Dino Restoration

I have been watching this thread for quite some time.

Now I see the that it is nearly complete and I am speechless.

What a gorgeous car! Congrats to the 2 of you. What a wonderful accomplishment!

 

Great luster, it really shines in front of all those 12 cylinder "larger brother" models.
Hard work pays off handsomly (although I know the Father-Son bonding was important part)

 

Scott -

How dare you to have ignored the MGA!!!

 

[email protected]

Thank you sir!

jds

 

The house seems to be moving along also, when is the Dino going to be in it's new garage?

 

I just found myself sitting here in silence with my mouth open in awe. Just stunning.

 

The car is stunning.............congratulations.

 

Jon,
I just posted a note to scott.mac who asked about springs and it occured to me that I think you powder coated your springs. If you did, the baking at their free length might have relaxed them and they grew a little. I have watched hot-rodders clamp their springs solid and shorten them a couple of inches in a 400F oven. Might be interesting to pull one, compress it 2-3 inches, bake it overnight and see what happens. The springs appear to keep their shape after cooling as long as the load stays relatively constant. Spring constant and hardness should not be bothered at all at that low a temperature. If you try it, let us know what happens. Be nice to get the beauty back to its proper ride height.
John

 

Jon - my 2 cents. Leave the suspension height to entropy. It will settle on its own.

Jim S.

 

I agree let them settle on their own. If John is right about the powder coating temp being the reason (not sure I agree) then they will settle back down. The 400 degree heat from the coating is not high enough to do any permanent changes to steel especially spring steel so if they "relaxed" they will get back pretty quickly.

 

Those flares are just aching to hug those tires. Looks like there's a fair amount of settling to do.

If you're counting on the material creep in the spring to do that, it may take a long time. Creep at relatively low temperature is minimal. If this wasn't the case, brand new family sedans would look like lowered racers in a few months.

 

For what it's worth, I had our 33 year-old springs powder-coated when the suspension was rebuilt last year. There was no noticeable change in the ride height afterwards.

 

I still suspect they are the wrong springs entirely.

I'd get a second set, pull one that's in there, and compare it. Guarantee there's a difference.

Again, the first set I got from superformance did the same thing to my car in the front. We had to switch them out for another set from a different supplier. I think we got the replacements from Ferrari UK.

DM

 

This would look better (hehe, without the french headlights):
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Totally disagree!! The yellow headlights look sweet.

 

I do prefer the clear headlamps over the yellow.

 

Looks GOOD Jeff. Keep rolling!
John

 

Jon:

Great start. I suggest putting a forward and reverse button right next to the oversized pictures so that you don't have to scroll down to the contact sized pictures to see the next one. I'm, sure that's in the plans.

Alberto

 

Jon, I have followed your restoration from the beginning. Fantastic pretty well sums it up!! You have taught your son well. Without going through every page to lookup answers, I was wondering.... 1. Did you make any major engine/drive-train mods? Is the motor basically as built or did you increase displacement, compression ratio, etc? Cylinder head or valve work? How about the cams? I guess I am curious as to how close to stock the engine is now. B. Same ideas for the suspension. Did you use basically as delivered shocks and springs, or are things different (stiffer, etc.?) New or remanufactured parts? Brakes look to be stock, correct? Next: Did you plan on altering the driving characteristics of the car? If so, in what ways?

Little by little I have been working on my 74 GTS. You have raised the bar to new heights. Nice!! I am looking at different ideas for restoring these works of art. Stock, slightly modified, or more than slightly modified.

Now, the black Dino.....

Marc