Cicognani Factory tour - Dino reproduction Pouch and Manuals 700 EU

After the 50th Dino celebration in Maranello /Reggia Emilia I took some time to visit Cicognani to buy some parts. They are the manufacturer of most all rubber products in our Dino and if you buy from one of the large parts suppliers from the USA (Mr. Fiat/Rutlands), German or UK (Superformance) then you are probably buying Cicognani parts through a middle man.
http://www.cicognaniguarnizioni.it/index.php?route=product/pdf_catalog&category_id=227


So I was wearing my OMGjon Dino shirt and stopped in to buy a bunch of rubber trim, door and lighting surround materials actually finding exactly what I need, Thank you sales person Alessandro! As I am finding more to buy, the owner hears 'Sandro and I joking about cars, chatting and generally having a good time. He softly talks to 'Sandro who then turns to me and says "The owner would like to take you on a tour but his English is not good"

Wow, you don't have to ask me twice, Si, si, YES!

Cicognani is a very large facility and we get along great as I only have basic Italian language skills. He directs me through the materials dept, receiving, extrusion prep, Extruder (and a GAZILLION extruding dies! WOW), curing kiln and finaling. No photos permitted. I had a great tour and even showed me several Pagani prototyping rubber trims on their carbon fibre parts. POINT MADE: The local supercar manufacturers bring their parts to Cicogani for final trim and sealing rubber BEFORE they finalize their Carbon Fibre molds. WOW

As we walk back, he deviates from return and shows me his tool and document reproduction department - WOW! He even uses the autoclave to age the repro owners manuals AND they look OEM perfect.

So I wanted to show folks here about their line of repro Dino pouches and books, they are fantastic and concours correct. There are two types of pouches, tan and brown moire interiors

Either leather pouch is 350 Euro
Owners manual 160 Euro
Warranty Book 160 Euro
Use and Maintenance book + Service and Sales assitance book = 30 Euro

You can buy them all, they sum to 700 Euro or purchase them individually as you like. I have been buying this stuff for years from numerous suppliers and just realized that I may have stumbled on the source of them all.
They also have a full compliment of Ferrari 250, 275, and 330 manuals but I apologize for few details as I passed them over and didn't take photos.



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Fantástico

 

Scott, great write up! Where can one find the catalog of the manuals offered for sale? Great

 

Dear Synchro,

we thank you for your visit and appreciations, but there has been a misunderstanding regarding the documents. We would like to clarify that we are producers of rubber seals and mats for vintage cars.We do not have a document reproduction dept., we are not interested in reproducing documents and other parts not rubber made.The one we showed you was a sort of test,not printed by us, for our internal use only. We do not sell document reproductions. All our products are visible on the website. No other products are available.Thanks and hope to see you again in Italy.

the Cicognani staff

 

I dropped Cicognani an email about the pouches following Scott's post and have just received this response back -

"Dear ..................,

regarding your request, I regret to inform you that there has probably been a misunderstanding, we do not produce and sell Ferrari pouch and manuals.

You can see all our products on the website www.cicognaniguarnizioni.it.

Kind regards
Michela"

 

I got the same response. What's up with this? Scott?

 

Got some clarification:
Michela, says the pouches and manuals etc.are strictly for display. They make them but not for resale? End of story for now!

 

Can you ask them if they would make more if there was sufficient interest?

 

Dear Sirs,
as explained yesterday, we neither produce nor sell Ferrari manuals and pouches and do not plan to do it in the future.Our area of expertise is the production of rubber gaskets and mats for vintage cars.

The Cicognani Management

 

My sense is that they’ve been doing this “under the radar” and the exposure this forum has given them hasn’t helped them.

 

Massive apologies, this is obviously a communication error on my part and I appreciate the clarification. The gentleman spoke no English and I speak just a little bit of poor Spanish so it was actually quite difficult to communicate. Enough to be dangerous I guess. He was so polite and kind I now believe he was answering "Si" to my questions as I rattled on, and perhaps he was not fully realizing what I might be asking.

In addition, I never saw any evidence of printing, assembly, or binding of any papers and the only set I saw was that shown and a second pouch. I asked permission before photographing and posting on forums.

7 years ago, there were a trickling of Repro sets from Argentina/Chile sold through most USA Dino retailers in one grouping form or another. The weight and texture of the leather in what I saw here and the snap tab remind me of those South American products.
If so, then the gentleman was just showing me how to age my repro documents.

Again, sorry for the miscommunication, I take full responsibilty.

 

Big apologies, thank you for the special time you took out of your day to show me the facility.
Your rubber products are fantastic!
- the Type 2 bumper trim is so easy to install ... and the fuel tank gauge seal makes everything safe .... and the clutch cable rubber bellows keeps dirt out of that expensive part. Forza!
.
See you in September at the swap meet

 

Uhh, cover-up, all the way around. The truth comes out, and then the backpedalling begins, from EVERYONE.

From the original post:

"As we walk back, he deviates from return and shows me his tool and document reproduction department - WOW! He even uses the autoclave to age the repro owners manuals AND they look OEM perfect."

His TOOL AND DOCUMENT REPRODUCTION DEPARTMENT?

I especially like the passage "WOW! HE EVEN USES THE AUTOCLAVE TO AGE THE REPRO OWNERS MANUALS AND THEY LOOK PERFECT."

Maybe a few of you who deal in old documents and currency, and especially Confederate currency, can start shipping your "new discoveries" over to Italy and have them all autoclaved to make them look perfectly aged and properly patinated (yes, that is properly spelled, although the spell check system on FCHAT doesn't recognize it).

