Miura #3150 P400

Chris I don't know many Miura P400 with just 6,000 miles!

In fact, I can think of just 2 other P400 with lower mileage, one a very original example with @ 4,000 miles that lives literally 5 mins from me, and another with just 2,000 miles that is still with its original owner (!) that lives @ 30 mins away.

 

That's not entirely correct.

First of all, some P400 had Armstrong shocks and then some had Konis.

The P400 Armstrong shock shown has been seen in a number of different color combinations, as seen below, both correct for a P400.

The first image shows the much-vaunted 3216, a car that still remains with its original owner with just 2,000 miles on the clock. You can see the Armstrong shocks are orange, and the (front) springs are green - rears are light blue.

The second images shows 3610, and you can see the Armstrong shocks are silver, and the rear springs are blue.

Of course, we should note that the P400 production started with Armstrong shocks, which were subsequently replaced with Koni shocks (probably since Armstrongs were not rebuildable) but the cutoff during P400 production is not clear.

You can tell the difference at the bottom of the shock when the car is in the air because the Armstrong shock has a round shoulder at the bottom of the tube, whereas the Koni has a square shoulder at the bottom of the tube.

Konis were typically painted orange, but, I have seen at least one original car with Konis painted blue!

The point is, there were constant ongoing production variances throughout Miura production from P400 to SV and it is simply wrong to say "xyz is correct for all Miuras" or even for all P400.
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Any reason why black oxide was used liberally to cover everything including hub spline, brake contact area and even the spindle threads?

Surely the more sympathetic & professional way to do this would be to mask off the areas that do not need this application?

Later variant used for illustration, but you get the idea.
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Chris, speaking of apples to apples, here is my neighbor's 3598, and it also has a basket-weave interior, except in Senape.

Beautifully original P400, and terrific reference point.
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Jon, as you go along, if there is anything that requires an original reference point, 3216 The Miura That Time Forgot (3216) | Joe Sackey Classics and 3598 Blu Miura (3598) | Joe Sackey Classics are within the chassis number range of 3150 and just minutes away, so I'm happy to use them to verify anything.
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Yes, items that were clean metal were treated with black oxide - this was a choice of mine that many others do instead of leaving as clean metal to rust. It looks like your example shows paint on the rotors, is that more or less correct than black oxide? They were clean steel from the factory.

Regarding the brake contact area, it was clean metal again as soon as I drove the car.

Regarding sympathetic and professional.. please post photos of the details of Miuras that you have consulted on the restoration of, it would be a good reference for the guys who are currently doing restorations.

 

The driveshafts were all done in light blue. Sand or scrape that paint that you believe to be darker blue and you will find that it's light blue (if it's original)

With it being oil soaked and grimy, the color of the blue looks like it varies on the same piece shown in the photo.

 

Yes Joe, I know the early Miuras had Armstrongs. My example is of the Konis. I will post some photos of original Armstrongs for everyone's reference.

There were variations during production, but not as many as people think.

Regarding the color on Koni's, they were all "Koni orange" FROM Koni, and then painted at the Lamborghini factory before installation on the car, either green for the front, or light blue for the rear. For all of the Koni's on the Miuras. Oddly, they did not paint the top mounting loop, that stayed orange. A factory old timer told me that this was because they often dipped the shocks in paint up to the rod gland, but did not going higher than that, so the shaft and upper mount stayed clean.

You often see them in orange because when people through the years had them rebuilt, they would come back from koni in orange (Koni would clean and respray them and put a fresh decal on them), and people would just leave them that way and reinstall on the car.

 

Thanks Andrew and Joe for your feedback. A few good catches that are easily correctable at this stage of the process. We will circle back on some of these items and redo to factory spec. Much appreciated!

 

Regarding the Armstrong shocks on the early Miuras, here is exactly what the fronts (green spring) and rears (light blue spring) should look like. Also notice the matching color of the driveshaft in the photo of the rear shock. Also note the color the shock bodies.

*Note: you see that some use the wire mesh spacers, and some do not.. they can be used for fine tuning of the ride height of the car.
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Anyone have a source for the correct wire mesh used for the shocks?

 

Understood, I was simply curious about the liberal application of black oxide to cover everything from hub spline, brake contact area and even the spindle threads, but recognize that individual choice was the reason as you state.

