Hi - is this car supposed to have a mess exhaust cover/iaper? My car doesnt have one. Several years ago, I bought one, I believe on ebay... its sat in the box forever. Last week I took it out of the box for the first time and tried to see how it would affix to the car... it didnt seem like it would. The cover, has 6 or 8 screw holes, but I didnt see any matching screw holes under the rear of the car? I will take some pictures this weekend and post them... Thanks.
You have perhaps answered your own question!! The answer is: VERY few USA delivered, carbed NON CAT 308GTBs in the early 1976 to 1977 time period. None of the North American fibreglass cars had it. The Euro single exhaust exit valence did not use it... All of my 1977 steel cars DID have it, or should have. One had been fitted with the later 1978 "Hamster balls" cover, olne had some hack saw job to fit a "great new muffler" from Midas or somewhere, the third one was missing... I became an expert by buying the same part you have, only to find the sport ANSA four tip is ONE INCH wider on tip spacing!! Sweet Jesus....I am having some "replicas" made that will fit my ANSA FE2020, and I no longer run three cars. So there's good news in your lack of holes, you car probably shipped without it. The further bad news is it only fits the ridiculous Thermo Reactor OEM muffler, and surely yours is gone?? It's a valuable part I paid $475 for mine. To make a pattern.....
It's not "mesh" it's fabricated from "staggered slot perforated sheet metal" and the original cut pattern is metric!! I found the SAE American equivalent, it's close enough. Now the 308GT4 did have a totally different shroud but made of the same material in much the same fashion!!
That's late production for the year...steel car???....I would say that close to the glass cars that did not use it, yours got thru without one! You still use the thermo reactor muffler, or the ANSA FE 2020?? But obviously if yours had gone astray you would have the mounting holes...
Could you post a picture of it for the benefit of anyone who stumbles on this in future years? Thanks.
My 1976 308GTB Vetroresina (S/N 19795) has this cover over the exhaust. Is this what everyone refers to as the "Diaper"?
That is the later 1978 catayst equipped shroud, although my #20405 had similar. But the fact your car has one gives me pause......the collective wisdom would have that a '78 part. Not the one we are discussing in the thread. The Dallas yellow/black 1977 had one unmounted, but there was pictures of it in the ad. The car was wihdrawn from sale so the Ad may have dropped back in our Ads
Every US 308 before the 1978 model year is "pre-cat" (but they still have a lot of US specific emission equipment including a special "thermal reactor" muffler). I'd swear there are prior threads about this with good pictures.
Sorry about the .HEIC files. Let me try again with JPEG files. Again, this 'diaper" was installed on my late S/N Vetroresina. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Thanks. As Big Tex already said, that's the later US "diaper". I believe a 1976 308GTB Vetroresina would have the single-tip muffler so, if yours got updated to a quad-tip muffler, maybe that would explain why you'd have something a little different or custom.
Here's a scan from the 308 GTB Spare Parts Catalog dated 9/1976. This catalog states it's for the U.S and Australian Version. It shows a four outlet exhaust. Image Unavailable, Please Login
My mistake -- I had euro version in my head. If you've got the SPC, doesn't it also show what that exhaust cover should look like for your car? (After looking at your photo more closely, I'd say your "diaper" is not for a '78-'79 US 308B/S, but maybe could be for a US 308i-2V -- if it isn't the correct one for your car.)
The spare parts catalog shows the "mail slot" type rear valance (Item 40 in the parts diagram) which is missing from my car. Maybe the later style diaper was retrofitted to my car when thermal reactor exhaust was replaced years ago. That's only a guess since I purchased my car when it was about 12 years old. Image Unavailable, Please Login
My '77, purchased in '88 still has the ANSA exhaust that was on it when I got it -- and the "mail slot," 'diaper" has always been missing on it, too. Mike Flanagan #22963
US glass cars never had a single tip exhaust. And, I’ve never seen the “rats balls” diaper on a US glass car. Might be a great excuse to lose it...
That's what I assumed the OP was calling "mesh"..it's perforated metal sheetng. Yes it was fitted ONLY to the North American version of the NON CAT Carbed cars, between say November 1976 until the cars got CATS in 1978. Which took the later "hamster balls" shroud..