And then there are the disclaimers from Cicognani, which the original poster dutifully adopts:

"Dear Synchro,

we thank you for your visit and appreciations, but there has been a misunderstanding regarding the documents. We would like to clarify that we are producers of rubber seals and mats for vintage cars.We do not have a document reproduction dept., we are not interested in reproducing documents and other parts not rubber made.The one we showed you was a sort of test,not printed by us, for our internal use only. We do not sell document reproductions. All our products are visible on the website. No other products are available.Thanks and hope to see you again in Italy.

the Cicognani staff"

So, to what purpose would anyone write: "The one we showed you WAS A SORT OF TEST, not printed by us, FOR OUR INTERNAL USE ONLY."

What "SORT OF TEST?" Just to make sure that the NON-REPRODUCTION BUT STILL REPRODUCED pouches (that of course you don't have and don't make) are big enough to hold the manuals and documents that you would never have made or ever have anyone ELSE make for you, except of COURSE as a test, so you could sling them into your autoclave and test how well the aging process works on documents and manuals.

There clearly is NO POINT IN DOING THAT UNLESS YOU ARE ENGAGED IN FRAUD AS A PRODUCER, OR AS A KNOWING RESELLER, OR ARE AFRAID THAT A COPYRIGHT HOLDER WILL SUE, OR THREATEN TO SUE, YOU. I wonder if Ferrari knows about this. Methinks a bunch of people may have a lot of "splainin'" to do to, and maybe have to pay a few wheelbarrows of money to certain companies who have "F" in their names.

More fakey-doo reproduction manuals and pouches (like tools), all just waiting to be passed off as original to unsuspecting buyers. Of course, the initial defense will always be - "We told the first purchaser that they were reproductions, but we aren't responsible for what they tell someone else who buys it from them." Hey, those unsuspecting subsequent buyers may all have causes of action against whoever they unknowingly purchased the items from.

Without at least a notation mark on the product indicating that it is a reproduced item, the producer is running a risk.

 

Interest from whom? Deceivers, liars, and, well, lawyers?

 

I have been informed (by someone who knows much more about Ferrari's enforcement of such issues) that Ferrari has punished, or completely cut off, suppliers that have done similar things in the past, such as reproducing a part without official recognition from FIAT or FERRARI but the reproducer kept the Ferrari part # on the part. Ferrari is probably not interested in doing that for things like rubber seals, but they apparently have cut off suppliers for oil filters (another company with a name that starts with an F) for precisely that reason.

 

And another thing -

Are we really supposed to believe that SYNCHRO pulled the following out of thin air?????

"Either leather pouch is 350 Euro
Owners manual 160 Euro
Warranty Book 160 Euro
Use and Maintenance book + Service and Sales assitance book = 30 Euro"

Either Synchro's also got the land title to the Brooklyn Bridge (properly autoclaved) and ready to sell it to you fee-simple-absolute, or he had just ingested a bunch of 'shrooms when those very specific Euro figures came dancing into his head.

No?

Well, there is something very fish here that can't easily washed away with all of the denials and the Synchro's abrupt statement that

"Massive apologies, this is obviously a communication error on my part and I appreciate the clarification."

Well, now we've got the photos for all to see!

 

Corrected my mistake:

Well, there is something very FISHY here that can't easily BE washed away with all of the denials and Synchro's abrupt statement that . . . .

 

If anyone in the USA needs any of the above at those prices + s&h , pls contact offline or the other forum

 

Let me get this straight. Cicognani says "We do not have a document reproduction dept., we are not interested in reproducing documents and other parts not rubber made.The one we showed you was a sort of test,not printed by us, for our internal use only. We do not sell document reproductions. All our products are visible on the website. No other products are available." So, they really only make for sale rubber parts, and nothing else, and they don't sell reproductions.

They say everything Synchro wrote was simply the result of a "misunderstanding."

Synchro agrees and writes in reply "Massive apologies, this is obviously a communication error on my part and I appreciate the clarification."

And then Synchro later writes "If anyone in the USA needs any of the above at those prices + s&h , pls contact offline or the other forum" - WHAT?????

So now, the storyline between Synchro and Cicognani is that NOTHING EXISTS, IT WAS ALL THE RESULT OF A MISUNDERSTANDING, BUT HEY, IF YOU WANT THE THINGS THAT CICOGNANI DOESN'T MAKE FOR SALE, SYNCHRO (presumably) WILL TELL YOU HOW TO GET THOSE SAME THINGS THAT DON'T EXIST AND NEVER HAVE EXISTED AT THE PRICES ORIGINALLY QUOTED + S&H.

WOW, and WOW, and WOW again.

 

Synchro (Scott) This original posting and what has followed makes no sense! You originally stated "As we walk back, he deviates from return and shows me his tool and document reproduction department - WOW! He even uses the autoclave to age the repro owners manuals AND they look OEM perfect. This statement is very specific and cannot be misundertood! Is this a "Peter Strozk" moment? Maybe we need a congressional investigation to get to the bottom of this? What is totally baffling is Cicognani is in business to make money, why would they not want to sell the items? Will follow!!

 

Scott (synchro) 3 month ban for selling outside the classified section.

D

 

I'm going to leave this thread open for a couple days, then I'm going to close it. Any final comments should not include any personal attacks.

D

 

You can’t sell what doesn’t exist!

 

Wow, this is amazing. I think Dinoland is over the top!

What started as an innocent 'factory tour', ended up in dubious offerings, with potential of millions of profits on the line ,
selling in the wrong section (red card), accusations, innuendos, retractions, apologies, bans, etc.

Could be the next soap

Regards, Alberto

 

We aim to please!!

D