We can agree to disagree like gentlemen. My experience with Miuras has taught me that there were constant ongoing production variances throughout Miura production, and to say "the driveshafts were ALL done in light blue" is indisputably incorrect. Furthermore, the driveshafts in the images provided by Leo http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/145379922-post7.html and by myself http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/145381985-post25.html show zero traces of Azzuro Cielo anywhere despite their original and paint-chipped nature.

Yes, there were, the extent to which is clearly the subject of some conjecture. We have seen in other makes & models where people try to 'standardize' the accepted knowledge over time, but my feeling is that the Miura is really one of those cars where you have to know what was correct for the individual car, as I find literally no two Miuras to be exactly alike in detail even if they came with the same basic color specification.

Some of the early P400 had Armstrongs with the tops in a silver color (such as 3610 posted).

 

These are by far the best threads! Amazing work.

 

Hi Chris,

Why are you saying that the Basketweave vinyl is NLA ? is it really NLA in USA nowadays ?
(I had in mind that Reoriginals was still offering it...)
In Europe, we are stil able to source freshly remade basketweave vinyl for our cars restoration.

This product was commonly used in many European passenger cars from the 70's (Alfa-Romeo, Peugeot, etc...).

To date, I've identified EU-based Companies offering the exact basketweave vinyl used on the Miura in the Senape, Beige, dark Brown, and Black colors - unfortunately not the blue color as used on the bak of the seats of my P400S (see pict.)... But perhaps Bruno Paratelli - in Italy - has it ?...

And congrats for your great job and the fact of sharing it here !
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Many thanks to Jon and Chris for the photos and the restoration effort. It is really great to see my old car getting back to original.
Nick, lucky enough to have had 3150 for 20 fun years

 

Thank you for the kind words. We had gotten the basketweave from reoriginals but it was not the same as what was in 3150 as you can see in the attached photo. Based on the condition and everything else being original in the interior we had no reason to believe the basketweave in the car was not original. Has anyone else every seen this basketweave pattern in an early Miura before? Here it is vs the reoriginals basketweave.
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Hi Nick,

A pleasure to hear from you! Glad you are following the thread. Perhaps you can shed some light on the basketweave seat inserts. Is what was in the car original as far as you are aware?

I hope all is well with you.

Very best,


Chris

 

The difference is Hexagonal weave pattern versus Square weave pattern.

I've done a little further research, and the factory most definitely used them BOTH at the point of production during the P400 run, reinforcing, yet again, the understanding that many Miura production variations that occurred.

For example, here is 1021, its had the hexagonal weave pattern for the vinyl basketweave seat inserts - hard to see in these images, but it's there.
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Here is 3015 with the hexagonal weave pattern.

Note it even still has the forked-spoke early wood wheel covered in grey vinyl with factory stitching - which I will illustrate later.
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Here is 3598 a P400 that is also entirely original, this time featuring vinyl basketweave that is the square weave pattern.

Images can be seen here https://books.google.com/books?id=B1dadHSJMBYC&pg=PA242&lpg=PA242&dq=MIURA+BASKETWEAVE&source=bl&ots=1l4cvGXRov&sig=hqDe8KZ6tM-POraXlLZTvoHw2uI&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwin6MSc5oHUAhUMySYKHc8LDsAQ6AEIQDAI#v=onepage&q=MIURA%20BASKETWEAVE&f=false
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That's exactly it, thanks again, Joe!

 

Here is 3216, an original car showing headrests in the square weave pattern.

As an aside - before anyone gets too excited, those seats are original too, yet another - you guessed it - production variation. Miura number 84 built late 1967 and has had just one owner from new, having covered a grand total of 1,850 miles. I had a private audience and inspected it my self over several hours, and it can only be described as stunningly original. When the gentleman bought it in 1967, he already had purchased a brand new Porsche 904 (he still has that car also, it lives next to the Miura) in 1964. He liked the 904 very much, and one feature, he especially liked. The all-cloth seats were cool in the summer, warm in the winter, and held him firmly in place during cornering. So he traveled to Italy and asked Ubaldo Sgarzi to build his Miura with same, and the car was duly thus delivered having been flown to LAX via KLM. These are all-fabric seats (some kind of industrial Mohair or Felt), the whole seat, not just the inserts. The undersides are basketweave vinyl.
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The early wood wheels were sometimes covered in grey vinyl with a peculiar stitching, and sometimes they were left naked wood.

I'm told this was a random thing, determined simply by how much time they had to spend on a given car.


3216 has the covered wood wheel, see below.
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