1979 308GTS - My first Ferrari experience

I've been half-heartedly looking for a 308 for a few years, after many years of lusting after them as a teenager in the 1980s. Last fall, the stars aligned & I ended up buying one on BaT (which always involves some degree of a leap of faith). But I am very satisfied & think I got a good solid car. It's entirely rust free and straight, and compared to others I've seen, pretty clean underneath.

The car has had 2 prior owners, both of which owned it for 20 years each. The first owner (an attorney) drove & used the car often and put approx. 50k miles on it during his tenure. The second owner(s) were two fellows who bought it together as more of an accessory to their wine-importing business, and drove it just 2k miles over the next 20 years, never leaving the city limits. Very little service work had been done on the car during that time period (like 1 oil change, 10 years ago), and although I test drove it before purchase, I was so concerned about the belts that I never started it again after loading it on the trailer, preferring to roll it into the garage rather than risk a timing belt failure.

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I've spent the last 2 months carefully going through the car, reading countless threads here, and waiting for several different shops to rebuild various components. Besides the timing belts, cam seals, valve adjustment, tensioner bearings, fluid changes, spark plugs, fuel lines, etc., I had the radiator rebuilt, replaced all the coolant hoses, rebuilt the radiator fans, blower motors, replaced the fuse blocks, and generally did all the maintenance I that, if ignored, could result in catastrophic failure. I figured that I could recover pretty easily if I was left stranded somewhere because the car wouldn't start or go into reverse, or something else that didn't involve explosions, fire or boiling an engine.

But I did find a lot of little issues as I moved through the car. Broken plastic parts, missing screws, cracked metal tabs, deteriorated rubber mounts, and many others. I replaced what I could with new and fixed the remaining the right way. Although I'm sure that there's still a few gremlins hiding throughout the car, there's no doubt that a great number of future issues have been eliminated (plus, it was a lot of fun to find & solve these little issues!). My confidence in the car has improved considerably, and I have a pretty good idea what I'll need to do in the future.

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Cosmetics are not a major concern at the moment, but there was one issue that I thought I'd address "while I was in there." The front bumper had been hit at some point, and the damage to the rubber was unrepairable. So (after researching threads here), I bought a genuine European bumper and made adaptors to mount it in the car. That turned out great (I love the more streamlined look) but I still have to make the grill smoothly fit into the new shape of the opening.

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Now that it's running again, with an undamaged bumper, I'm dealing with another minor issue. I yanked out the 1990's radio/CD player and HUGE amplifier mounted behind the passenger seat, and am replacing it with an Alpine AM/FM/cassette deck from 1979 (more hours of research to find the right one). As a teen in the '80s, Alpine was the ONLY stereo you really wanted in your car! Lol!

(In the photo below, it's not installed, just sitting in the opening while I see how it looks.)

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I obviously have more to do to the interior, including recovering the panel over the fuses to the correct black, recovering the steering wheel, and fixing the seats, which lack the black stripes for some reason. But that's not a huge concern at the moment.

I've ordered new Michelin XWX tires & am researching how best to refinish the original 14" rims (which is another "while you're doing it" thing, since I'm replacing the tires). We're also going to attempt to recharge the AC system & see how that goes.

But basically, for the next year I'll drive the car and enjoy it, hopefully finding the remaining gremlins and completing the transformation into a very reliable driver. I've already spoken to the shop that repainted my Porsche about a really nice, quality repaint, and I believe we'll roll it into their shop and begin disassembling it late this fall.

I'm sure I'll be throwing up a few questions here & there as I encounter issues and try to learn what's correct & original for the car, and I appreciate all those who have already replied to prior questions. As I said, I'm completely new to the Ferrari scene, and am eager to learn more and experience what makes these cars special!

 

I reinstalled the aircleaner today after repainting it, and I was surprised to find that it runs much better with it on. There sure are a lot of pieces to it!

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I really love the look of the new bumper! Now I need to repaint the window frame, as well as the front fender vents.
What's the correct black for the window frame? Semi-gloss or "trim black"? Something else?

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They looked perfect. Not a single crack. In fact, I immediately wrote "old" on them with my paint marker so that I wouldn't confuse them with the new ones.

 

You're absolutely right. I don't really care what the car would bring at auction, because I have no intention of selling it. And that's not usually like me; I have several cars & when it comes to them, or others I've had in the past, I've always been very focused on not being underwater with them. I usually make a profit.
I'm probably even with this car right now, but I'm already planning a paint job that will be close to 1/3 of what I already have in it. Oh well... I just really like this car!

