Dino Saga 050807

Dino Saga 050807

It does rain in Santa Barbara, Dec. thru Mar., on occasion. The car had a broken windshield when it first came to Santa Barbara. The dealer replaced it and did not get a great fit in the corners. The first rain leaked in and left stains on the suede covering the dash. I had seen other Dinos at various concours and had never seen such nice suede as on mine. All others had suede coated with some kind of dye, polish, soap, paint, etc. I have some experience with suede and just mixed up an ounce of Murphy’s Oil Soap and a quart of soft water. I rubbed lightly with a damp sponge, rinsing the sponge as soon as it showed signs of dirt. You want to wet the suede but not enough to drip. And you have to wash every inch, every time. Spotting a small area leaves a bigger spot. I left the car windows open overnight and the suede looked like new. Still does. Stitching has held up also. Only problem is a little loss of Murphy’s oil when you leave car in full sun for a week or so. You get a little sheen on the inside of the windshield. Wipes right off with a terry cloth. Small price to pay for a good looking flat black dash. I redo a couple of times per year.

I lifted outside of windshield gasket and ran a small bead of black silicone all around. Got all the way to the edge of the glass and the steel. Wiped off excess right away. That took care of windshield leaks.

Vent windows were/are another problem. The rubber does not quite fit the door or the window. The latches pop off the windows and I have never found any glue strong enough. I gave up and bought safety locks. You can screw them down and seal glass to rubber. I never did cure all of the leaks. It is better but the front of the left door is rusting slowly. Screw holes in picture are from prior owner’s tries.

Side windows had a ¼” gap between them and the bottom weather strip. Water came in there by the bucketfull. I did not want to take the doors completely apart so got auto store weatherstrip and used black silicone to glue it to existing weatherstrip. I was able to smoothly fair the silicone so it almost looked like a factory finish. Trick, wet your finger with Dawn liquid detergent to smoothly tool the silicone bead. Does not slow down cure. Make sure the silicone sticks to everything you want sealed BEFORE you use the Dawn. Have found no tool better than a finger or thumb.

Final weather related item is the wipers. You can get refills everywhere but you can’t get blade holders. At least not in the average auto store. The windshield is massively curved and the bearing pins in the blade holders are too loose. I was on a long trip in the rain and a metal blade retainer started touching the glass. By the time I found a dry place to stop, the windshield had a nicely curved scratch. I used pieces of Ty Wraps as bearings in the blade holders. Stiffens them right up. Worked fine and I just replace them every Thanksgiving. I also run tiny Ty Wraps through the blades so that a Ty Wrap will hit the glass before any metal does. Oh! French Cerium Oxide, a soft damp cloth and a lot of elbow grease cleans up window scratches safely. There is still some scratch but it is tolerable. Every now and then I rub some more. Don’t try this on Tempered glass. My Dino has laminated safety glass all around so no problem.

Rainy days are now more fun. The wide modern tires sure do stick. You have to be a little careful though, the wipers start to lift above 100.

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John
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