This Month I... - Bought a lot of tools and garage stuff (sockets, wrenches, ramps, jack stands, multimeter, etc). Not sure if I've spent more on tools or parts. Thankful that son's employee discount at auto parts store also applies to Dad - Discovered Simple Green. Have cleaned a LOT of things with this magical concoction - Removed the floormat grabbers, so that the seat moves up enough that I can comfortably reach the pedals - Repaired the "console dip" under the oil/clock gauges so that it doesn't dip (block of wood) - Replaced the stock fuse blocks with Sam's fuse blocks (Outstanding quality there) - Replaced dead fuse in stereo. Stereo now works. Have listened to stereo less than 30 minutes. 25 of said minutes was to keep girlfriend entertained on weekend trip. - Oil Change (B253 filter) - New spark plugs (NGK Iridium BPR7EIX) - Rear Deck Emblem: Replaced the (1 missing) speed nuts with 2 new speed nuts. Removed very old "this wad of duct tape should be fine" solution. Now it won't fly off the car... yay. - Filled and drained 8 gallons of coolant - Repaired a coolant leak... 1 new tube, 4 new hoses - Removed the parking brake assembly and cleaned all parts. Aftermarket exhaust was causing cables to bind rendering it completely useless (more useless than normal), and eventually would have damaged exhaust. Still evaluating how to address this and get it working again. Surprised this wasn't noted when new exhaust was installed....? - Replaced the missing washers on the torsion bar, and the old rubber bushings while I was at it. - Cleaned approx 17 years of grease and crud of inside of front rims. May have gained approx 34HP, and breaking distance likely 220% more efficient - Vacuumed dirt and leaves out the heater boxes. Will replace the (not there anymore) filters if I ever decide I actually need to use a heater in Florida - Tightened a loose - but crucial - nut to ensure steering wheel rod stays connected to steering rack and car doesn't randomly loose all steering and run off the road at some point - Replaced the throttle cable. Undesired Cruise Control no longer present on car. - Fixed some incorrect gaps on the headlight pods - Replaced the 8 (at least 7) non-matching (wtf?!!!) screws on the fender louvers with 8 new matching stainless screws - Traced an annoying sometimes-it-stops-working tail/brake light problem... replaced the contact pigtail - Replaced the rear red bulbs with LEDs (4x Sylvania 2357R) - Wired the non-used Antenna Switch to activate my garage door opener - And finally, took several very pleasant drives.
Good work thorn. I'm still a month in reassembling the entire car after a 1 yr resto back to original Avorio Safari. Still need to do the front susp. But not this year. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Looks like you have a really strong 2-post lift! or the photo is perfectly composed to hide the rear two posts. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Getting ready for the Danville Concours d'Elegance. Lot's cleaned up and still lots to do: Done: -replaced mismatches sheet metal pan head screws with all new matching stainless parts so at least they're all the same - replaced rubber mounts for the oil cooler (one had split so swapped them both out since the other was probably only a matter of time) - lots and lots and lots of flat black touch up paint where red has been peeking through, even a few larger jobs of masking and spraying around the front bonnet, front grill, engine bay, and muffler diaper. - pulled off the washer fluid metal strap as I noticed some rust peeking through the edge. It was a lot worse than I thought. Stripped off the paint, sanded down ALL the rust with hand and Dremel, primed, and repainted with flat black. Looks brand new! - replaced my mismatched wipers with new matching ones - removed nearly every screw in the front bonnet area: radiator, deck lid, deck lid vent, and AC condenser. Scraped and buffed off rust and corrosion, applied rust-stop or rust converter as needed, repainted the black screws/bolts, and re-assembled it all. - cleaned off and touched up the beginning of some rust around the radiator mounting brackets. - removed the rear deck lid retaining u-posts to scrape/Dremel off rust, replaces the 4x M6 bolts with new ones + split washers and flat washers. - removed and re-installed the front grill with new hardware. Old hardware was looking a bit rusty. - removed all 4 yellow plastic indicators and replaced with new indicators. Luckily my arms are long enough to reach the US side indicators through the front with the grill removed. - removed rust and repainted several trunk carpet screws, replaced a few completely worn screws with new hardware. - cleaned the beginnings of corrosion off the header tank temperature sender and air injection system check valve Still to-do: - remove old front bonnet radiator sealing foam gaskets as my original ones are finally starting to come apart. Parts in-hand, just need some proper mounting tape and a steady eye! - install the side radiator sealing foam gaskets. Hoping to figure out how to do this with the radiator in-place using some wax paper to slip-fit the foam in and lots of patience. - remove, re-flatten, and re-install my door card speaker covers... looking too wavy/crumpled - rear deck lid release latch in driver-side door panel black plastic is cracked. Got a new part but need to get the rear wheel off to gain access through the wheel well. Doesn't look like the easiest job - passenger door-well light gasket is perished. Need to fabricate a new gasket. - clean up and repaint some light rust on the rear drivers side vent next to the muffler diaper - replace the emblem center caps in the two front wheels as my old ones have some small cracks forming finally. - remove, strip, and repaint the coolant header tank. Some paint starting to bubble from a bad paint job by someone the previous owner had repaint it. - invest in a lift to make my life a lot easier!!! Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
More goodies complete: - Affixed new front bonnet strut arrow sticker thanks to Markus! - final coat of matte black and new cheese head slotted screw for the washer tank - the 'little bit of rust' ended up being a 'all the paint is peeling off of these' for both sides of the back tire rear vents. Lots of scrubbing, a dremel wire brush, rust converter, rust converter again, primer, matte black paint and done. I will likely have to do this all over again on the inside, but need to invest in a rivet setup first. - out with old and in with the new front radiator bonnet foam gaskets. Lots of horrible adhesive clean-up, masking, 3M high-temp, high-tack contact adhesive, a level eye and a steady hand. - Found out that my muffler sheet metal hex bolts were at some point replaced with #12 pan heads instead. Oops. I was able to find some 1/4"hex bolts to swap out. This weekend the radiator is coming out to install the side foam seals and strip/repaint the header tank. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
After seeing what you're doing I'm feeling like a total slouch. Must get the car on the lift and get to work this weekend. Thanks for the inspiration...
