Dino update
I thought some people who had followed the restoration thread on my first Dino might like an update. When I bought this car I was a novice in terms of both restoring a classic and in my knowledge of the 246 model. In the past two years I've done a huge amount of research, built a lot of valuable contacts and found sources for a lot of hard to find parts. The most important contact I've made is with the body restoration specialist who carried out the work on my second Dino and did an outstanding job on it. Their knowledge of the 246 is second to none and the difference they can make to the shaping of the car is incredible. As soon as I saw the results they achieved on my 2nd Dino I knew I had to give them my first car as well.
I've never been entirely happy with various aspects of the bodywork on my first car and since my knowledge of the model has improved I've realised several areas have been incorrectly shaped during a previous bare metal restoration in 2002. This is fairly common on the Dino as many bodyshops are not familiar with how the car "should look" and have no original parts or high quality photograph's to follow. In the case of my car the sills had been re-fabricated and were not the correct shape and had also lost the vertical seam line between the two sections that make up the sill as these had been filled over. The shaping of the front wings where they run down from the top of the front wheels to meet the door and windcreen panel was also not quite right, the horizontal swage line that runs around the middle of the car was not straight or uniform in terms of sharpness, the tops of the door skins weren't as curved as they should be, the engine and trunk lids did not align correctly and the rear lip edge of the trunk was not the correct shape.
On top of the bodywork issues I'd long suspected that the seat centres, centre console and door cards had been re-trimmed incorrectly at some point but I struggled to confirm this during my initial restoration. Last December a German Dino collector released a fantastic book called the Dino Compendium which he had researched for 6 years or so and that has become the point of reference for the Dino community. Armed with this information my suspicions about the interior were confirmed. I contacted the author and he pointed me in the direction of two specialist trimmers who could provide me with all of the correct interior for my car. I had also done more research into the original spec of this car and discovered it was delivered in a shade of white called Bianco Polo Park with a black vinyl interior and black carpets. I decided that if I was going to spend a considerable amount of money to re-do the bodywork and retrim the interior that it would be sensible to return the car to it's correct original specification.
Due to timing issues I had the interior retrim carried out first whilst the bodyshop were completing my second car. The new vinyl interior was supplied by the same company in Modena that Ferrari Classiche use for carrying out the interior trim work to cars that they restore. I had the dash recovered (for the second time) in a new, exact reproduction fabric of the original material which I sourced from a specialist in Holland.
The new heat stitched vinyl (Skai leatherette) seat covers and door card panels)
The new interior kit was fitted by a trimmer who is close to my Ferrari dealer and from there went straight to the bodyshop so I didn't get a chance to take photo's of it all installed as they had cover most of it for protection when I next saw it.
With the interior work finished it was time to start the bodywork rectification and repaint. Here is the initial rub down of the paint to find the original shaping lines as a reference point along with checks on points of interest on various panels where the restorers thought there may be some issues hiding that would need to be dealt with.
Two small holes were found. One behind the RHS rear quarter glass window ....
The other at the top of the front of the passenger door.
A lot of time was spent correcting flaws on the thin aluminium skin of the trunk lid. You'll see all of the high spots that were corrected to give a level surface.
The RHS lower corner edge of the trunk lid had been welded during a previous restoration but the person who did the work had filed the repair to a round corner when it should be square like the opposite side. This was rectified and the edge of the lid worked on to ensure an even panel gap.
The side swage lines were located and shaped correctly.
I'll have to share it with Graham who is repairing the bodywork for me.
Black actually wasn't a popular choice on the Dino. Out of a total production run of 4,067 cars of all variants (206GT, 246 GT L,M & E series and 246 GTS) only 63 cars left the factory in Nero (black). Black actually doesn't work very well on the shape of the car IMHO as it hides a lot of the surface details and the shape of the curves.
