308 Rear Trunk Restoration

Chris,

It is a can of worms but it can be done. Take a look at my thread, especially around page three. I can send you more pics too if you want. The trunk is really about 8 seperate pieces of sheetmetal all tied in togther. If the small boxed sections that you see underneath are rusted badly you can almost count on the rest of it being bad too. At first I thought it was just those pieces but the more you take off the more rust you'll see. If you take off that center stainless heat shield you'll have a better idea what the rest looks like.

It's really not that much work but it is time consuming. The insulation is raw rock wool. If you need info on what to replace it with I found some ceramic insulation that worked well and wasn't too spendy.

Let me know if you need more info or any advice.

John

Here's the thread I talked about above...http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=83679

 

Newman's thread has a good series of pics too as restored his to the Euro style construction, losing about half of the pieces!

As noted it's the insulation holding the moisture, then off you go......

 

You're exactly correct. When I put the new pieces together I made sure all the joints were sealed well with high temp sealant and then painted over that with POR 15 and then high temp paint over the top of that. The rest of my car will fall apart before the trunk rusts out again!! It's hard to believe that the original design has as many gaps as it does. They just tack welded the pieces in and called it good. Lot's of joints for water to get in there and soak into the spongy rock wool.

 

Chris, it really doesn't look like it will be that big of a deal to fix....

 

Only if you still have cats, otherwise just remove all the extra sheet metal and clean up the frame, that is what I did. I also lowered the trunk floor. There are pictures on my homepage but they are similar to Newmans'.

 

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4503&highlight=79+308+restoration&page=16

This is the page with some pretty good hots of what I did, big job but worth it for me.

 

What tryes are you running Chris? They look as though they have a bit of grip.

Enjoy the work you were looking for.

 

I think there are much better heat shield materials these days...check out Summit Racing....

Dr Barry put something there over his ANSA that was even a Ferrari material!

Stop short of the gold plating foil, used in the McClaren F1 engine compartment!

 

Just click on the link I gave you, it goes right to the page with the trunk work.

 

Your center pan looks surprisingly good. Have you checked the pans out in the wheel wells yet? Mine didn't look too bad until I started poking at them. That's when I realized it was the rust holding them together! I can get you in contact with the company I bought my insulation from. I can't seem to find the part number but they should be able to figure it out. If you are putting the exhaust back in stock configuration I'd put the insulation back in there too.

 

That all looks familiar for some reason, well except the digplex boxes or whatever that is in the drivers wheel well.

It's really not as bad as it looks though. I probably spent more time trying to figure out how to get it all apart. The wheel wells are just riveted in. The boxed sections under the frame are tacked in, and not in convenient spots to get a grinder in either. Once you get all insulation out it's a lot easier to see it all.

 

Wait till you get the insulation out and see all the rot from above. The shock mounts and all that extra crap in there that just adds weight and makes rust.

 

Chris,

As Bubba mentioned, My ANSA Sport muffler had burned a 2 inch hole in the fiberglass trunk panel above it, exposing the rock wool insulation. I attached the heat reflective/insulating material used in F40 engine bays to the fiberglass panel as pictured below.

Barry
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Yep, it looks like it is shot. The center section was also tack welded under the cross support on mine. I was lucky on that pan, Newman had one that he didn't use so I grabbed it. If you have a sheetmetal shop anywhere close by it would be a simple piece to make. Steel would work just fine as long as you paint it. I used galvanized for the two small pans underneath as they seem to see the most water but the rest I just used mild steel.

 

No problem, sorry they didn't carry the same stuff anymore. Was Gloria able to help you?

 

Chris rip that stuff back out and go euro in the rear. You dont have to change the tail section or rails just get the shielding out of there and leave the rails exposed. You dont need all that sheet metal in there and in the end it wont look very good. Sorry its just my view on it.