Resurrection of #30239

Hello everyone and happy New Year!

With New Year, I would like to start another restoration thread. I would like to openly thank each of you for making this possible through your words and photographs. I have learned a great deal from FChat! Furthermore, I would especially like to thank Paul (Newman), Brett (b27), and Helmut (Helmut) for their restoration threads and providing me with the motivation to carry on through the long hours spent to completing this car.

Car History: It is a 1979 308 GTB US model and build date was November 26, 1979. The car was purchased from Los Gatos Ferrari on April 2, 1980 and was purchased by a UCLA professor. He had seen the car on display at the Long Beach Grand Prix on March 30th and he was determined to purchase it. The second owner had owned the 308 GTB since 1982. The car had been driven on a regular basis until 1997. According to the second owner he purchased a black Ferrari 512 BBi in 1997, thus he lost interest in the 308. The car was a lifelong California car and included most of the records, original documentation, tools, and was completely original including the smog equipment. It had never been painted or any other body work for that matter. The car was in fair running condition with 51K miles.

I paid $14K for the car plus a $1K for delivery. I took delivery the car on a very cold February 2003 day and it was made even more cold because a very difficult to start 67 Shelby GT 500 (427 side oiler with two fours and really nice car). Once the truck driver and I got the Shelby started my 308 would start, but it really did not like the cold (the choke was not working). However, once it warned up it ran fine. I did not have PPI done, but spoke numerous times with second owner as well as a mechanic from Ferrari of San Francisco who had previously worked on the car. I must say the condition of the car was just as describe to me over the phone. Yes, I got lucky!

Restoration Scope: The car would need to be completely gone through which the restoration would include following body/paint, interior, suspension and an engine major. I knew with the amount of work needed I would have to perform most of the work. I was fine with that in fact that is the reason for purchasing the car. I really get great enjoyment from bring something back from the dead. I wanted to keep the car original for most part with a few tasteful modifications here and there. If the car needed something it would be replaced, but I wanted to keep the restoration cost below $35K including the price of the car.


Cheers,
Alan
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Hello Paul,

I finally found some time to do. I wanted to explain things in manner similar to your great thread. As I stated to you privately, without your restoration thread the results would have been much more difficult to have obtain! I learned a great deal from your experiences

I cannot wait to see the results of the boxer engine!

Alan

 

I did not start on the restoration until August 2008. I selected to started on the body of the car, because I was really sick of seeing the faded lacquer paint. The body was dent free for most part, but it had several very small sections of rust. I know this is going to sound strange, but the rust was a different type of rust than what you see in the Midwest of U.S. The rust was very isolated and in very small spots. It was almost like it was a failure of the protection components (paint/sealers/rust proofing) rather than the environment of the car.

Anyway, I started working from front to back with disassembling the exterior components. This included taking off the grill, mirrors, headlights, bumpers, bonnet, doors, decklid, side marker lights, etc. I determined to strip the car’s finish to bare metal. I have learned over the years that it is best to start at ground zero (metal/fiberglass) because of not knowing what is under the finish surface and issues with compatibility with the refinish products. I select Standox refinishing products and I used their product religiously per the manufactures instructions. Standox is a little pricy product line, but so is the time to redo a panel or part!

I stripped the body for most part with chemical stripper. There is four principle finish layers on metal surfaces and they are the following: a base primer (dark gray), a LOT of polyester primer (light yellow), sealer/surface (light gray), and lacquer base coat. With fiberglass parts it is a little different, the base primer is bright orange colored, and I believe it is that color to warn the refinisher to not sand into the fiberglass gel coat finish. On my car the front spoiler and the lower rear quarter panels were fiberglass. After the original finish is stripped, I prepare the steel with a 3M Scotch Brite (red/400 grit) pad on a right angle die grinder, and then prep the surface with a two part Standox prep system.

I stripped and refinished the car in sections because of limited garage space and organizational reasons. The section were the following: front end, roof, left quarter panels, right quarter panels, decklid, doors, bonnet, front spoiler, and sills. The bonnet, doors, decklid and front spoiler were refinished in my houses 1,500 sq ft. walk out basement with a single car garage. While the main body was refinished in my two car garage on the main level of the house. I came up with a negative pressure ventilation/filtration system to pull refinishing vapors away from the living quarters. I use a really nice fresh ventilization system that uses an air compressor supply for my person breathing and one really needs to take the health concerns very seriously!

Bye Bye!
Alan
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Thank you for your kind words!

I feel like I should give a little back because I have recieved so much from others.

I have taken over a thousand photographs of the restoration. Unfortunately, I lost most of my original photographs (at purchase) in 2005 because of a failed hard drive. But, I think the restoration photographs will illustrate the condition of the car before and after.

Cheers,
Alan

 

Hi Helmut,

Yes, I went after a rabbit (lol)! You know I really had a lot fun doing this car.

I will be covering the supension in future installments. But, because of the starting time of the restoration (late summer) I ran out of warm weather. So, I completed the supension during the winter and covered all of it with a lot plastic sheets and tape. Then I finished the body when warmer weather returned.

I know the order of the restoration may not be in the preferred manner, but I think you will like the end results.

Best Regards,
Alan

 

Rome wasn't built in a day!

 

With the stripped front end, it was on to applying primer with a Standox based product called EP Precoat it is an epoxy primer and the only one suggested for bare metal. I have included couple photographs that illustrate the EP Precoat with a guide coat product from 3M. The guide coat is used for telling where your highs and lows are in the body. Dark color is a low and light color is a hight. I use ten various size Durablocks with my longest block being 32" in length for a Ferrari 308. Also, with a Ferrari 308 body it is very much suggested to have several flexiable sanding blocks of various lengths.
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I continue to prime with a Standox 2K HS (High Solid) primer/surfacer and block everything with 180 grit.

