Automotive International 1978 308 GTS - Complete Restoration

Too bad on missing out on Platinum guys- stunning car either way !!

Remind me, is Platinium at Cavallino 95 points or higher or 97 or higher?

 

97 at both Cavallino and FCA. What people always skip over is that at the same time the standard deductions were completely revamped and we have placed greater emphasis on originality and less on condition so its my opinion the bar is no higher. One example is paint used to be 5 points max. It is now 3 points max. That means you can strip the car to bare metal and still be eligible for a platinum. One example used in one of the seminars was a picture of a 250 GTO covered with dirt and mud. It was explained to the group there were no deductions there. We are concerned with originality.

 

And you have worked on some cars that scored Platinum under the new 97 point threshold! My 512 BBi was platinum and scored 97 points at Cavallino in 2017. It will be very interesting to hear what the deductions were ---hopefully you will share them with the Fchat community and we can all learn from them - or argue against them!!

 

I'm sure I speak for a lot of us when I say I am looking forward to hearing the judges feedback.
Did they tell you what score or level you achieved?

 

This is my score sheet from last year, as an example.
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That is a local event and not a national one. Some of those deductions we would probably not have taken.

 

Is the national judging level less stringent than local?

 

This car being a 1978 IS a US (North American, more accurately) Catalyst car, which brings the additional engine lid louvers.

The upside down tire mounting in the spare is correct to make room for the hard windshield washer jug. Actually correct for the soft bag early cars too, Owners Manual shows the Tool Kit there....
A lot of tires have white lettering "just under" the black mold rubber, I would have shot it flat black, and gone on with life.
Same with the four on the ground.

Did you refinish the wheels?
I need some help with paint blending there, too.

Dunlop now makes "our size" in a black sidewall, and "purists" would want the Michelin XWX.
Being a Goodyear man, I am glad to see Dunlop support us, and I use German made Fuldas, also by Goodyear.

Points for putting the screwdriver back but seriously, what if it rattles??!!!

I would love a new underbody pan, and I need to know who does your seats and door panels as mine "have gone on ahead".....
Congrats on your results and for making "another Yellow one"!!

I think Rifledriver simply means the EARLY 308s are "older than he is"......so the cars without triangle door window gaskets, things like that, are the reason for his research.

 

They re really striving to get ALL National judging to the same place.

Concourso Italiano is a local, (California) not FCA event.

 

The first PDI I ever did was a 308 GTS and I already had been working on Ferraris for several years. No, they are not older than I.

 

They asked me in New Orleans if I was going to detail the mud off.

"No, let me move my boots and whiskey to the trunk, and you can go."

It had Fog Lights and all kinds of crazy jazz, I had not had time to remove.
He said: "Those are very nice (original 14" Campy) wheels..."

I went for the smoked salmon.

 

Sorry.

Then the '76 -'77 are in your experience.

 

Judging done by FCA judges. Looks like an FCA event to me.

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Lots of overlap but yes, they are for the most part club members. Drawn from different pools sometimes and many local events do not adhere to the same methods, deductions etc. Concorso has been doing it far closer to the national system than most. It is one of the better local events to be sure. The guy who took that over has been doing a good job. I know him pretty well, we had dinner together at Cavallino.

 

Often done completely differently. We really stress originality over condition but that isn't always the case in local events. I am unaware of any requirements they all be the same so it can lead to a little confusion. I have been to local events where whoever was in charge gave us totally different instructions than at national events. 100% FCA event and we threw the book away. Happens regularly.

 

How did the windshield install go? It looks like a perfect fit which, as I understand, is not typical. If you don't mind me asking, from where did you source the windshield?

-F

 

Looks like you did a great job. Based on what I see, this is one of the nicest 308 GTS's out there; better than the non-restored cars I've seen.

Just to throw it out there for future reference, some of the images of the wheel wells showed a finish that appears to be gloss dark gray, not flat black as can seen in some of the other shots. Not sure if that is just the flash causing it to look that way.

Just to be clear, the factory finish for the wheel wells and underside and stuff is flat black. Wurth trim paint is the best match I've seen.

Thanks for posting, great work!

-F

 

Just so I understand, if you repaint a car in the original color, using the current 308 color from PPG (or whoever supplies it these days), do you get a points deduct for that?

If you do all that but change it from red to yellow, does that trigger the points deduct? How is it supposed to work?

-F

 

FCA does not deduct points for a car being painted in non original colour. The colour does however need to be correct to the year and model of the car.

There is no points deduction for the type or brand of paint used. Pre-1980 cars were painted in single stage lacquer and most cars today are painted in base clear or single stage non-lacquer paint for which again there are no points deductions.

 

Kind of but not really. We are very tolerant of paint.

No one is carrying paint samples or a way to determine if it is correct or not. We have no desire to get in pissing matches over whether it is "Correct" or not. If it is a color or close to a color that could conceivably come from Ferrari it is OK by us. If you have a purple car you should have documents it came that way, otherwise the topic should not come up.

 

You are a very, very long way from having any understanding of what we try and do. We don't care about any of that.

Not looking to beat anyone up but why would we care about any of that? Cars get driven, they get repainted, products change but look pretty much the same.

Where is a justifiable negative in any of that? Does it end up looking like a Ferrari? Thats what matters.