Restorative Notes: The Meter Is Running
April 28, 2003
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One of the many valves that did not make an encore. (Click image to enlarge)
Next up are the suspension and brakes, and soon the wire wheels will be sent out for rebuild. For now, there is research to be done. I was recently introduced to Jack Robbins, a master mechanic and retired Nether-cutt restorer who worked forthe late Bob Estes, the West Coast distributor for Lamborghini, during the 1960s and early 1970s. Jack is a wealth of information, and he graciously shared anecdotes and details not found in any marque literature. For instance, what I had assumed to be an incorrect headlight modification was, in fact, an interim design straight from the factory. In its early years, the factory made changes on the fly, and small differences abound between different examples of the same model car. Some changes were deliberate, and some, it seems, were just a matter of expediency. Jack told a story of a visit he made to the factory back in the ’60s, where he watched a workman make a wiring harness for one lucky Lamborghini. A schematic was laid out on a large wooden board, with nails at each bend and at the point of termination for all the different colored wires. His spool of red wire ran out before it reached its termination, so the diligent craftsman, fresh out of red, merely spliced on a length of green wire to complete the run. I am sure that somewhere, 35 years later, a befuddled soul with a meter is cursing those magicians, who, with wild green paintbrush in hand, conjured up the cars that so enchant admirers today.
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