Dino Restoration

Jon,

Love the way you buy and learn to use the critical forming and finishing tools. Your sheet metal brake, etc is a good one and the parts show you have practiced. Press brake and shear can do great things. Some day you will need to weld with precision. A TIG torch with a good supply, ignitor and foot pedal is more fun than most anything. Any size welding of precision parts is a piece of cake. With practice. If the need arises, take the plunge.

Engine looks like it is coming along fine. Keep it up.

John

 

Thanks for this thread.

Your Dino will be better than new.

 

I tried to get one of those euro alternator brackets and was told that you couldn't get em anymore. You can now have additionalroom to work & can avoid the spacers on the headers and fit the euro manifolds which will give you much more room. Where did you get it? That is a big upgrade in my opinion!

 

Jon - Dynamat looks great - you installed it exactly as I did. Makes a big difference. Consider the inside of the door skins and trunk floor as well. On the coupe I installed it on the inside of the roof panel. Any large surface that can act as a drum.

Don't forget the toggle switch for the starter solenoid. I will come down and install it.

Jim S.

 

Is this intended as a theft deterrent? I'm just curious, because I can't think of any other reason to do this, and don't even think it would be very effective.

The car looks beautiful though! That chrome is going to blind oncoming traffic. I know you're enjoying the process, but do you hope to get the car back on the road before winter? Thanks for sharing this all with us.

Peter

 

1) You might want to try to heat the bumper rubber before fitting it by first soaking it in a bucket of hot water to make it more pliable.

2) The parts you seek for the bumper mounting post trim were called "bumper grommets" by Lee at T Rutlands when I bought 8 last year.
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Hope this helps.

 

Jon,
As long as you have the distributor apart, finish the job and take a look at the advance mechanism. Should also get some oil on the oilite bearings on the inside of the distributor cam. The weights should move easily and evenly. There should be no significant wear on the inside of the cup. There should be grease on the springs, cups and pins. This is where the driveability of the Dino lives. If it is not exactly right, there is nothing you can do. Beautiful workmanship. Keep it up.
John

 

While I do not want to discourage anyone who is currently using the dual point distributor, I was toying with the idea of a reluctor based ignition set-up. I did want to preserve the original parts so that it could be converted directly back to the stock system. I will attach some pictures of the revised parts. It makes a nice machine shop project and will be more compatible with the array of modern ignition systems. I have enjoyed the rebuild immensely; keep up the great work.

I also concur on the need for absolute cleanliness of the distributor advance mechanism. The small amount of grit accumulated in my advance mechanism was enough to make it move roughly.
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I Vote for the grained vynle, I think you will have less "issues" in the future and it will last much longer

 

omgjon,

Your instruments look beautiful.

I'm getting ready to send my units out somewhere for repair. What is the actual name of the company who did your work? Is there a contact person and might I ask what was the cost?

Thanks,

Steve

 

If you use Vinyl, use "ultra leather" it is more costly than leather, but will not shrink. It is "ultra" soft and looks fantastic. I used it in my Hatteras and motorcoach with excellent results.

 

FYI, I have had good luck w/ Palo Alto Speedometer (www.paspeedo.com) who redid my Dino clock and multiple gauges on my 71 280SL. Expensive, but excellent results.

 

|John is it just me or does the snap ring on the right small gear appear to be not fully seated in its groove. Picture #8 post 1469 . Mike

 

Jon:

When you install the center console, are you going to opt for the "authentic" (and decidedly odd) Dino cigarette lighter, or a conventional one that you can plug a radar detector into?