[DeTomaso] Pushbutton Build vs. "Regular" Pre L
JDeRyke at aol.com
JDeRyke at aol.com
Tue Oct 19 15:02:47 EDT 2010
In a message dated 10/19/10 9:57:13 AM, lashdeep at yahoo.com writes:
> In the current ebay description, there is reference to the "handmade"
> history of these cars at Vignale. Can anyone please explain the differences in
> the construction methods used
> between these and the "regular" Pre L cars?
>
In the pushbuttons- also called 'pre-production prototypes' by Ford, the
bodies were partially hand-hammered since it took a while to get the dies and
stamping machines, and the welding jigs set up correctly at Vignale and some
not-quite-correct panels were 'fixed'- DeTomaso never threw anything away
that he could sell. The pushbuttons were all completely finished at Vignale.
Some hand-built parts and left-overs were used such as brass one-piece
window moldings, Mangusta door buttons and the scripts and badges. As a result,
some pushbutton body and chassis parts don't interchange with the
'production' cars- or with each other; a characteristic of 'hand built' cars.
With the production cars, all the parts were mostly standardized during
Ford's 'productionizing', the bodies were stamped out at Vignale, assembled &
painted, then trucked 250 miles South to Modena for final assembly. My best
guess- J Deryke
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