The restoration so far

I bought this rather hammered 1982 308 GTSi 8 months ago, and thought I might have it painted and running in 6 months....so far I have almost nothing to show for it....it's taking a lot longer than I thought. I have had to completely retool my expectations. I have worked on a lot of cars over the years, and if it continues this way, it will be the longest one yet. Now I am thinking I will be lucky if it's factory fresh in 2 years.....

the pictures so far:
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Don"t feel bad about it, it happens to most of us. I bought a 78 308GTS, may be about 4 years ago and today the engine finally went back in. I took the entire car apart, had it sodablasted, reprimed frame and body, all the interior new, everything is new on the car and I am still wondering when it will see a road on its own wheels.
I think that the trick about 308's is to do one, once you know those Italian puzzles it should be much faster the second time around. I would know exactly how to organise my project and how everything comes apart and goes back together now. There was a car on ebay that sold today, euro 308 and I almost went crazy enough to bid on it, thinking I could take it apart fully within a few weeks and know exactly where I would have everything rebuilt or redone, but thank god my sanity returned just in time and some other sucker got it


Helmut

 

Thanks for sharing. That's the thing about projects: they usually take more time, effort, money, and even blood than you expect.

How well does your bearing puller work?

 

I can relate to that Andy. Good luck and I look forward to following your progress.

 

Only took me 5 years to do mine, good luck and keep the pics coming!

 

Those sort of comments are not appreciated.

 

Actually 5 years 7 months lol.

 

As we say in Australia.

Shaddup..........


p.s. Andy don't worry mate, I'm sure you'll have it back on the road soon.

 

I fix mine in little bits.

Tear it apart, fix it, Drive it. Wait a few months, wash, rinse & repeat.



I figure about 8-11 years total time and I'll be done.


3 years down and about only 7 more (likely) to go !!!!


YEPPIE!!!!!


I LUV THIS CAR

 

The two arm did not work, now working on a home made 3 arm.

 

14 months for me. Hoping for the first start up this PM and the first drive this weekend. My problem was that everytime I fixed one thing, two other things would break

 

Be curious to know what issues you encountered to make you adjust your time frame by a factor of 4.

What is unique to the Ferrari that you didn't encounter in your other restorations?

Thanks for the insight!

 

Ahhh yes, the Italian car passion. How are the costs coming along? About what you expected or less?

 

I can definitely relate!

Mine has been a little over two years and is just ow going back together. It feels soooo good to be bolting things back on rather than taking them off

Here's a few pics of #10896 to date:
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Che bella! Complimenti
Eugenio

 

so far I have not spent a lot of money, as the car was in fairly good shape, but the CIS is a PITA, and it's been a long time trying to tweak it to work. I just spend a year tweaking a Holley EFI system in a vintage Thunderbird, so I thought I was some kinda fuel injection expert, but the Bosch CIS is another story altogether. Have not spent a lot of money (yet) but have spent a lot of time trying to the the CIS to run right. I rue the day I will have to take it in for a California smog check. It's an 1982 so it's not exempt from anything.

 

I figured three weeks and $500 and I'd be driving my GT4...that was back in January! Of course, it's been because I've gotten sidetracked, as well as my friend Bartmandial8 who has the car down at his shop. At least I put the distributors back together yesterday!!!

 

I thought I had a lot of tools, 30 years collecting, but every time I turn around, I have to seek out a special tool, and that's slowed me down a lot. Usually I have all the tools I need.

 

hang in there andy, when it's all done it will be well worth it.....patience is the key.

 

Wow, that's a project. Good luck.

 

Nice!

Pete

 

Andy, heating up the surround area can help to pull those bearings.

Guido

 

The further I dig into the engine the more work I find I need to do. Right now I am trying to get the timing belt drive bearings sorted out. Electrical system is pretty non-functional too. The body and paint and interior stuff is always finite though, it's not a mystery, just a lot of elbow grease.

But major engine and electrical work on a 27 year old car is always a crapshoot.

And, I am in danger of losing my free spacious garage, and if I do, I will have to do something drastic, like sell someting.

The main thing that's slowing me down though is that I got a lot more busy at work inthe last 4-5 months and now I am lucky to get 1/2 day a week to work on this car. When I first started 8 months ago, I was able to work 2 - 3 full days a week on the car, not any more. That's the main thing. I have a life, but I also have cars. Hard to find time for both.