Restoration

If you decide to spent money on a restoration of your car then count on having to do a full break down and rebuild of the complete car possibly also including the engine and drive train. My experience says that older "restorations" often are of questionable quality, so what you think is ok might not be so ok when checked thoroughly by a professional. Restoring half the car is a "waste" of money if you ask me. Then rather wait until you are ready for the big investment. Find a trustworthy and well known company that can deliver a first quality job within agreed time and budget and don't feel tempted by a "cheap" offer. Good luck with your considerations! Thankfully these cars now have a value that in most cases can justify restorations, but it is still very difficult to say if it good economy to go through a restoration. Anyhow the smile on your face afterwards when you drive a "new" Dino is worth every penny. There are no need for any upgrades on a Dino. Keep it as original as practical possible and the car will maintain it's maximum value.

Best regards

Peter

 

I agree with Peter, you may not be happy with what's there once you start stripping it and it will be a slippery slope!

Look at these areas:
Mechanical: You said it was in good shape, do things just need a tidy up and some refinishing/painting? What's the cooling system like? Do the radiator hoses under the floor in the frame need replacing? Do you need new brakes, tires etc.?
Electrical: This is a problem area and can lead to all sorts of issues due to 50 years of corrosion, what condition is the wiring loom in? Is the fuse box in good shape? Alternator? Starter? Are all the instruments and stalks working? Are the headlights bright?
Interior: Are the seat foam sagging and you can feel the frame underneath? Does it need a retrim and carpet due to wear? Has the dash faded? Have the original foam in the roof and sunvisors turned to dust and raining down?
Body: Are the window seals leaking? Is the door rubber supple and sealing? Cracks in paint? Rust on the frame or body? Poorly repaired damage? Rust in the sill panels?

If there is significant work in several of these areas you might want to strip major portions of the car. For example if several issues exist in the interior that bother you but the paint/body is in great shape then strip/renew the entire interior. I would be careful not to create a mismatch in quality (i.e. old cracked paint with a brand new interior) else it will look odd...
Get it thoroughly inspected and a written list of issues that need to be addressed and go from there. The good news is that this is a running car so no parts are missing and it should be a straight forward job and everything is available these days.
good luck, Andrew

 

Has anyone had any experience with Brandoli? Any other places in Italy? Is it more cost effective there?

 

This is a difficult question and no defintive answer as we all judge our cars based on our own values. Personally i think most cars are over restored nowadays and intended for a glass cabinet rather than the road.

Its much better today as more accurate materials are available for the restoration of these cars, but i learnt over 20 years of owning my car, you cannot do it piecemeal. Eg I had to replace the dash material and whilst it looked great, it showed up the rest of the 40 year old interior, eventually i had to redo the whole interior as i wasnt happy looking at brand new and 40 year old material together.

My car has never been nut and bolt restored, i dont see the point as i use her as much as i can, seems like you are the same.

My advice would be to make a list of all the things you are happy with and all the things that bug you, then decide. Sometimes its not as bad as you think, the biggest thing i learnt and would have saved lots of hours and cash - do your research first.

I have never used a professional restorer in the UK having done all the work on my car myself (except change of colour back to original) I have heard of some really nasty horrors stories and one recent dino being exhibited by a well known restorer was atrocious and poorly finished in terms of accuracy. Good workmanship but badly executed.

I doubt many restoration companies would want to do a cosmetic touch up so you have little choice

Tony

 

I very much doubt it.

 

Great, it’s a complete straight car and you wish to keep for 20 more years.
I think this puts you in the position of paying to have the car refinished properly first time as this will be most cost effective over the long run.
Honestly, if you were planning to sell it then you wouldn’t be asking us on a forum!

You’re concerned about the bodywork and it comes down to budget and expectations.
A good body shop should go over it checking for irregularities and issues.
I have a Dino just out of the stripping shop, it’s on a rotisserie and the frame/body was stripped of paint and rust blasted out. Once this is done, all secrets and past injustices are revealed! 50 year old cars have some damage or rust and I’m in the camp of complete nut and bolt resto but the cars I’ve bought need it, they wouldn’t survive 20 more years with a respray and some mechanical cleanup.

Condition of the centre chassis tube, either side of the rear 1/4 panels and under/inside the rocker/sill panels plus bottom of the doors are important areas to look if you want to avoid rust bubbling through later.
Other problematic areas are around the bottom of front and rear glass where water may have got past the seal, it’s very visible.
They should put the car on a lift and remove the front and rear inner wing panels which just unscrew to inspect the frame and rockers.
Ask several reputable shops to look at it, if they can’t be bothered inspecting it properly then don’t use them.

