Factory Restoration of 1983 308GTS 45563

Go for it Matteo !- Keep us posted too, I'll definately follow this thread. I also have a 308 (85') and I understand your love of the car. Mine is very special to me as well, I'd love to be able to do the same thing someday.
Steve

 

now your starting to think straight..

 

+1

 

Napolis has quoted transport costs alone, for his fun at $30K per car.......IIRC.

You could just look around for a 600 mile car and break even!

Good luck with the adventure though, just think if he stayed home!

 

I have a customer of mine owns the last lambo Countach that was restored by the factory..before Iaccoca shut down this part of the company. He has a signed letter from Iaccoca himself stating the car to be the last one.

Bottom line..it cost him almost 250k by the time it was back in his garage, not including the cost of the car.

 

+2

 

Matt, I've been in your car and it's pretty damn near perfect as far as 308's go.

Actually, I'm pretty sure the factory would throw a good detail on it, charge you 40K+ and ship it back with a certificate; nobody would know the difference.

You're a good guy but lets not blow smoke here.

Otherwise...
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survey? how did it originate or did you guys inititate contact to get the survey?

I don't get all the hostility. matt said he's gonna do something and will be posting updates. If he doesn't, then we call him out, until then STFU.

 

Guys,

Listen, I have been thinking about doing this for awhile. I did the interior myself last Nov and while I liked the job I did. I was kicking myself for not having a professional do it.

While my car is indeed pretty correct and clean, The little things like were bugging me. I love my 308 and I want to keep it as nice as possible.

I am the second owner of my car. It has all the book, tools and receipts from day 1.

Why not preserve the car the best way I can? Just because it's a 308? Just because it's mine? Just because they are a dime a dozen on eBay? It's my car and I want to make it the best car I can.

When the factory announced the certification program, I had decided I wanted to get my car certified for a number of reasons. Value, correctness and the future. The requirements are stringent and comprehensive.

I had two routes of doing this.

Having the work done local or having the factory doing it. One might be cheaper but the factory will have the most success of getting the car to 100% correct. Mine now is about 95%

I have been chatting back and forth with Jim and he shared some information that had my estimates in the ballpark with the factory doing work.

The reason I decided to post this was for information on how the classic program worked since it is new for them.

I have no intention of selling my car and the accusation of needing an alibi is stupid.

It's about wanting to make my car the best I can.

With that being said, if the estimate from the factory is going to be $100,000 then forget about it. I'll get the work done locally. If it's $25-$40. Why not? Sure it does not make sense to some to spend that on a 308 but it's something I want to do. We are NOT talking about a nut and bolt restoration. It was doing this or adding another car to the garage. I decided to do this.

Matt

 

It came from the owners site.

 

What kind of work was done? Complete nut and bolt?

 

Thanks, LOL! and I'm not.

 

Matt, fwiw, I think it is a great idea and understand your thought process. Let's see if Ferrari is really serious about providing a viable alternative to other restoration shops. Sure it will be more expensive, we know it will be. But if it is astronomically more so then they are the ones that are wasting their time and money promoting something that noone will purchase.
Also, it always amazes me to see the lack of manners that some people display on web sites. Matt, please keep posting the details for this. I am sure many will want to follow it.

George

 

If anyone wants the link to the pictures. PM me and I will give you the link.



----- Original Message -----
From: Matt XXXXXxx xxx
To: s la b ia nc o@ fe rra riu sa. c o m
Sent: Friday, June 30, 2006 7:41 AM
Subject: Re: Contact information and factory restoration request


Shannon,

I have upload the pictures to my website for downloading since the size would have been too large.

The pictures can be found here at http://XXXXXXXX.com/FNA/FNA/

Please let me know if there are any additional or specific pictures that you may need.

Thanks again for your help.

Matt
----- Original Message -----
From: sla bia nc o@fer r ar iu sa .c o m
To: [email protected]
Sent: Friday, June 30, 2006 7:16 AM
Subject: RE: Contact information and factory restoration request


Good morning Mr. Lemus,



Thank you for the information on your Ferrari 308 GTS. Before I forward your information to the necessary people in Italy could you please send us some photos of your Ferrari? In particular photos of the exterior and interior.



