Dennison Visit 12/10/20

I had a hard time finding the fifth correct Borrani wheel (3526) for the spare tire.  So it wasn't rebuilt with the other four.  Finally, the last wheel was rebuilt and was supposed to be shipped back to me.  Instead, it got shipped to Dennison.  Since I had the new tire and tube and needed the box to ship the old one back to Shaughnessy, I went down to visit the car.  The wheel rebuilders had forgotten to date stamp the first four wheels, so they included the stamps and Dennison stamped the insides.  The build sheet has the car being completed on January 25, 1960.  The wheel shop said that typically, four of the wheels were stamped a couple of months before, so November 1959 was picked.  Then the spare was added to the car later and had a different date, so it was stamped December 1959.

   

The knock-offs came back from the engravers and look completely new.

The car has to go back to the painters to touch up a chip and fix the drip gutter.  When the car was painted, Dennison thought that the drip gutter trim covered more of the gutter.  So the painters were told not to use filler and make the gutter nice.  As you can see by the funny reflection, there are some inconsistencies that the trim doesn't cover.  The painter is scheduled for some surgery that will side-line him for a while, so this needs to be done in the next day or so.  At least this time, they can put on the wheels to transport the car rather than having it on a rolling frame.

The carpet has arrived so that will be ready for the interior guy.

A new wiring harness is being made using the original wire colors as it gets installed.  For the 2 colored wires, they put tape in a spiral and then paint the trace color over the wire color.  Once dry, the tape is removed leaving the correct wire colors. 

           

The new flexible conduit is stainless steel rather than the zinc coated so it won't rust like the original used by Pininfarina.

   

The teak veneer is on the dash, but it's a bit too shiny, so I asked them to dull it down with Scotch Brite.  Once that has been done, it'll go across the parking lot to the interior guy to get black leather on the top and to switch strip.  One of the options on PF coupes was an all leather interior (pella) vs. vinyl and leather (plastico e pella) and 1643 was ordered with all leather.  I supplied pictures of the correct stitching used around the binnacle for the gauges and the interior guy said he knows how to do it correctly.  Once that has all been done, the gauges and rest of the dash can be assembled, which will allow the wiring to be completed.

   

My friend George's PF coupe was at Dennison's for some work and they notice that my car was missing a cover for the wires under the steering column, so they made one.  That will also go the the painters to get the body color.

The trunk floor and wheel wells have been painted with an undercoat like paint to give the correct texture.

There are carts and cabinets full of parts that are ready to go on the car.  The left picture are lots of the trim parts while the right are parts to go on the engine once it is installed.  It will be installed as soon as the car comes back from the painters and the wiring in the engine compartment is complete.

   

The doors are being assembled.  You can see that all of the window and door hardware has been freshly zinc plated.  You can see that the door is hung by its hinges.

   

They have some custom stands that they bolt to a bench that has hinges like the body, so the door is completely suspended at a comfortable height to work on.  The right picture shows hinges for a Cal Spider, one that will never be needed for me.

   

The radiator has been a real problem.  Previously, I mentioned that the mounts at the top of the radiator had been put on wrong.  Well, that wasn't the only issue.  When they went to test fit it to the car, the mounts on the bottom of the radiator and the ones on the frame didn't line up.  So both sets needed to be moved to properly mount the radiator.  So evidently, this was not the original radiator.  But now it fits and the radiator blind is installed too.

   

Now the bill is going to come for November's work in a couple of days.  I think I want to be sitting when I open it as there were four people working on the car today.