I had already restored an OSCA MT4 for Steven Block, my tale OSCA: The last of the real Maseratis, so he had already been through all the twists and turns of a major restoration and he had sufficient means to pay for the very best restoration. Steve, as I have said before, loved Italian cars and he had seen George Wests forlorn Maserati 300S before at a CSRG event and took a liking to it. Steve was a property developer and loved the idea of building things. The Maserati was just what he was looking for, so he went to George West and within a few days George’s car now Steve’s arrived on a trailer at my dealership on San Pablo Avenue Berkeley.

Upon a really close look, the car needed everything. It was totally worn out and in need of a full nut and bolt restoration. Steve was really good at finding things and this was a big part of his enjoyment with a restoration project.
Before long, he had found another complete Maserati 300S even worse than the one he had just given me to restore. This was a godsend and would make our job much easier.

The first task was to dismantle Maserati 300S chassis 3071 and lake a work list of all the tasks to be performed. The body was a real mess and Steve set about to get as many photos as he could. Fortunately, this was a Factory works car and had good success so photos were readily available.

Building alloy bodies was not a commonplace skill in the USA and I had had to train a man to do this. Don Nichols, fortunately, had a really good eye and the will to do this job. He was very slow but in the end, the body was returned to its lovely original shape that had originated in Medardo Fantuzzi’s shop in Modena. Steve was really pleased with the finished job.

I had my own paint shop and after many hours of preparation, it finally received its ten coats of Maserati Corsa Red nitrocellulose. I painted on the white number circles and the numbers “20” like it had when I watched it race at Sebring in 1957. It looked fantastic.

 

 

While the body was being done all the mechanical components received a thorough revision. The engine, fortunately, had never had a big failure and we were able to use most of the parts again after reconditioning them. Parts like pistons, valves, valve guides were made new and for added insurance, I replaced the connecting rods with ones of special steel.

All the steel parts were X rayed and if there was any sign of cracking we made a new part or replaced it with a usable original one from the other car. Eventually, all the components were finished and ready to install. It was like assembling a big kit model except all the parts were life size. Before installing the engine It was tested on the dyno and produced a healthy 250 HP with lots of torque.

The wiring was installed and the final touches applied and the car was ready for testing on the circuit. This for me is the best part because you get to see how well the whole job was performed. In the case of this car, the test was perfect and all went really well. There were no oil leaks and the handling and braking was spot on. Steve came with me and after I had tested it to my satisfaction I turned it over to him. Ten laps later, when he drove into the pits the big smile on his face told me all I needed to know. Another job well done: Maserati 300S, my favorite!