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Maserati Merak restoration

Saving a very early build 1973 Merak from being broken up

  • Remove paint to figure out the rust and body panel repairs that are needed
  • Shaping and wielding in new metal panels, repairing damaged panels to prepare body for painting 
  • Rebuilding wiring harness to replace burnt wires and missing connectors
  • Restore front luggage bay, interior, engine bay, brakes, body and trim
  • Rebuild engine and Weber carburetors
  • Getting all the electrical systems working
  • Setup ignition and Weber 40 DCNF carbs, return to driving to create new memories, adventures



Remove paint to figure out which what rust and body panel repairs are needed
  • We contacted Manny at Exact Auto Body in Leduc, outside Edmonton, as this was a project that suited there metal body fabricator
  • Body shell was blasted to remove paint so we could understand the actual state of the body
  • Manny walked our client and us through all the required work, rusty and damaged panels that needed to be removed, recreated, previously damaged or repaired panels that needed to be removed, replaced, to properly repair them
  • We all took a moment to be quiet in order to understand all the work required



Creating and wielding in new metal panels, repair damaged panels to prepare body for painting 
  • Manny's Exact Autoworks shop's english wheel helped to recreating missing, too damaged to repair again and rusted out panels
  • Built new middle of the nose v-section that is above trident badge, in the middle of the nose air intake, after blasting this section of the body disappeared as it turned out to be all bondo, no metal in the painted shape at all
  • Built new flooring area for front and rear seats
  • Built new lower door section for doors, replace metal for door handles
  • Built new battery tray
  • Built new hand brake bracket
  • Replaced various rusted sections of the body with new metal
  • Body properly primed, final review for refinements to body in primer, than painting in finishing green colour
Rebuilding wiring harness replacing burnt wires, missing connectors, remove not helpful spliced in wires, relays, rebuild switches
  • Remove harness from inside drivers side sill, the outer plastic covering for the harness had hardened into a solid material that would not bend so we accessed the outer covering for the harness through the holes drilled in the sill, we scored the harden plastic surface to then break away about a half inch to an inch section at time until, then pull harness forward to score and break free more of the outer plastic covering until we could remove complete rear section of the harness from the engine bay and body sill panel to then begin the process for rebuilding the harness
  • Replace all burnt out wires, about 40 percent of the harness
  • Remove all wiring added to the harness due one system not working, someone then splicing power from another system, or splicing to by pass burnt out wires without replacing them
  • Rebuilt engine bay harness
  • Redo wiring for gear reduction starter
Front luggage bay, interior, engine bay, suspension, brakes, body and trim
  • Prime and painted front luggage bay, interior and engine bay
  • Cleanup, polish dashboard and gauges
  • Clean badges and replaced their broken off studs, drill out remaining broken studs, epoxy in new studs
  • Clean, polish, paint inside front bumpers, rebuild front turn signal units
  • Disassemble, straighten, reassemble rear exhaust valance panel 
  • Fuel tanks cleaned, industrial coating, refitted with pink exhaust heat insulation 
  • Create replacement hose to connect left hand side fuel tank to metal tube that connects both tanks, as single piece rubber hose no longer available
  • Bond additional heat shield material to factory fuel system heat shields to reduce heat soak from ceramic coated headers
  • Rebuild heater system valve
  • Replace A/C hoses, expansion valve
  • To fit fuel filler tray, create and bond to body screw mounting plates for fuel tray screws to screw into as the metal screw holes in body for fuel fill tray were stripped
  • Rebuild drive shafts, brake calipers, hand brake calipers, rear anti roll bar links
  • Rebuild radiator cooling fans, A/C condenser, create bracket for new receiver dryer
  • Rebuild steering rack cover plate, cut plate into 3 sections to make it easier to remove section for steering rack while keeping the section that is above the oil cooler lines in place, without needed to remove oil cooler lines to remove the single piece panel to access steering rack
  • Recreate interior hand brake cable mounting bracket
  • Rebuild gearshift lever and linkages
Rebuild engine and Weber carburetors
  • Proper rebuild for engine, with new piston, rings, bearings, timing chain, timing chain gear drive shaft, water pump
