1977 308 GTB

I am the owner of a 1977 308 GTB which is fairly original and I'm trying to find out as much as I can about the cars previous owners and other information so I can enter it in concourse events and generally have fun in the process with my two sons, who are both car crazy. I am not sure what I need to obtain, what information I can legally obtain and the process I need to go through. I am a member of both the FCA and FOC.

Information on the vehicle:
1977 308 GTB
Chassis # 22173
VIN # F106AB22173
Color: Azurro

I am told the vehicle is very low, the lowest 308 seen by my independent service facility in San Diego, even after the refreshed suspension. I am also led to believe that the car is not a full steel vehicle, but appears to have some intermediate fiberglass components.

All of this is useless information unless I can back it up with fact. I have purchased a number of books dealing specifically with the 8 cylinder cars and in particular the 308s

I bought the car from its previous owner, a Mr. Bill Withers who lives in Phoenix, AZ, though I know it resided in San Diego previously. I was also led to believe it belonged to Skip Barber at one stage. The first owner is listed in the service books as "Ernest Jackson Peterson" and was delivered by Continental Motors in Colorado Springs
on 11/16/77.

When I got the car in 2005 it had just over 10,000 miles on the odometer (the mileage appears to be consistent with the service records) and now has just less than 14,000 miles on it.

I have had some engine work done, including changing out the points for igniter's, redoing the suspension, and motor mounts. The spare wheel appears to be original and does not appear to have ever been used. I also have the original wheels and tires, though not on the vehicle at present. I know the wheels are original as they are referred to in the service book as having the stamping "227" on them, meaning they were made in the 22nd week of 1977.

I have just had the audio system serviced, which now works perfectly and gets better AM reception than my daily driver E350 Mercedes. It is a Blaupunkt Bamberg that comes with a microphone, which I assume was too early for Karaoke.

As an aside I also have a black/black '04 360 Spider manual shift and took delivery of a F430 Spider, which my two sons built from the 'spec' sheets at the dealer in San Diego. In fact they both signed the build sheet as I did not get to choose anything on the car.

The 308 is our family project car and the others are special too with each car getting driven once a week or so.

Looking forward to hearing from anyone with advice.

Sincerely,

Steven Schraibman, AIA, CPE

 

Welcome!

Let me be the first (?) to encourage you to post pictures

One way to tell the fiberglass cars is a join on the A pillar, near the roof.

You've had it for 3 years and haven't wanted to confirm its fibreglass until now?


There is also dedicated sections for:
308/328/Mondial
http://ferrarichat.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=55

and an Arizona section that may help with what you are after.

cheers,
Greg

 

I live in San Diego and have a lower vin 76 #20621.

 

Your car is steel. "22173 308 GTB (steel) US LHD 1977 light blue metallic USA" see http://www.r-design.net/308/index_e.html

 

I have #22127, pretty close to yours.....sadly the Owner info is pretty hard to reconstruct unless you get lucky and find the Warranty Card Book, it'll list the date it was sold..owner and dealership...

I also have newer #22641, and much older #20405, both steel cars...

"Steel" refers to the roof and door and quarter panels, we have plenty of 'glass components, floor, rear lower quarters, front valence, etc, that the Factory used during assembly until inventory was exhausted.....by #22641 even my lower front valence was three steel panels, not so on the earlier cars...

Welcome to the site, man......

 

Actually Richard,

You are right, my #20405 is 1976 production date, titled as '1977' when sold.....LOL!

Rereading your post you have the Warranty Book great!

FCA judges will know all about your various construction details, no worry on that....

 

PSA, no affiliation, http://www.copart.com/c2/homeSearch.html?_eventId=getLot&execution=e1s2&lotId=26246842

Gorgeous color combo, ouch...
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Doesnt look so bad. Hope that there isnt frame damage though.





PDG

 

First, Welcome Steven!

I have #21039, the first place to look would be www.fregister.com , it will give you some information on the car. Next I would be to try and find a name of an owner who might have been on this site. You can find out a lot of things about your car if the owner posted here through the years.

Let's see some pictures.

 

VERY repairable - it would appear that someone has already started - the cut of the bad quarter-panels is VERY clean, and the area appears to be well-prepped for repair and re-assembly.

 

Your car is registred in the 308 GTB Register http://www.r-design.net/308/D/index_d.html
But there are not that many information about the car. Did you register the car?

 

You guys check the date, the OP is not here, and the car is now "Salvage"....

This makes me rather angry.

What has happened (and I have BEEN thru it) is the the insurer's do not want to repair the car against it's "current value", it's a big numbers game.

