1979 308 Repaint Odyssey

I recently had my 308 paroled back to me after being incarcerated at the paint shop for over a year. I thought I would share some pics and lessons I learned along the way. I will post these over the next few weeks, as I don’t want to be sitting at the computer all day putting this stuff in.

Just a little background first. I purchased #27819 back in the summer of 2007 from a gentlemen that had purchased the car from the original owner a few months prior. He thought he would make a project of it but became OBE (his wife just got pregnant). So I decided to take it on for myself.

The car was originally azurro metallic. Love the color, but didn’t like it so much with all the dark trim present on the 308. (Always thought this color looked better on the later 328 with body color moldings.)

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After a few years of ownership, I decided on a color change and really liked Blu Pozzi, so had it painted that color. Not original for the year obviously, but still a Ferrari color. It looked great and I enjoyed it for the last 15 years. Here it is after an engine rebuild by Mark at Sphere Motorsports, with parts and design provided by Nick’s Forza.

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Fast forward another 15 years and it was time for another paint job. There were a number of chips, scrapes, damage on the lower air damn from repeated encounters with driveway scrapes over the years, and a reoccurring bit of rust bubbling in a crease of the engine deck lid. That and I wanted to at least return to a period correct color. So I went with Blu Scuro. I have always loved this color. And it looks fantastic on a 308.

I settled on a local paint shop after interviewing several shops and seeing their work. I considered a well known Ferrari shop in San Diego, but reconsidered after having some maintenance done there. The maintenance they did always seemed fine, but there were just consistently problems that came up due to what I felt was lack of attention to detail. As it was with my local shop, though, I would pay for the fact that I had this done at a paint shop and not a restoration shop. That was my first hard learned lesson. More about that later.

I will say, I am ecstatic about the final paint product. It looks amazing. They are a licensed Glasurit shop and their work is guaranteed by Glasurit. My concerns would come up later with the length of time it took to complete and some ridiculousness that occurred during reassembly…

 

Dropped the car off 8/2/24. Here is the start Image Unavailable, Please Login of the sanding and disassembly.

 

Another pic from the prep stage…
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I also had them pull the windscreen as I would be replacing it after the paint. 45 years can do a number on the clarity of your windscreen. The glass was very pitted and no amount of glass polish was fixing those issues. I was told that “he had a guy” that could source and replace the glass. That proved to not be true, and I wound up ordering replacement glass from Superformance… it arrived in a little less than a week. I was pretty impressed with that as I thought it was going to take much longer, and I didn’t find out his guy couldn’t source the glass until it was almost ready to go in.

But then I was getting ahead of myself. Because “almost ready to go in” in turned into another two months of finish work…. While I was waiting, I had the screen prepped with clear nano-ceramic window tint. It doesn’t make the window darker, just has a 97% IR heat rejection. Also had this done to side windows. This made my AC far more effective as it is no longer like sitting under a magnifying glass on a sunny day.

 

I had a few quotes that ranged anywhere from $5-20k. Higher end was for bare metal respray. One for $15k from a restoration shop. And my shop quoted $9.5k . This was for taking down to substrate in most areas and bare metal where it needed it. They actually did quite a bit of detail work and extras as well, including repairing the damaged fiberglass under air dam, repairing metal bracket for wheel well liner attachment, strip and respray of targa top, respray of exhaust diaper and engine louvres.im pretty sure he didn’t make a lot of profit on this job when you consider the man hours put in. But then, he did have my car for just about.13 months…

 

Thank you! And yes I agree, it is an ordeal. This is my second repaint, but the first one I had done while I was gone on my last overseas deployment over 15 years ago, so I wasn’t around for the drama…

 

Tried to post a short clip of primer coat but file size to large. Took a few screen shots though for your viewing pleasure,,,

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There were several of these primer spray, block sand, respray coats. Same with base color. I’m not 100% sure on what the glasurit process is, but I can’t argue with results. I know there was a LOT of sanding, especially toward the end. If I’m not mistaken there were at least two color coats with color blocking in between, then several clear. The color is water based, while the clear is oil based. The last layers they start with 400g and work out to 3000 (!) grit. For reference, I believe a paper shopping bag is like 500-600 grit. When the last sanding is done at 3000 grit, the paint looks all scuffed and hazy. Then they come back with a random orbital and soft pad with rubbing compound and it comes out like glass. Amazing…

 

Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Well, there you go, thanks for showing the glasurit techsheets. I can confirm that all sounds familiar with what I witnessed. Interesting bout the black mixed in the primer. I do recall a stage where they went to darker primer. I think I may have some pics of the darker primer on the engine lid and front bonnet (see above)

 

Can’t recall if this was color or clear. I just know that there was still 6 months to go at this point.

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Unsure about prep on the side windows or what kind of prep that would be. He had it for a few days. But the company that did the windows and the ppf on the front of the car (clear bra) was Endless Auro Salon in Murrieta, CA.

 

I completely sympathize with you on that. Although my shop is a reputable local shop and has been in business over 30 years, they definitely prioritize their collision work, as that’s where the money is. This goes back to my comment about paint shop vs. restoration shop. And I was more fortunate on the “reasssembly problems” . Not that I didn’t have any,just that it’s only taken me bout a month to fix them,not a year, but then I am doing all the electrical troubleshooting and repair and if I had to bring it to a mechanic to fix, the repair cost would probably have come close to half the pint job cost. I have easily spent 50 hours of my own time sorting out he issues. Mostly due to door reassembly and electrical issues that didn’t exist when I brought it in.

 

You can see from this picture how the door was disassembled for paint. So wiring, latches, handles, locks, windows, window tracks etc, all came out. This is where a majority of the issues came from with reassembly. Frankly, I am shocked they were able to get the cables re-routed properly for the window lifts.

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Thought I’d concentrate on the positive for a few posts. Here is the car after final buffing, and ready for final reassembly, putting on badges, etc.
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