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Brand new '81 262C Bertone Coupe . . .

The 'before' was after a 3M black pad. That was going to take more like an air driven wire brush than steel wool. I saw clear coated media blasted aluminum at the shop that did the work and didn't really like the look. Did find a really professional looking custom auto shop in the back woods of North Georgia. Impressed me!

Now . . . back to the engine. I believe that the high idle was due to the throttle body vacuum tube dislodged at the last minute on the last installation. Now starts quickly, idles smoothly at just below 1k rpm, holds the rpm in gear but bogs down when throttle is opened.

Got my brand new 30 year old Craftsman Engine Analyzer connected to the Lambda test lead and measure a swing from 15% to about 27% on the 6 cyl scale at idle. That sorta corresponds to the O2 sensor voltage swing of 0.5 to 0.8v that I saw a few days ago. The idle does swing 50 rpm but not nearly much as represented by the O2 sensor voltage.

The 'fault' chart keeps pointing me back to CO adjustment but eBay has not come up with an appropriately priced meter. John Lane says adjust to 0.7v for an 1% CO. Mine will not stay stable below max voltage. Trying to adjust to 0.7v results in the above referenced swing.

I think I have acquired the parts necessary to create a fuel pressure gauge. Tomorrow . . . tomorrow.

Question of the day:

The custom shop owner is a really nice guy and estimates that the total cost of doing what I described to him can be done for $60 - $80. Should I pay to have this done or go buy the Harbor Freight blast cabinet and media for about $130?
 
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It's a toss up.Save time,money and space if you farm it out.Don't you have enough on your plate trying to sort stuff out?The up side is you can have a new toy[blast cabinet] for future projects.
 
You could also get some nasty parts/carb cleaner dip like berrymans, just soak that part for an hour and it will look brand new.
 
A weak solution of Muriatic Acid will also clean up aluminum. Don't use it full strength or let it sit too long on the part or it will eat through. I've used it on my intake mani's and throttle bodies for years. I second hitting it with clear coat to preserve the clean and it will also clean up easier in the future.
 
I worked on the car until Winter spending $1400 in fuel system replacements. Tank was rusted to the point of being unusable. Rust had destroyed the lift pump and pressure pump and gummed up the fuel distributor. The rebuild company was good enough to clean it out under warranty. Injectors were rusted shut. Fuel pressure regulator was full of rust. Everything replaced now but in the mean time Winter shut me down and I swapped over to the V8 Volvo that had a stall in a heated garage. I now have it running and only a few things to finish up then off to the paint shop. That will allow me to move the Bertone inside and get it wrapped up. It does run but has timing issues and vacuum leaks.

Lots more detail in this thread: http://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=259627

Thanks for asking!
 
I haven't made any progress on this car but found one just like it in north Georgia. Would love to put it away for future restoration but at the rate I work on cars I may not live that long.

Anyone else interested in a real classic should grab this one.

The utter '81 is, indeed, gold and bronze as Volvo called it and only has 28k miles. Nothing I saw would indicate that it is other than what is claimed. It was a west coast Florida car purchased by the current owner out of an estate. Owner very interested in selling it. He stated that he turned down $1000 and is asking $3000 so that sorta brackets the final selling price.

The paint is solid without any visible rust in the usual places but does need repainting. No signs of sheet metal repair. The leather is very dried out but is not cracked. The leather needs to be removed from the seats and soaked in Leatherique's Restorer for a couple days. Of course the dash is cracked.

The car has sat for 7 years but ran fine to where it is parked. I cautioned him about trying to start it without flushing the fuel system based on my experience.

I would go take pictures but you can look at this Bertone Restoration thread to see pretty much the same condition. It does have a couple variations from mine; it has the original 25 spoke 14" wheels, it does not have butt cheeks and has the white outline rear mud flaps which I now remember from my earlier car.
 
I'd say it depends on how much you paid for it. If you paid a TB price for it and don't mind taking a hit with the paint color change on resale....then paint it like you want. If you plan to keep for a while and possibly turn it over for a profit as a collector car...try to restore without paint.

Some of the work a TB member has done to refinish paint has been incredible....he might could give some insight as to how to restore without painting.

Chris
 
The car I was referring to is not mine but is (desperately) for sale. The owner paid $7000 for it but that was 7 years ago when it ran and has sat outside since then. Due to changing family situations he never followed through with his restoration/V8 plans. Still looking for a good home for it.

My Bertone's lower bronze paint can be restored to life but the gold upper areas is just too faded to salvage. My Volvo wagon V8 is running and about to be kicked out of the garage so the Bertone will be a Winter project.
 
wooow- Man, thats awesome! i cant even explain my feelings. you should be lucky as ... this car with that color combination is the nicest bertone i?ve ever seen.. what a find! total WIN! sorry but im so jealous and happy at the same time..:omg:;-) ( i found this thread today, sorry for my late reaction)
 
Got caught up with the rest of my life and am now back to the Bertone. A lesson that everyone should accept is that it is not a good idea to try to restore more than one car at a time.

The engine runs now if you want to catch up on a couple years of part time engine work here is the separate running gear thread: http://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=259627

Because the passenger door glass had remained up stuck to the weather stripping when the regulator was lowered I started by disassembling that door. Window and regulator was easy but with the door card off I thought that would be a good place to start the leather restoration.

While the door card leather was sun faded it was not completely dried out and hard especially across the top.

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This card itself was the first of many that came off without finding significant damage to the less than adequate fiber backing. It was really pretty much as new.

I have had great success with leather restoration using Leatherique's products and this one is no exception. I ordered a pint (16 oz) of their dye custom matched to a sample of the original leather and requested that the sheen match as well as the color. They did a great job doing that.

The results of this product line is completely dependent on the preparation for the dye application. The card leather was treated with their Leather Rejuvinator and cleaned with their Pristine Clean product. As an extra step uncovered in a conversation with George at Leatherique the leather was cleaned again with rubbing alcohol. All that took the leather finish very near to tanned leather.

The dye was applied with a 2" short bristle brush in a very thin coat intended to soak into the pores rather than as a 'paint'. You do not want to make it look like a coat of paint.



In the mean time I disassembled the wood and stainless trim and polished and refinished. The highly figured wood is really natural wood and deserves a finish to show it off. Lots of experience in finishing high end gun stocks so I knew how but it is still a lot of work to get it right.

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Hard to capture the true finish on the wood but it is there.
 
The engine now starts reliably but needs timing and probably other work. More on that later.

But . . . I got started on the seat reconditioning.

How's this for 34 year old leather?

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Really in good shape but sun faded so the finish is not completely even.

The carpet also needs dye/paint which it will get.
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Great to be moving on this thing again.
 
. . . and here are the pictures of the passenger seat refinish. This thing is really looking good.

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Center console up next. Cleaned but not re-dyed.

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Anyone know how to get the cigar lighter out?
 
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Hey Tom , I know you're very thorough but just curious did you remove the back side of the seat along with the small side panels?
 
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