Bradan 246 Dino restoration

We put new door skins on my GT with me helping and I didn't think it was a big deal at all.

 

We did not, as I recall, but my memory is hazy. I suppose you could, and they would be quite inconspicuous, but really, who drives these in the rain? And washing it? They never go out enough to get dusty.

WE did replace the lower frame pieces, along with the bottom third of each door and the hinge pins. The wheel arches at the rear were pretty bad too. I have pictures somewhere, I'll go through them and see if I can see anything.

So did you repair/replace that nasty looking rust in the images posted above? And are you rustproofing the area? Maybe use that nasty British stuff, Waxoyl?

It's not hard to do with the car all apart, but once you put that Rube Goldberg-esque window winding stuff back in, it's too late.

 

Dinitrol is better Dave and in our climate you certainly need it. Any car that is restored and not coated liberally with this stuff is just a waste of their efforts.

 

My experience with Dinitrol is very good. The treatments should be repeated though after 2 and 4 years if I remember correctly.

 

Absolutely, if applied correctly it seeps into all the seams and joints to give ultimate underbody protection......a must for any final resto project. It evens stops rust in it's track

And no I don't work for them!!

 

Not sure what we used on my car. Again some years ago now.

Not terribly familiar with either, just remembered waxoil from a couple of LBC's I had in my checkered past.

D

 

Gorgeous work!
When you stripped (or blasted) the bonnet, engine, or trunk lids did you find grease pencil markings of the Scaglietti sequence number?

 

What did you use to treat the rust before you did the patch work?

Steve

 

Even better rust resistance can be had starting with chromated epoxy primer on the bare metal.
If you have aluminum skins on a steel frame as some cars do, then Duralac between the dissimilar metals is important.
Aloha,
Mark

 

I think what he's saying is the area sandwiched between the skin and shell should be cleaned while the skin is off for replacement. Having done door skins on 308's I can say first hand that because the door skin and shell are bare metal when they mate them, they form rust around the perimeter. The dino door looks the same so there is no way it isn't rusty between the rest of the undisturbed skin and shell. I blast and paint the shell before a new skin goes on and the skin gets paint on the inside as well so the mating surfaces are protected before they become one again.

 

Yep, seen this first hand, which is why I think the only way to eliminate the rust entirely is to take the door skin off, treat it and put it back together.

M

 

all the scaglietti cars were poorly built untill 1983, the pinin built cars were much better built and undercoated.

 

I've had my fare share of dealings with rust. As a fellow restorer we fight to eliminate rust and contamination all the time. It doesn't matter where the cars were built or who built them, the cars were built without having rust protection in mind. They just did not think about treating metals before they were put together. All they had was undercoat that was not sprayed on correctly in most cases and it got old, brittle and cracked over time, which would then lead to moisture seeping into areas that were never rust protected or treated.

The door skin is an issue but the bigger issues are the areas where moisture was trapped between two pieces of metal that were sandwiched or lapped together... like the door frames, lower rear quarters, and rockers. Especially in Dinos.

Now a days the technology in materials is so advanced that they have made products specifically designed to retard the rusting process for the automotive restoration industry. Many companies make rust preventative materials that can either be sprayed on or brushed on and should be used to protect the investment.

After reviewing the thread on this project I think Bradan and his team are doing a fantastic job and I'm sure after this car is finished it will a turn a few heads.

Steve
http://stevekouracos.wordpress.com/

 

Pinin's cars were dipped in tanks coating the metal, while the scag cars were painted by hand leaving bare metal in all hidden corners.

have a good look at a 365 gtc4 and they were miles ahead in build quality.

 

That's good to know, but did they really dip the Dino's as well !? If so.. How many Dino's did Pinin's build? Sounds like they would be a better car to seek out for restoration.

steve

 

No Dinos were dipped nor did they receive any meaningful rust protection of any kind. In fact they were made by Scaglietti and left in bare metal outside (often in the rain) before being sent off to paint.

To get every bit of rust off of a Dino the only way is to remove every single body panel off of the car, treat all of the surfaces, and then re-build it from scratch. This includes every rolled edge and every welded panel as we are not talking about a car in which the body bolts on and comes off easily. This is for highly rusted and accident damage cars where you have no choice and even then the work is normally reserved for some panels. The reason for this is balancing cost with your result. I can tell you that to take a fairly solid Dino shell, strip the body clean off of the frame, do the inevitable metal work, rust proof it, re-assemble it, paint it and have the shell polished (before re-assembling the car mind you) can easily top $100K. Yes it is THAT expensive and unless you have people who will work for bananas (Alberto control yourself ) it will cost dear. That said such major re-construction is excessive and un-necessary.

Even the best Pebble Beach Ferrari restoration is not taken off of the frame if when you strip the car because there is nothing to be gained from it. A skilled shop can, evaluate a bare shell and find the places that are of real concern. The fact is that even the most pefect Dino has a little rust hiding somewhere. Some is actually there from when the car was made new! We found a little of this and over 40 years on it was just a light coating that had not turned into anything to worry about. What you have to worry about are areas where water can accumulate and it is necessary to treat these areas well. This includes the rocker panels, front lower cowling, rear metal work behind the wheels, the area around the rear windshield, and many of the supplemental panels including the engine/trunk lid and doors.

Especially considering that these cars are now treated with more care than ever, a car that is properly evaluated in bare metal and repaired should outlast the owner before any concerns of rust were to rear their ugly head.

Now back to your regularily scheduled restoration.

 

The photos of bare, new Dino bodies stacked in the yard at Ferrari waiting to be assembled and exposed to the elements has been seen and is frightening.

Are both the front and rear wheel arches rolled over wire?
From Steve's brain teaser in the Nicciola thread we see the front arch in the wheel well was rolled over wire, but I believe the rears were not.