I needed a challenge - Took on a project!

Early February this year I did a quick search as i always do for my Dream car. Low and behold I found a project 308 GTSi. The previous owner( a member on this site) who owned this car for the last 30 years was mid restore of the car. Very talented guy rebuilt the engine and suspension looks like no expense spared…

Steve the previous owner is a race car driver now that he retired from his career and I think lost interest in this project ( he had other projects on the go). So I was lucky enough to be able to purchase this vehicle.

I went into this project a little blind as I think I had the money burning a hole in my pocket and it was a chance to own my dream car. I bought the car with the engine installed but not hooked up or running and the car in pieces.


I am lucky enough to own a Collision repair shop and I am a bodyman by trade, so I thought what the hell! I have had the car just over 2 months now and we have striped the car down and have had the engine running. I will try and document as much as I can for anyone who wants to follow the process.
Pictures of how I got the car. rolling and in boxes and boxes and boxes of parts.


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Nice. Welcome to the forum, and congrats on your new project.

 

Congrats! At least it came with the rare and hard to find Compomotive 3 piece wheels, are they 16” or 17” wheels?

 

Thanks Guys, the Compomotive wheels and tires are 17" and brand new. a few more pictures of the suspension and the lower door repairs
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Very nice project! Welcome to the site and please document as much as you can or have time for. We all enjoying drooling over someone else’s progress on the items we want to fix on our own cars as well.

Something to say about Compo’s on a 308, they really make the car look outstanding. 17’s are the desired choice as well, great score.

 

My project is striping the vehicle down and rebuilding the body and paint and trying to figure out where everything go's. I never thought that such a little car had some many parts.
Here is a list of things the previous owner did :

Chassis;

▪ Water/Anti-Freeze Cooling System;

• While the OEM copper radiator was flushed, rebuilt & re-coated, a new aluminum performance radiator (substantially lighter weight & more effective cooling) was purchased & installed in rebuilt mounts. The OEM radiator is in storage.

• All new silicone hoses for water/anti-freeze cooling circuit

• All aluminum cooling rigid tubes were examined & pressure-tested with 1 being

repaired (welded) to ensure that there were no coolant leaks.

• OEM cooling fans (unshrouded design) were replaced with modern shrouded design fans. These new fans have not been installed however their mounts have

been fabricated.

• A new German thermostat has been installed in the engine

• Engine water expansion tank blasted, re-sealed & painted

• High pressure radiator cap

• NFF billet aluminum high flow water pump, far superior to the OEM Ferrari unit

• Under-chassis radiator airflow blocked with aftermarket vented plate to improve airflow through radiator without increasing air pressure under chassis at speed


▪ Engine Oil Cooling;

• Larger racing oil cooler installed as oil temperature is critical to engine longevity

in a Ferrari 308

• Larger oil cooler required fabrication of a new aluminum shroud that would direct

air from the body scoop to the cooler. This shroud was fabricated out of TIG

welded aluminum.

• The OEM oil lines to the engine were replaced with AN stainless steel aircraft

lines with aluminum AN fittings

• Engine crankcase vent replaced with aluminum Allstar unit

o All new industrial grade oil hoses used to replace OEM hoses

• Under-chassis rear cooling scoop added to direct more air to cool intake system

▪ Brakes;

• The “official” Brembo big brake kit for a Ferrari 308 was installed

o Brembo GT brakes installed on front with new rotors/hats

o Rear calipers painted red & new rotors/hats installed


• A new matching master cylinder from ATE was installed to

compensate for longer brake pedal travel due to larger front calipers

• All flexible brake lines replaced with AN stainless steel racing lines

• All of the original brakes are in storage

▪ Wheels/Tires;

• New 17” x 8” Compomotive OEM Ferrari wheels with Michelin performance

tires (purchased in late 2019) installed as these were required to clear the front

brakes



▪ Body;

• Euro fiberglass front & rear bumpers installed with lightweight aluminum mounts

..Euro lower front valence


• NFF aluminum undertray extension & skid plate installed in front of car,

undertray extension improves airflow through radiator & bottom of car

aerodynamics

• New gas cylinders for hood & trunk

• OEM air conditioning entirely replaced with modern Retro-Air system (Ferrari

Kit)

▪ Suspension;

• Modern performance polyurethane bushings installed in all control arms, front &

rear

• Front upper control arms clearanced & reinforced for QA1 double adjustable coil

over shocks

• QA1 double adjustable shocks installed with new coilover springs

• Original Koni non-adjustable shocks in storage

• New front wheel bearings installed

• New front ball joints installed

• New tie rods installed

• Rear wheel bearings are still original & in good shape however OEM new

bearings have been purchased (not installed)


