Automotive International 1978 308 GTS - Complete Restoration

Just an observation, I know the parts book shows a mounting for the evap suction fan, but it is not what is found in the 78-79 308 engine compartment photos I have. I replaced my original mounting with new and one photo is of a 1912 mile 79 308. FYI

 

Peter,
The work looks great !
Hope you’re doing well.

Skipp

 

Richard,

We are flattered you looked at the work so closely. Our commitment to detail is extremely high. You raise a great point. We agree with both of your comments, the parts book shows what may be cups and then we reflect on the dozens of 308 we have worked on; some have the cups and some do not. Of the ones we have assessed over the years for what is "original to the car" the question is "would it have been changed since the factory"? In most cars, independent of mileage, there are things that no one would have change without a failure. This is not a component even on a 20K mile car would probably need to be change unless something else required it. So why is it there so often? You have a 1750 car without them? We had to make a judgement call. We have worked on hundreds of vintage Italian, British and German cars that are considered limited production run by todays standard or coach built, like this 308 yearly production. The one consistent is lack of uniformity in parts or construction, especially none critical pieces like the cups. Or many times using a similar part but not the exact same one. So we concluded, right or wrong, the intent was to have the cups but the production continued whether they were available at the time or not. Did we make the right decision? Did the cars with the cups we have seen, relatively low mileage need them added after production? Why do they seem to be in the parts manual? The joy and challenge of vintage car restoration and decision!! Do not know if we made the right decision, if someone has more insight we always seek to better understand. Thanks for the response.

 

Skipp

We are all dong great here thanks for asking. Just stressing on getting the 308 done for Cavallino next Saturday! Stop by sometime.

Sincerely
Peter

 

Four days before we are on the trailer for Palm Beach. Got the windshield in, painted and installed the belly pan and the access panel. Now working on the inner fender wells. Undercoated the rear fender wheels and will install today. Installed the front wells, seam sealed and undercoated.

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Will do. Good luck in Florida.

 

Getting some more assembly done on final trim pieces as well as engine components and verifying our yellow market paint has been applied. Hoses are being sorted and cleaned as needed in preparation for install later tonight or tomorrow.

Tomorrow will be a long day but we should see more visual change.

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Don't forget the decal on the overflow tank. : )
I know... I am sure it is on your list of things to do...

You guys are doing an excellent job!

 

Not trying to be too anal, but the rear engine support strut should have yellow cad plated locknuts with cad plated washers. The bolts also enter from right to left.

One of many things I had to do prior to Vintage Concours Judging in 2018. I had to replace my bushings which were shot prior to judging for Platinum. I got the Platinum in 2018.

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Richard

Thank you for the excellent feedback. We made decals, several actually for many needs, and will put on decals last as you understand. We will look into the bolts/nuts tomorrow. Any other observations are appreciated.

Sincerely
Peter

 

Over all you did a very good job. Carb 308 is just a little out of my area of best expertise and have had no time to study up but you asked.

The other guy was right. The vacuum pump mounts are wrong. Here is a picture, same part number always used. With few exceptions you will not see silver split lock washers, just black oxide. I noticed them on the distributors. Yellow proof marking paint is very often over done...your is and many judges get a little turned off by it. I didnt go over every piece but it often gets put places where the factory never used it. Better to not have it than over do it. The suspension parts, brake backing plates and vapor separator are too glossy. There are a million gradations of glossyness to black so often it gets over looked if it close but I think it is a little too much. I cannot see the hose clamps or the distributor wiring very well but those are 2 places that are often not what they could be. Torque strut, yellow zinc bolts and yellow large flat washers. Yellow zinc nylocks. Your bolts look a little short to have nylocks on them.

I do a lot of study for an event prior to going and did not study for this but these are just off the top of my head. Its a great looking car and you did a bunch very well.
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Brian
Thank you for your feedback. Did not expect you to study up just your initial reaction and thoughts based on your experience. We have done a couple years of studying/research and are still refining our understanding on this exact model, which like other near VIN numbers has attributes of a 77 and a 78 model since it was so early in production. We will continue to refine as more insight is gleaned and verified. Thank you again. All input from people who worked on them for a significant period of time is valued.

Sincerely
Peter

 

Another late night, another day closer to completion. Mike, the primary technician getting her back together, got the inner fender wells in place, most of the remaining weatherstriping and rubber trim installed, the new front belly pan installed and the wheels back on. On Saturday the team got the engine fired again and checked all the gauges....so far so good. Lights are all working. Set the car on the ground and time for the interior to get installed.

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The engine nears final. A few more minor parts will be swapped tomorrow to complete.

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Beautiful, great restoration! keep it up you almost got it nailed.

Best from Spain,
John.

 

Almost there, car is in trailer, few minor Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login parts will meet us in Florida! A few late nights of last minute firefights.

 

Looking great, your team's done some amazing work on this car. But what's with that spare tyre? It looks out of place to my eyes..

 

I suspect that spare tire is either a good nature prank or the product of some very comprehensive and defensible research for the judges. We'll see

 

I'm not judging the 308s in Cavallino, so I'll comment here.

Spare tires must either be the original tire, or they have to match in brand/model/size to what is mounted on the car.

The only exception is for spacesaver tires (not the case here for a US 308). Judges have to give a bit of leniency on that one, for obvious reasons.

 

Just awesome work. Beautiful.

A question that is gnawing at me though is how still, after your fanatical cleaning of aluminum parts there is still light discoloration on some pieces such as on the thermostat housing? What happens to the aluminum as it ages that makes the stains impossible to completely remove?

 

First we want to thank everyone for the feedback and compliments. Final round of pics will come Friday as it is supposed to rain here in Palm Beach tomorrow. We will get her off the trailer on Friday for showing Saturday. As Michael said matching the other tires is a standard for judging, which this one does. The tires we chose have white lettering on one side which is the back side of all the mounted tires. And as most know the full size gets mounted in the bonnet front side down. Thus the lettering being seen and no leniency required as it meets all requirements. Having said that we agree with the visual impact which prompted the responses. We had the same reaction when we dropped it in. All the tires were mounted months and months ago. The devil is in the details!!!! So we may flip it for aesthetics tomorrow.

 

Great work. Thanks for posting the pictures. I have really enjoyed following this thread. Best of luck at Cavallino!

 

Cavallino is behind us as is the four days of rain we all shared there. The great news is everything worked perfectly on the car, no mechanical issues at all. Judges and participants were highly complementary of the car, the attention to detail and the quality of the work...however no Platinum :-(. We will get the detailed comments about why not in two weeks. The axiom of all new endeavors or undertakings of: you know what you know, You know what you dont know and need to figure that out, however there is always the you don't know what you do not know and that is the most unknown held true for us it seems. So we will see what we did not know. We did not get great pics because it was always raining. Loading, unloading, on the field....rain. So I will share these pics and get good final pictures of the car this week to post. And of course share what we learned in a few weeks.

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Beautiful entry. I don’t remember but did US carb cars have the horizontal louvre section on the rear bonnet? I thought that was added later for additional cooling for cats.

 

Unbelievable. It will be interesting to learn what the judges deductions were. Fantastic restoration.