It was at this point where we could finally determine the true extent of the coming restoration; taking out the doors, lids and mechanicals showed up how much hidden rust there was. The floors were weak, the doors were heavy coated in bondo, corners were rusted out and many fasteners broke when trying to loosen them. So it was easy to conclude we needed to disassemble it completely and strip it to bare metal. The whole wiring was documented (there are no wiring diagrams for these) and taken out, awaiting cleaning, inspection and restoration. Luckily the chassis was pretty good, except for repairing a few lower rust problems I could leave it as it was.

I found the (rare) Ariston shocks and it was obvious they needed to be rebuilt. I dropped these off at the Koni people but got them back with the message these could not be rebuilt… Then one person from the Pantera club told me he could rebuild them but after being on hold for one whole year I got them sent back – only with a bill attached for disassembling them… That story continues…

The windshield had a crack and trying to repair it I was told by a pro that someone already filled it with resin (incorrectly) and this was not able to repair it. I was offered a used one in Italy but when I visited them it had a major bull-eye so it was not usable. It was then when I started to contact companies to reproduce one for me and gave that order to a local company early 2015. I was to pick them up by October 2015… That story also continues…

The front suspension could be taken apart without too many problems, the rear suspension was totally different… Several (M12) bolts were rusted shut and only cutting them made them come out. Now is that not the biggest problem, were it not that one of those held the differential cradle right under the gas tank floor! I took many Dutch curse words before that bolt finally came out! Luckily, in the end, I always win and that was also the case when finally the whole DeDion system dropped on the floor. The greasy work was to begin as taking these hubs apart is probably THE dirtiest work on these Isos. The joy of a restorer!! But, in the end, all hardware was nicely sorted and ready for the plating process.

The body was ready to be stripped and to be careful I chose the soda blasting method. Because it can easily be washed away with water I did this in my backyard and the place looked like Aspen in wintertime after we were done. Ricky had a ball and of course inspected the work! We found several “repaired” damages and more-than-expected rust in doors and floors so a follow-up (harder) stripping method was needed. I marked the areas that needed sandblasting yellow and any serious rust was either removed or perforated sheet metal was totally taken out. After that; next stop was the specialized metal shop. It was hard to reserve a spot so I decided to start some body work in the healthy areas already. That too took some arm wringing but the body was now bare and needed to be primed ASAP – luckily I live in Southern California and not The Netherlands anymore! (And that was not purely meant politically 😎

While the car was gone, the work on the parts could start full blown. All parts were checked, documented, pictured, disassembled and sorted, prepared for either plating, powder coating or repair-rebuild. A few pictures illustrate that but I have literally 1000s of this process. During this process I ran into a rear Girling caliper with a serious crack and months of trying to find a replacement went unanswered. I contacted collectors and companies just to find out how rare these really are and this was when I had these welded by a genius in this field and it came out perfect. next was gold cadmium plating for these and assembly with new internals. Suspension parts were sorted, marked and separated for whatever job was next for them – it’s always interesting to press out the (rusted) shut bushings in these components… I think all but 2 had to be cut out instead of being pressed out… Any damages to them were filed, welded, re-threaded or straightened and awaited to be sandblasted and powder coated.

I can say that at this stage about 99% of the disassembly was done so my next update will show the actual “restoration” work on the car. Even though I love the disassembly (because it always teaches me about what NOT to accept from anyone working on cars!) my favorite work is to assemble all parts and put a car together with them. At this time – that was still far in the future…

Once the dust had settled it can be stated that THE nicest original Iso Grifo on the planet has found the deserving home I talked about earlier. It was taken to the Gooding auction at Pebble Beach and the buzz was on that this car would make it’s presence there. Justin from Gooding had done a good job of getting the word out and even though this is not a “F-car” there were several very high end buyers present to see where this one ended up. It was presented well at auction and was in good company – the ex-Millner 7Litri was across the room in all it’s (restored) glory. Us insiders know the car and even though it presents beautiful it was not as “original” as Sam’s Series II small block Grifo 369. However, we had no hopes of beating it in a bidding war – our 369 was heading for a whole different clientele.

At the Concourse d’Elegance there was the rumor another fully original Grifo was to be shown there and it kinda scared us in that much that it could be a serious contender for Sam’s 369. However, as soon as I saw it on the Boulevard in Carmel it was obvious the car was no comparison to ours. It was yellow and it was obvious it was driven hard and put away wet – even though very charming the car showed tired and would need to be restored. Nevertheless, it was one of the few remaining original (driving) cars that can be used “as is” – it was well worth having it flown over from Italy. If it was not for Sam’s 369 I would have voted the yellow car for “best original”…

I met Sam at the car and we knew we had done the best we could – this was the moment to find out what the world thinks of an ORIGINAL car. The auction itself was perfectly executed except for the commentator calling the car “Aiso Griffo” – telling me just how unknown these cars still are! The bidding started at $200,000 and flew up to $400,000 within 20 seconds, where it stalled a bit and it ended up being sold at $465,000!! This means with buyer’s commission it ended up setting the record for an unrestored Grifo at $510,000! This was the reward for our hard work; Sam was happy and the car ended up with a good friend who is elated to have it in his collection now. It is among a gorgeous Bizzarrini Strada I found for him, a very unique Iso Grifo Can Am and many other high profile exotics. End good, all good!

Video:https://youtu.be/MAGcxtJzFrI