1979 308 GT4

I am envious of these posts of GT Carparts in Arizona. http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showpost.php?p=136370120&postcount=1003 from the Dino Restoration thread. I hope my order is in the background somewhere. Activity on my GT4 has come to a halt while I await my recent order from GT.

I am waiting on:
Red light for the driver's door
12" more fuzzy strip for the dirver's door
Momo wheel bolts
Gas tank strap and hardware
Many copper washers
"Axle Bolt" for hood stay
Shroud for accelerator pedal

 

Getting the headrests off was not too bad. There are four 10mm nuts and washers that are visible with the engine lid up. There is only enough room to get an open ended wrench on the nuts, reaching up from below the engine lid.
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Once the headrests were off I could see that they had been, in fact, re-covered with leather. I could tell by the seuede surface on the backside of the covering material. Modern leather looks almost like vinyl to me. I had thought the interior had been redone in very nice vinyl. Now that I look at the wear marks in the seat, it is clear that it all has been redone in black leather.
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Reversing these rear headrests was not that big of a deal. I think that if I had been more observant, this is one of those things I would have done in the first weekend that I had the car.

I drove the car around today for the first time in 3 months. It really runs excellent.

Still waiting for my GT Carparts order......
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This thread has some evidence that a picture of #14582 was used in a car cover ad.

 

Now that I have the glove box working, I need something to place in it. I got this map or emergency light from e-bay. At one time last week there were 4 for sale.
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This nice pouch was up for sale also. From what I have discovered, I think this is the correct pouch style for my car (correct me if I am wrong).

This would be in my hands if it had not gone over $400 USD. At that price I think I'll pass.
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Now that the snow has melted I have had the opportunity to drive the GT4 and really enjoy it. I have transformed it from a 'project' that required opening either the engine lid or the front lid to fiddle with smething, to a car that I can just get in and drive around without a screwdriver in my pocket.

The battery holds a charge, the tires don't leak, it starts up right a way, the idle is excellent in traffic and it pulls through the RPM range without any problem. All the little knobs and latches work and above all IT IS A BLAST TO DRIVE!

I reset the trip-odometer when I got the car and it just rolled over to 000.

Supposedly my final little parts order from GT CARPARTS has actually shipped and will be arriving soon.

 

Well, I have had the testarossa for almost 7 years but have only had the GT4 for less than one year. So, I guess the GT4 is exciting to drive because it is new to me and I am still exploring all the things it will do.

In a way, though, the GT4 is closer to my heart because it is the car I always wanted as a teenager. The testarossa is a great car, but when I was growing up the only testarossa was the Testa Rossa with pontoon fenders.

This last weekend I found my self studying the lines of the GT4 for an hour or so, just looking at it from many different angles. I just can't get enough of it.

I am also really thankfull I have a Red GT4. I suspect DStacy will have the numbers, but from what I remember in the 70s, the Red ones were not that common.

I have commented previously on the 205 sized tires and again I have to say these tires are perfect for the car. It is much more 'nimble' and light in the steering with these 'skinny' tires. I don't understand why one would want to detract from the 'vintage' experience with wide, low profile tires. I mean, no matter what one does to the GT4 it will never be an ENZO. It is a vintage sports car, designed in 1973. The reason to own the GT4 is to experience a car with no transistors or computers, no power steering, no antilock braking, no fuel injection, no low profile tires, no paddle shifter, no variable valve timing, etc. All in a package with looks that devy its real age.

 

After drilling out some of my steering wheel screws (http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showpost.php?p=136247322&postcount=177 ) I finally was able to locate some new ones. Seem like it has been forever. While the steering wheel was off I also was able to complete the re-finish job on the leather. The final step was to spray the clear protector coat.
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My jaw is on the ground!!! That interior looks AMAZING!!! The steering wheel looks better than new!. Please feel free to post additional pics if you want... HINT, HINT!!!!

JIM

 

Jim, thanks for the kind comments. I don't know if you read all 20 or so pages but my seats were re-covered by a prior owner. The rest of the leather is eventually going to all get redone with the leatherique components.

I think I saw a post of yours on the rear seat, and that is on the list of things to do. I need to replace the seatbelts, and to get to them I think I need to get that rear seat out. The problem is that this interior stuff should be a winter project, because I want to take the car out and drive it now that the weather is nice. (Too bad I did not touch the car all winter bacause my garage was so cold).

 

I'm going to put heat in my garage just for that reason! I want to do those types of projects over the winter time. Plus it will help keep the moisture out/low.
Let me know if you are ever in Western Ohio, we should get together as I'm in Ft. Wayne.

JIM

 

Recent Photographs
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Recent photographs of the engine (including dust from driving).
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More...

(Still waiting for my little door light )
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Looks great!

 

So, it has been almost one year since I was dealing with the idle jets. Basically the car came to me with six jets marked 50 and two jets marked 45. They were all drilled to 0.6mm and then I re-drilled them to 0.62mm just to make sure they were all the same (knowing they were probably going to be reaplaced eventually). (http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showpost.php?p=135940754&postcount=47 and http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showpost.php?p=136404668&postcount=348)

How did it drive with the enlarged jets? It drove fine. It was a little smoother when cold and then a little less smooth after getting warmed up. It used a lot of gas, also. There was also a little hysteresis in the throttle response (on the way to the floor there was a little less power than on the way back, when doing a smooth power-on/power-off transition)

I have had the new 55 jets for a while but am just getting around to putting them in.

 

I hope this will be the last time I take this off for a while.
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While the airbox is off I checked all the carb nuts. A while back I had a 'fast idle' problem that I think was caused by these nuts being loose after I took the carbs off to clean them.
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Jet removal and replacement was pretty straight forward. All my little O-rings were still in good shape. So, out came the 50s (drilled to 62) and in went the 55s.

I also documented the idle jet screws as follows:

Front bank (Drivers side to passenger side): 4.0, 4.0, 4.0, 4.5 [turns out]
Rear bank (Drivers side to passenger side): 4.25, 4.0, 4.0, 4.25 [turns out]
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I got some new Champion N9YC (the local shops don't carry the NGK) but on inspection of the plugs in the car, I felt they were still good.

Most importantly, there was a cylinder on the front bank that glazed two plugs previously. I thought that cylinder may have had a stuck piston ring, or something that might cure itself with driving. Well, that plug looked fine on this inspection. (that's good because I really don't want to take the engine out of this car at this time)

So, the 308 series represents a big improvement over the 250 series...as I recall, my dad and I would have to change all 12 plugs in the old 250 just about every time we took it out

 

I took the opportunity to replace some of the USA and MEXICO hose clamps with the GEMI clamps I had previously located (unfortunatly I did not have the GEMI clamps when I replaced all the hoses). As I had discussed previously, the car came with SERFLEX clamps, however, GEMI and SERFLEX are now under the same parent company and they wouldn't sell me any of the larger hose clamps with the SERFLEX branding here in the states.
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When I replaced the large coolant hoses I was able to adjust the metal pipe that runs under the carbs so that it did not rub on anything. Well, after some use, this pipe now rubbed on one of the studs that mounts the oil filter housing. I had to re-do a little protector made out of some coolant hose.
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Here is the protector that was previously on my tubing pipe. I thought I could get by without it, but I guess not.
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