And it's also in the owner's "perspective".....the deal is the NEW front clip is $7K, the part.
To install and paint it, you are looking at $20K using the Dealer.

Game over.

Now, look at that mileage, look at the condition of the car....a "real world "repair using a used fender and partial respray, this car could roll again for maybe $10K.

But it's now "Salvage"....sad.

 

He didn't even wrinkle the hood.

There may be minimal frame deflection (in the small sub assemblies, the main ovals are tough as a bridge railing)..

But if so, the insurers would not want to play further....and so ends the life of an ever more rare car.
That car is an EXACT match, for my later #22641.

Somebody PLEASE buy it and save it, I'll help in any way I can.
Perfect bumper, perfect windshield.....I'm sorry he did not fight harder to save it.

He could have taken the insurance check, (my carrier would have PAID at $20K claim against $30K Stated Value policy) and then gone to work with a Body Shop.
Lack of knowledge, or spirit, I guess.

EDIT:

I couldn't stand it, I called his office.... He was not in, but an associate talked very fondly of this car (prior owner maybe?) and he said it was definately "Parts availablilty" that caused the insurance to declare it a "loss"....I urged him to try to get Steve to get it back. I also mentioned Gary Bobilieff as a resource, they knew him. A Mercedes restoration shop was the ones that didn't know "where to find the parts".....

 

There is no way that the insurance company called this a total with only front fender damage. There must be more. IMHO that is.

Pretty color combo, what a shame. The salvage title is the kiss of death.

 

Hey big tex- I agree with your comments above. Keep me posted if you know more or hear back as this may be interesting. Once a salvaged title any way to bring it back from the kiss of death? If one was to own it can you insure a car on salvage if properly restored?

I think this may be a good thread to split from Stevens since it is his first post and would hate to hijack his initial comments. There are others here who could help him. With that welcome Steven to the chat.... happy to see AIA.... Erik

 

Aren’t we missing the thread here, the poor guy at the top thinks he owns 22173 with 10,000 miles on it. What’s the story here?

 

Stephen,

Here's the disconnect: This is a revised thread from several years ago when he first bought the 308. Now it is crashed and salvaged titled and for sale. 4re Nut found it on Copart, tied its history to this thread via the VIN and here we are.

Too bad for the OP. Looks like he had taken good care of his 308 (other than a bizarre choice of tires). It probably broke his heart when it crashed or, more likely, was crashed into by somebody else.

Jeff

 

Should have noticed the date !!! I'll read slower next time.

 

Good job BigTex! About that salvage title... It seems to me that the "shame of it all" is that this car has been put in a position to be broken up for parts, not necessarily that the car now has a salvage title in its history. I think the subtext of your plea is that the history of this car is known and documented, so if the car still has all the books and records it should maintain its value, or better, if it is repaired well, perhaps even to better-than-new Newman standards. Am I right?

I have no affiliation here, so I will say that at it's current, as of this writing bid of $5100.00 this car has a lot of potential for a new owner interested in putting it back on the road.

I wish I needed another project!

 

Man - this could be an amazing project car for someone if there is little (correctable), or no frame damage. Wish I had a larger garage. : )

 

Salvage title is the sticky part. Many states handle differently. I though I heard of one that will not allow on the road, others require safety inspections, CA used to require what they called a brake and lamp inspection. I think with detailed photos and a reasonably far tear down with solid photo documentation the car could be brought back and sold. Not at full value as someone would purchase a non salvage all other items being equal. That's the issue. Now if it was restored to a high level it could have a future if values rise steeply. It looks like a great opportunity for a skilled body man. It will be a project though.

Would be nice to see it picked up as a project and restored.

As to the books and tools being included. The odds are miniscule. Either the PO kept them or someone at the salvage yard took them. One might be able to contact the PO in advance and make a deal to acquire them if one purchased the car, the PO was passionate about the car and i'm sure would be helpful in making the package viable again.

If I had a barn for storage, I'd consider to hold until I had time to make it come together if the price were right. As Big Tex said, a repair to the damage with blended in paint would put this car in driver catagory until such time as someone wanted to take it further.

 

hmmm right over my head as well. Did not realize this was an old thread re-started given the sadly new circumstance.

 

This is my truck after a side swipe. They wanted to total it because it involved the fender and the door (2 panels). If its 80% of the value to repair, its totaled.

 

After studying the photographs, both front wheel seem to be tracking the same.... it may not even have suspension damage. So I guess it's anyone's guess why it was salvaged. A good body man could fix that in 2 weeks. But the awful salvage title remains.

 

My apologies for not clarifying that I bumped an old thread.

That said, glad to hear folks believe it is a relatively easy repair...someone please save this gorgeous GTB!

TIA.