308 GTSi rust worries

Drive the freakin crap out of it =)

My 308 has a couple of quater size bubbles behind the rear wheel. That being said, it's had 3" of snow on it and sat through more than a few rain storms uncovered.

Honestly, the best remedy if you don't know if it's draining is to drive it. Get some heat in the car, get some airflow through the car.

 

Not sure if the '81 308s have drain holes in the bottom of the doors, but that's the first thing I'd check. They could be absent, or clogged, or water could be getting trapped in the seam where the door skin joins the base of the door.

Driving it isn't a bad idea for the airflow, but... if you've already got rust bubbles then you already have a rusty car and probably need new door skins at least. Without seeing how bad it is, I can't tell you definitively what I'd do, but at some point the car either needs to be disassembled and stripped to bare metal - and the cancerous spots repaired/replaced - or just driven to the grave.

You to decide if this is "the ultimate dream car you want to keep forever" or whether to make a rational financial decision about how much money to put into bodywork.

 

from washing my car, I know it likes to hold water.
I have a steep driveway, so after a wash I need to open the doors & let the water drain. I've never seen it collect behind the rear wheels, but I do have pebbles from the road collecting there.

I do run a dehumidifer in the garage, but that didn't seem to help last year.
I have a nickel size rust bubble behind the driver side front tire & that's it.

 

Bullfighter: You’re on a Ferrari forum. You recently bought a Ferrari. You’re advising someone who owns a Ferrari. You used the phrase “rational financial decision”. Who among us would have a clue as to what that means? It’s like giving candy to a small child and saying “use good judgment about when you eat this”.

 

Guilty as charged!

 

Sometimes I wish I had bought the rusty 308GTS that I looked at for 7k less than my pristine 308GTB, then I would drive it alot more & not worry about parking lots.
Bill

 

its a car man. I know your worried about rust, but driving through a rainstorm is not going to automatically eat away your car after 1 drive. Get a cotton towel or chammois and dry it off. Don't get so scared. And go take her for a drive and tell her your sorry

 

Cars get wet when you wash them - the main difference between getting wet when you wash them & getting caught in a storm is that you usually wash a car when the weather is fine and they can be dried out properly.

If you get caught in a storm and park the wet car in a garage where the humidity remains high you risk getting rust. This, along with the amount of salt put onto the roads, is the main reason why many older UK Ferraris remain under their covers throughout the winter.

When I wash my car I always take it for a 10 minute spin afterwards. This dislodges any trapped water and the airflow/heat hopefully gets rid of the rest. Also I know of no better feeling than driving a freshly cleaned Ferrari (I think that is a quote from Allen S. Bishop's book 'Ferrari - Guide to Performance)

Drain holes in 1981 308 doors? - my late 1980 308 has them.

 

Both my 308GTBs stay outside, when they rust, I fix it....nothing as bad as the Daytona thread, so far....

 

Big Tex,
The joys of living in Texas - surely not the dampest place on the planet?
Saying that, it is absolutely glorious in the UK today.

 

I'm in Galveston county, on the coast, and when they submerge in salt water, the trouble starts! LOL!

All the disimilar materials turn it into a giant battery of sorts!

That's how I knew so much about rustproofing in the Daytona resto thread...

It been nice here as well! Looking forward to the Art Car thing as well as Lemans Series/Champ Car races this weekend..they are racing in a PARKING LOT! Sigh....


YT,
World's Fastest Art Car Ferrari
Cavallino #133

My resale value is shot, with all this beach sand and surf wax in the carpets....