My 348GTS refresh

Some of you may remember my 18 month repaint saga which has, fortunately, now finished. Finally, the entire car was completely stripped and repainted TWICE and then, during the rebuild, flaws in the paint on trunk and engine lids, windscreen surrounds, door intakes and a few other bits were found so these parts got a THIRD repaint!

I'm putting this behind me now and have finally managed to clear out my garage where I'm living at the moment in the south of France and have brought the 348 down here so I can now proceed with some "cosmetic" tidying up.

Unfortunately, the car arrived with broken alternator bracket, packed up aircon, and a leaking thermostat housing. So I haven't got to grips with the refresh really yet.

On replacing the alternator brackets, I found one of the rubber boots on a plug had become torn and mangled. After cleaning it and degreasing, I was able to glue some bits together with superglue, but then stumbled across the miracle idea of using the thin rubber of a bicycle puncture repair kit and superglue to wrap the rest of the cable in. Doesn't look too elegant, but is 100% watertight, flexible, resilient and pretty cheap too!

Tonight, after having scrounged a strip of black leathercloth from an upholsterer in town, I commenced with the replacement of the strip which holds the lower trunk carpet into place. The old one was completely in tatters after several removals of the trunk carpet to get at the front bumper mounting bolts.
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oh yeah, here's a happy snap of the car....
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No, simply original 348 ones with the strakes removed. In actual fact, I picked them up off eBay in UK for a very low price and had them painted when the car was done in addition to the original straked set which I have kept too.

 

Sorry, I bought them second hand wih the strakes already removed. From what I can see they are simply cut off and sanded back. There is no sign of any other work like reinforcement or patching having been done.

 

Can't remember whether I posted all the paint shop saga pics once, sorry for boring you if it's a repost!

Here was the first joyful strip down and rub down
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then the black final check coat, finishing touches, and the first repaint
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sorting out some details back home whilst the paintshop was working on the car
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SHOCK HORROR!

After driving the car for a few weeks over summer .... bubbling in the paintwork
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Call for the Glasurit and BASF technicians. Only one answer: sand back EVERYTHING and remove more or less all traces of anything old or new on the car = bare-metal-respray
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me too! (shields from "Yoshi")
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During the long wait I managed to pick up a set of Hamann (OZ Futura) 3-piece rims with tyres off the 'Bay for €900.

I think they are very well in keeping with the period of the car although they are perhaps not the most modern flashy low-profile rim design.

I actually ended up putting all new tyres on as I don't like to trust my life at 270 km/h to someone previous owner's nearside kerb parking skills. Still pleased with the price though.
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STRAKES:
On the subject of the strakes, I drift between liking them and liking the "355" look. That's the reason why I kept the originals and had them painted too, so the swap is only a few screws away.

TARGA TOP PAINTING:
On painting the top, I did think about it. However, four factors came into play:

a) originality (it's not reversible like the strakes and there were only about 200 GTS ever built)
b) practicality. The roof has got a few dings already from the seat backs and having it painted would only exacerbate the delicacy of removal and storage.
c) colour. I think if the car had been red or yellow, I'd have gone for painting the roof. Being dark blue, I didn't think the optical improvement was worth it.
d) economy. Sanding, filling, flatting, painting, buffing of another square metere would have also increased the cost.


COST FOR FIRST REPAINT:
New regs on the use of solvents are still taking their toll and the shops in Germany are mostly all still on a learning curve. Basic main effects seem to be more clogging on the pistol nose causing a bit more paint spatter which has to be buffed back + more orange-peel finish. You can see this ever more on new cars too.

The paint shop offered (and I accepted) to use a "nano" clear lacquer which has ceramic 'dust' in it and makes the paint extremely resilient. Apparently stone chips are a thing of the past. .... we shall see!

I'd specified a colour sanded finish and they agreed to this not quite realising what sanding back ceramic nano lacquer was going to be like! Most areas now have between three and four coats of lacquer!

All in all it cost more than expected and the manager showed me the timesheets which he hadn't included on the bill! After a brief moan, we agreed on the slightly higher price but I get a free post-winter touch-in and refresh. I occasionally need the odd can of paint for my other project car and those tend now to be free too!

For anyone going down this route, the costs were as follows:

Prep work: 48 hrs @ 35,00 € = 1.680,-- €
Spraying in booth: 8 hrs @ 65,-- € = 520,-- €
Finishing and Polishing: 24 hrs @ 35,-- € = 840,-- €
Spray Filler/Primer 285-55: 4 Ltr. @ 34,75 = 139,-- €
Hardener 929-51: 1 Ltr. @ 34,65 = 34,65 €
Body Filler: 3 kg @ 15,55 = 46,65 €
Paint: 5,5 Ltr. @ 80,-- € = 440,-- €
Clear Lacquer scratch resistant 923-43: 7 Ltr. @ 55,95 € = 391,65 €
Clear Lacquer hardener 929-33: 3,5 Ltr. @ 40,85 = 142,98 €

I did all stripping and reassembly myself.

To be honest, I don't really understand why all the prep work. They said it was a bast@rd to get the scuderia shield recesses back up level and flat. Apart from that, there was no damaged areas. Oh, and they spent ages cleaning out the C-Pillar joint, neutralising it and building up the contour again.

RE-PAINTS:
As far as the repaint(s) went, ALL of the costs were borne by the paint shop. Even the second stripping down and rebuild was subcontracted and paid by them to a small independent workshop who ususlly does Porsche 911 stuff. My dentist knows the Big Boss of the paint shop and, during a chat at the golf club he confessed to him that the whole affair including the hours that they didn't charge me and the one and a half repaints had cost them about €40.000 !

 

I'm afraid in Germany you don't have much freedom in wheels and tyres. All changes have to be type-approved and entered into the vehicle's papers.

My wheels are from the tuner Hamann and are

Front: 8J x 17" ET 34mm with 235/45 tyres
Rear: 9.5 x 17" ET 52mm with 275/40 tyres

The 275/40 R17 size is pretty rare nowadays and I basically had to make the choice between Michelin or Falken. Spoke to my wallet and it whispered "Falken" to me.

No problem driving all the year round in France. Only gets rainy for a few days during November and March usually. Winters are bright blue skies and crisp fresh air. Hoping to get some good pics soon!