▪ Exhaust;

• New high quality aftermarket European Ferrari coated headers & stainless steel

exhaust system installed. There are no catalytic converters in this exhaust (not an

issue for registration as the car is “old”)

• A stainless steel weld bung has not yet been installed in the exhaust system. oxygen sensor so that the fuel injection system can be

easily calibrated using an off-the-shelf O2 meter


o Electrical;


▪ Birdman window accelerators (not yet installed)

▪ OEM Ferrari alternator rebuilt using high quality components

▪ Birdman fuse box was installed

▪ Brand new OEM Bosch fuel pump


o Engine;

▪ Ignition;

• Electramotive distributor-less crank-triggered ignition installed to provide

adjustment of timing (the OEM Ferrari ignition is calibrated to meet U.S.

pollution specifications, significantly inhibiting performance) & to eliminate the

outrageous cost of tune-ups (replacement of distributor caps, rotors, wires, coils,

etc.) This was a kit purchased from an aftermarket specialist (NFF) in Ferrari

performance improvements.

• Distributor caps removed (no longer needed) & aluminum cam box covers

fabricated by my tool & die maker. This also freed up more space in the engine

compartment to install a larger engine oil cooler.

• New spark plugs, wires & boots

▪ Cylinder Heads;

• New WebCam performance camshafts installed, cam grind is a copy of Ferrari

CIS rally car specification. This grind is not only compatible with the CIS fuel

injection system but it unlocks significant performance while maintaining

streetability.

• Cylinder heads have been flow-tested to establish a baseline, mild pocket porting

was done & then the heads were flow-tested again to substantiate gains. Port

volume has not significantly changed, the improvements were largely achieved by

smoothing the “short side” transition in the value pocket area.

• The OEM intake valves have been replaced by 1mm o.d. larger stainless steel

valves with a superior back-side shape to enhance airflow (common 308

modification)

• The OEM sodium filled exhaust valves (failure prone) have been replaced by

stainless steel valves

• A multi-angle performance valve job was done

• New one-piece OEM bronze valve guides installed along with new valve stem

seals

• Performance valve springs with titanium retainers replace the OEM springs &

steel retainers

• Valve lash set (car comes with factory shim kit & many OEM Ferrari mechanic’s

tools)

• NFF adjustable cam timing pulleys installed (far easier to time cams accurately

than OEM pulleys & designed for modern cam belts)

• Gates racing timing belts installed (modern design that lasts 100,000 km versus

OEM design that last only 5,000 miles or so, very expensive in time & $ to

replace belts if you cannot do it yourself)

• NFF upgraded cam idler bearings installed

• Original cams & idlers in storage

• Valve covers painted Ferrari red

• Valve cover breather assembly upgraded with AN stainless hose & fittings

(original aluminum tubing in storage)

• High quality OEM head gaskets installed


• Seals & bearings for cam drives replaced with OEM hardware

• Air injection plugs in exhaust ports replaced with aluminum pipe plugs

• All new stainless steel hardware used where appropriate

▪ Short Block;

• New OEM cylinder liners installed with factory o-rings

• NFF windage tray installed in oil pan, works very well, installed this before

pulling engine, made a large difference in high-G corners at Mosport on Ferrari

track days

• Std/std Ferrari 360 crankshaft installed (stroke is longer, engine size is now 3.2

litres, crankshaft is >30% lighter than OEM Ferrari 308 crankshaft,


• OEM connecting rods re-sized with new small end bronze bushings & new ARP

connecting rod bolts on the big end

• All new OEM std/std Ferrari engine bearings installed

• Custom JE forged aluminum pistons with chromoly piston pins installed, standard

bore, modern metric 3 ring (including Napier 2nd ring) versus OEM 4 ring design

• Pistons are substantially lighter & stronger than OEM cast pistons

• All block fasteners either replaced with new stainless steel hardware or

refurbished as required

• Short block assembled to Ferrari factory clearances & torque specifications

• Oil pump rebuilt to Ferrari specifications with new relief spring, piston & preload

Spacer


▪ Fuel System;

• CIS FlowTech fuel head installed (original fuel head was sent to FlowTech &

same head was returned cleaned & upgraded to increase fuel flow)

• All critical high pressure fuel lines upgraded to AN stainless hose & fittings

• All non-AN lines upgraded to industrial fuel rated hose

• Fuel hose mounts, etc. replaced with new hardware

• All intake air lines after CIS air box replaced with silicone hose & aluminum tube

