Early 911 Abarth Exhaust Finish

[rcnagel]

What is the correct finish on an early 911 Abarth exhaust? The tag is all german. No date apparent and is marked "911". Mine seems to have gray paint as the primary paint outside ends. Its pretty burned off in the middle. It looks like it had been painted black over the gray. I've seen some NOS exhausts that have a black wrinkle finish. Some people I've spoken to said only the 356 exhaust were wrinkle black.

The exhaust I have came off of an early 65' 911 and will be going on an early 65' 911. Any help would be appreciated. Posted below are some other similar Abarths on early cars. My only thought is that if the paint burned off, the most readily available paint in the US is black.

First two images are not my exhaust but ones found on the site. I'm having mine bead blasted down, but a heavy baked grey seems the primary color. I will try to post pictures.

[Bullethead]

Casey, from what I remember Abarth paint isn't wrinkled so much as sort of spattered black. Not coarse as undercoat, but definately textured. It must have been common to Italian makes; I have a Nardi exhaust for a little BMW 700, and the paint is identical to what was on my 356 muffler. Years ago I got a NOS BMW e12 system from Al Cosentino, build date was 1975 but the paint finish was the same as the much older items.

[raspy2point2]

Casey-- Bring back the old days--yes! My friend put on a new Abarth on his 69 911T and after a while we started to notice the licence plate pannel was getting soiled with a sooty black grime. We concluded it was the Abarth. Maybe that is why the factory put the exhaust tip on the side corner to catch the airflow to pull gases away. Chris

[Paul Rodelo]

Does anyone have a video of an early car with an Abarth muffler?
I sure would like to hear what they sound like.

Thanks,

Paul & Judy

[72targa]

IF you have time...and IF you scan through this very long page...you will see many pictures of Abarth mufflers...this guy used to sell 911 mufflers on eBay...wish I would've bought one...

http://www.fazaabarth.info/exhaust.htm

[Bullethead]

Peter, thanks for putting the Faza link up... those stream of consciousness rants are priceless.
Al is missed as much for his personality, as the keeper of the last stash of NOS Abarth goodies.

Al Cosentino was quite a character. Pre-computer days when you called for a part you dealt directly with him,
the ultimate (SLAVE-O-MATIC) one-man shop. His ads in R&T or Autoweek seemed impossibly packed with tiny type,
and speaking with him was sorta like trying to read those ads.

[Chuck Miller]

Russ is right.....

I knew Al back in the day and he was always a handful...
At one time he really was a pretty successful racer.
However the older he got the more ‘out there’ he became……

The last time I saw him was at a swap over 15 years ago. He was with that black lab in the catalog. Al said he talks to the dog in Japanese. Al told me what he was going to command the dog to do then he motioned the dog over and spoke to him in Japanese. The dog did exactly what Al commanded......

.... and so it goes


Most of the Abarth muffler finishes I've seen were very fine wrinkle black...

[72targa]

More Al and Abarth (including some race results)...

http://www.fazaabarth.info/FAZA1.html

RIP Al ???...

http://fluforum.italiancarclub.com/viewtopic.php?t=3244

[saz]

That's very much Al. As stated, Al is one colorful character. Spent a day with him at his house. Probably the most intense 8 hours in my life. Each room a "museum" of all things Abarth. Kuro, his black lab would open the doors on Al's command. It was a fascinating, yet terrifying visit.

Sadly, Al suffered a stroke and is not doing well. He is still with us, but all his stuff has now all been transported to a new owner in Australia.

[Bullethead]

My encounters with Al were always entertaining, but I confess rarely lasted more than an hour. Met him just once at Daytona many years ago. It's sad he's incapacitated, the rumors of his passing began after his stroke. Getting emails through his caretaker probably cheer him.

Getting back to finishes on Abarth mufflers, it seems there is some variation. I guess early pieces could be described as "fine wrinkle" though later stuff clearly isn't. The first pic is the Nardi I mentioned earlier... after Chuck's comment I had to go dig it out. It's similar to other early 356 Abarth finishes. Two pics are of a NOS VW Golf muffler on Samba, finish is what was on my E12. FWIW, the 912P muffler on my 356 was refinished in a spattered powdercoat that looks pretty good though nothing like original.