Nope not finished yet.... It has a few coats of new silver paint on it... The guy that was working on it at the paint shop that it is at was tragically killed in a car crash a few months ago... RIP. So it has sat for a little bit until the guy who owns the shop hires a replacement. We are finally ready to start moving again. It needs a few more coats with some sanding in between and she'll be done. Kind of a bummer... It looks like you have have it coming together nicely. What other parts do you need?
I'm chasing door skins at the moment. Got a number of options at the moment. Looks like I will have to get remanufactured skins as originals are proving hard to find. I am waiting Maranello Conssessioniers to come back to me from the UK (thanks Newman for the 2 contacts). Ricambi put me onto a company called www.ferraripartsexchange.com who get them out of Europe and is my pick at the moment. If anyone has dealt with this company before please PM me. If the quality is as good as the service the panels will be better than original. The guy comes acros very professional and is very quick to respond I am finding that this section of F-Chat in invaluable. The amount of help you can get is amazing, so thanks again to the 308 community.
Brett have you contacted superformance in the UK?.I have dealt with them before with no problems at all.Here is a link to the body panel page http://www.superformance.co.uk/a-308/body.htm
Thanks for the link Maurice. I spoke to Colin the other night to confirm price and availablity. All panel parts for these cars are remanufactured and not original. There is a little repair work required at the bottom of each door. I am told its a massive job to replace a skin and if an original door can be repaired thats the best option. As we all know, no two ferraris are the same. I have plenty of time to make a decision on whether to replace it or repair. I really find myself on the fence at the moment, repair or replace. Honsetly don't know what to do......
It was easy to replace the skin and then the repair is the best it can be. Go the extra mile and do it once, you'll find more rust once the skin is off that will go unchecked if you just do the lower portion.
I have heard that the 308 body panels are pretty interchangeable between cars. The 308 was "mass produced" for a Ferrari. It sounds like Newman had no problems.
Dont get those lower patch panels for the 308 from them. Heard a horror story about fitting them. I used 328 skins on mine, fit was great but you will always have a mis-match at some area since the quarter and fender are leaded to match the door's contour. Doesnt matter what you use to fix it, it requires time to make it perfect but the skin is the best way to go hands down.
Ferrari UK posted pics once of complete doors in the bin... Actually the 308 doors I have dealt with were hard to fit as the openings on the body vary from car to car, so often it's not a bolt on process. The Factory leaded the rear quarter panel to match the door usually.....we had a picture of it on here once.
I agree you would avoid the rehanging heartache that way...mine were crushed I had no choice! Of course there's a lot of rust in the bottom plate also, usually.....
heres mine....the only door alignment issue I had was the lower radius on both sides which you'll get if you do a lower skin as well. Im glad I went the route I did. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Thats probably why they don't have them anymore. Is there a reason why you used 328 skins as oppossed to 308 skins. I wouldn't do the bottom panel only. I can get 308 skins from a couple of suppliers. Lyle at ferrari parts exchange can have them in a week out of Europe and they are reasonaby priced. Thanks for posting those photos.
The reason i chose the 328 skin was because of the lack of availability of factory NOS 308 skins. I had a hard time finding the correct part and the ones I found were very expensive and over-priced. I would never buy a reproduction body panel so when you say reasonalby priced 308 skins, they must be reproduction and wont fit worth a crap = migrane and an empty wallet in the end for the labour to make them right. I went with early 328 skins because the later ones had a different outer door handle pocket that would be difficult to rework instead of a large hole like the ones I bought. I simply inserted a section of the original 308 door skin in the 328 door handle hole and mig welded it in, cut the small slot for the 308 handle and presto! I cant stress enough how critical it is that you use factory panels and if you dont, you'll learn a valuable and expensive lesson (if you're anal and picky) that you can pass onto the next guy that goes down your path.
I heard the opposite. Thats what makes this decision hard. Seeing Newmans photos helped. It looks like it fitted perfectly, which backs up your above comment Parker. There was no issue of length and these are 328 skins. Does anyone know how they make the panels? I'm not in the trade so am interested to understand how they can reproduce the skins accuratley without the old tooling. Any explanation here would be of great help to me.
Thanks for explaining that. It makes sense and your comments regarding reproduction parts backs up the info I was told here about the cost to make them fit would empty your wallet. Gentry Lane do have a 308 LHS skin for a 308 GTS. Is there a difference between the GTB and GTS doors that you know of???? So I should now start looking for an early 328 RHS skin.
No difference in the skins so get it if you can. As for the right side, once its on and done nobody will be able to tell. If time is the issue then get the 328 skin otherwise keep looking. The only changes Ive seen on the skins is the door lock barrel is flush mounted on the QV and 328 and sits on top of the skin on the early 308's like my 79. So, my lock barrel will be flush like a QV which I can live with.
Yep. Pre-1982 cars don't have the lock sunken in. Brett, is the door skin you found pre-'82 style? - If pre-'82 it won't match if you go with the 328 door skin on the other side...not that anyone would notice but personally I would want them to match...
Its the LH side that is really bad so based on Newmans comments I will look at proceeding with buying the GTS skin. I am wiating for a reply on the price. Will be interesting to see what it comes in at. Better see what the exchange rate is between Oz and Canada.
The difference is in the doors not the skin, GTB vs. GTS.........I had to add supports for the window mullion for my B which the S door didn't have.... There are two part numbers for the complete door due to that......
Howdy everyone. Its been a while, not much has happened and I've been a bit lazy in the taking photos department. Anyway for those of you who are interested I started a short thread in the Aussie section showing a section being lead wiped. Rather than re-post everything below is the link. http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=216480 Theres about 26 photos showing the preperation and wiping process.
Having just stumbled accross Marks thread on his 328GTS re-spray, rather than highjack his thread, I'll post a couple of up to date photos of my car. You will note not too mach has happened since my last post. (Thanks Mark for the motivation) The front's been repaired and a coat of epoxy has been applied to the main body following sand blasting. The doors and tail are not completed yet. You can see the tail sitting on the back of the car and is still re-sale red. I've been promisied the car will be out of the paint shop by the end of next month. (Everything crossed). There is so much work in the preperation and I guess a good job takes time. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Bit out of sequenec, but I thought I had posted these. The new door skin. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
