Hi FC crew i am curious to know what non-external parts of a vetroresina car would be identifiable, if say the external body panels had been converted to steel (say due to an accident). Floor pans? Wall behind seats? TIA
Well the "glass cars" refer to the very early 308GTBs that were that meterial in the ffront clip, doors and rear engine cover. Much longer after the car of 1976 and 1977 were referred to as "steel" many components remained fiberglass. the floor pan, always Lower ear quater panels and front and rea valences, total "mixed bag" depending on market and VIN. So a "galls car is mostley fibreglass, but a steel car has a TON of glas components! Throw your VIN ou there and post pictures of your concerns. I 've had 20405, 22127, and 22641. HTH
A major damage to a glass car MIGHT have had them hang steel panels. Hard to say and very hard to even document, putting a 5 digit VIN into the Internet does not get you much!!
You say non external...but doing a conversion of the exterior from VR to steel would be a huge undertaking. As far as identification, the external things you likely know: The A-pillar to roof line is a key. The absent license plate indent at the rear valence is also key if a euro, or the small license plate indent on a US VR. The door window frames are entirely different on a VR than a steel car. The VR has very crude flat painted steel window frames...the steel cars have a more elegant molded trim frame that is anodized. The VR also has visible pan head screws holding the rear valence to the top edge of the rear baggage area. I have one of each in my garage, so let me know what you’re looking at and I may be able to help.
Too many variables to start with depending upon market. Start with looking for an antenna in the front windshield (last picture),type of spare, panel on the rear of the seats, headliner and rear deck lid hinges. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
That early spare style was in both 'glass and steel cars, I wasn't thrilled with it (flats in Texas can be a LONG way from help), so put a full size....14" x 7.5"W wheel in there.
Pouch on seat back panel, different headliner and antennae in windshield all elements of early cars. Non exterior. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Agreed and disagreed, Alan... Searching the Internet with the 5 digit chassis number will probably not give much, but disclosing on a forum such as this one the five digit chassis number plus the engine number plus the body number will very probably bring an educated answer. I'm not the one going to tell you (even if, well, it is precisely what I'm doing here right now...) that these cars were produced in batches, that engines were not put completly at random into these cars either, so the guys who collect chassis numbers + engine numbers + body numbers are usually quite capable to tell anyone if the numbers on a given car make sense or not, if something is wrong or not, if they are "in sequence" with comparable cars or not; not 100% sure, of course, but a good indication nevertheless. Rgds
Thank you everyone for the responses and insights. My 308 was born in March of 77 and i was curious to know if it was likely or even possible that it could have been a ‘glass car… i will look at these picture and details and delve deeper into it.. my initial thoughts now are it would have been a massive undertaking to reskin a glass car in metal
At this time (= March 1977) the glass car production (= "Vetroresinas") was already tailing out, but there IS indeed a small number of known "Vetroresinas" here and there after that date (#21289, #22193, #22409 for instance). Remember that at this time, there was almost NEVER a "sharp cut" on the production lines between two models at Ferrari, always a period of weeks or months when the "superseeded ones" were still assembled concurrently with the "new ones"... As said above, the full serie "chassis number + body number + engine number" will give you a strong clue...not a definitive answer, but a strong clue. Rgds
