Restoration of Miura 1021

Just before the engine was taken out, I decided to look carefully at the underside for rust, taking measurements of the wheel base, checking for square, etc. As it turns out, the driver's side was some 12 mm shorter than the passenger' side. Uh oh, not good.

Note how wavy the bottom pan is. The drop downs at the passenger and driver's position are unique to these early cars and was done to increase headroom in the car. Notice also the very simple air scoop. The bolts you see are where someone bolted lap seat belts. I don't know why they selected this mounting location, because even though the car is a 1967, it has lap seat belt mounting points in the normal Miura locations (on the sides), but they were not used.

Look behind the air scoop to the rear most chassis cross member. On almost every Miura these are no longer straight, victims of hydraulic jacks and mechanics who don't know better. This area is routinely used to jack the car up by said mechanics. For pete's sake, DON'T do this!!

Although these are common rust areas for Miura's, the next pictures show some of the rust that simply made my blood run cold: there went my idea of a quick and light restoration. 40 years takes its toll on humans and machines aren't really that different I guess.
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Obsessively so. There are a million details to track, but my goal is to have the car be as close as to the way it came out of the factory as I can, save a few exceptions.

For the sake of originality, I am doing a few things no one or very few seem to have done to this point.

For example, I do not intend to have the car gapped to within a micron of its life. The gaps will be kept as close to how they were when the car was built as possible (fortunately, the car has NOT been gapped during its prior repaints).

I am going through great pains to procure the original carpet material, which heretofore has not been available for many, many years.

The interior will be done in the correct vinyl materials including seat inserts and I have also sourced all of the correct rubber materials for the floor. I am using the same upholsterer that Gary uses on his restorations; interestingly, he tells me that in all of the Miura restorations he has done, no one has asked him to use the original interior vinyl and rubber material (heel pads), everyone has converted to leather and used heel pad material not exactly like the original.

I will be covering that beautiful wood steering wheel with leather, as was done on original Miura's, including copying the somewhat unique stitching pattern used on the early ones (your book has an excellent picture of the stitching used on the prototype, if you have more, please share, that's what I intend to follow for the steering wheel).

I am removing the mph speedo and replacing it with a kph one, the Fahrenheit temp gauge has been redone so that it reads in Centigrade (both the speedo and the temp gauge were likely converted to standard units when it was imported to the US), etc., etc., etc.

I will make a few safety related deviations from original, such as installing 3 point safety belts, although I sourced the proper Kangol three point belts used in later Miura's, so it will look correct to the untrained eye. I will also retain the fire out system that I had installed a few years ago, although I likely will remount it in a less obtrusive location than over the front cross member, where they are typically installed, assuming I can work it out.

I intend to make only one purposeful cosmetic deviation, which is to use all charcoal vinyl interior, instead of charcoal vinyl interior with black vinyl seats.

I assume that some will criticize my doing some of these things. But things like not gaping the car and using vinyl instead of leather for the interior is what it takes to truly restore a car in keeping with the original.

 

He's done S's and P400's too, all leather. In fact he used my car as a pattern for 1066 when he redid it (in leather).

Basket weave inserts have been sourced (and they are vinyl, BTW). I also have pictures of details like how they do not cover the entire front bottom portion of the seat to save material, and mine will be done identically. I assure you no one else is doing seats that way when they redo them, 'cause it looks half assed, but if Ferruccio said it was ok, who the hell am I to argue?

 

Like this; not the prettiest termination, but completely original with Ferruccio's approval:
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In due time you'll see why the wheelbase difference was not factory, but due to the accident reported by Menser. Of course, I did not know this at the time I took the measurements. As it turns out, Miura wheelbase dimensions are pretty consistent (for undamaged cars); I checked a few of the cars at Gary's shop and they were pretty consistent.

As to the floor pan, the waviness is due to chassis flexing I think and to the prior accident. Mine was wavier than most untouched Miura's.

Here are some detail pictures. On the early Miura's, the voltage regulator is mounted at the rear of the car, next to the alternator. The voltage regulator was quickly moved to the front of the car, I presume to get it out of the engine heat.

The knobs on the early Miura's are the same as used on many of the 350/400GT's.

Next are the stampings on a few of the bolt heads. Some have fared the years better than others.
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What number is that one? Are those seats original upholstery?

 

Joe

Could you ask/check if the steering wheel is padded under the leather? All of the pictures I've seen seem to look like the leather is thicker than it should look like if it was directly on the wood, so I suspect their is some padding. If at all possible, can the circumference or diameter be measured on this original car?

 

Wow, outstanding.

 

On to the bottom end. As you can see, the bearings were completely shot. Gary calls me and tells me "You are one lucky S.O.B., if you had driven that car another 20 miles you would have blown the engine." Indeed I had been feeling uneasy about the engine for some time now, which is what lead me to decide to rebuild it. It's important to listen to that little voice we all have.

Venolia pistons were installed when the engine was last rebuilt. They will be replaced for JE pistons. Gary tells me that the connecting rod bolts are the improved, Countach style bolts. I will retain them. Con rods will be kept.

The bearing damage naturally also affected crank. It are being rewelded and remachined. I will be having the rotating mass balanced. Note the chamfering of the oil holes, this was done during the last rebuilt.
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Bob:

I have no idea. I really wish I knew. I can only guess that the engine was run dry, or perhaps rev'd up right at start. The car was not run very many miles since the prior rebuild when I bought it. I've been thinking hard about a pre-oiler system, but can't figure out a way to hide the damn thing to it's not visible.