Thank you for your assistance.



Sh an no n La Bi an c o

 

You own XXXXXXXXX.COM? ..... Wow, no wonder you can afford to send this baby to the factory.

 

Matt, I hope you realize that if you have this work done, once you get the car back you'll never drive it again. It will sit in your garage as a staue of a car. One doesn't waste a $50k+ detaling job by actually driving the thing. OR...you'll buy another 308 so you'll have a Ferrari to drive?

Ken

 

It does that now,except for one or two outings a month.

 

This month's C&D has a two-page article on the Mercedes-Benz classic restoration program, sounds pretty neat. Ferrari should definitely do this.

Nothing wrong with owning the perfect 308, either, especially a well-documented one. Someone has to, right? Good luck, hope it works out.

 

I find myself sitting here scratching my head.. spending $40-50K to restore a $30k car... hmmmm..

I know it's your money and you can burn it or whatever... I just am missing the point here.. there are so many talented people here in the US that can do this work.

To me sending a 308 to get "papered" at the factory is just a waste of money... I just can't stop but ask, "why??".. then again, your answer simply has to be: "Because I can and I want to."

 

It's not a 30k car. It's a 40k car.

I am aware of the talent in the US, hence my contacting FoBH, Premier, and Fernando to get estimates to do the same work.

The difference is that with the new certification program that the factory is doing, why not have the people that made the car do the work and get it certified while it is there with them? They have access to all the parts and if some are not available, they will make them.

 

You can send a Ford Fiesta to Ford to get it rebuilt.. that's your decision.

My thoughts are that it's a waste of money.. if it was a 288 GTO or the last 308, then I can see the point.. I've talked this over with several friends and we are all puzzled why anyone would do this with such a common car (and none of us own any high dollar F-cars, by the way)...

HOWEVER.. it is YOUR money, and you can damn well do what you please with it... so by all means if this is what you want to do, you definitely don't need anyones permission of approval... good luck!

 

Without a price, none of us know what we are talking about. Let's see what the price is first. It's always good to have options ....and this is just one.

 

Brother Matt,
I believe you are a visionary here. Everyone says "The car isn't worth it" but the fact of the matter is that some day 308s will be worth a lot more than they are now, and a car that was sent to the factory for an official rebuild with "papers" to prove it will make your car the cream of the crop.

Lots of people rebuild 308s themselves to a very high degree of finish, beyond what the factory did (look at Newman's resto in Tech Q&A for example) and nobody calls them loonies. But that's because their investment is more time than money. Hey, if you have the money (but perhaps not the time or skills to do it yourself) and you love the car enough to do it, why the hell not? If you love the car enough to have it restored locally for $25K and it's going to cost $10K more to have the factory do it, I say go for it. What fun! But if the price is $30K more to have the factory do it, well, it's all a matter of how much money you have. So you end up with more $$ in the car than it's worth. So what? Not everything in life has to be "profitable."

The side benefit is that this kind of thing ups the ante for everyone. Like when a particular kind of car sells at Barrett Jackson for outrageous prices and it pushes others up with it. As people begin to recognize the inherent beauty of 308s and their value as rolling artwork they will begin to see that this is not such a ridiculous thing at all.

BTW, 308's might be common by Ferrari standards, but not common by virtually any other yardstick of measure. Furthermore, most of the cheap 308s on eBay are beaters that need AT LEAST $10K to be decent and way more than that to be concourse. Really good concourse 308s are now $40K+ and climbing.

I truly hope the price to have this done is within your budget Matt and you go through with it. I think it would be fascinating to follow here. Besides that, you would be a trailblazer!

Birdman

 

Matteo's insomnia:

When it left the factory, did it have a mish-mash of wire colors Guido found laying around that day...
__

Look forward to progress reports!

 

I'm with BigAl on this one. I wish you the best of luck, Matt with the project.