1979 308 GT4

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308 has a new stablemate. I got this 1989 560SL recently. Amazing because it was designed in 1971, before both the 308 and testarossa, but it is a 1989 model year, which is 4 years NEWER than the testarossa. So it has ABS, Airbag, security system, not found on the testarossa.
The 560SL also has a massive 5.6 liter all-aluminum SOCH V8. The biggest engine of any car I own.
It is a luxury car for sure, but no slouch as Road and Track found it quicker than a Mondial.
Why a 560SL? Due to the market. I got both Ferraris when the market collapsed. So which car now has hit rock bottom...yes, the R107. Actually rock bottom was a few years ago, they are on the way up.
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If you like this restoration thread, I have one on the Mercedes here:
https://www.benzworld.org/threads/1989-560-sl-restoration.3084065/page-20

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Great car, good for you.

 

I’m completely on board with the R107. I’ve been kicking tires for a couple of years.

 

Good day Jack,

Me, too. As a young punk, I worked on a number of R107's in the early 80's and always found them very elegant... and the 450 being extremely stout. Around here driver level 380/450's were going for around $4K for the longest time, but have since jumped up a lot... they are now hovering around $10-$15K or so. Interestingly, as I was looking at the 380/450's I came across a very nice R230 for an amazing price (about 60% of the price of the R107's) with low mileage (about 40K miles) and so I was "forced" to buy it. Although my heart still wants a R107, I am quite happy with R230 in the mean time.

Cheers,

Sam

 

Had a very pesky coolant leak after the water pump change. Looking up from below it seemed to be coming from the o-ring connection, and I was so careful with that.

Turns out it was a hose clamp on the thermostat housing. Tricky thing was the leaking fluid was evaporating, so feeling with a towel or my hands it was dry after the engine cooled so I could touch it. I saw some dried spray in the area, that is how I found it. But since it was dry, I was still skeptical I actually found the leak.

After 2 weeks, no more puddle, so, in deed that was the culprit.

Really glad I don't have to re-do that water pump. I'm not getting any younger and my teenage sons are no help. Wife has to put gas in their cars for them.
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I had a similar problem on my 75 I swapped out the thermostat housing for one with the bleed screw years ago. I changed the top coolant hose during my recent timing belt service and water was leaking from that area and I spent several days trying to track it down and it turns out the copper washer was missing from the bleed screw. I have no idea how that happened, because I'm always really careful with that, but that's what it was!

 

Do you have a thread on your belt change?

 

I've been pretty busy with the band so I took a bunch of pictures but I don't have the time I used to to hang out here, which I miss!! It went pretty smoothly except they sent me the timing belt for 288 GTO which kind of freaked me out! ha. Rebuilt alternator, rebuilt water pump, some new Dave Helms coolant hoses. My biggest problem was trying to solve that coolant leak and trying to get tires to fit my 16 inch q.v. rims! I loved the Bridgestone SO2's, but they discontinued them so I ended up having to put the continental extreme contact sport on! They aren't bad tires and they were the best ones I could find in that size.... There's nothing more stressful than having guys put new tires on my rims! haaa

 

I restored the driver's side rear tailight housing in 2013. Finally getting around to doing the passenger side light.

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Before and after plastic polish.
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Unlike the other side, the inside reflectors were in pretty good condition, so I did not tear the lenses apart. I cleaned the reflectors with some windex through the opening hole.

I knew these light assemblies were installed wrong for a long time. They had the blinker in the middle. The blinker should be the farthest hole out.

The sockets and the reflectors are different. The blinker has a semicircle index cutout for the socket.
The brake reflector unit has a rectangular index cutout for the 2 filament socket.
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At some point before I got the car, there was a mouse in the car. I'm still finding evidence of his presence. This wire was damaged.

The car was re-painted in the early 1990s and you can see overspray where the mouse cut through, so the mouse must have been there ever further back in time.

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Kind of analogous to CV boot repair, to get shrink tubing on that both wires will need to be cut.

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Two smaller pieces of shrink tubing placed over each wire.
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A wet paper towel is used to keep the shrink tubing from shrinking while soldering.
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Pull over the smaller shrink tubing pieces, then pull over the larger piece.
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This picture is from 2013, I saved the extra bulbs!
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Thats amazing! I have several electric mouse traps in house and garage!! I used semi chrome polish on the plastic chrome plated parts. It worked but you have to be careful because anything abraisve will strip the chrome plating off the plastic. Please let us know what products you used for the plastic polish etc.

 

I used Meguiar's #17 Plastic polish on the red lenses and I'm using rubbing compound to clean the chrome trim.
I also found more overspray of black onto the red and am still figuring out how to remove that.

 

After years of complaining about losing access to family owned workshop and storage space, I bought a storage condominium.
Pretty basic, but since I own it, I can customize it as I see fit.

Though one can't believe everything on the internet, the graph below suggests that even if this does not work out for me, I wouldn't lose much money. Perhaps even make some.
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For the last 20 years, I can barely open the door of this car to even get in and out. Can't open the other door to even vacuum the carpet. Can't even get to the far tires to inflate them. Moving it out, due to a bottleneck driveway, requires moving at least 3 cars outside the garage.

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A few years ago when I had to replace the water pump, with the 308 so close to the testarossa, was one of the few times I stopped enjoying what I was doing. It really was no fun at all. Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Finally I got moved in to the workspace for my cars. I'm trying to keep it clean as it is also has to serve as storage too

The 308 is there and as soon as I finish up this Mercedes I'm going to do a timing belt change on the 308 and a bunch of other little things that never got done all these years.

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