Restauro do 328 GTS! :D

Hello Rui,

That work looks SO familiar! Here's the seat bottom from my car, during repairs.

http://www.aubard.us/hvac/HPIM0370.JPG

The Leatherique Crack Filler is really good for small cracks but you may find that you need to have that broken seam restitched so as to be strong enough. The tensional stress on the leather is really high.

Here's the seat bottom of my seat after refinishing.

http://www.aubard.us/hvac/HPIM0373.JPG

Here's the seat back with a fresh coat of finish. The 'paint' is still wet so it looks glossy. BTW, I have found the SEM products superior to Leatherique dye. The color match is better. Then again, Leatherique's black is GREAT!

http://www.aubard.us/hvac/HPIM0372.JPG

Keep up the great work! (And congratulations again!)

-rick

 

Understood Rui. Thanks. And I'm sorry that I have to write in English. It’s the only language I (almost) know.

For our friends world-wide, let me share a little about the projects I now have going. But first, a history lesson. Here goes...

I began looking for a Ferrari in 1996. I've always had a pretty good dose of imagination and that's the first ingredient one needs to own an exotic; You have to have enough imagination to KNOW that that you CAN own one, what with everyone telling you they cost a million dollars, will bankrupt you in maintenance cost, and you can't keep them running more than a few days. And of course, all of these ideas are (mostly) false. One has to get over that paradigm.

In December of 1996 I found an advertisement in a magazine for a 308GTB in Pennsylvania (in the USA). I called about the car and met MR. Phil Tegtmeier. Phil is a broker, past Ferrari dealership manager and a concours judge - and a really nice, trustworthy guy. Phil had the GTB listed and immediately sent me pictures. In 1996 that meant, he mailed me photographs. I still have them. In fact, here are scans of the pictures he sent to me.

http://www.aubard.us/Ferrari/308gtb1_1997.jpg

http://www.aubard.us/Ferrari/308gtb2_1997.jpg

The date in the image name comes from the fact that I bought the car in 1997! I flew from Tulsa (Oklahoma, USA) to Philadelphia (Pennsylvania, USA) to view the car. It was January and REALLY cold. Phil met me at the airport in a beat up old economy car, leaving me wondering perhaps WHY I had just flown 2200km. A few miles and a few minutes of conversation eased my concern. Phil is great. We arrived at a storage unit where I first saw the GTB. It was beautiful! The paint was crazed. There was rust on the door bottoms and quarters. And it was metallic gray (Grigio) with blue faded leather. When Phil started the car, all doubt disappeared! The most beautiful sound I have ever heard roared out of that storage space!

Phil warmed the car up with me riding in the passenger seat. That took quite a while given the dry sump and that the outside temperature was below freezing. Eventually, it was my turn to drive. I was nervous as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs! I had never driven a Ferrari. I treated in gently, as most of us do when first driving an exotic. I doubt that I got past 4000RPM. I was in love.

After a little discussion about asking and actual purchase price, I rode back to the airport with Phil in his crappy economy car, and flew home to Tulsa. I pondered the deal for a few more days, with the howl of the Webers still singing in my ears. I then called Phil and told him that we have a deal and bought tickets back to Philly. One-way tickets this time!

It was just as cold the weekend I went back to Phil to pick up the car. I can still remember the moment like it was yesterday (which is no small feat at my age)! I remember pulling away from the storage unit thinking, "I'm driving a Ferrari. Wait! I'm driving MY Ferrari!!!" I still get cold chills thinking about that moment.

2200km later, through SNOW in the mountains, I was back in Tulsa. I had stopped at my parents home in northern Kentucky for an overnight rest. My mom, then in her 80s, went out to look at the car. She was an artist and teacher. She touched the curves of the car; the NACA ducts, the flow of the fenders (wings), the roof line, and then said, "That's the most beautiful thing I have ever seen." She had obvious good taste. Rui met mom before she passed away. She was a fun old lady.

Today, 14 years later on, I still have the car. It has been restored and is beautiful. And the howl of the Webers still thrills me! Since those early days I have also owned a Mondial QV and have restored a number of other cars. In fact, I like to think I am the motivational force that convinced Rui that he could also restore classics, because he soon after bought a 1960 MGA and restored it to better-than-new. Rui had almost accepted defeat, thinking that he would never own a Ferrari. But his imagination never failed. Somehow he KNEW he would own a Ferrari and... it happened. A 328GTS came along at exactly the right time and at the right price. He 'took the plunge', as we say. Needless to say, he restored that car and it too is better-than-new.