 

I've driven the car for a year now & have enjoyed every moment. It's been very reliable with a few minor issues (hard cold start, very slow passenger window... that's about it). I've also learned quite a bit more about the car and have a few ideas with what to do in the future.
Here's the thing: I REALLY like this car! To me, it's THE Ferrari, and while I like the newer V8s, I honestly like the look of the 308 more. I also love the interior (switches, steering wheel, instruments, seats, etc.) and carbs of the early cars much more than even the later 308s or 328s. So I'm very happy with the year & model. Ok, if I could swap it with a dry-sump GTS, I'd probably do that. Lol!
Anyway, I got the call from the local Chevy dealer that my place in line to order a new C8 Z06 at MSRP came up, and I could order it if I still wanted. I was really hot for them 2 years ago, but not so much now. So I passed on spending $120k+ on one of those and decided that I'm going in a little deeper on the 308.

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So we started with this. Note the little bondo spot on the nose, where that damage was. Fortunately, it's not very deep & we're going to dig it out and tap the metal a little & hopefully use less filler next time. We're taking it all down to bare metal for the repaint, which we also did on my Porsche 928 (which turned out beautifully). So far, the body is great & the original paint & primer is tough as nails.

I also started building new grills to go with the Euro bumper. It's been quite a bit of hand shaping, fitting and sanding, but that's an easy job when I'm sitting in the shop, watching TV. I made a few extras, along with the mounting tabs, and will offer them to anyone in need.

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Meanwhile, I'm watching all these videos & reading threads on 308s... literally consuming everything I can find about them... and I become interested in the threads/videos of the stroker engines. It strikes a chord in me, since my one negative thought about the car has been "it sure would be nice to have just a LITTLE bit more power". So I start calling & emailing around, asking questions and trying to learn who has the best formula. I eventually reach out to the legendary Ferrari specialist Paul Newman and I really like his approach and reputation. We chat a little & I decide to go ahead and take the plunge on a stroker build using a 360 crank and titanium rods (we'll decide if we're keeping the same bore later). Paul refers me to a source for the parts, and a few days later, they're in my shop, waiting to go with the car to Paul's facility for a total rebuild. Pretty exciting, huh?

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The plan is to finish the paint job, then transport the car to Paul (hopefully early this fall). All of this hinges on the speed of my painters. *fingers crossed

 

A little progress. Body shop tells me that it's amazingly hard paint, which is making it very time consuming.
It actually is a little farther along than these photos show; side air inlets are done on both sides, as well as the rear portion of the roof. (I just didn't take any new photos today.)

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Only a few dings (marked with bits of tape), so I'm really happy with the body so far. Fingers crossed that nothing is hidden under the belt-line.
Discussion with Paul Newman has convinced me to ditch the "diaper" and use a more Euro look, as well as exhaust.

 

Still sanding, but getting much closer!
Actually I was a little worried about what we'd find under that paint, but so far it's been very clean. No rust and just a few little dings; I've seen much worse on a 3-year-old car.

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This was the worst spot, but it doesn't look too bad after we got the filler out. Time for a little hammer & dolly!

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I also finished a few Euro grills & shipped my first one off to a fellow 308 owner. This is a silver/aluminum powder-coat finish, which is very smooth & even. I'm considering a few other versions, such as all polished & a black powder-coat. The 4" horse is an option, as is the smaller version.

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First coat of primer is on, and some body massaging begins!

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Since I'm now in the fast-paced high-stakes Ferrari 308 Euro grill manufacturing business () I decided to try out an idea I've had and build a fully polished one. Although it added a considerable amount of time to the process, I think it really looks great but I'll reserve final judgement until I can see it installed in my freshly painted car. Maybe this is even the version that will look best with a 4" prancing horse emblem.

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It may not be for everyone, but it's a very nice look. It's one of those minor modifications that are extremely easy to change back to original (if you have another grill). Honestly, this would look awesome on a black car! (Let me know if someone wants to try!)
I'm also thinking about a "hybrid" grill that would have the original satin silver finish with thin polished leading edges, and maybe also polish the trailing chamfer edge.

Meanwhile, my car is primed & has been shot with a "guide coat" for sanding. The body shop wanted to let the primer fully cure before they moved ahead on the project, so we'll wait another week or so before more prep work. Hopefully I'll have some new and exciting photos soon!

 

I'm not exactly sure of the process, but it's a different color now. I think we're going for paint next week.

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I'd be happy to help! I just sent you a PM.

 

Painting has been a much slower process than I anticipated. MUCH slower!
But I do understand. The body shop working my car isn't a restoration shop (even though they're personally into hot rods & muscle cars) and the vast majority of their work is collision insurance claims, and they have to give them priority. So the "special projects" just have to wait until they have time. Although it's been frustrating, I know that I'm getting a good deal on a quality job, so I'm not too upset.

Here she is, painted last Friday & rolled out of the booth this morning. Time to get excited about this project again!

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I posted this photo in another thread about eliminating the "diaper" and thought I might as well share it here as a record of my project.

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The panel was supplied by Paul Newman & he did an excellent job with the fabrication. I chose to add "cut outs" for my stock exhaust rather than replace it with an aftermarket exhaust right now. I possibly might change my mind later, but for now I'll go with this.

The entire car has been wet sanded and still awaits the final steps, but it's looking great! We also have to paint the black parts, but that's on the list.

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