My 308 "GTO look" project

I posted "building a GTO" in the old Fchat exact 1 year ago, here is a little update. Work takes much longer than I originally estimated. Especially preparing for paint. To smooth out 1 door takes me 2 working days, the frontspoiler I did many times and it still is not good, etc. Anyway, I'm not getting it painted before winter so I put some temporary paint on it with a brush, a 5 Euro can from the home improvement store. So I can actually get an idea what I'm building and it protects against surface rust. With some gloss I can judge the reflections on the surface and I have to say, they look a little weird some places under certain light. I'm not happy with the decision I made to turn the transition between door and rear panel into a sharp angle instead of a smooth transition like a GTO has, but I'm not gonna change it anymore. There are some other small issues that have to be corrected. Except the painting I didn't do anything for over a month but now I'm starting some regular maintenance, change the belts, examine waterpump bearings, rebuild the brake calipers and other things. Hope to have the car painted and, short time after that, on the road next spring. Here are some pictures.

edit: pictures from the start until now: www.ferrari308.tk

 

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Look how left and right are indentical (almost), not as easy to achieve as you might think! In fact it is more symmetric now than it was originally. Take some measurements from your 308 and you'll be surprised!

 

Ignore the agricultural background
The tires are still white from sanding dust.

 

The paint is not THAT good.

 

68-66-72, perfect measurements for a car?

 

Topless GTO? Looks like Barbie's Ferrari...

 

Last one. At least one picture with some photographic quality. The paint on the car is to orange, like the formula-1 red, but in this picture taken at full tele it looks more like the normal darker Ferrari red.

 

Herbie and the Montecarlo, both waiting for better times to come...
The crank from the MC seized, 2 years ago. There was always something with that car, the 308 is much more reliable and easier to maintain. If I find the time however I will fix it. Some day...

I'll leave the 308 engine standard, I want to drive the damn thing now, and often!

 

Front turn signals: for months I was watching each car I came across to see if it had suitable units. I thought the Suzuki Alto's came closest so I got those at a wrecking yard (no, I didn't go out at night with a screwdriver to get one from a nurses car). I made the front bumper, and THEN I found, in an old box at home, the Fiat 127 units I bought long time ago for my Sud but never used, and those were perfect! I had to rebuild the frontbumper then, but is was worth it. It may be possible they used the same lenses for the GTO, at least I have Italian "altissimo" written on it now instead of japanese. The round indicator repeaters however have "japan" written on them, I'm cheap , also I think it is funny to give the "know-it-alls" some ammunition: "you see it is a kitcar, it says japan here!"

As I mentioned sometime on the old Fchat, I ordered mirrors from Jim Carpenter, Phoenix Arizona, he also sold the bodykits, and he was really friendly in the ordering process. Then I paid the 452 dollar including shipping with paypal and never heard from him again. I could see he was active on ebay, using the same email adress I used, so neither he or his computer crashed or died. I was to late complaining with paypal, so I filled in a recharge form with my creditcard company, and they did a recharge so I got my money back. Paypal is investigating the matter now, I'll wait for the final result, maybe Mr.Carpenter has some crazy excuse and will sent the mirrors after all, I don't think so however and then I will contact Mr Hooper at Italianauto. I was thinking to get some suitable mirrors from another car and put them on a flagstick, but hey, do I have to build everything myself? I noticed in the build that very little details can make or break the car, and convincing, not homebuild looking rear mirrors is one of those.

 

Nissan Sunny and Micra, about 1987-1990. I can sent you some if you want, they're for free and plenty around at my local wrecking yard.
I see the original Ferrari signals on the Dutch ebay sometimes and they are like 50 Euro or something, not worth it for me.

I also got some Audi 80 mirrors as that is one of the few modern cars that still has mirrors on the doors and not in the corner of the windows. They can be fitted and look good, maybe a bit to modern and streamlined.
I decided to treat myself to some real (=replica) GTO mirrors. First I thought they would be a bit over the top (haha, litterally) but I photoshopped them on my car and now I think they are way cool.