Dino restoration on YouTube

[HugoHarris]

https://youtu.be/vl9Xufk-x34?si=eJ0KmJ-WPq4QgwQX

Interesting to see original 246GT panels with no rust protection from factory. We discovered the same during the restoration of my Spider. Just bare metal with surface rust guaranteed from the day they rolled out of the showroom! The pity is, unrestored original cars will inevitably have a certain amount of rust in the areas you can’t see, even if they’ve spent their entire life in a desert climate.

[Argonaut]

100% subscribe on your statement. The problem is that most of those cars from Italy back in those days do not have sufficient rust protection plus bad quality steel from Russia. And if then you are having complex metal sheet constructions underneath the outer skin it becomes really expensive to get things right again.
And imho you have to get it right like your car, Hugo, as only then you can experience what these cars were supposed to be and get the real feeling. Your car, btw, is also a good exampe as the rear suspension connected to the floor panels are wearing out sooner or later which means that most of the 2.4 spiders are not having anymore this smooth ride as when they left the factory (even if this does not necessarily have something to do with rust). A good example for an easier restauration is a Maserati Ghibli, really difficult examples are all the Fiat Dinos and e.g a Maserati Mistral.

[Spiderman]

What a shame they didn't return it to the original Bianco

[Spiderman]

I am also rather distracted by the Miura..

[Tobi]

What a shame they didn't return it to the original Bianco

Exactly!
The times when you had to paint a Dino red and attach some prancing horses to get attraction are long gone.

[Kal]

100% subscribe on your statement. The problem is that most of those cars from Italy back in those days do not have sufficient rust protection plus bad quality steel from Russia. And if then you are having complex metal sheet constructions underneath the outer skin it becomes really expensive to get things right again.

There’s no substance to the myth that Fiat/Alfa/Lancia/et al used Russian steel. It’s just that, a myth. There’s a lot of information around proving the steel used originated in Italy, so blame the Italians, or if that makes you uncomfortable, blame salt on the road.

[Argonaut]

Then I blame the salt... but... where do you have your information from that it was not the bad Russian steel? As I have this info from various angles.

[Vravolta]

I think that the rusting capacity of steel depends on the grade you buy, not the country it does comes from.
We know that salt is not a big issue in a country like Italy where roads have few occasions to be salted. This, alone, explains why the salt protection was not something seriously considered (and studied). And this was even worse form small production sport cars that one would use on snowy roads.
So, the ones to blame are more likely to be the ones who have choosen to order a steel grade that was not designed to resist rust and the ones who designed the rust protection of the car.

[Kal]

Then I blame the salt... but... where do you have your information from that it was not the bad Russian steel? As I have this info from various angles.

Hey. There's lots of factual information out there, but this article is a good one: https://driventowrite.com/2022/05/17/va ... ds-part-3/

Don't forget Italy was the second largest producer of steel in Europe during that era, so why would they take Russian steel as payment? The documented deal struck by the Italians and Russians for the Fiat to Lada technology transfer was going to be in oil.

The cheap steel is just a good story to explain why the cars rusted.

[Gaelicguy]

Kal,
Thanks for your post and great article. The Russian steel narrative is one I never believed. Steel mills have very strict control over their furnaces. Most of the Russian mills in the 60’s where post war plants, but I know from associates I work with at Krupp stahl that the quality controls were updated with the current technology of the time.
My ‘67 Spider came to the US via Germany. We think a GI bought it, used it there then shipped it back. So it likely had contact with salty roads there.
It then resided in Oregon near the coast, they were using salt at times on the hilly sections of winter highways. But I don’t think the previous owner used it much if any during the winter.
My car has some serious undercoating on it. Not sure where it was applied, but it wasn’t injected in the inner panels, as you might with a product like Zymol.
But the only internal rust I can find is the drivers side sill forward near the A pillar.
I found a large mouse nest up forward that blocked the drain, and a repair just behind the door in the rear panel. ( probably when Topo Gigo and family moved in.
All this said, the car is almost rust free. Cars mostly rust from the inside out, unless like the Alfasud, it had assembly issues.
I’ve seen early Lada’s with hardly any rust, so I don’t think we can blame Russian steel for all the Italian car issues.
Michael