[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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