With the lows spots in the body I use Evercoat Rage Gold light weigth body filler as long as the low is not greater than .125" (5mm). If the low is greater than that, I use my stud welder and pull the low out. If the low is very shallow like .020" (.75 mm) or less I will use Evercoat Metal Glaze.

When reaching a high spot in the body that is a sign to stop sanding and then fill the lows with filler or just reply apply primer. If high spot really high then you should consider metal finishing the spot.

After you have a surface free of highs and lows it is matter of going through a sanding progression of 320, 400, 600, 800, and 1000 grit wet sand.

In the last photograph, the body is ready for paint base coat/clear with the dark gray primer (Standox Nonstop Primer). Note: Primer color is matched to your base coat paint color in order to use less paint.
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As described with front end it really a matter of stripping body, repairing any gross highs and lows and then sand/primer. I had one deep low on the C column on the left side (drivers side) that look like it had been struck by a golf ball at point blank range! I used a body pick to work it out with wheel off and fiberglass wheel well out of the car.

I took the windshield out at this point as well as all the other glass except for the rear window. The windshield was not difficult to remove at all, I used my Moody pick tool worked around seal pulling it away. After all the horror stories about broken rear windows, I got a serious "pucker" factors and decided to work around it with some fabricated clips.

Note: I have not said anything about the lead wipes that are all over the body. They are at the following locations: front fender (near top by gap with the door), two places on the A column, top of the C column, decklid near spoiler lip, and all over the quarter panels where the door matches up to quarter panel. The lead will be fine with chemical stripper and soda blasting to remove the finish. But, be very carefull with other forms of finish removal like abrasive blasting or abrasive wheels. The lead will be a different color than the metal body (see photograph below). Unless you wish to re-lead them and generate more work for yourself.
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The 308 body is made in very "old school" manner in that there is very little adjustability for panel variation and the dies that formed the panels are not of today standards. The coach builders of the fifties and earlier used such techniques of this type. This does add character to the cars, but adds cubic $$$ in labor and materials.

Furthermore, before I start refinishing my car I visited a high end restoration shop in Cincinnati, Ohio and the owner was working several Ferrari's along a Countach LP 400, and a number of German sports cars. He had a 308 GTS in his shop that was in the paint booth that was going through refinish similar to mine. The owner of the shop told the price to tag for refinishing 308 GTS was $16 K including materials (primer/paint) and labor. Moreover, he told me his labor rate was $50 per hour. My point is that is a lot of labor hours for professional shop!

The quarter panel are prefect example of my point. At this point in the project, it was taking me forever to complete the refinishing and I needed some help. The quarter panel lead wipes are the high in the entire panel and everything else is built up to lead wipes. What that means is a lot of filling of low shots! The solution is employ sprayable polyester primer (similar to what Ferrari had orginally done). I purchased a new primer HVLP spray gun with a 2.2 nozzle. When I went in to my local refinish supplier they laughed at me for needing the Standox polyester primer. In fact they told me the only people that use that is someone with serious hail damage. The product is a must 308 body restoration!
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I have really enjoyed your threads and post as well as your knowledge of these cars. For me, you have managed to fill in a number of gaps and misconceptions about the 308 series.

You know I really enjoyed working on this project. I would love to do 308 QV sometime in the future.

Thanks,
Alan

 

Hi Stephen,

If I have learned anything about these car, it is take your best estimate about the amount of time something will take to complete and double it and then add twenty percent!

I feel for you!

Regards,
Alan

 

Hi Jay,

It really was not all that involved. I purchased four enclosed motor fans and mounted them in a frame that was made the same size of my garage exterior door jamb. Then I mounted the frame/fans in the aforementioned door jamb. I placed filters on the air entering side of the fans. Because the garage was sealed up the negative pressure pulls filtered air from the basement. The basement air stays around 71* F during the summer. A constant temperature is very important doing paint work.

The filtration system worked pretty well and only a little amount of dirt (trash) got into the paint. I had planned all along to color sand/buff the clear so the dirt is not an issue. If you have access to a spray booth that is the best solution. With the economy as is today, I have heard that some body shops are willing rent their spray booths on per hour basis.

One word of warning, I have heard of issues with open housing motors (fans) cause fires from the refinishing vapors.

Cheers,
Alan

 

By using the polyester primer (sprayable body filler) helped to speed thing up greatly. The amount solids per coat is nearly double that of the Standox 2K HS. The one word of caution with this product is there cannot be exposed area it must be completely sealed went the base coat is applied.
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Time to get a little color in the picture. I am sure you are tired of seeing gray primer. I used Standox base coat (color) and Standox Premium 2K Clear. I applied three coats of base coat and five coats of clear. I use an Iwata LPX 400 spray gun for base coat and separate Iwata LPH 400 gun for clear coat. The Standox base coat almost performs like lacquer and uses no catalyst. I cannot state how well Iwata guns atomize and spray clear. I made an issue with the amount to thin the clear, but after I got it dialed in it laid down like glass.
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From the beginning I wanted a Euro look for my US model. I purchased an aftermarket deep front spoiler from Jim Carpenter (re-creatation specialist for Ferrari 288 GTO) about five years ago. The front spoiler had a couple issues. First, it does not fit the way the original spoiler did, and second the lip was not wide enough to cover the wheel panel. The solution was to reworked the spoiler to fit (cutting and grinding) and add extra width to lip.

The quality of the gel coat finish quite good with the deep spoiler. Much better quality than the Lotus Esprit parts I purchase from the UK.
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