Our California Adventure! Part 2: Monterrey Historics & Emergency Dino Servizio

Wow where does the time go? I promised fast updates and here I am some two months later and we are just at the beginning of the California Adventure. I promise more timely posts to get us back on track. Speaking of track that is where we first headed to.

When we last left off the car was clean and delivered to Northern California. Our first car show was not for another day so Paul and I decided to hit up the Monterey Historic Races being held at Laguna Seca Raceway.

Needless to say there was no shortage of interesting things there but a few cars stood out for their own special reasons:

First up is THE Ferrari F1 car that Niki Lauda retired at the Japanese Grand Prix in 1976. Those familiar with F1 history or the movie 'Rush' will appreciate the historical significance of this car.

Next up was this Chevy Monza race car that shared its exterior door handles with the interior handles used on the Dino. Now pure unobtanium I'm sure that back then these handles was available at your corner store.

Lastly it is not every day you see some $70-80 million dollars worth of cars parked next to one another. 

With the day at the track all wrapped up we had one more stop to make before heading back to the hotel. Our friend (and blog follower) Ron called us early in the morning with a problem he was having with the door mechanism in his Dino. With his mechanic hours away, there was no chance of having it fixed in time for Concorso Italiano the next day.

Ron was able to describe the problem and luckily we knew exactly the repair. After a quick trip to Harbor Freight for some tools and with the help of a nearby bicycle Paul and I  made a house-call and were able to fix his door and get him back on the road.  Here we are in mid-fix with an impending feeling of deja-vu coming on....

Our California Adventure! Part 1: Vehicle prep and shipping

Welcome back faithful followers of the blog. It has been ages since we have posted so it is time to bring you up to date on some of our projects while also sharing some of our Dino stories. This will be the first of a series of posts where I will tell the tale of our recent California adventure.

As some of you may know, every year in August is Car Week in Northern California. Enthusiasts from around the world partake in car shows and auctions where the best cars are shown and the current market for classics is generally established. The pinnacle of this week is the Pebble Beach Concours D'Elegance and 2015 is special as the Ferrari Club of America (FCA) has decided to hold its annual meet just after Car Week thereby extending the festivities.

Since our last post winter fell heavily upon Canada and once the weather cleared we managed some really nice drives in the Dino. With California Car Week approaching the decision was made to ship the Dino down and take part in two shows: Concorso Italiano and the FCA National Concours.

Competing in these shows is not cheap with car transport, airfare, hotels, and general expenses making it a costly exercise. That said we had a special motivation to attend as Dad (who was unable to be at last years judging) was able to come and at the end of the show He and Paul would be able to take a once in a lifetime drive together down the coast along the famed HWY 1 to Southern California.

It would be a week of highs and lows with luck and fantastic human decency and kindness helping us through our challenges. We will tell the whole story over the next few posts so buckle up your Klippans because it is going to be a fun ride.

First step was prepping the car and shipping it to California. This all went smooth and was helped tremendously with our first stroke of luck. Just before making the decision to participate in the California events, some long lost money came back our way through a most entertaining and unorthodox series of events which both amused us to no end and covered the lions share of our journey. More on that perhaps another day but for now enjoy some prep and transport pics :)




Despite some 2000 kilometers since finishing the car we managed to keep it nice and clean

Special Delivery :)  

Dino246.com BACK ONLINE!

Dino246.com TEMPORARILY DOWN

Please note that Dino246.com is temporarily down and will be back up on Dec 1. The blog and its archives are unaffected. 

Any inquires before then can be directed to dino246@live.com

Sorry for the inconvenience 

New Dino246.com Product: No Drill Magnetic License Plate Mount

Originally the sheet metal on Dino's were not drilled at the factory for a rear license plate. This task was left to the discretion of the dealership with no official guides offered by the factory. As you can imagine this led to all sorts of unique interpretations of what the 'correct' spot was.

In our case after hours and hours of metal work we could not bring ourselves to drill a hole in the beautifully restored rear panel of our Dino and set about coming up with a solution that would allow a good mounting of the license plate without compromising the metal or the paintwork.

With this introduce a new product offering on Dino246.com which is a magnetic license plate mount kit. We'll repeat the link at the bottom but for the really excited here it is:

http://www.dino246.com/store.html

Kit is available in high polish chrome or semi-gloss black finish

The kit is made up of a high quality stainless steel license plate frame (available in semi-gloss black or polished chrome finish) together with special rubber coated high strength magnets that securely fix the assembly to the body.

Once installed the assembly fits nice and tight up against the body and shows no signs to any observers that the only thing holding it on are magnets.

Removal is very easy and the rubber coated magnets ensure that the paint is perfectly protected. The easy removal of the plate is particularly useful for cleaning as the exhaust on these cars is known for kicking up some soot on the rear of the car.

Also included in the kit are decorative screw covers for those owners who would prefer to not have visible fasteners. Screw covers come in chrome or black depending on the frame ordered.

We have tested this product on the road for over 1000 miles without the slightest issue. The frame stays perfectly secured and the paint underneath is totally unblemished.

A few product notes:

- Plate frame is sized for North American license plates only and is 50 State Legal as it does not block registration stickers.

- This assembly is not intended to be a concours correct item however it solves the issue of mounting a plate frame without making holes on a concours correct car.

- Because this kit relies on magnets to hold the license plate in place it is for cars with steel bodies only (sorry to the Dino 206 owners out there).

- While it works great on a Dino this kit is fully applicable to any other car with a rear steel surface on which to mount a license plate (of which there are many).

Purchase Online:

http://www.dino246.com/store.html

or click on the 'Store' link above (product is about half way down the page)