Rivet tool found!

After lots of looking and asking around, I found a rivet tool that would work. My brother-in-law had an old tool he picked up for $2 at a garage sale. The body was narrow enough, but the pivot pin made it just a little too wide. However, the way this tool was set up allowed me to grind some metal off each end of the pivot to make it narrow enough. I left just enough material so it wouldn't fall apart.



It barely fit, but I was able to sneak it between the fins and rivet the louver assembly back on. The grinding left the pivot pin rough so I put some blue painters tape on the head of the rivet tool so it wouldn't scratch the anodized aluminum of the louvers.



I don't have a picture of the final product, but I put the engine cover back on the car as well. My todo list is pretty short now. I'll definitely be driving by the time spring rolls around.

Hey honey, what're you doing right now?

Want to go for a quick ride? That's what I told TK tonight after I spent a few hours in the shop.

Earlier this week, I considered dropping the car back on the ground. Everything was buttoned up underneath (or so I thought). Yesterday, I looked under the car and there was a liquid spot. I reluctantly got back on the creeper and rolled under the car to see what it was and where it coming from. It was coolant, and was coming from a rear connection. Turns out that a hose clamp was a little loose. Of course, it was one that was nearly impossible to reach. After a lot of swearing, I did manage to tighten the clamp and it stopped the leak. I got out the floor jacks and lowered the car off the jack stands.



I was tired of just working on this car and I was really itching to drive it. Sitting back on the ground again just made that itch more itchy. I had no engine cover, no mirrors and no plates. It was dark. I didn't care -- I needed to drive. I started the engine and let it idle a while to warm up. I went to get TK and we got into the car. I tell you, sitting so low to the ground with the engine running was AWESOME. I backed it out and turned on the headlights. First of all, the lights need to be aimed. Second of all, the headlights SUCK. No matter, I was able to take my first drive and I wasn't going to let a little thing like not being able to see the road stop me.

I put it into gear and we set off down the driveway toward the road. We live on a dead end street and I was only planning on driving down to the end -- probably less than 1000 feet. As I pulled onto the road, I started laughing. I was driving a Ferrari, MY Ferrari, the one I had wanted since I was 12 years old. It was amazing.

A few seconds later, we reached the end of the road and I had to turn around and headed to the other end of the road. I never got out of second gear, but it was great. This was just a little test and I didn't consider it a real drive. Very soon, I'll get all remaining things put back on the car so I can take it for an authentic maiden voyage.

My old man is a television repairman. He's got the ULTIMATE set of tools...I can fix it

Not really my old man, but my neighbor BG. He's got a motorcycle shop with a full machine shop. If anyone knows how to remove a broken bolt with a broken extractor inside, it's BG. His idea was for me to grind out the bolt around the edge until the broken extractor comes out. He loaned me a set of mini carbide tipped cutters that would fit in my Dremel tool.



It was amazing. These things chewed through the bolt like it was butter. After a few minutes of grinding, part of the broken bolt extractor fell out and I could see the original hold I drilled. A little more grinding and all the hardened steel was gone. I then webt back to the drill to enlarge the hole until I could pick out some of the old threads. Finally, running a tap through the hole cleaned it out and now I'm back in business. I have no idea how much a set of these cutters cost, but I need to get a set. The sure are handy to have around.

I still need to find a narrow rivet tool to fit between the louvers to finish off the engine cover.

It's all about the tools

I set about to finish putting the engine hatch back together today. First, I attempted to drill out a broken mounting bolt. The result? FAIL! I was able to drill a hole into the bolt and start a bolt extractor, but I ended up breaking it off. Then I tried to drill through the broken extractor, but that didn't work too well. The bolt extractor is made of hardened steel and my drill bits were just not up to the task. I decided to leave it and try again later.



With the bolt extraction a bust, I moved on to installing the mesh grill and louvers. With the hatch upside down on some sawhorses, I was able to get everything attached to the underside. So far so good. I flipped the hatch over and put the louvers in place. I then realized that my pop rivet gun is too wide and would not fit between the louver fins. Guess I need to find a different tool.



