New 308 GT4 Owner

Hello! Some of you may have read my story in another thread, but I just became the new owner of a 1975 Dino 308 GT4. It's a US model, so it has the ugly bumpers and side markers, but I'll survive. The car literally needs nothing, it's in fantastic condition and extraordinarily well documented. It's red with a tan interior, but, that's not the original color. Included with the heaps of records, receipts, and other documents is a set of photos of the car when it was still green. I do plan to revert the car back to its original color, and that's where I need your help. Is there some place I can find the original color name and code? Or, does anyone know that info? I've been (and still am) a "Porsche guy" and I can find out just about anything on those cars in seconds. I've been a Ferrari fan my entire life as well, but never owned one until just a few days ago, so I'm very much in the learning phase of knowing the best places to find information. I've attached a photo of the car as it is now, and some old photos of the car before it was repainted. Thanks for your help!

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This thread might be helpful. Looks to be verde pino to me.

All Dino 308 GT4 body colors
https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/index.php?threads/All-Dino-308-GT4-body-colors.395242/


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Oh wow, that's actually my car in the thread, posted years ago by the person I bought it from, but shortly after he bought it (it was painted red when he got it too). Thanks for sharing that link, very helpful!

 

Verde pino is a great color IMO and pretty rare. Hope you are able to put it back to its original color at some point.


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I'm sorry, but is that a Countach back there?

 

Yes, that is a Countach. That’s at my mechanic’s shop. [emoji4]


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That is definitely the plan. I want to thoroughly enjoy for a while, then get it back to green. I’m thinking within two to three years it’ll be back to the original color.


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Christopher, what`s the chassis no.?

 

Would love to own a Dino 308 GT4 to keep the Quattrovalvole Company! Saw a red one parked at the “natural foods store” two years ago and absolutely beautiful in person. Any of you remember the fools that we were 8-10 years ago? A white GT4 came up for sale in the Seattle area for something like $3500 and we were all playing hot potato instead of making a purchase. So dumb. Guy from the Seattle area finally (reluctantly) purchased the car. Wonder whatever happened to it?

 

10388


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yes, Verde Pino Metallizzato 106-G-30

 

Glidden Salchi

 

Amazing! Would love to know how you found that, if you're willing to share your secrets.

 

Congrats and enjoy! Great cars! You’ll be very glad you made the purchase, your only regret will be you didn’t do it sooner!


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Welcome to the family DyerDude! When you get er, we'll go up 9, across 35 and then down 84. Two red/tan GT4's.

 

Welcome to the rabbit hole, er, club! A wonderful and unique automobile, for sure.

I am about a year ahead of you on the timeline. A long-time air-cooled guy who has always admired Ferraris, this is my first one. I too started with the "drive and enjoy" mindset. For various reasons, my engine is now completely disassembled and in the process of getting a full rebuild. Since the engine was out of the car, I wanted to do a "refresh" of the engine compartment. That has now evolved into what will likely be a bare-metal respray.

As a Porsche guy, I'm sure you understand the importance of the whole single-stage paint thing. These cars were all done single-stage back in the day. It is now extremely difficult to find a painter who will do it, and knows what they are doing. Being in Cali with the benefit of having several great painters who do single-stage, you will likely have no issues finding someone. After a long search, I think I found the last guy in my area who will shoot Glasurit and knows what he is doing. He is old-school and has been painting a long, long time.

I know the pros and cons between the two. Most paint shops will tell you that you can't tell the difference. That is total BS. To me, the difference is night and day, but you will have to decide which way you want to go.

My car is currently Rosso Corsa, which I believe is original. I am secretly hoping that I will find Verde Germoglio underneath as the red comes off! I've debated just painting it the color of my choice. Ferrari people seem to not care too much about color changes, as long as it is a factory color. Porsche people, on the other hand, will pretty much write off a color change car as worthless.

Enjoy!

 

I would be surprised if the metallic colors offered were single stage originally.


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I believe there was still acrylic clear
Look in the workshop manual. Pretty sure I saw info there.

 

Yes, the original metallics were offered in single stage, but that was problematic, as Porsche found out. The early singe metallics were not very hardy and failed in short order with a lot of sun exposure. I guess I should have provided a caveat, that since his car is a metallic, that he will likely want two stage for the sake of durability.

In that vein, all modern cars from just about every manufacturer, especially American and Asian, use way too heavy metallic flake in their paints. I really dislike the modern metallics, and it is harder and harder to find new cars in solid colors other than black or white. Even those are often metallic.

A lot of painters tend to do the same, and you have to be very clear with them that the amount of flake in the paint has to be in line with the very fine level of metallic flake added to paint in the 60's and 70's.

 

All paint formulas have an accumulation guide (accum guide) giving exact weights of each percentage of formulas, this includes amount of metallic flake which also includes type of flake, course, medium, fine etc. Air pressure will change the way the metallics lay or (flop) and a number of test panels should be sprayed out at different air pressures and tested against existing paint to get the correct look. Just randomly adding metallic flake to your mix is the recipe for throwing out a ton of expensive product. Don’t know anyone who does this, maybe back in the 50s?

 

Congratulations! Lovely car, welcome and a great plan. I also joined from years of Porsche ownership. They’re both great but very different which is fun.

John