not used much anyway)

I do not have loads of photos of the install, AV sent me one of the rear bar side by side. The catch with this upgrade is while the front bar is very easy to install the rear one is a pig and requires the subframe to be lowered - hence why I opted to have this done at the same time as the clutch assembly. Despite the difficult installation I highly recommend this upgrade, I know there are a few of us with these installed now and no one has said anything other than positives on the bars.

Photo courtesy of AV Engineering:
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Photo courtesy of AV Engineering:
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Photo courtesy of AV Engineering:
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MaserCoupe

Member
Messages
564
Great stuff Fifty!! Really like how you’re transforming your beast! Particularly the simple stuff like the gearshift leather gator. I also like how you are sourcing local artisans like the metal worker who salvaged the front grill, that is really great work. Keep up the great work bud!!! Really tasteful upgrades..
 

masertel

Member
Messages
102
Formula Dynamics Anti-Roll Bar upgrade

View attachment 56310

I picked these up in December 2018 during the Formula Dynamics "holiday sale" - I managed to wrangle 10% off by asking FD nicely if they would provide me a discount via buying through Larini as we are not allowed to buy direct from the USA as Larini are their UK/Europe agent. Money off was pretty decent but it is still a pricey upgrade.

These were installed during the clutch change by AV engineering, the springs and dampers are all stock skyhook, not changed the ride height either - the change in handling is magnificent... The car has so much composure in the twisties I took it out during the Easter Weekend for a long country road blast and so called better handling Porsches were not able to keep up with me.

I find that the best compromise is to keep the sports button off as the ARB's have provided so much stability that it is nice to have that extra softness in the suspension while the bars keep the body roll at a minimum. With the car in SPORTS then it feels like it is on rails almost.

The turn-in ability of the car has increased exponentially, it is really easy to bring the nose in to the apex of a corner, even adding extra steering input mid corner the car just does it no problem.

Then on powering out of a corner there is sh!t loads of rear grip the car just shoots off into the distance out of the apex of a corner; whereas before I had to wait for the car to level out before stepping on the gas or it would kick out the rear due to the body roll - really very impressive how stiffer bars and shifting the balance slightly backwards can fix such wayward handling

Drawbacks of the upgrade? When I first test drove the car on the roads around AV's shop it was a wet cold day at the end of February, I felt the change in balance immediately when the car had cold tyres it just wanted to over steer - this got me a little worried as I thought "oh no what have i done?!" but once I got some heat in the tyres the grip came to the rear axle and it felt very planted. Guess the warning is to be careful on wet cold roads in winter (when the car is not used much anyway)

I do not have loads of photos of the install, AV sent me one of the rear bar side by side. The catch with this upgrade is while the front bar is very easy to install the rear one is a pig and requires the subframe to be lowered - hence why I opted to have this done at the same time as the clutch assembly. Despite the difficult installation I highly recommend this upgrade, I know there are a few of us with these installed now and no one has said anything other than positives on the bars.

Photo courtesy of AV Engineering:
View attachment 56311

Photo courtesy of AV Engineering:
View attachment 56314

Photo courtesy of AV Engineering:
View attachment 56312

Couldn't agree more Fifty.

The FD ARB kit improves the handling enormously. I have the FD springs and ARB fitted to both my manual 4200 and manual 4200 Spyder and have recently purchased another set of FD ARB for a CC 4200 I plan to convert for track only use. The track car is going to have the skyhook removed and replaced with KW Springs and dampers along with a Tarox high performance brake conversion.

Although a messy job- I recommend coating the new ARB along with the entire under-body components with black waxoil as sub-frames, ARB and springs etc get rusty over time. My 2005 facelft 4200 has over 70000 miles now and while the under- carriage might not look pretty at least there's no rust after 14 years of all year use. Even the brake pipes are as good as new thanks to a coating of waxoil.

Keep up the good work and enjoy your now well sorted car!!

Terry
 

FIFTY

Member
Messages
3,100
The rear one doesn't look to be any thicker than the original ?

