Interior work looks great. Car is really evolving… nice job!
Door panels finished. New chrome accents on the lower part and new black leather inserts. I think the interior and top will be completely finished on Monday, maybe Tuesday! Image Unavailable, Please Login
No its impossible. The carbs and the distributor are several weeks out from being back in the USA. Depending on customs, could be longer. And we still have a lot to do. Three things screwed me up. 1) the body shop was over 2 months late finishing. We couldn't send the parts to Italy while it was there. It was "next week, next week, next week..." So frustrationg 2) my box got hung up in Italian customs for a month. 3) DinoPoint gave me a 30 day turn around at first, then the distributor became another month. The interior and top have taken twice as long but it didn't matter as the parts weren't delivered. But it could have been another 2 weeks of working on other things like electrical issues. So I lost 4 months since the beginning of the year on the schedule. It can't be done in time.
Very very nice. These cars are soo satisfying to see them come together. Like a sweet little 330GTS. Just beautiful !! Que bella machina!!
I'm working very hard to complete the resto on another one of these beauties. I look for silver linings and appreciate the carful engineering and manufacturing on the parts which do work! Whenever I get frustrated, I step back and admire. The car's charm is built in motivation. Also, when they're sorted, they really do drive really sweet. I think I mentioned this on another thread on the Dino, but fresh tires transform the car. I had some old tires with full tread depth that I used only for concours events. For a show they were fine - they looked brand new. I started to foolishly accept the goofy handling as just older car - what to expect? Anyway, a new set of tires later, and I realize the suspension, chassis and engine is really quite refined for and older car. The ride down the freeway at speed is also respectable. Bravo little Dino!
DinoPoint told me the same thing about "the right tires" making a big difference. This car has new tires but not OEM. I wanted to sort out the rest first and then do a little research but my thinking was upgrade them at the end.
I had some brand-new Pirelli P-4000's on there, but over the many-many years of ownership and meticulous restoration (gotta find every button for that suit), the tires became old. After the paint & bodywork and major mechanical work, I needed tires. I'm a big Pirelli fan, but the car was still undergoing lots of sorting out. Now the car is asymptotic with perfection and I'm chasing some other items which are now aging out. She runs amazing and I put a set of fresh Michelin XWX's I got from Longstone. Their customer service, and speed of shipping were fantastic. This is not a paid advertisement, but I was surprised and elated at the dramatic improvement from fresh rubber! I selected these from a few other brands primarily based on period technology and look. One idea I'm toying with is Borrani wire wheels to go with the original Spyder 2000 Borrani knock-off hubs. I think this sounds like a cool package. I love the classic car lines blending with beautiful wire wheels.
Curious about the rivnuts you used for the 3-screw floor trim parts. Are those for 5 or 6mm screws? If they're 6, may I ask who makes them? I just put in some 6mm rivnuts, and they didn't like the floor sheet metal thickness. The rivnuts wanted thicker. Thanks.
I went to visit the car yesterday at the interior shot. Send me a PM of the photo you're referencing and I'll see if I can ask him. I just want to be sure I'm asking the right question. I think the interior will be done early next week. Just a few minor things left we discussed yesterday. The top is on the car after some adjustments. They were working on the trunk details yesterday.
Mostly good news with some bad news today. The good news. The car was delivered to O'gara after finishing the interior and the top! A month of work even with the skins and carpets from DinoPoint and the top from Re-originals. The bad news. The Interior shop told me the inner door handle has stripped. Luckily it seems available. The other bad news is the Distributor and MSD box are delayed until September. But I don't think its an issue as we have a long list of things to do before we try to start the car up. I don't think it will impact the overall schedule unless there is another delay. O'Gara sent me some photos of the delivery for documentation. I'll try to get over there tomorrow and take some better ones. But you can start to see the color combo and the metallic red paint indoor and outdoors. Still so much to do!!! Not even close to finishing. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Please don't take this wrong, but I'm just curious with the year & a half into this now, what were or might've been your original expectations or hopes(?) for both money & time wise ? No need to disclose $$ amounts, but just a rough idea whether the original cost expectations have double, tripled or ... ? Same with time ? If you prefer not to comment, I'll understand.
