67 Fiat Dino Spider restoration

Plastic interior panels being recovered in leather. New screws will replace the old rusty ones. The interior plastic air vents survived all these years by some miracle. Piece by piece coming back to life. All these leather pieces came pre-cut from Dino Point in the original kit.
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Went over to the interior installer today. We are getting pretty close to installing all the leather and the carpet. One of the door panels is finished but the lower chrome trim is out for refurbishing.

New armrests are on.

The colors look amazing. Indoors the red doesn’t look metallic. You might say old school darker Ferrari red. Outdoors the metallic really shows the curves and highlights.

We are going to wrap the center console in black to bring it like new. It’s not cracked but rather beat up / faded. Needs TLC, like most of this car.

Convertible top will be next.
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Old school! This is the wiring behind the center console. Lots of work to do here.

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My box of parts arrived at DinoPoint today! A month delay in Italian customs. I sweated every day waiting.

 

I think still 2-3 months away from being "finished" (whatever that means!)

The hope is the end of the summer. Its been a much bigger adventure than I first imagined. But when you open a can of worms, it shouldn't surprise you there are worms inside.

To some degree, its my own fault. I didn't plan on some upgrades like the interior in leather. I didn't think I needed to replace the windscreen. I didn't plan to have the carbs completely overhauled and set up in Italy. All these are things I decided after starting as I felt we should try to do more than just the minimum.

 

It won't be running for at least another 2 months. The carbs and ignition system are being worked on in Italy. When Italian customs delayed my shipment, that made it impossible. And we still have electrical problems we have to sort out. Not sure how long that will take.

 

Dinopoint is going to build a new bracket and frame for the front plate to the Italian plate size to mount to the bumper correctly. These are some reference photos they sent to me. Impossible to find the correct bracket and I didn't want to do something "Mickey mouse".

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Finished both doors and the back seat. The upper trim in the back seat is waiting for the top to be installed. Today they will start the new wrap of the center console. General cleaning of the console levers to freshen it up and get the cables to move.

The old fabric of the top has been cleaned off and now restoration of the frame spars begin. You can see from the current condition of the spars what the general overall condition was like. 30+ years of sitting around. The top might have been original. It actually didn't look that bad but it was ripped and faded.

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The Center console has been completely refreshed. It was really bad. 50 year old oxidized, scratched and faded plastic. Luckily, it wasn't cracked.

Looks brand new again!


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This is just amazing. The finished console. If you saw what it looked like originally you wouldn't believe it.

I have replacement plastic knobs for the levers. I'll put them on last.

They finished the painting of the convertible top struts. The top might go on the car tomorrow. That might be the end of it for now. Then its back to O'gara for the electrical work and a lot of unfinished business.

If we get all the misc stuff done, then when we get back the ignition system and carbs from Dinopoint it should be pretty much plug and play to the finish line.

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This is what it originally looked like AFTER it was expertly detailed before refinishing. All sorts of old glue stains and scratches in it embedded in the plastic. Parts didn't fit correctly or were warped from heat. Miss matched screws.

I have 2 brand new VDO classic style gauges to replace the 2 ugly black ones. Its on the list of things to do to get the center console working again.

The radio is going to be replaced with a modern vintage style one that looks almost exactly like this original Becker Europa. Probably the last thing I do on the car.

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Yes the construction materials of the Fiat 124 spider and Fiat Dino spider of the time are very similar. And they share some interior parts like the seat frames and rails. The convertible tops are different but the construction is basically the same. Both the Fiat spider and the Fiat Dino spider had vinyl material for the seats and door panels, which was very common and used in Alfa's as well.

Its wrapped in a new plastic material that comes in a textured finish. There was some prep work to get rid of surface defects first. So it looks very much like the original plastic. And, if it was needed, could be recovered again in the future. But like clear PPF, it doesn't shrink or fade

I asked my installer which was the best way and he suggested this. I thought it would be repainted but this I believe is better as the surface finish is more consistent and paint may not stick well to something so old.

I didn't want to cover it in leather because of some of the details but that was also an option in my mind.

 

Top going on today. I have to thank Matteo at Re-originals. Great pricing and he was super patient. The top was made in Italy. Took about 6 weeks to arrive but I picked out the color and material so it was custom made — even if it’s still black!

I think we are headed back to O’Gara next week if they have room. Business there is bustling.

 

Today’s game: What’s in the box from Dinopoint?
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Inside the box #1. The front license plate frame.
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Inside the box #2. These were on backorder but now available. These stainless steel parts are sewn into the tonneau cover edge. I received the tonneau cover while back. They clip on to the metal clips near the top on the truck area.

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These are reproduction chrome lower door inner panels. We tried to restore the old ones but the results were poor. Luckily they were in stock so I just bought the left and right side.

going up to the interior install shop tomorrow to go over the last bits.
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Interesting. I had that brown also. It’s supposed to be very rare. My interior was worse than this one.

 

Dropped by the interior shop today to deliver the missing parts. I discussed how they did the center console. It’s a wrap that is sticky on the inside and has the texture on the outside. It looks brand new.

They reinforced the inside a bit to make it stronger and stiffer. But this should last forever.

Also took a look at the top material. It’s really good quality. Thanks to Re-originals for directing me this way. Took a little longer but the results are awesom.

I’m really pleased at how it came out so far. Here’s a detail shot I took today. Overall should be finished Friday or early next week.

I heard today from Dino Point that the Carbs and air cleaner are done but the distributor and electronic box are delayed another 3 weeks. We have plenty to do so it doesn’t matter to the schedule.
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I made some stuff for the Monterey trip. Unfortunately not going now that its confirmed we can't finish in time. But it’s pretty cool and I needed a hat and a mug anyway.
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