I did meet with some success on the door switches. The new switches I got were a little different than the originals so I had to make some modifications. The original has a male spade connector and the replacement does not. I cut off the end, soldered on a pigtail and the proper connector. They work great and now the dome light comes on when I open the door.

Remote controlled

I had a few hours today and I finished hooking up the Commando keyless entry system. There's actually not too much "under dash" space in the 308 so it was challenging to find places for the central lock and keyless entry modules. I ended up stashing them in the passenger footwell behind the ECU panel. I cleaned up all the wiring and bundled it up neatly under the fuse panel. It's pretty cool to be able to lock and unlock the doors via a remote. Almost like having a modern car!

Tomorrow I'm finally going to tackle the engine cover. I've heard putting the louvers back on is a PITA. The louvers go on top and there is a mesh grill and other pieces on the bottom. You need four hands to do the job. We'll see what happens.

Light em up

After lots of searching, I think I finally found some door jamb switches that will work. In each door jamb, there is a pin switch to control the interior dome light and a red light in the door frame. Both my switches were missing, and I wanted to find replacements so the dome light would work correctly.

I found some discussion on F-chat about these switches. First, I got some Fiat X1/9 switches (the one with the white button). I was told the Fiat used the same switches. This was wrong -- the Fiat switches have a button that is too short and a mounting ear with a hole. They are meant to be secured with a screw. The original ones just clip in. I dug deeper and found a part number and a vendor. Apparently the Porsche 356 uses the same switch as the 308.



Ok, these aren't EXACTLY the same either. The replacements have a black button and the rear connection is not the same. However, I think they're close enough to work. This is a busy weekend, but I'm hoping to have a few minutes to see if these switches will work.

Also arrived today is a box of black anodized pop rivets for the engine cover. These secure the louvers on the the rear hatch. I think I only need about a dozen of them, but the smallest box I could find was 250. There are way more than I'll ever use so I'll see if any fellow F-Chatters need some black pop rivets. Better to give them away to someone who can use them than to get lost in my shop.

Cover me

This weekend, TK was looking at the 308 and remarked that it was really dusty. She said that as soon as the car is back on the ground and clean, I should get a cover or at least a big sheet to keep the dust off. We stopped at a craft store when we were out and about, but I didn't see any fabric that seemed appropriate (or big enough).

Late this afternoon, I did a quick search to see what kind of indoor car covers were available. There was one cover that caught my eye -- the Dustop made by Covercraft. It's basically and indoor dust cover, made of a 4-ply soft material. The material was originally designed by Kimberly-Clark for use in baby diapers. That tells you how soft this material is. Finding a place to buy such in thing was frustrating though. All the sources I found did not have a 308 cover in this particular material.

Then I Googled "ferrari 308 dustop." Amazingly enough, the first hit was a San Francisco Craigslist ad with exactly what I was looking for. A guy in the Bay Area was selling a one year old Dustop cover for the 308! He had placed the ad about half an hour before I called. What are the chances? He was in California, but by brother AL lives about 20 minutes away. Quick calls to the seller and AL got the deal organized and the cover got paid for and picked up. Best of all, AL's coming to town at the end of this month so I'll get the cover then.

Passenger door done

There's still some wiring cleanup to do, but the passenger's door is mostly back together. It just seemed like there were so many little things to take care of before I could put the door panel back on. I wasted a lot of time looking for the metal rod that connects the lock button to the locking mechanism. I finally gave up looking and made one out of a piece of allthread I had laying around. It fit, but I wasn't all too happy about it. Here's what the central locking actuator looks like and it's approximate location inside the door. When it's mounted, you can barely tell it's there.



As I was working at the workbench with the door panel, I happened to drop a tool on the floor. It then proceeded to roll behind some junk on the floor. I reached down to get it and what did I find? The missing door lock rod! Amazing. Good thing I found it before I put the door panel back on. I was happy to pitch the rod I made and put the real one back on. The last thing to do was to deal with the side mirror mounting holes in the door. Back in 1978, this car only came with a driver's side mirror. At some point, one was added to the passenger's side. However, the passenger mirror was mounted with sheet metal screws right into the door skin. On the driver's side, there is a steel plate mounted on the inside of the door with threaded holes for machine screws. I decided to do the same sort of thing on the passenger's side, which was pretty simple. I made a plate with three drilled and tapped holes. The center hole is used to hold the plate to the door skin and the other two holes will secure the mirror.