  • Replace all sensors, installed 123 Ignition distributor
  • Rebuild Weber 40 DCNF carbs
  • Crack in bracket for engine accessories wielded, bracket straightened, painted
  • New clutch, throw out bearing, lightened flywheel
  • Header and exhaust pipes ceramic coated
  • Rear muffler cleaned, painted high heat ceramic
  • Fit gear reduction starter
Getting all the electrical systems working, weber carb and ingtion setup, return to driving with new memories, adventures
  • Do to the state of this car when it came in, we did not test electrical systems before taking it part due to the state of the wiring
  • Remove door glass window motors to test ease and smoothness of movement for the door glass
  • Turning gear drive by hand, door glass barely moves on drivers side, and will not move at all on passenger side
  • Remove window motors to disassemble, discover grease in each motor gear area had turned into a clay type of mud, worm drive can barely turn
  • Remove all parts to clean and grease with silicon grease, clean brass bushings for worm drive gear, grease in silicon grease
  • Remove old grease from gear drive on window arm, scraped away harden grease from window guide rail, grease with silicon grease
  • Refit window guide rail, window gear arm bracket without window motor to manual turn window arm gear bushing to test smoothness and ease of window doing up and down within window channel, adjust window and window guide as needed
  • Attach window motor to test with direct power to window motor, window goes quickly up and down, try window movement with window switches, windows incredibly slow
  • Remove window switches to take them apart, switch contact covered in black deposits, clean all contacts in switches, test again windows no move quickly and smoothly
  • Test for turn signals working, for left turn signal front light cycled twice then stayed on, rear light not working, right turn signal cycle once then stayed on however bulb light weak, rear light had faint light from the turn signal bulb and the parking light bulb. Started by removing the extra relays and wires , the turn signal unit had wires spliced onto the wires going to the switch and coming out of the switch. Meanwhile the wiring diagram for the early Merak shows a turn signal relay with three wires, one for 12V to the relay, one for 12V from the relay to the turn signal switch, one wire for the turn signal indicator lights. The car itself was built with only two wires for the turn signal relay for 12V to the relay and 12V to the turn signal. Cleaned up all the wiring for the turn signal unit, replace 3 pin relay with 2 pin relay. Troubleshooted rear light unit, discovered poor ground connection, redid ground connection. Test turn signal system now working correctly
  • Fit correct hazard switch to replace one that had been fitted, removed extra wires add to the hazard wiring to get back to the factory setup, hazard not working
  • Testing park lights and head lights none of them worked, started by removing extra wiring and relays added to get around the wires that could no longer supply power to the lights due to them being burnt out. This early Merak has the SM steering column switches, the Maserati factory cut off the connector for the park lights and in it place have a separate switch, connected to the light relay that turns on the park lights. Reason for this is the hydraulic switch that lifts the headlights has a pressure switch which when the lights are lifted turns on the park lights and head lights. The factory provide a manual way to hold the lights up in case the hydraulic lifts do not work, so you can then manual turn on the park lights with its switch then rotate the light switch past turning on the park light to the next position to turn on the headlights, The park light switch also gives you a way to turn on the parks lights only when you wish to do so.
  • The headlight relay needed it contacts cleaned, the light switch needed to come apart to clean it contacts, after this the light were working
  • Meanwhile the wipers worked only on high speed and would not park... 12V power from the wiper switch was going to the wiper timer switch to vari the speed, removed timer to clean contacts, power not to wiper motor, low speed working, cycle switch on off to test and sometimes not working. Traced this to wire on connector at wiper motor being lose, solider wire to connector to keep factory connector on car. Low speed wiper work consistently, however wipers park in middle of the screen. Remove wiper motor to adjust home position by rotating contact disc. Wipers now parking in proper home position.
  • Adjust 123 Distributor for timing, air flow carbs
  • Bleed hydraulic system for brakes, clutch, cycle headlight hydraulic lifting
  • Drive to fine tune mixture screws sort out anything that needs refinement in adjustment