Dino Restoration

I am OMGJON's oldest son. While listening to my dad's daily reports about the progress, visiting him in his shop (and doing some work), and following the thread I am always a little impressed in some way but never surprised. I have known him for 20 something years and this is just the status quo. Let me list a few things that we did around the house while growing up which foreshadowed how he would perform a Ferrari restoration.

1. My dad and I would mop the garage floor with soap and then squeegee it dry, weekly. This would give the floor the required shine he was looking for. In fact, when it rained my mom's car was not allowed to park in the garage because that would dirty the floor. I was more than happy with that arrangement so as to not mop and squeegee the floor twice in one week.

2. When mowing the lawn I had to follow a particular pattern and not deviate from the pattern. The pattern maximized efficiency and the look. Once I deviated from the pattern slightly and somehow he could tell so I had to do it over. I honestly believe our lawn looked better than the lawn at Petco Park.

3. We had a horse arena and when we plowed the arena we had to follow a particular pattern, which maximized look and efficiency.

4. The tractor with which we plowed the horse arena was cleaner than most cars; cleaned after each use. The tires were Armor Alled, tractor polished etc.

He always required perfect work which served him well in business and has served me well too; my wife can only roll her eyes about some of my obsessions. So while everyone is impressed with my dad's work, to me I wouldn't expect anything less.

 

Hey Ryan..... That's priceless!

 

Fantastic restoration job jon! I have been watching this thread for what seems like ages now, checking in almost daily. Just love your work.

One question though, how come you put the engine in from the top? Cant the engine be mounted from the underneath? You have the lift and all. Glad to hear it all went well.

 

Chatmaster - unfortunately, the engine must be lowered into the engine bay from above. It is not possible to insert from the bottom.

Jim S.

 

Jon,love the car, your doing a great job and great color,it sounds like your going to keep the car,after all the work how could you depart with it?If you do take the car to a show post that info so I can make it,I wouldn't want to miss it, when I was 17 I lived in Madrid (1970-1973) going to school on base but we lived in town,and every day getting off the bus I had to go by this ferrari dealer and he had a 72 dino blue 246,your car reminds of that car and why for 35 years I wanted a ferrari,four months ago I made that happen,thats for the motivation and reason to own one,mike

 

What did you get. Maybe you could post some pictures. We would all be interested.

 

it's not the 246 dino that I fell in love with but its a ferrari,so that dream of owning a ferrari came true,thanks for your interest,love your car and keep us posted,I bought a 85 308qv red/tan with newer paint,all new interior,leather,carpet,and head liner last maj. done in 2004,and Jon I picked it up for 36k,its a stepping stone towards the Dino
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Lovely car that you "stole" for $36K. Congratulations!

 

Great looking car. It looks right at home in your garage. Happy driving!

 

Ryan,

The respect, admiration and love within your family - in all directions, is very evident. The family work ethic is obviously solid. You folks are tops, I'm sure.

Cheers, Hank

 

Hi Ryan,

You can be proud of your father, and the way he works and the way he raised you for sure! A good solid effort, and always doing your best is not at all a bad thing!

Pefectionism, patience and good craftmanship is the key to success and to respect!

Having said that, I sure hope that your father is satisfied with the quality of my work in the drawing of the black Dino GTS I did for him last year!

Best regards and much respect


Carsten

 

Jon,

All that I can say about your work is AMAZING!!! You took a classic which looked good for it's age and transformed it into a piece of art that can/will be driven. Somewhere Enzo is smiling. All time best thread from any forum board.

Steve

 

Oh my Ryan.
Dare to say I laughed HARD at this because we all see ourselves same some percentage!

Papa must be saving the garage floor under the Dino restoration for you to wash. HEHEHE

 

FANTASTIC!!!!! You can be so proud and your sons can be blessed to have a dad like you.

I just hope that when your masterpiece is finished you will drive it and not put it in a show case?

Thanks for giving me a lot of interesting reading over the last few months.

Maybe I'm going to be mad enough to do the same to mine.
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Sweet! Is that Rosso Dino?

 

yes it is

 

Yes he was, we enjoyed it very much.

 

Jeff and I got a lot done today even with the mistakes. We buttoned up the dash and instruments now that everything seems to work. We then did the steering hub, or tried to do it. We found a mistake. The steering shaft was off by about 1/4" and so didn't extend out far enough. That caused the hub to press down too far which then rubbed when you turned the wheel. Luckily it wasn't a big job. We removed the column and put it in the press and set it to the right position this time. It all went back together and worked fine. Next time I'll do it right the first time. We installed the heat exchanger with the new bracket we made. It cleared the gas tank which for a minute I was worried I made it too long. Perfect fit in it's new Euro position. We put the rear headers back on with the new heat shield we had to make as the original would not fit between the headers and new starter. Also put the heat shield on the front headers which protects the fan belt. We installed the new Tubi which only required a very slight modification to the mounting holes for the exhaust bracket. Tomorrow we're going to finish hooking everything up to the engine, we have done most but not the cooling pipes yet.

P.S. I put the original steering wheel on and it looks a little shabby so i think i'll have to get a new one.
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Beautiful!

 

It's getting finished so fast now.... can't wait to see the "first drive video" when it gets rolling... Great to see it all comming together...

 

I am just more and more breathless every time I see this car! Nice work Jon. You should be proud of this project.

JIM

 

Splendid Jon!!

Thank you for the detail on the new heat shield for the starter. I think I will not have the same problem since the Euro cars do not have the "air injector" spacers. The exhaust manifold flanges bolt direclty into the head.

Keep going (like you need me to tell you that!!!)


Cheers

Pietro

 

Thanks for all the support. It's all your comments that have made this project so much fun. Even with ALL my mistakes you guys still think I'm doing a good job.

 

Jon - the turn signal return mechanism has two small plastic tabs that fit in recesses in the steering hub. I assume that you have these lined up correctly. If not properly aligned, the turn signal will not turn off after straightening the wheel, and it will create a rubbing sound, as you describe.

Jim S.

 

All is working. The rubbing was from the steering column being too low which allowed the steering hub to go down to far and hit the metal piece with the chassis number on it. We had to press it out a quarter inch. We were pretty stumped for a while to say the least. We have become experts on the steering components!