The workshop
Where the workshop comes from.
A panel man spends his days following lines. The line of a wing, of a bonnet, the one an impact broke and has to be found again. Here is ours, and it starts in Maranello.
The father
He spent his career at Ferrari. He never made a story of it, and perhaps that is why it lasted. What he brought home was not tales from Maranello, it was a way of looking at a panel before laying a hand on it.
What gets passed on
Jason learned on the shop floor. Running a hand over a panel with your eyes shut to feel what sight will not give you. Measuring twice. Turning down a blend that would pass under strip lights and show up outside. It is not taught, it is caught.
The Charleroi workshop
Rue de Marchienne, a building where the jig and the spray booth stand twenty metres apart. That is what makes it possible to follow a car from strip-down to the day it leaves, without ever handing it to somebody else.
What runs today
Dinos, a Bizzarrini, Porsches, modern Ferraris, and cars nobody has heard of that matter to the people who bring them. A line that closes on itself, and starts again with the next job.
The equipment
What it takes to hold a measurement and a colour. Nothing remarkable piece by piece, but all of it in the same hall.
Straightening jig
Measuring bars and rams to bring a shell back to its original figures.
Spray booth
Calibrated lighting and filtered airflow. A colour is judged here, not out in the hall.
Vehicle lifts
For mechanical work and inspecting the underside, brakes and running gear.
Covered storage
Cars waiting on parts or on a decision stay inside, never out in the yard.