Automotive International 1978 308 GTS - Complete Restoration

Our view of originality is not new and shiny but what was the car like when it left the factory. And it was not always great by any modern production standard. In many cases it was crappy compared to today's standards. We work, service, maintain and restore many vintage cars and a challenge is people compare todays standards to cars built decades ago. They want that contemporary ride quality, water tightness, wind noise, braking, cockpit noise......in their beautiful vintage car. It just was not engineered in. Then the question of originality vs expectations of a perfect car is my conversation with the customer.

 

Have not discussed our score sheets yet but agreeing with the essence of this comment... we were told our original seats, I bought the car from the second owner who owned it all but 3 years since built and most was in storage... were not the correct form and shape compared to original. It is the original foam with new covers...

 

If you are referring to the OP car color used, that is the factory original color. It was repainted red in 1981 and again some time in the 90's.... i can find the exact date as the person who painted it still works for me.....

 

The judging results came back a few weeks ago. 95.5 Delayed sharing until I had more information. We missed somethings. Highlights from the judges statements: headlights opened too slow, engine ran a little rough, wrong finish on screws for front fender louvers and door panels, too shiny finish on one of the canisters in engine bay, rear boot zipper cover gasket is two edged not a single edge, bonnet strut (to hold open) upper mounting bolt was wrong direction, inner fender wheels correct finish and over spray but should be hand brushed not sprayed... we get those. Some more challenging to understand: Ripple on dash we could not see a week after when we filmed the dash, but judges saw a 1" x 6" ripple that is not longer there. Assumption it shrunk away. Also judges deducted for these items but no guidance on a better solution: carpet not original loop design (NLA), center cap in wheels not original but NLA, agreed we had the correct Ferrari current parts superseding which we understood was the criteria (no clear answer), wrong seat form and fit but they were the original seats so discussing this still with judges. Wrong fitment of the targa top gasket but seem they were comparing to a 1978 or later which was not the same a 77 which had a factory recall to correct. Some of this is an issue on restoration vs preservation. Unfortunately a clear answer is not there and it is a judgement call.

Just sharing, we understand the judges evaluated the car and had several things that did not make it platinum. Also the judges have a hard job. Anyone person has a hard time knowing the subtleties of every production run of every year. Plus a buyer could special order things like leather, and our leather being the wrong color was noted by the judges.

Learning experience again even though our shop has 5 platinum's and a few preservation. Learning every day!

 

The seats still have the original foam which was in good shape or we would have cut new foam. In further discussions with one of the judges who was on the team scoring our car, the issue was related to alignment of the black strip in the seat. He said it was a small difference but was noted. The carpet is like the center caps... once NLA can you use Ferrari superseded and not get points off because worn originals get points off after a restoration (fine in preservation). He agreed what we have is what many other restored Platinum 3x8's have used as it is as close as possible to OEM. The trunk seal we just missed, we have 5 3x8's in the shop now and all are one thick seal not double lipped like ours.... Result of not having more time to set back and assess after completion. Minor to fix. Thanks for the offer on the threshold plates but ours are in perfect shape. We will work on it over the summer and show again!!

 

Brian

Thank you for the reply. The judges have been very open to questions. The chief judge handled a few and one of the other judges took more than an hour with me. Very good conversation. We understand judging is subjective and objective and in the longer conversation a lot of knowledge specific to our car and the thought process was shared. As you said that is the correct goal and is important for the betterment of Ferrari community and all owners to share knowledge.

Peter

 

Our 308 Restoration tracked through this thread went to auction this weekend and sold. We had originally sold it last year to Steve Matchett, a former race mechanic with the Benetton F1 team while Michael Schumacher was a driver, a Formula One and E TV announcer and author. The car remained with us during his ownership. He consigned it through Mecum and we are proud to say it sold for $220,000. It was an amazing journey for us at Automotive International. I am very proud of the team.

Image Unavailable, Please Login