Surprise on the Heritage Certificate!

As a new 308GTB owner of a "cosmetically challenged" '78 US spec car in what appeared to be an original red/black boxer paint scheme

http://fnader.com/images/308GTB/308gtb3

which I've not really like, but which is indeed growing on me, I was prompted by this list to seek out a Heritage Certificate on ferrariowners.com.

I did so and received quite a surprise. I indeed have a numbers matching car, but one which left Italy in Bianco Polo!!!

This STUNNED me as I have seen absolutely NO evidence that the car had been repainted and has been in the hands of the 2nd owner since around 1984. To me this means that the car had to have been partially disassembled for a factory-like job to have been completed.

Having been intimate with the car underneath and in front and rear compartments, I started disassembling interior to see what I could find. Sure enough... white paint in places they would have had no reason to disassemble and respray.

Now I'm back to the old question... keep the Boxer paint scheme or dump it and spray solid black or silver or grey (solid red or Bianco Polo are not under consideration...)?

This whole situation is really ironic, since several years ago I bought what appeared to be an unpainted solid black Northstar Allante in perfect condition. No evidence anywhere of a respray.

Now some of you may be aware that Cadillac was Mary Kay's favorite car and she had a deal with Cadillac to provide her with pink production cars ("Mountain Laurel" so named for her Mt Laurel NJ headuqarters) cars as awards for her people. Most were standard Sevilles and the like.

She had a run of Allantes early in their production and upon finding that Cadillac was to discontinue the Allante in 1993, she ordered (and leased) 17 fully loaded pink cars. Once the cars leases were up, she gave them back to the lease company which put cheap paint jobs on them as per her agreement, they could not sell any pink Allantes.

She only kept 6 cars in pink for her and her executive staff... yet after her death, a Cadillac researcher could only come up with the whereabouts of 5 of them, still owned by Mary Kay. Yep... my car was the missing #6 as indenitifed by the VIN... and the only '93 to have apparently left the Mary Kay world still pink.

Here is a "before" picture: http://fnader.com/images/Allante/PinkAllante.jpg
and "after": http://fnader.com/images/Allante/DCP_0019.JPG

I went though the same process with the Allante looking for "pink evidence" and found none even in the interior which must have been completely disassembled and resprayed to a very high standard. Only by using guidance from one of the assembly workers on what would have been painted body color in the engine compartment was I able to remove a component and find the pink underneath. Given the location, I would have never recognized this as body color (instead of rust-proofing, etc) had I not been looking for it... what a complete color change and to a quality that I couldn't detect it!

Further research showed that one of the registered owners (post MK) also owned a Cadillac dealership in IL... so we assume that's where the work was done.

Bill

 

The Boxer paint option did not show on my Heritage Cert... so I assume that it, like the red, was added later (potentially by the dealer as the original owner swore the car had original paint!)

But the larger question of whether it showed up at all is a good one. Does anyone actually have a heritage Cert showing the boxer paint option? I guess it's possible that the option didn't make it into the records, but if anyone has a cert showing it, then we'd know for sure my particular scheme was added later.

So far, the feedback seems to be split between keeping the red/Boxer scheme or going solid color. I appreciate the feedback... and will let everyone know what I decide. I have also been mulling over the excellent advice about going with a rare color if I go all the way. I really like the look of http://www.ferrari308.com/gallery/pict0063.jpg but am not sure I could live with it long term... I generally prefer blacks, silvers, greys....

My Allante is from about the same time period... VIN PU100035 (the cars with factory hardtops ran in a parallel VIN series... my car was #35 made with a hardtop...)

Bill

 

Absolutely free! The first benefit I received from using this site and one of the main reasons I subscribed.

https://www.owners.ferrari.com/cgi-bin/Feros/os/jsp/01_0_login.jsp

Free registration.

Then go to "Historic Document Archive", then "Heritage Certificate".and them enter the chassis number (just the last five numerals), engine type (the whole thing...mine was F106AE), Gearbox type (same format as engine... mine was F106AL), engine # (last 5 numerals only)... this can be seen in the intake valley on the passenger side, and the gearbox number (four numerals) found stamped on the bottom of the sump at the passenger rear of the pan.

It won't take the numbers if in the wrong format. If it is in the right format, then it tells you that Ferrari will verify the numbers and if they match Ferrari records, they will issue a Hertiage Certificate.

They never emailed me to tell me it was ready... I just kept checking back on the site. I first noticed that I had an "alert" (icons for mail and alerts on the main page after you sign in), but no instructions on receiving the cert.

I went back to where I requested it and there was a "previously requested documents" link which I hit and was rewarded with a color pdf certificate.

Bill

 

I can't really tell you for sure because I was waiting for an email. It was several days before I went digging around the owners site and found the cert was there.

Sorry!
Bill