Extremely Early 308GTS with Metal Side Louvres?

There is an early 308 GTS getting a cosmetic going over at a local shop. It's engine model and number is F106AE *0004*

I'm gathering this is the fourth engine ever built of this run?

The thing I have never seen before is what are normally plastic side louvers, the louvres that cover the rear quarter glass and gas filler, are actually beautifully made of metal.

Has anyone seen this before?

 

78 GTS - metal here. Yes they are beautiful. I was not aware of them changing to plastic.

 

My 84 GTS is plastic

 

my ex 308 which was the second GTSi for MY 1980 was plastic

 

My 78 has aluminum louvers, also. I've always assumed the all black louvers I saw on later cars were just anodized everywhere.

 

sounds like it was something else changed for the 80 model year onward along with everything else

 

Don't think I've seen that, my 84 Euro has plastic but the edges are silver.

Are the metal ones anodized, and do they fade over time like the emblems?

 

I am going to start paying more attention to this little detail from now on

 

'79 GTS, plastic.

 

Yes anodized. They are a touch faded on mine, but not nearly as bad as say the trim which has more of a purple-ish hue to it after 35 years. Honestly, when I cleaned them up they looked almost new.

 

Mid 1980 & plastic here. I wonder if this change was at the same time as the move from vertical console dials for clock & oil temps to horizontal. Mine are horizontal.

 

You must be kidding, Paul, that would be way too easy and logical...
And now we have another riddle to decipher.

Rgds

 

Sept 78 Euro 308 GTS. Aluminum louvers.
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I want that car!!!

 

1980 was the only year for the vertical dials. They went side by side in 81

That looks so much better too. I have always wondered why on earth they didn't just do that to begin with when they moved them over there in 80

 

Can someone post the P/N's for the alum metal side louvers?

 

They went side by side in 1980 Tommy. Maybe mine was the first to go that way. Who knows. But definitely 1980. It seems they made the decision pretty quickly; there must have been complaints that it was ugly.

 

You are right. Whilst not Kanban in the factory circa 1980, they would certainly have had some reasonably logical stock-use procedures. They would limit waste by installing all the ones they had left in the parts bin before moving to the new designs.

 

It was only the 1980 model year I promise. They moved the two instruments over from your left knee where they had been since the beginning. 1980 was the first year for injection and that brought a bunch of other changes (seats, etc) - and the dial relocation. Only in 80 did they stack them on top of one another on the front of the console. Beginning in 81 and from there on they were side by side on the console.

What is your chassis # ? Perhaps it is a later 80 model when things were in crossover on the assembly line. That happens from time to time.

 

my car, 78 Euro GTS, plastic louvers....

 

Early 80gtsi, plastic.

 

My 78 GTS has metal.

 

Same as the change from Konis shocks to Bilsteins for the late-models 328s: that one still eludes me! There is a service bulletin saying that from car "79xxx" Koni shocks are replaced by Bilsteins, except that you still find Konis on some cars until the end of the 328 production, and Bilsteins on some others, without any logic by markets (Euro vs US) or by model (GTB vs GTS)...Grrrrrrr!

Rgds

 

That the verticals were in 1980 I don't doubt. But the switch to horizontal was also in 1980, just later in the year.

 

probably so