Surface rust can be dealt with but heavy rust can compromise panels and frame integrity.
Unfortunately, the paint applied under the frame and body was a lick of black paint at the factory which provides no long term metal protection.

 

Carrs Ferrari in Exeter did the mechanical restorations on my four cars and have worked on countless others as well. I posted a lot of photo's on the various resto threads I ran at the time so you should be able to look back through those. Their head tech literally knows the 246 inside out now and they have a great list of contacts they have built up covering things from plating to rebuilding corroded cylinder heads. Their pricing is refreshingly sensible. Sadly the guy I used for my body and paint restorations has retired and closed his business down, ditto the excellent trimmer who had worked on countless 246's over the years and also knew the correct details intimately. Carrs are in the process of restoring a 246 GT for a long term customer I believe so will have up to date pricing if you give Mark Ware the service manager a call. The car they are working on at present had it's bodywork done by XK Engineering near Coventry. They are absolutely top drawer and having used them myself I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them for this aspect of the work. A visit to their premises will convince you that your car would be in expert safe hands.

 

Slippery slope mate.

Metalwork was the biggest unknown and largest consumer of my budget. Every painter/body shop who saw my Dino prior to stripping commented that it looked like a great starting point but they couldn't tell anything until paint/filler were fully removed.

The result was 1000+ hours of metalwork at Dennison International before any paintwork was started. I had read the Jan Norbye Dino book years ago where it claimed how many lower panels were fabricated to trap water and promote rust and that proved to be very true. Then again, the interior panels were never painted in a Dino and open to airborne water promoting rust so you either get to deal with it now...or later.
I'm nuts for the Dino and requested all metal removed be returned to me so I could take this photo of Dino 05702 immediately after metalwork.

BTW, If you pick a shop, make sure they have the tools to do the work. Dennison has the correct tools to work on a Dino; a Laser flat jig and the "The frame" created reference system like the old masters in Italy have. Dennison has certified more classiche cars than 2 local dealers combined, even travelling to Italy to support the process. I can not say enough praise to Butch and his love for Dinos and other Ferrari. When my Dino work was published in an issue of Vintage Motorsports about their shop, they made sure I got a copy


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What constitutes a 'full' restoration and how far you want to take your project are two things you need to get clear in your head before starting. It has been my experience to beware of shops that claim that there is only one level to restore to and that is all the way as this standard means different things to different people. You need to work with a shop that understands your needs and desires and works to that standard and budget. Even the finest Pebble Beach winning cars are done to a budget.

Here is a case in point. Lets assume you have a rust bubble in the middle of a panel and that the whole panel has been stripped ready for repair. I'm sure we can all agree that grinding the rust hole out and filling it with body filler is not acceptable. Most people would be happy with the rust being cut out and new material welded in (likely MIG welded), the weld ground down on the outside, minor filler, followed by paint; by all accounts a cosmetically perfect and structurally sound repair. The next level would be to TIG weld a repair piece and grind the welds perfectly both inside and out to make the repair invisible. Again a better repair that consumes more time and costs more but cosmetically looks the same when the car is finished. Want to go even further? How about following the panel that has the rust hole to where it was joined at the factory, cutting out the metal at that point, shaping flat metal or using a repair panel to seamlessly join at all the factory points making the repair totally invisible to even the closest observation (when all the paint is removed mind you). Again much more money and time.

Using the above example, multiply it by the many hundreds of assemblies that will receive restoration and you will quickly see that there is an enormous variance in how far you can take a restoration while achieving results that do not differ by THAT much visually. Quality restoration shops understand this and work with clients to educate them as to the best place to spend their money that gives the best results based on the client's desires.

For me the kiss of death with any trade/restorer is two fold:

1) When they cannot offer praise for the work of others
2) When they insist that there in only one way to restore

If you find a shop that follows these guidelines then you will be a good way to finding the correct people to do the job.

 

There are Inner and Outer rocker panels. Inspect both carefully, these will be a prime mover down that slippery slope.
Restoration costs have been one factor pushing Dino prices upwards, leaving fewer driver quality Dinos to be found on the used market.

It can also be one of the most memorable tasks of your lifetime and for long term ownership it rises above break even and enhances ownership by far