If you bring it to the Blackhawk Museum Cars and Coffee on Sunday, I (we!) will happily look over your car. Sometimes a fresh set of eyes is helpful to spot stuff that you no longer see. PM me if you're coming.
Thanks Brian. Will send a PM and plan to join the C&C. @Archer911: Whatever helps to keep the enthusiast community enthused!
Throttle pedal was looking quite tired with much of the black coating (anodized?) rubbed off. Alcohol wiped it clean, gave it a spray of primer and then some satin black automotive paint. Looks great now. Speaker grills were quite wrinkled as mentioned above. Removed door cards on both sides, steamed the leather+cardboard stack to smooth them out and give them a slight bump outward to clear the drivers. Not as good as I'd like but they look considerably better than they did before. Didn't get to take the radiator and header tank out yet. Still on my to-do for this week. Cooling has been poor lately so worried my radiator is fouled up inside and restricting flow, so it will come out and have a flow test done; probably a flush while it's out. Header tank will go off for stripping + power coating in satin black. I have a spare tank sticker to re-apply afterward. All new gaskets (bottom and 2x side) are ready to go in once the radiator is out. I ordered a new Pirelli tire for my spare to match the ones on the rest of the car. The original one from when I bought the car ~6yrs ago won't hold air anymore so useless to try and repair again. Ordered a few things from Superformance.uk and FerrParts.com: - wheel center cap (I have two slightly cracked ones in the front, one clean spare but needed 1 more) - rear door/roof seal gasket, the long one (some small pits/tears in my current one) - washer fluid tank (mine is original and badly stained, bleach couldn't get the stain out) Questions for the forum regarding concours judging: a. I have a few very old (look original) brown stains in my roof headliner that look like glue aging. My headliner is original and I've tried to clean them but to no avail. I'm not inclined to replace my headliner just because of these... b. I had a bit of rust on the chrome rivet buttons on the spare tire tray that attach the wiper washer fluid tank and bracket to hold the lines. I used rust remover to get rid of the rust but the chrome is a bit spotted. Should I try to remove and replace the buttons? c. My center console leather is starting to sag a bit where the shifter meets the clock. I'm going to pull this up and see if I can re-flatten it. I didn't see anything in the forums about this specifically but it doesn't look to be too hard, just time consuming.
It was great to see your car and meet you at Blackhawk Museum Cars and Coffee on Sunday. You have a truly awesome car. Absolutely beautiful. I only noticed them when you pointed them out. To me, they look like factory sloppiness. You really can't do anything about them anyway except redoing the headliner and that would be way over the line given how nice you headliner and shelf fabric look. Silver Sharpie? I built an elaborate support bridge under the sagging part by epoxying in a piece of aluminum angle iron across the console only to learn afterward that most people just cram a block of wood between the shifter and the console. Have fun removing the console. You motivate me to do this to my car, ... at least put it on the list of stuff to do. Glad they turned out; they were looking kinda gnarly. My tank was a nice pure white (with a badly corroded pump which I replaced with a $10 Jeep Cherokee pump). When I put blue washer fluid in the tank for concours, the stuff permanently stained the tank blue color.
This is a very simple fix. Cut a small block of wood, approx 5-6cm high (Use a ruler and your best judgement. I'm going by memory). It doesn't need to be very thick; just about 5 x 5cm, around 2cm thick. Wedge it between the dip of the console, and the metal cross-member you'll see just below where it's dipping. Cut slightly longer than you need to, just in case it's too big to wedge nicely, and you need to shave a few mm off. Be sure to firmly press the console down into position when you go to put the screw back in. You don't want the screws torquing the console down. You just want them holding it in place.
here is a pic of that small block of wood to support the console frame . Image Unavailable, Please Login .
