Francesco Zaccarini

moisture

 This was the major damage that moisture carried away under the front wings. In spite of the poor sight, it's quite easy to grid away the corroded area and solder a replacement panel on the door subframe before mounting a new wing.

other critical area

 Other critical areas are near the wheelarches, where they mate the sills. Also this points are easy to fix, but the repair will be effective only if an extensive anti corrosive threatment will be carried away further on.

inner ridge

 When all the rotted areas have been repaired, the two wings are mounted in place and the car is now ready for spraying preparation. On this early production car the front wings are different, i.e. with an inner ridge that mates the two depressed areas of the bonnet: to get the two original spares has been a very lucky affair !

sprayed

 The car is now prepared to be sprayed and a first hand of primer was already given. Then the body will be flatted again to be ready for the red and met. grey colours. To accomplish an accurate restoration, after spraying the red colour, the body should be masked according to the original factory pattern, as can be seen on the former picture. wing.

servizio innocenti

 Servizio Innocenti (...in my garage). From left to right: Innocenti 650 (1986), Innocenti De Tomaso Turbo Mk1 (i.e. CB/DT engine) (1983)... waiting for alloy wheels restoration.

rustproofing advice

 After bodywork and before reinstalling all interior trims, it's strongly recommended to carry out a careful job of rust prevention into all cavities with an highly penetrant wax/oil anticorrosive product.

rustproofing advice

 The Mini Bertone body has many points of access to inject rustproofing fluid by means of an adequate air gun with probe. The sills are longitudinally divided by an internal sectum, so pay attention to reach both cavities with penetrating fluid, in particular near the door hinges and the rear wheelarches. As can be seen in the picture, some pic-nic plastic dishes are placed under the sills in correspondence of the drain holes to gather all the fluid in excess.

under the bonnet

 To get a brand new look under the bonnet, only the battery compartment was resprayed and the other areas have been polished. All the engine accessories have been taken off, washed and/or repainted with original color. The zinc plated components can be polished and then painted with transparent, high temperature resistant, spray varnish to prevent further oxidation.

first serie

 engine MK 1

interior ( before...)

 De Tomaso Turbo interiors (seats, door panels and carpets) are very delicate. In paticular the beige moquette molded carpet is generally faded in those areas more exposed to direct sunlight. This picture reports the original carpet of a late 1983 De Tomaso Turbo (Mk1). The carpet has been already washed with water and soap and "mechanically" it's in good shape...but almost white !

interior (...after)

 After several tries, I used a standard tissue dye (ochre and a bit of dark brown color) diluted with water, applied to the carpet with a little sponge. When carpet is completely dried, the tint can be fixed with an hot air source. The result is shown in this picture. The difference between hidden parts (not painted), where original hue was unaltered, and the renewed areas is almost unoticeable.

new cockpit

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