Funny I was thinking about this just this morning as I knew the car was leaving the interior shop and paid their last bill. So the short answer is no, with the long answer being hell no. But it has been more fun than I thought. When I first got it and put it up on a lift, I thought... hmmm, 4 or 5 months. I missed that one pretty badly. And I really, really appreciate anyone trying to do a restoration. Its endless. As to the car, there were some things a little worse than I expected (like the body and the electrical issues). On the positive side I expected more rust and we got almost zero, which is pretty shocking. And it was pretty complete. Part of the cost overruns was my decision making. I didn't plan on a leather interior as the original was vinyl. But I couldn't find a good vinyl replacement that wasn't black and I don't like vinyl cars in Vegas. So thanks to DinoPoint I learned they could make a new interior so that probably tripled the time, complexity, and cost. I didn't figure on replacing the windshield (it was badly scratched and I figured originally to buff it out but it was too deep) or the entire windshield wiper mechanism which for some reason wasn't there. Luckily Superperformance UK had one but I had a DEVIL of a time getting someone to install this "old school" method. And the rubber gasket costed almost as much as the windshield itself. The body shop said it would take 3 months. It took 7 and 1/3rd higher than the estimate. I probably could have pushed them more but I felt they would do the best job without me bugging them. I had customs import delays that were far worse than I expected. But they didn't affect the overall schedule as I ordered them well in advance. I took a trip to DinoPoint in Italy and spent several hours with them showing what I was doing and listening to their suggestions. For example, they had reproduction armrests while I had already bought a Fiat 124 replacement set. Clearly theirs was better so I bought a pair. Then I decided to send the Carbs and Air cleaner, to them for restoration. I wanted electronic ignition so I sent them the Distributor and tach. I mailed everything in one big box via USPS and it got hung up in Italian customs for a month. I sweated every day looking for the email it had been released. Finally, it was but for a while I was trying to figure out what I might do if it never got out! I don't want to think what the cost of 3 carbs and a distributor might be. I knew a replacement crappy air cleaner was about 2 grand. I made some mistakes that costed me a few grand here and there. I bought a few parts that I probably didn't need to buy just because it made it better. Some parts shocked me in price. I needed these two breather hoses. There is a left and a right version about a foot long. The cost? $190 + shipping from Europe. If there were for an America car it might be $15. Superperformance UK surprised me in a good way. Prices of what they had were cheaper than anyone else and customer service excellent. They don't have everything but what they had did help with the budget. I'm upset I missed the deadline to drive it to Monterey but I'm over it. I knew 3 months ago it was "iffy" at best. Probably missed by about 3 months. So the biggest cost overruns were the interior (probably 3 times what I first figured), double my original mechanical/ electrical estimate, 1/3rd higher in my body and paint, and a good 9 months more on the schedule. If I sold it now I would lose some money, but probably not much. So it was worth it for the entertainment value alone. In the end I'm just happy to take a survivor car and save it from someone who might take the cheap route and butcher it. Or have it go back to Europe. So, I'm happy. And it keeps me going. Someday I may actually get to drive it....
Thank for sharing all this ^, but I'm sure you know it's quite common with majority of restorations, regardless of year, make or model. The main thing is that YOU are happy/pleased with the outcome, have (mostly) enjoyed the process and I'm sure you'll get to drive it soon enough.
When I'm done I and get a chance to drive it a bit, I planned on writing a summation and a review comparing it to what I remember of my 246 Dino Gt. One thing is for sure -- the motors sound and act exactly the same, which is a good thing.
Maybe drive a thousand or more miles before writing so you can include how everything’s holding up in real use ?
