67 Fiat Dino Spider restoration

New back up/ indicator tail lights and a new valve to control the heater water flow. The old lenses had turned yellow. Maybe I could have saved them with some effort but I wanted a clean start. The old water valve was frozen solid / rusted.

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I went to Vallhalla today. DinoPoint in Bergamo Italy. Mind blowing. I never saw so many Dinos in one place. They only do Ferrari and Fiat Dino's. They do complete restorations to factory spec. Now I have lots more to buy and fix.... DAMMIT!

 

Had a meeting with my mechanic in Vegas today about what I learned from my discussions at DinoPoint. We've decided we are going to send them the distributor and the tach. They will rebuild it and return it with a modern electronic ignition along with mapping it optimally in advance. Then its pretty much plug and play.

Also I'm going to exchange the airbox in the correct color and finish at the same time. No more cheap looking ugly chrome!

 

Word from the body shop today is they want another 3-4 weeks. Literally everything is on hold until I get it back.

 

Might shoot the color this week.

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I think we removed 1000 little dents! The little crunch in the rear is also fixed with new metal. Also the undercoating "bumpy" black paint was removed. I was worried about what we might find underneath but... no rust at all.... whew!

So much more to do though before its back on the road. The list seems to be getting longer, not shorter.

 

Funny you asked about the history in Italy as I am curious as well. I did talk to Dinopoint about that. They can track some of the information. I haven't requested it yet.

Most of the dents were really small, but they seemed to be everywhere. I wouldn't say there's a lot of filler -- just a lot of work. I'm not sure how it got so many dents but I figure it was constantly being bumped into while in the basement.

The nose had been crunched at some point and THAT had like 1/2 inch of filler. We removed all that and pounded the nose back into shape. Its symmetrical again. A lot of problems were with the old paint itself. When it was removed, a lot of defects went with it. We didn't see any evidence of prior rust repair or serious body damage in the past other than the nose being bent down. Some of the old paint was flaking off and cracking but it was not from rust. Replacing the original air cleaner will stop the hood from getting dinged again in the future. Also there's a new transmission mount which should restore the angle of the engine. The engine mounts are fine. I think they were replaced when the motor was rebuilt. The trans mount was trash though. There's clearance again above the cross member from the gearbox. The Cross member looks perfect. No damage or rust.

This is my guess about how it was stored. For sure, it was humid enough to explain the damage to the fabric materials, but not condensation enough to cause rust in lower areas of the car. The top material was quite well preserved but still torn and worn in places. It must have been a pretty good time capsule. My understanding is that most of these were left outdoors, water got in from the area where the roof meets the windshield, and this runs down to the floorboards. This is how the floors rust out. The other areas are in the chassis box sections from water splashing through the broken goop protecting the inner fenders. This material seems still intact. The inner fenders were never removed. So it seems that water did not seep anywhere and stay there.

There must have been a least 1/2 a tank of gas that compressed into a solid mass about 1/2 in thick inside the tank. This prevented rust on the bottom of the tank, but condensation on the top of the tank caused rusting on the top from the inside. We fixed this and were able to save the original tank and filler neck. The inside of the tank is now completely sealed with protective coating.

I'll learn a little more when we rip out the rest of the interior. We already know the floor is OK. There's no rust in the window wiper mechanism area or the drain tube.

The biggest hurdle now is the electrical issues. We are trying to figure out what was done that screwed it up, then fix it. But I think its fixable. Dinopoint will supply an upgraded electronic distributor, tach, and ignition box and I am having them tune the carbs on their bench. I hope to send those to them in 2 weeks when I get it back to the shop. That should end any drivability issues.

 

Went by the body shop today. I approved a painted color sample and saw the car all in pieces. Doors, hood, truck lid, gas flap, etc. Should shoot the color by next Tuesday.

I'll post pics next week.

 

The color


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The inspiration

The brochure in 1971. I'll add the black area next under the chrome stripe.
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Its similar to Rosso Imola.
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Once it gets its final clear coat, the black area added, the chrome pieces installed and the new deerskin color interior I think its going to come out quite good. Its basically rosso corso with a bit of metallic and pearl.

Hard to go wrong with Rosso Corso.

 

As a reminder, when it first arrived...

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Yes its a tiny car. Here it is next to a Ferrari Dino. The Ferrari is more compact because the engine and gearbox are packaged differently. I think the Fiat is about the same size an an Alfa Spider. Both the Fiat and the Alfa have a small back seat. The Ferrari doesn't.


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When I had my 246 Dino Gt back in the mid 80's, I couldn't get a car cover for it (ah, the days before the internet...). So I used my Alfa spider cover and fit reasonably well. It fit front to back, but was short side to side. The Ferrari is clearly wider than an Alfa spider by quite a bit, but not front to back. The cover was tight but I could make it work with some of the lower body on the 246 still exposed.

 

Went to visit the car today. No photos as its just stuck in a corner of the shop. Some part of the rear fender had to be repainted so we have another delay. Sending over the windshield crate to the body shop this week.

As usual, one step forward, two steps back! But they say its fixable, so that's a good thing. The paint quality looks great even without the clearcoat. The black stripe still needs to be added but its masked off. I'm hoping we can still finish this week but I don't have a lot of confidence. We still have to put the car back together after paint. That's going to take some time.