So to complete my long story; I still have that '79 308GTB with the dry sump and fully Standard Specification engine. Service is fresh and its totally restored to great-driver-status.

http://www.aubard.us/Ferrari/Frntqtr1.jpg

Perhaps I will leave the car to Rui in my will. Good excuse for homicide, I suspect. Until that fateful day, I continue to collect, restore and enjoy collectable and exotic cars. Here is the list, as of today.

'09 Toyota Highlander, wife's daily driver
'08 Porsche Cayman, my daily driver
'06 BMW 325, son's daily driver, still registered to me
'03 Land Rover Discovery, foul weather daily driver and tow vehicle
'79 Ferrari 308GTB, see above.
'73 Jaguar E-Type, wife's fun car
'69 R-R Silver Shadow, fun classic currently under restoration
'62 Triumph TR3b, another fun classic, now fully restored

One might call this collection the rolling part of my diversified retirement portfolio. That's my excuse and I'm sticking with it.

Thank you Rui for being a great family friend for 13+ years now, for sharing your home with us, (and ours with you), and for rebuilding my excitement about the Ferrari marque any time it wanes.

regards,

-rick, in Houston, Texas, USA

 

Hi Rick !
I just read your post twice !! It´s great to read about your great adventure with the 308!!
With all due respect to your mother , she was right the 308 is an amazing and beautifull car!!


I would love to follow the Rolls Royce restoration project , since it´s a car that i really like.

I honestly think that it´s a privelige for both of us to have Rui as a friend , because he is a true Ferrari fan !!!!! A true Ferrari 328 fan !!! And a TRUE friend!

He is a good teacher and always looking for perfection !!! And yes he has the best 328 in Portugal !!!

I am very lucky to work with him!!

 

Very nice story Rick !

I like you explanation about imagination

308 / 328 had the most beautiful lines , the golden age of V8´s .


Regards,
Tiago

 

Hello Friends,

Again, I am sorry to have to use English on your Portuguese section. Its all I have. And allow me to say obrigado for the nice comments made by all.

I have a co-worker searching specifically for a 348GTS. Personally, I like the 308/328 lines better but that's personal taste. He's quite serious and is now searching hard for the 'right' car. 348s are quite reasonably priced here in the States. Well, 'quite reasonably priced' on the Ferrari scale.

As for leaving my 308GTB to Rui in my will, I might add: I don't plan on 'leaving Earth' any time soon so Rui, I don't suggest holding your breath while waiting.

'Portogts' commented that he would like to follow the R-R restoration. I don't have a write-up about the car as I have only owned it less than a year, but I do have a bunch of pictures. I use a domain/page to back up my pictures off-site in case of data tragedy at home. It's not a 'published site' but rather, just a bunch of pictures, starting with:

http://www.aubard.us/RR/69_chrome.jpg

The first few pictures are from the dealer where I bought the car - an aborted restoration project. Start at HPIM* for better images. Here's a link to the rest of the pictures.

http://www.aubard.us/RR/

-rick / Houston, TX USA / 2 hours drive from the new 2012 US F1 Grand Prix track!

 

I admire your motivation Rick, just as I admire the motivation of Vitor and Rui, (I'm lucky to know them). They showed me that it is possible to achieve our dreams, since we can think of a way to get there ... and one day I'll get there too !!!!!

good luck for the restoration of Rools!

 

Restoration work continues on the R-R but not on mine. (Sound familiar Rui?) Love of cars and the act of restoration / preservation knows no ownership bounds.

I have been restoring the radio bezel for a friend's Silver Shadow. Hemmo lives in Holland and when he replaced his radio, he sent me his old 'correct' radio for my car. In the box he included the wood bezel because it was in bad condition BUT the bezel would not fit my car. So I restored it for Hemmo to reinstall in his car. Here's how it looks now. I'll send it to him this weekend. What did we ever do before the Internet?!

-rick
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Hello Friends,

Rui has published a lot of pictures of his, and your, restoration and service work. I thought I would now include two pictures of ME doing a belt service on my 308GTB. Nancy took these pictures. Feel free to laugh all you please.
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Hello Friends. Everyone here knows how much of a 'friendship league' our Ferrari passion supports. Today, I'd like to share a short story.

A few months (years?) ago, I planned to put new fuel injectors in my Mondial QV (the one I sold to Ed Helsing). After getting well into cleaning and restoring the FI system, I realized that the old injectors had responded really well to injector cleaner, so I decided NOT to change them. So, here's how the replacement parts traveled:

Ric Rainbolt (in Allen, Texas USA) bought a set of new injectors for his '85 Testarossa. The engine had just been rebuilt. He installed the injectors and tested the engine but was never comfortable that the twin K-Jetronic FI systems were balanced. And after numerous failed attempts to achieve balance, he decided to change the whole system to a modern engine management system. The barely used new injectors, came back out and went into storage.

