WELL SORTED AND DRIVEABLE MASERATI MERAK SS

Description

Hello,
What you are looking at here today is one of the most usable of all the Italian "exotics" from the 60s and 70s. This is a USA spec, 1977 Maserati Merak SS. As you probably know, the mid-engined Merak series used the 3.0 litre V6 Maserati engine that was also used in the Citroen SM...but as the early Meraks had all that complicated Citroen hydraulics, and ugly oval gauge dashs of the SM, this last Merak SS series had normal brakes and same dash as used in the Bora. Plus they upped the horsepower. The body of the Merak and the Bora is nearly identical except for rear engine cover. Enough history...This particular car started out life with those horrible, 40 pound rubber rail road tie bumpers. It came to me several years ago through a friend who owns Excelsior Motors ( one of the top Citroen SM specialists in the USA). He had given it a clean bill of health as to engine, timing chains, tensioners, carbs, clutch, gearbox etc...it was just butt ugly. A good sound car but Italian....Let me tell you what that means in case you didn't know..Rust prone with very little if any treatment to the bodywork from the factory. In fact, I used to go to the factories in Italy in the early 70s and see the brand new bodies, made by Pininfarina, Bertone, Ghia, whomever, sitting in storage racks "outside" the building. They might be there for several months. Then when it was time to build the car, they got a fork lift to bring in the body, assemble it and scuff it and paint it. It was already starting to rust..I digress.. Well, since I am very rust conscious from Ohio originally and now have a large factory where we build 12 handicapped vans per week. I put my guys to work...After striping car down, we could see the crusty, thin and perforating floor. so we completely cut out entire floor pan and replaced it all with 11 gauge steel. (alittle thicker than original, but I weigh 270 lbs and I don't intend to fall through the floor of a car an land in the highway) Detailed photos show new floor in place and today up on a lift showing off it's beautiful and solid sheet metal. We have not hidden anything with undercoating and show the bottoms of doors up on rack...all the areas that most people wouldn't have the nerve to show.. This car is sound..but it was still ugly, sooo...We decided to modify the nose just alittle to accept European Maserati Bora bumper set up which is all stainless steel. Both front and back. I went to great lengths to find all correct bits from the front parking lights (used by many Ferraris and other Italian cars and the rear license plate lights. For the rear Bora bumper, we had to totally change the exhaust so I bought, in England, a totally new, stainless steel, free flow exhaust that put the tips out in the correct place. It looks better, runs better, sounds better. With body prepped correctly and Body mods to Bora spec completed, car was striped down and painted professionally with Clear coat base coat system. It is as Red as you can get....no orange tint here, thank you..
Now for the really special stuff. The old black leather was dry and not very pretty, so we completely reupholstered the entire interior using only leather...No vinyl. All 4 seats. door panels, center console, kick panels.. Everything but the original suede dashtop and face that were nice. The new leather interior has a very subtle carbon fiber design to it and has subtle red stitching. Each seat pleat is individual in it's construction and it took our 40 year veteran of European car upholsterer, nearly 6 weeks to complete. I then ordered correct outside mirrors from Italy and waited 3 months on them, and had wheels striped and powder coated and shod with correct new Michelins. New ball joints and bushings were installed so that this car is NOW super strong, dependable, safe. Cooling system works great. One of the inherent problems the Merak and the Citroen SM had was that crappy little alternators they had. You were sort of stuck with them because the smaller V grove in the pulleys wouldn't fit our US fan belts...soooo...We machined a new double pulley that accepts a proper fanbelt, then we installed a high output GM one wire alternator on one side and an efficient rotary Sanyo AC compressor on the other side...Problem solved.
What I am saying is this....You will not find a better, prettier, more solid, good running, dependable example anywhere on the planet than this little Merak SS. when sorted out like this they really are as fun to drive as any of the 246 Dinos I have had...plus way less money, even though they cost about the same when new. I am nearly 70 years old and have a number of cars..many of which do not get used nearly enough, like this Merak SS. So I think it is time to let somebody else enjoy the car...and believe me, you will....
If you have questions, email me. And feel free to come to our Atlanta area factory and view and drive this car. If you see it, you will buy it.
Good Luck...Bob