IIRC it is 2-3mm thicker than the stock bar. The front is tubular while the rear bar is solid hence why the front looks like it is made from scaffolding
 
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FIFTY

Member
Messages
3,100
Great stuff Fifty!! Really like how you’re transforming your beast! Particularly the simple stuff like the gearshift leather gator. I also like how you are sourcing local artisans like the metal worker who salvaged the front grill, that is really great work. Keep up the great work bud!!! Really tasteful upgrades..

Cheers MC. Paul was a great find, he has such a good atittude... most of this is very easy for him and he is quite modest about his skills.

If anyone needs his assistance drop me a private message he is based near Aldershot. My next job for him is to splice together my window actuators with the Alfa GTV motor
 

FIFTY

Member
Messages
3,100
Couldn't agree more Fifty.

The FD ARB kit improves the handling enormously. I have the FD springs and ARB fitted to both my manual 4200 and manual 4200 Spyder and have recently purchased another set of FD ARB for a CC 4200 I plan to convert for track only use. The track car is going to have the skyhook removed and replaced with KW Springs and dampers along with a Tarox high performance brake conversion.

Although a messy job- I recommend coating the new ARB along with the entire under-body components with black waxoil as sub-frames, ARB and springs etc get rusty over time. My 2005 facelft 4200 has over 70000 miles now and while the under- carriage might not look pretty at least there's no rust after 14 years of all year use. Even the brake pipes are as good as new thanks to a coating of waxoil.

Keep up the good work and enjoy your now well sorted car!!

Terry

I think the springs may be a step too far for the cars intended use which is essentially "fast road" and the roads around here are *******. My fear is that stiffer springs will make the car very jarring. I would favour chopping out the skyhook for KW v3's if "push came to shove" and I had to replace the dampers for whatever reason

But for track I guess it would make the car very agile and easier to control with less squat and dive. The chassis seems very competent, it's clear that Maserati tuned the handling to hold the car back from factory

Yes I am intending on getting this done... While messing with the cats I cleared off the rust on the front subframe - this area just needs to be treated and coated. I am intending to remove the side skirts and rear bumper to find and remove/repair any rust.

Also I would like to replace the springs with new OEM as they have a bit of surface rust and a bit on the back of the wheel arch vertical surface between the wishbones.

To be fair my car is not too bad for it there is just some nominal surface rust in the usual places right on the underside and it is easily treatable

Brake lines have all been replaced with kunifer by AV. The old ones has rusted through to bursting point..I'll post some photos later.
 
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Nibby

Member
Messages
2,027
Great write-up FIFTY.
I think Maserati must of used the thinnest layer of chrome ever on them grilles. If anyone else is unaware DON'T use anything like Solvol Autosol to clean your grille.
 

TimR

Member
Messages
2,651
Having also fitted the FD arb kit , I have more confidence than I previously held in the potential of their springs to work well.
From no rear ARB to their set up, perhaps Im projecting but the car is a completely different animal...
 

MarkMas

Chief pedant
Messages
8,795

FIFTY

Member
Messages
3,100
It is hard to understand how you could have lived with this glaring eyesore for so long. :)

BTW, I got the huge crease in my drivers's door from November fixed last week.
https://www.sportsmaserati.com/inde...-an-aluminium-door-panel-advice-please.27498/

Yes good work on that. Mine has a dent in the wing that came with the car and a few micro dents which I put in stupidly while working on it in my narrow garage

I am saving all of the body work and paint for now... mostly because I have spent too much on it this year (and probably next year included)
 

Ebenezer

Member
Messages
4,442
Mines at the body shop at the moment, repraying the front end, door mirrors, running board thingies, and getting the wheels done. Can't wait to see the final results as the front was pretty chipped and clearcoat was peeling in places which really was an eyesore.
Eb
 

MarkMas

Chief pedant
Messages
8,795
Mines at the body shop at the moment, repraying the front end, door mirrors, running board thingies, and getting the wheels done. Can't wait to see the final results as the front was pretty chipped and clearcoat was peeling in places which really was an eyesore.
Eb
£1,000 ?
 

Ebenezer

Member
Messages
4,442
Mines at the body shop at the moment, repraying the front end, door mirrors, running board thingies, and getting the wheels done. Can't wait to see the final results as the front was pretty chipped and clearcoat was peeling in places which really was an eyesore.

£1,000 ?

If only
Eb