• New CIS airbox rubber mounts installed

• New rubber mounts installed for WUR & idle air bypass valve

• Intake manifold air plenum painted Ferrari red

• CIS injectors cleaned & flowed

• Adjustable CIS warmup regulator (WUR) installed to facilitate easy tuning of

fuel/air ratio

• All CIS lines vacuum replaced with silicone

• CIS air filter housing blasted, repainted &

• New fuel filters have been installed

• K&N air filter in OEM housing

▪ Transmission;

• NFF shifter knob installed

• Double lip oil seal installed in oil pan to improve on single lip seal (tendency to

leak oil)

• Double lip oil seals installed on transaxle to prevent oil leakage

• Superperformance shifter gate installed

• Upgraded universal joint for shifter installed on transmission

• Custom balanced aluminum flywheel replaces OEM steel flywheel

• AP rally Ferrari clutch & pressure plate

• All bearings inspected & replaced as required, all critical clearances check &

verified

• All hardware replaced with stainless steel as appropriate

• Axles & OEM Constant velocity joints cleaned & inspected, new boots &

hardware procured,.

Now hopefully we can be driving it by the end of May.


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We LOVE following these build threads. Thank you for posting! There have been lots of engine build threads but not many body refurbishment / paint threads. It will be interesting to follow your progress.

And welcome to the loonie bin! You will love the car once you got it put back together.

 

It looks like you bagged a great project to complete! Looking at Steve's engine knowledge online, he has probably put together a very nice engine around that 360 crank. Not sure what the CIS rally cam is but he clearly knows his stuff and it should work well with the other changes. I would have switched to EFI or carbs but I'm lazy/old so prefer not to learn the intricacies of CIS.

 

This car is going to be amazing! Great project.

 

Dino, you have any more images of the lower door skin removed? I have bubbles in that area and your image is worth a 1000 words! I would love to see how the lower "skin" is attached/replaced with the door frame!

 

Derek: Unfortunatly i do not have a lot of pictures of door repair it is pretty common pratice for us and i only snapped a few pictures just for my own records. I am attaching a few pictures of that. if you have any questions i will do my best to answer them.
We made a patch that we welded just under the lower body line. This picture is just the rough layout we rolled it primed and then welded it on.

Hope this helps!
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Don’t bother buying the pressed lower door panels. My body shop said they are simple curves and starting from scratch is simpler and cheaper.

 

You're the best, Dino! Thank you for the extra images!

 

Just getting some paint in the hard to reach areas, and test fitting a few parts before final paint .Painting the black around the windshield and the front inner fenders and the roof.
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Yellow primer?

 

Yellow Primer??
No We use a grey Primer it is tintable as well. the primer we use is a high quailty urethane primer. and when we are ready to paint we will use most likely a white sealer as a base coat. the car will get 2 1/2coats of waterbourne base and 3 coats of urethane clear coat. will let the car sit for a few days then reclear coat it with another 2 coats to give it depth.
Here is a few pictures of the black being painted semi gloss.
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Ferrari red doesn't look right unless the primer or base coat is yellow. That's what the factory did.

But if you're not going red... Probably doesn't matter.

Just wondered...

 

It is my understanding that the red cars received pink primer in period from the factory which differed to the other colours. As a body shop owner I'm sure the OP will know the correct procedure to get the colour right. That said I'm a little surprised to hear that only 2.5 coats of water borne base is being used because the modern paints have terrible coverage compared to the solvent base coats.

Cool project. I was offered this car a few years back but was not needing a project. Given the build it looks like it went to the perfect home. Good luck with the restoration.

 

Update; We are going to get a coat of paint on the car. a few pictures of my guys doing a heck of a job tapeing it up so no overspray!.
I will post some pictures after its painted.
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A few more pictures of it painted. Next is let it sit a week and the cut and polish.
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Looks really fantastic.

 

Hey Dino.....my question to you as a professional......are your doors, hoods, etc detached pieces painted at the same time as the body? Or I guess my real question to you - can doors, hoods, fenders, whatever is off the car be painted at different times? I mean like weeks, months....considerable time where you might paint a hood and store it until assembly....or is this a bad practice/gamble that usually causes problems, even though you use the paint from the same gallon that was mixed? I could see it being ok if you cut and polish after assembly for a uniformed paint job. Looking awesome there!

 

Hey Derek, All of our parts are painted off the car and most of the time are painted all around the same time. We can not keep paint mixed, waterbourne paints do not keep well - we mix it at the time needed. If you have a gallon of paint and it is stored properly and it is sprayed at the same tempature the paint will match.
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The car looks great! Nice job!

 

thank you, Dino.....you and your team are quite the professionals. Very nice work!