Thank you Steve. Your restoration is going to be the most exacting one I have seen thus far. Guys, it is well worth to visit Steve and see a pro at work. This chassis will be far straighter than when it came out of the factory, and it really is not rocket science, definitely aeronautical, but I certainly learned a few which I will be able to put to good use. Another great case of f-chatter generosity. If you need hinges, Steve's the man. Regards, Alberto
Steve, Will you restore my hinges using my original plates? Want to keep the factory stampings. Send me a PM if interested. Scott
Hi All, It's been to long since my last confession! I've done quite a bit of work on the Dino. I did a lot of work to get the doors properly aligned and all the door latches working properly. One trick I use to keep the threaded nut plates located in the mounting bracket of the door jam striker is to cut a 1/2 inch piece of vacuum hose and insert it into the bracket behind the nut plate. This keeps the nut plate from moving around and you can always get the screws started before the dang nut plates fall out of the bracket! With the doors aligned I made tin plates of all the sheet metal around the doors i.e. door sills, front bulk head and parts around the windscreen pillar. I then cut all the sheet metal away. I then started to make all the sheet metal parts. The tricky part was the bulk head in front of the doors. It was a compound folded edge that another sheet metal part gets spot welded to. To make this part I made a forming block of 2 pieces of 1/4" aluminum cut to the proper curve with the edges rounded (the form can be flipped to make a left and right part) A third 1/4" plate was made to sandwich the sheet metal that was to be formed. This part also helps with heat dissipation when forming the edge. I then clamped sheet metal between the plates, heated the edges that protruded and hammered them to 90 degrees. When cooled the rest of the part was bent up in a break to for a Z bend at the other side of the part . With all the sheet metal parts made and the major metal work to the chassis complete it was into the booth for sand blasting. I sent the doors out to be acid dipped. For all the boots and engine lid I made a box lined with thin plexiglass with all seams caulked with silicone. I then soaked the lids in "Metal Rescue". I rotated the panels on end every 8-12 hours till all corrosion was gone. I finished them by sand blasting. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
SANDBLASTING is not fun! After blasting the chassis and all the parts I primed the chassis with DP-40. The front boot lid needed a new support nut plate made and welded in and the screw studs on the engine lid needed to be replaced so this work was done prior to priming. The lids and doors were first primed with POR-15 (rust inhibiting primer). The POR-15 was thinned 40% and all the deck lid seams and door interiors brushed with POR. To get the solution everywhere I even poured the POR (no pun intended) into the doors and deck lids and rotated them so the primer would leach into every crevice! In one of the photos if you look carefully you'll see POR coming out the bottom seams of the doors! After the POR was dry I then hung them and primed them with DP-40. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
With the chassis and parts primed It was finally time to start putting things back together instead of cutting apart or disassembling! The sheet metal parts around the door and the sills where the next step. The inner sill was welded in place then the door bulkheads spot welded in. All parts went together fairly well with some minimal changes from left to right door jams...all the changes are due to the Dino being so hand built. One change I did make in the door sills was the way the original car had a drain hole in the forward part of the sill that just drained water into the lower part of the body work. This created a lot of corrosion! I made a 3/8 tube with a flair at one end and welded it into the new drain hole. The tube will exit water out of the sill and empty out of the lower rocker panel when complete. Pretty sure this Dino will ever be driven in the rain! But what the Hey! The tube frame for the front boot lid was damaged in the crash so I had to replace one side of the frame with new parts and align the hinges. I also needed to install the door window frames. I had cut them off many years ago with the idea of converting the car to an accurate GTS. I had collected all the tin pates to do the conversion but with the prices of cars these days it just would be wrong to do it! With all the sheet metal installed I then sand blasted those parts of the car and primed them with brushed POR in the seams and DP-40 over that. The front and rear clips are now being sand blasted and primed with DP-40. They are NOS and have never been installed on a car. The next couple of weeks I'll make new rocker panels and start installing the clips....can't hardly wait!! Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Truly hot and innovative.......... I appreciate the 'no nonsense', really hardcore approach, a great one man show. To quote the great Alfred E. Newman: "What, me worry?" Good show Steve! Regards, Alberto
Very impressive. Makes me feel like I've got a cakewalk compared to the work on my Miura (thread in the Lamborghini section). I'm really envious of the amount of work you can do yourself. Truly impressive.
Holy Moly this is the mother of all Dino restos! Thanks for sharing the pics and you are doing an amazing job. Hats off to you sir. WELL DONE!!
Great project and I admire your bravery taking on such work yourself. I wish I had known you wanted the tubes as they can still be bought, and it would have saved you a lot of work.
Most impressive work! Looks like Scaglietti/PF body number 1158 on the hinges, did you find any other numbers on the car? Possible locations: http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=256101 The rivets are what loosened on mine. Wear takes a toll on them but not the spans so usually just changing the rivets does the trick and you get to preserve the original factory body stampings.
I checked out your Miura restoration Alberto...GREAT work! It looks like a sheet metal puzzle! I'm sure it's going to look stunning when done! Steve
I've been lazy about the hinges..I've not made the tool to drive the rivet heads yet. I will have to do it soon when I start assembling the body panels. I'll post when that occurs. I was also going to use the parts of my hinges with the original Scaglietti numbers (1158)and rivet into the new parts, so redoing an old set of hinges with new rivets would be no problem. As for other places the Scaglietti number appears I've found it on the inside of the front bonnet, some trim pieces of the door and engine lid. The rear trunk lid was from a burned out Dino that I re-skinned so no numbers on it. Steve
Steve Thanks, but I'm still envious of how much you are able to do yourself. Your car will end up being one of the most extensively restored Dino's, I'm sure. I look forward to keeping track of your progress, so please keep the updates coming (and I do know how much of a pain it is to do that).
I just your first post.. Great shot of your first post/ Pic.\ in the hangar. What a great feeling it must be to know you have the skill to take on this type of project. I wish I could fine a Dino like that one. Very inpressive! Let me know if I can help you in the surfaceing/paint department. With the way these Dino's are going up you won't get buried. Don't stop... Keep on going! www.stevekouracos.wordpress.com
Just a heads up, but you spelled Cromodora wrong on your site... "The sought after Chromodoro and Campenello wheels are a thing of beauty and a desired feature to a classic Dino." Aside from that, great side and restoration descriptions.