When I told Ric that I was going to rebuild the FI system in the Mondial QV, he gave me eight of the injectors and a set of new o-rings. Not long after that is when I decided NOT to change the injectors because the original units were operating beautifully.

Just a couple of days ago, Paul Garossino told me that his '85 308GTS QV was going in for a major service and that he was going to replace the injectors. And of course, you can guess the rest of the story.

Today, I gave the new injectors to Paul.

And this got me thinking that many times, this is EXACTLY how fellow owners help one another. We give parts. We share knowledge. We work on one another's cars. And we share and celebrate the successes we all achieve.

Happy Saturday, my friends!

-rick

 

Great story Rick!!

Thanks for sharing with us ! Love the photos!

The RR looks great , i love those cars , i wouldn´t mind having one next to my Testarossa!!

Regarding your friends Testarossa , how did he change the FI system?
Was it easy?

I told Rui that i am waiting for your next trip to Portugal to show you Luigi(that´s my Testarossa nick name)

All the best
Vitor

 

Hello Vitor, et al.,

> I told Rui that i am waiting for your next trip to Portugal
> to show you Luigi(that´s my Testarossa nick name)

Fantastic! Nancy and I are planning to visit Rui and Ana next summer. Of course, this is probably a surprise to them because we haven't discussed it (yet). Certainly look forward to meeting you and seeing that beautiful TR. In fact, I am looking forward to meeting all the Porto Ferrari fans. I just love Portugal. Its surprising that the people of Porto are a lot like Texans! Very friendly, sharing and caring people.

Regarding car names, I usually do not name my cars. My wife does. Here's our list.

'09 Toyota Highlander - Nancy's daily driver - "Sassy"
'08 Porsche Cayman - Rick's daily driver - "The Porsche" or "The Cayman"
'03 Land Rover Discovery - Rick's rainy day driver - "The Rover" or "The truck"
'79 Ferrari 308GTB - Rick's quick toy - "The Ferrari" or "The silver car"
'73 Jaguar E-Type - Nancy's big toy - "Mrs. Peel" (from The Avengers)
'69 R-R Silver Shadow - Rick's BIG toy - "The Shadow" or, to Nancy, "Mother" (from The Avengers)
'62 Triumph TR3b - Rick's little toy - "The Triumph" or "The TR3" or, to Nancy, "Steed" (from The Avengers)

-rick

 

Well , if you really come to Porto , and i hope you do , Carla and i will happily offer you and Nancy a nice dinner at our house ! Rui and Ana are obviously invited !!

I must say that Nancy really likes cars since she drives the E type!!!!!
Has she driven the Ferrari?

All the best
Vitor

 

Thank you very much! We have visited Porto / Rui and Ana numerous times, and they have visited us in the States as well. We are good family friends, on top of being spanner twisting friends. The last time we were there we participated in the Ferrari event at Boavista. Great fun. Love the city, love the kind, passionate people. Surprisingly similar to Texans!!!

Nancy loves the E-Type. To most people, our E-Type is the LEAST desirable variant of the breed. Its the bigger, heavier SIII car (with a V12!). Its a 2+2. It has an automatic gearbox and it has air conditioning. In short, it is and has all the things most Jaguar people dislike. But it is the BEST car for us here in sunny south Texas. Remember, it has been over 100F (over 38C) EVERY DAY this month! And even in traffic and with the A/C on, the car remains cool inside and the engine doesn't overheat! Very un-Jaguar-like.

Nancy has not driven the 308GTB nor has she driven the Mondial QV. She chooses to not drive with a manual gearbox. And again, that makes the E-Type's automatic perfect for her. I'm waiting for the day when someone offers her the opportunity to drive a Ferrari with the F1 gearbox.

Thanks again, for the invitation and all the good words. We WILL be back in Porto, hopefully next summer! Our thoughts right now are to visit Rui and Ana and bring my brother and his wife along. Then after a short visit, travel on to Maranello for a second factory visit - WITH Rui and Ana! Woohoo!

Best regards,

-rick (and Nancy

 

That sounds great !!! I´m sure Rui will love it!!
We will be waiting for you , Nancy , your brother and wife!!
I hope your brother likes Ferraris!!!!

It seems that your Jaguar is great!! It´s a very good looking car !!
But your RR looks amazing , it must look good next to the 308!!!!

All the best
Vitor

 

I love cars! And even though its hard to say in a Ferrari Chat session, my daily driver is mighty nice too! (It's a Porsche Cayman. Gotta love mid-engine.)

 

Yes , the Cayman is a very good car!!
You have a nice selection of cars!! Congratulations !!

When i was younger , i used to pass by a house near the beach , that had in the garage a Testarossa and a RR like yours .

For me that was my dream garage!!