My visit to DinoPoint in Bergamo Italy

First of all, I just want everyone to know I'm not being compensated or anything here (well, I did get a hat). These guys have been a huge help in my Fiat Dino 2.0L restoration, I had a free day in Florence for a day trip, contacted them about a month ago, and they let me come up for a visit. I'm just trying to inform other owners about what they do.

DinoPoint is a place of restoration (people send them cars from all over the world) or they make, locate or send parts around the world (me in Las Vegas for example). Bergamo is a lovely city about 30 miles east of Milan on the Brembo river (if that name strikes a bell its because Brembo brakes are just up the road). They have a large 3 story complex in an industrial area, right on the river. I traveled there from Florence by train and it took 3 hours. Bologna would be less by an hour I would say.

First I got a tour of the place from the owner, Walter, and his son Marco. There's an amazing amount of knowledge of all Dino cars between the two of them. They "only" do Dinos. Ferrari 206 (there was one there about to be shipped out), Ferrari 246, Fiat Dino spider and Fiat Dino coupe. However they said for some good customers they may take in an occasional Alfa or classic Ferrari. There was one 246DinoGt there that was sent from Ferrari for Classique restoration. Another was flown in from Kentucky. Several were US models that were sent back to them.

They do everything but painting, which they farm out and do the inspection. They make reproduction parts in original materials. They rebuild about 1 Dino engine a week, put them on their own dyno for testing and break in, and send them around the world. They rebuild every major system including their own wiring harnesses, gearboxes of every Dino model, cut and sew the interiors to leather of vinyl (Fiat Dino's used vinyl so they even do the heat debossing).

The middle floor (and entrance) is for general repair and final assembly. There is also a clean room for engine building and engines waiting to be rebuilt along with stacks of blocks, heads, cranks, you name it. I asked where he got all of these and he said most were from 2.0 or 2.4 L Dino coupes.

The basement is a documentation room where they have compiled information on many cars from the Pininfarina factory. There is also a CNC machine for making any metal part, and an entire large room of parts in bins neatly put away and marked on shelves (very well organized), another room full of every type of transmission, another room with brakes, pumpkins, suspension, and who knows what. Its a lot of stuff they have collected or remade. For example I got some chrome stripes for the side of my car that were unavailable -- remade by them.

Upstairs was interior. They have a lazer cutter for making any piece in leather or vinyl (which they sew themselves) in any color as needed and do dash and plastic / fiberglass repair. They will match the original colors if you want that with reference from Pininfarina who they work with. Fiat Dino coupes are very difficult to rebuild but they do it. They also have laser cut wood vernier and even vacuum form some pieces for center consoles that cannot be repaired.

They do not buy and sell cars. There were several cars for sale but Walter says he just turns you over to the owner and has nothing to do with it aside from providing documentation or inspection or recommendations.

Overall the shop is spotlessly clean and complete focused on Dinos. There's no distinction between Ferrari or Fiat Dinos to them. They have done some work on 208 and 308/328 but they said they have so much Dino work they don't want to overtax themselves. I saw their schedule and they were booked for months into the future on cars incoming. Its a very large shop and I must have seen close to 50 cars and body shells on the middle level alone.

There is one problem. I showed them pictures of my car and they spotted immediately things wrong. So I'll be spending more to make it right. I asked some technical advice and they freely gave it.

I'll post some pictures here. Hopefully it will give you some idea. They are building a new website (I saw part of it today) and they have Youtube clips of their facilities. But this is what I saw today.

If anyone wants more information you can contact me by PM. I'm not selling anything. I'm simply putting people together for hopefully mutual benefit.

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More photos. Here you can see their own dyno they made themselves.
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Last one... a finished 2.4L Fiat Dino Spider.


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My apologies -- lost in translation! But the function as explained to me was to get the engines tested and adjusted as well as run correctly in before shipping. The error is mine.

 

Not really. I did ask about this and they dabble in it for a few customers pretty much only in their lanes. There was one engine you can see sitting in waiting room for rebuilding. But they may farm the engine out. There was one Gt4 in the workshop but I didn't ask what they were doing with it. As they said to me when I asked this question, they have so much work just on the 6 cylinder Dino's they aren't reaching out. They really want to specialize on 6 cylinder cars.