Yesterday was not a good day. I was driving along not paying attention to my gauges on my 1987 328GTS going 55-60 mph in 5th. I glanced down at the coolant temperature gauge and it said 230 degrees F instead of the normal 170. I glanced in the mirror looking for smoke but saw nothing. Looked at the oil pressure gauge and it read 40 psi rather than the normal 80 psi. Didn't check the oil temperature gauge but now I wish I had. I pulled off the road and shut the engine off. I noticed water and steam exiting the coolant tank overflow. I opened the engine hood and looked at the water pump pulley. It had bits of melted belt on it. I called a flatbed and had it brought home. The driver helped me push it into the garage. Hours later I added coolant and momentarily cranked up the engine. The oil pressure went back to 80 psi and engine seemed to run fine. I just got through changing the water pump on another car of mine but this one will be easier to do. This will be the third water pump on my 328. Five years will be up on the timing belts so I'll do that at the same time. Naturally, I'll change the engine oil.
I had nearly the exact thing happen to me on the way home one evening. Water pump belt shredded to pieces. I feel your pain. Hopefully engine health is in the clear!
Thanks. This morning I refilled the engine with the lost coolant and started it to move it from a garage to the basement where I work on my vehicles. To move the car it was only necessary to run it for about a minute. Oil pressure was normal and engine seemed fine when I goosed it get the alternator to charge. Hate to overheat aluminum engines though.
Needed to start my poor neglected 308GT4 after sitting idle for 18months. Fired up first pop and after some new petrol runs perfectly!! All down to changing the points to MSD magnetic pickups inside both distributors and installing HEI type ignition boxes. Still looks stock from the outside. Car is a joy to drive but still runs a bit rich. No fouled spark plugs anymore.
Well, had my mechanic pull the radiator as mentioned to have it flow tested. Confirmed it was nearly completely plugged, almost no flow at all. It's getting recored now for ~$500 which is substantially cheaper than a replacement and I get to keep my original top and bottom. I should get the car back tomorrow so that I can finish up all the rest of the stuff I need to get done for Danville. - washer tank (new tank on-hand, just need to swap) - header tank repaint (have semi-gloss engine enamel) - head tank blow-off tube (have tube, ready to trim to length and attach) - radiator sealing foams (installed) - front wheel center caps (two are cracked a bit, trying to track down new ones. I have 3 spares but they're all cracked or crazed) - mid-console wood block - standard leather conditioner on the interior - rubber rear bonnet plug (on-hand, ready to swap my non-stock plug out with a correct one) - roof leather cover plastic black button (on-hand, just need to swap) - Pirelli spare tire to match others (procured, mounting and balancing today) - Try to reverse passenger mirror (maybe do this, maybe not; depends on time) - double-check the throttle pedal paint still ok - any new engine bay paint touch-ups or rear bonnet touch-ups, take another look - silver sharpie on front spare tire tray rivet buttons (per Brian A's recommendation) - roof/door gasket replacement (on-hand, just need to remove/replace) Miles to go before I sleep...
May I suggest... Flush the block, really flush the block! Esp if you have a 308 2v, the iron liners corrode into the block and make a big mess. Hate to see the radiator get plugged up again.
Drove from La Hermida in the Picos National Park in northern Spain to Pamplona yesterday keeping entirely to back roads and the Dino was brilliant. It kept its cool through a number of tough switch-back climbs and excelled on the fast sweeping open stretches. We've got a "rest" day today, but we head off into the Pyrenees tomorrow. Paul
Got my 308 back from having the radiator re-cored. Bottom and side sealing foam pieces were installed. New Pirelli spare tire was mounted on the wheel. No more spare tire anxiety. Knocked out a few items tonight after the family went to bed: - washer tank replaced (with new pump) - header tank blow-off tube replaced to the correct blue tube - mid-console wood block. Pulled out the ash tray and access was super easy. Measure twice, cut the wood block once. This fix worked great! - rear bonnet rubber plug swapped out to be the correct one - roof leather cover plastic black button replaced behind the drivers seat. - silver sharpie on front spare tire tray rivet buttons (per Brian A's recommendation), worked better than expected - roof/door gasket replacement was a bit finicky but went on pretty well. Looks a ton better already. To-do tomorrow - strip and repaint header tank - swap out two front tire center caps - a few rear bonnet paint touch ups ... should be ready for Danville Concours d'Elegance! I hope anyone in the Northern California area can come by Sunday to see all the amazing cars that will be on display!
Image Unavailable, Please Login Had the wheels off searching for the problem that's causing my idle to drop and car to stall under braking and thought I'd change the rear brake pads. No such luck as I couldn't get the caliper pistons pushed in enough to get the new pads in. Put the old ones back and felt like a jackass.
