Advice on repair/mechanical restoration budget

Hi everyone!

I’m looking for a bit of advice. I’ve received a quote from a shop for repairing and restoring a Ferrari 328 GTS, and I was honestly surprised by how high the cost turned out . I thought it would be much less, so I’m a bit concerned.

It is true the car is all original, and even though it has gone through reasonable maintenance, it has been pretty much stored in a garage for the last 10-15 years.

Could you let me know if the breakdown of parts and labor seems reasonable or if there are any items that look overpriced? Thanks a lot for your help!

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Labor estimate feels low to me for all the work implied by the list of parts to be replaced. What are they estimating? 40 hours?

did they explain why the car needs new exhaust manifolds? This seems like a good chunk of the parts expenditure

 

I'd like to know why they called it for manifolds as well.

 

The parts prices generally look in the range of reasonable, sure some bits can be cheaper if you hunt around for the lowest prices.

The only thing that stands out is spark plugs for $300. Regular NGK plugs are best for this car. Even if they use iridium or something exotic, that seems high.

The exhaust manifolds dwarf your other costs. Those are not typical replacement items. There must be some story there, and even then repair might be an option.

They may be upcharging a bit on parts, and under pricing the labour, not a big sin to do that. I would try to hold them to their price, having overages for things not going perfectly would not be unexpected, and there may (will?) be some added "while we are in there" things to do.

Given the scope of work, you should have a nice and possibly reliable car when the work is done. The costs are not so bad relative to the value of the car, and at minimum you would have an easier car to sell on with that kind of work already done.

 

~$45-$50 (US estimate) each for spark plugs? Is there something special about these? I think they may be 12mm thread?

Doug

 

I’m also surprised they’re doing all this work and replacing all this rubber but not (unless I missed it) replacing fuel hoses/lines? That seems like I would want to do that if I’m doing such an extensive refresh of all the mechanicals. Nothing scares me more than the idea of fuel leaks.

 

€843.35 for a mirror switch? For 100 mirror switches I could get a pretty decent 328, I think.

Always interesting to see estimates for a decent amount of work on a 40-year old Ferrari; it's often going to be more than you think, then there's the while-you're-in-theres. Honestly, I expected the total to be higher, though I understand labor is less in the EU.

I have to say it: good thing Donnie Callaway isn't quoting this 328 job!

 

The fuel pipes might have already been replaced, so didn't need doing.

As others have said, It would be interesting to know what the deal is with the exhaust manifolds, and why they needed replacing, and the cost of the spark plugs is just bizarre - Even Ferrari don't charge that amount for spark plugs: https://www.ferrariparts.co.uk/part/ferrari/150180

The rest appears to be priced around where I would expect them to be - Just lots of little jobs that add up to a big bill when carried out at the same time, in one go.

 

Lots of padding in this estimate. $322 for spark plugs? 300 for a hose? Why exhaust manifolds? This is a fishing exhibition. They are testing your wallet. Every single part you can price and veiw on the EuroSpares websight.

 

More than a few surprises here; primarily the high cost of some parts; which seem to be offset by the relatively inexpensive labor estimate….considering the amount of work detailed.
Net bottom line, seems reasonable to me….as long as you have some protection from change orders and up-charges.
- Dave

 

Thanks so much for your help, everyone! Regarding the exhaust manifolds, the issue is that there’s quite a bit of corrosion where the manifold meets the engine outlet, and there’s actually some material loss there. I got a look at it myself when they put the car on the lift. What I’m not sure about is how much of the exhaust section actually needs replacing and whether they might be quoting more than necessary, so I’ll look into that.


As for the spark plugs, yes, I’ll definitely check online and talk to the shop about the pricing there.


For the rest of the parts, I also noticed the rearview mirror control cost is a bit surprising, though I have read online that they’re rare and can be expensive. I’ll investigate that as well. If nothing else stands out to you all from the rest of the list, that’s a good sign. After all these repairs, the car should be in perfect shape, but doing everything at once is definitely a big investment.


Finally, the fuel line is a really good point—it does need replacing and hasn’t been changed recently, so that might have been overlooked. I’ll bring that up with them. I also noticed they didn’t mention some minor corrosion on the rear suspension stabilizer bar, so I’ll need to clarify that too. Thanks again!

 

I'm not a mechanic, but it seems reasonable to have a bit of mark-up on parts. Especially on these cars, it takes time to diagnose, look up the correct part #s, order and have parts shipped. In my business, I value my time and time is $.

