Tail lights swapped

Unreal -

So - when I bought my car, I remember them telling me "We swapped your lights to the correct position".

Today - I was surfing Ferrari's site, and I saw this:

https://www.ferrari.com/en-US/auto/308-gts

The order should be - Signal/Reverse - Brake - Brake - Signal/Reverse.

And my lights are Bass-Awkards of these lights. ****. Another project. Ordered new light gaskets from Superformance. I guess it's another project to get my car sorted.

 

Yup. It's not that uncommon to see 308/328s with the lights backwards with the brake lights on the outer side. Often it is a result of a body shop removing them for paint/repair work and forgetting which way they came off.

Cheers,
Gordon

 

Are the light modules easy to remove/replace? Is it not possible to reuse the same gaskets?

 

No need for new gaskets but you need a very long socket

 

It was my understanding that, for certain non-USA (i.e., "other") world markets where these cars did -not- have rear side marker lights, the rear lights were intentionally reoriented to place the red lights on the outside, with the amber lights on the inside.

This reasoning was so that, at night, the outboard rear red running lights could then also be seen from the side. Thus allowing them to somewhat serve as pseudo rear side market lights, adding some additional night driving safety value.

It makes sense to me.

But is it Fact or Fiction?

 

+1 -- Or a nut driver with a hollow shaft for the super long studs on the lenses to go into. And be very gentle tightening those nuts as easy to pull the studs out of the lens (especially on a brittle, 40-year-old lens).

 

Box spanners are what we call them in the UK
https://www.toolstation.com/box-spanner-set/p59905?store=B6&utm_source=googleshopping&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=googleshoppingfeed&gclid=Cj0KCQjwse-DBhC7ARIsAI8YcWJ2q2FMWRV6C_LTvJ19pHwhbcEIal49E7mMqTejmgIuiL-01am94GQaAiMeEALw_wcB

 

Yes, that's the theme, but a nut driver has a molded handle (like a screwdriver) on one end (so that helps limit the torque applied -- although just using your fingers on one end of those box spanners, or even using a hex key to extend the reach and be the drive, would be about the same):
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Like this?

https://www.harborfreight.com/hollow-shaft-metric-nut-driver-set-7-pc-69238.html?cid=paid_google|||69238&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=&utm_content=&gclid=Cj0KCQjwse-DBhC7ARIsAI8YcWJrP4ipE5jN7hb2hiRYkSHmx1pEZ7vqZKRZlE4S0NjH0DOHs9rpxFIaAoqdEALw_wcB

 

Yes (but I prefer ones with longer metal portions and somewhat smaller handles). My (foggy) recollection is that I had to cut off some of the plastic handle to have enough reach thru the access hole in the chassis to get to the nut.

 

Good point Steve I just hand tighten them to collapse the soft gaskets

 

+1 -- if using a deep socket and an extension, probably best to just use your fingers to turn the extension (no ratchet).

 

What a deal...how can they be made so inexpensively? or should I say cheaply

 

Ask China

 

Well, my Euro 84 GTS QV has the amber lights on the outside and brake lights on the inside, and no side marker lights. Every photo of an original Euro spec 308, 76-85, is the same amber on outside, brake lights on inside...

 

I've dealt with the deep socket issues - I have an original Ferrari license plate mount.

There's no way to remove the fiberglass board in the trunk to have more access to the rear?

 

That won’t work you need a deep hole in the socket because the nut goes at least 3/4” past the end of the threaded rod I press fitted my socket in to a 5” long tube with a handle on the end and that works very well

 

Maybe you missed that those have hollow shafts. They should work great unless the bolts are too thick to fit inside the shafts.

 

Yes I missed that if the are 4 mm or more you are ok

 

Total fiction - In 43 years of following all things Ferrari, and 308/328 GTB's/GTS' in particular, I have never seen a single factory picture of any of them with the rear/brake lights on the outside, and the indicator/reverse lights on the inside.

The only factory variation on the rear lights are the vetroresina cars, which have rectangular reversing lights mounted in the rear bumper, and Amber only indicators (mounted outside of the rear/brake lights)

 

I agree. That said, I recently learned that the factory did play with the order of rear lights to accommodate certain markets on at least one other car. It looks like the order of the six rear lights on the 365BB is different on German cars. Maybe that's where the confusion is coming from for th
308?

 

Did you look at this link?

https://www.ferrari.com/en-US/auto/308-gts

I mean - isn't that the factory?

 

I noticed something strange - in the pics of the U.S. 308, sometimes the Pininfarina emblem appears on the left side, and sometimes on the right. It was never on both sides, was it?

 

That's a very good question, thanks for asking!

The first few 308gtb had the Pininfarina badge on their right side. From mid 1976 they changed it to the left side, where it stayed until the end of production.

Now there is at least one 308GTB with two badges, it's the one that was sold to Leonardo Fioravanti, who was the designer in charge of the 308 at Pininfarina. That car is currently in Japan, where I have seen it a few weeks ago, and I can confirm it had the logo on both sides, as well as a few other interesting features, like the fact is was fitted with 16 inches wheels well before this became an option.

 

Interesting factoids, thanks.