I wasn’t planning on doing anything today, but drove the blue Dino up to my shop for some fun pictures. I couldn’t resist and drained the engine oil, gearbox oil, gasoline and coolant. I’m considering removing the engine next week. I’m glad to see others posting their projects, I love to see what others are doing and see the varied talents you all have. I’m always amazed.    

Back to work today after picking up Jeff from Utah. Another year of school under his belt, 2 to go. All the suspension is now off the car as I finished TAV 34 today. I’m going to get a roll of white butcher paper as the pink paper from Home Depot doesn’t make the photos look too good. Any suggestions or guesses as to what TAV should be removed next.

TAV 32 and TAV 33 today. Watch out for the various suspension shims and make notes as they are all different. The red paint job before the black must have been really crappy. There is red overspray everywhere. It sure is way easier the second time around knowing how the parts come off and what sequence to make it easier. No surprises yet, I’m sure there will be some. How many out there currently have some form of Dino restoration going on. Please post pictures. The thread is way more interesting when others are showing their work. Even if it’s something small, let’s see it!!    

TAV 31 today. I’m going to work on getting all the suspension off then probably the engine. It then can go on the rotisserie.    

Back to work today. I took off all the parts associated with the emergency brake, took out all the carpet and removed the brake calipers. Emergency brake pretty straight forward to remove. Their was heat insulating material in the tunnel by the handbrake totally disintegrated. When removing the carpet be sure to keep the part that surround the pedals. I had to go back on the blue Dino and fabricate this part as heat would come into the cabin from around the pedals. When removing the brake calipers watch for the shims and where they are oriented at. Check first, because when you remove the 2 bolts they will fall out. I had to cut one of the hydraulic lines as there was no way it was going to loosen. All in all a pretty straight forward day.  

TAV 108 today, which is basically the trunk and everything that goes with it. Hinges, lights, carpet etc. It appears the trunk carpet was originally gray and black felt like material was glued over it. It was missing the parts that activate the license plate light so I’ll have to find or make those. The car has never been taken down to bare metal as you can see the layers of paint. Felt was also glued to the inside of the trunk lid to hide the wiring which was needed for the license plate light as the original pieces were missing therefore wired direct.  

More parts off the car today. I finished TAV 117 and TAV 107. More organized from the git go this time. So basically all the lights, engine lid, pull cables etc. After pulling the moulding off the engine compartment, I found the original yellow color. It appears to have been repainted in red and then black. The US sidelites won’t be going back on as I like the cleaner Euro look. I also got a pair of Euro indicator lights which will replace the USA version. This time I’m going to get them right the first time. Stripping the car down is really a fun part, you don’t have to be quite as careful and you see all the wear and tear that has been hiding from a casual glance over. If anyone is contemplating a DYI restoration I would for FREE gladly take it apart label all the parts, organize all the parts in TAV tubs and give you all the pictures to put it back together, it’s that much fun! Someone out there needs to start now and start posting pictures.    

Bicycling in the morning then back to work. While I was riding I stopped at Torrey Pines beach where a 32′ grey whale had washed ashore, hit by a cargo ship. I noticed my last pictures weren’t that sharp. I got a new Mac and so now I have to use a new photo editing program, photoshop elements. Hopefully todays photos will be more clear. I worked on TAV 110 today which includes bumpers, grill, badges and a few other odds and ins. If anybody has a source for the black rings that fit over the bumper posts let me know. As far as colors the grey one is now out as there was another Dino at Bella Italia just restored by Symbolic Motors, done in that color. It is also a local car. It did look fantastic though.