 

I wonder about the steering rack bushings.

If the bushings are worn to a point that they need replacing (the ones you can see) then why wouldn't they replace the rack as well?

You have to remove the rack or at least detach it to replace those bushings.

I'd remove it... to replace the bushings... Actually I DID remove it to do that, but found the bushings were not too bad, the rack though... completely gone.

 

Thank you very much. That is actually a good point I will need to check with the mechanic.

As for the exhaust manifolds, they are pretty expensive to fully replace. I’m considering whether it’s possible to just cut out the corroded section near the engine outlet and replace that part of the tubing and flanges instead of replacing the entire manifold.


Has anyone here done something similar—basically repairing the exhaust manifold by replacing just a section of the pipe and the connection rather than the whole unit? Any advice or experiences would be really appreciated!


Thanks a lot!

 

When I discovered corrosion/cracks in my original manifolds, I found a set of solid used ones, and after purchase, media blast and cerakote coating, I spent just over $1000 all in. Probably more than repairs would have cost, but I was unable to find someone who was interested in faffing with crusty tubes.

 

I've built and repaired main sets of headers over the years, its not hard. Any race shop should be able to handle it, but the money can add up quickly so finding a replacement set maybe cheaper if there is a lot to repair.

 

The control for the side mirrors is a BMW part and can be found rather inexpensively with some searching on the internet. If you only need to replace the guts or the switches, you have even more flexibility. On my 328, the control worked fine but the joystick "knob" was missing, so I found one of the similar BMW switches on eBay for $15 and scavenged the knob off it. Several BMW mirror controls of the era have similar knobs and internals.

I am convinced many people who work on and restore Ferraris don't have the time to research things, so they price up parts based on availability/convenience. That's why they are charging you almost $1000 USD for a mirror control that I fixed for $15 with minimal effort. Extrapolate that procedure for the rest of the car and it works out to a serious amount of money that could be saved.

The thing to remember, heck repeat it after me, is that Ferrari builds and assembles the car but they do not make auto parts and components. They are not going to open a factory to make mirror switches. So many components on the 328 are generic from other manufacturers and used on other brands of cars. Don't get scammed into thinking this stuff is exclusive to Ferrari.

 

Thank you very much. On the option to replace the whole manifolds, I’ve found significant price differences between the ones offered by Superformance and other alternatives such as Larini Systems or Quicksilver Exhausts. Do you know whether this is strictly due to quality difference? Thanks again.

 

Thank you very much. This is super-helpful. Would you be able to guide me towards the specific BMW part or share some pictures?

 

I'm not AS familiar with the 308 headers, but it's such a tight space in there, I cannot imagine that there is very much difference in design from one to the next. In other cars you have a bit more space to adjust the length of the different pipes and some might scavenge better than others.

Now... installation of different headers... that's the difference I've personally found with other cars. Some headers simply don't line up very well and you have to do a bit of mechanical acrobatics to get them to work. Others are just easier to install.

But since you're not installing them, and I think (as far as I've read) the engine has to come out anyway to install them, that's hardly an issue.

At then end of the day they are steel pipes that have bends in them. There's nothing exotic about them so pick one that fits your budget and go with that one.

At least that's what I would do.

 

Before buying used manifolds, I bought a stainless set from SF, and thought they were just awful in terms of build quality, so returned them. I generally am happy with SF products, but occasionally they get it very wrong.

 

Can you describe what the problem is with the original mirror control? Internal electricals not functioning, or external knobs/buttons missing?

 

No ferrari experience buying headers, but yeah, I've seen a lot of sets in different quality states over the years. I don't think the difference impacts performance much if any once they're installed but sloppy looking welds, warped flanges and such. If their not coated I've ground and reflowed welds to pretty them up a few times and anything 304SS will stay looking decent so maybe worth the bother?

 

Hi there. It’s the internal electrics not working. Based on your experience, how would you manage this? Thank you.

 

Remove the control from the door and look for the BMW markings which will tell us the part #. Post some photos here.

I still have the new control I bought to scavenge a knob from, and I can compare that to your photos. It's possible they are the same or similar enough to allow a swap or use for spare parts.

Many old controls and switches on the 328 can be brought back to life with just a cleaning using electronics spray (CRC or similar, just make sure it's safe for plastic). The contacts may simply be dirty. I just took a look at the switch I bought, and it looks like the back will pry off very easily, which would give direct access to the internals for cleaning and repair. So you may be able to revive the old switch without too much effort.