I still need to test and mount the keyless entry system. After that, I should be done with all the wiring related stuff.

Going Commando

There are basically two parts of the car that I need to work on still -- finishing up the interior assembly and getting the rear engine hatch back together and on the car. I set aside the engine cover for now because I don't have black rivets to secure the louvers. So, work continues on the interior.

I got some replacement window scrapers (or scrubs as the vendor calls it) so I can finish the door panels. However, there is something else I wanted to do before closing up the doors. This car is old school, and has manual door locks. To add a bit of modern convenience, I wanted to add a central locking system, along with keyless entry. I got a kit from Commando Alarms that includes door lock actuators for the central locking and an RF control unit for the keyless entry. The kit was inexpensive so I'm hoping it won't crap out too soon.

I started by running the wiring out to each door. Again, if I had thought ahead, I would have run this wiring along with the window relay wiring while I had the dashboard out. It was tough, but I got it run and secured. Next was mounting the lock actuator. This was actually pretty easy as there was plenty of room in the door immediately below and in line with the manual door lock knob.



You can see the lock actuator mounted vertically behind the inner door skin. From there, a rod (bent a little to clear the other door rods) goes up to the manual lock rod and secured by a clamp supplied in the kit. This system does not use an external switch. When one door is unlocked, the other will unlock. With the driver's side hooked up, I was able to plug the actuator in the other side and test the system. It seems to work pretty well and is quiet and smooth. As soon as I have both lock actuators hooked up, I'll wire in the keyless entry to make sure that part works before buttoning up the doors.

Counting down

It's starting to get close to the day that I take the car out. I spent some time today closing up the rear end of the car. I'm pretty much done for now with access through the rear wheelwells so I put the wheelwell liners back on as well as the rear tires.

Today was the first chance I had of starting the engine cold since the carb adjustment. I'd read on F-chat that you shouldn't use the choke when starting, but I've never had much luck starting without it. This time, I decided to try it. It took a few tries, but did work. The trick is this -- pump the gas pedal 2-3 times, then crank the starter with the pedal about 1/4 down. Right after the engine fires, gently rev then let it drop down to idle and let warm up. This worked great and I will continue to use this starting technique.

The final thing to do in the engine compartment was to put the air cleaner back on. I started out by putting a dab of blue RTV on each air horn stud on the tops of the carbs. There are little bushings that go on each stud, which in turn fits into rubber gaskets on the air cleaner. These bushings have been known to try and run away when the air cleaner is pulled off. Hopefully, the RTV will keep them on the carb studs the next time I'm working in there.



I put the air cleaner back on and hooked up the ductwork to the passenger's side intake scoop. It looks like I'll need a new rubber snorkel between the air cleaner and the duct as the old one is in sad shape.

New hinge bolts

I stopped by a local fastener store today and found the bolts I needed for the door hinge. They were cheap so I picked up a dozen in case I ever decide to replace the other bolts. It took far too much time, but I managed to replace the three bolts and keep the door aligned.

Now I know what time it is

A while back, I removed the clock to try and replace a missing adjustment knob and shaft. I removed the trim ring and pulled the clock apart and was looking for something I could use as a shaft and knob. As luck would have it, I happened across a post from fellow F-chatter Radiopilot. Apparently, he works on these old Veglia Borletti clocks. I contacted him and he was able to replace the missing pieces of my clock (as well as reassemble it) for the ridiculously low price of $25. It was well worth the money to have the work done properly. He even polished the glass and the trim ring!



It seemed almost a shame to put this shiny clock back in the grungy dash next to the dirty oil temperature gauge. I may have to pull the temp gauge out for cleaning just so it doesn't look out of place. If anyone out there has a Veglia Borletti clock in need of repair, Nick is your guy. See his post on F-chat here.

Yes!

Today was a tuning day and a very successful one at that. I started the engine and it was coughing and sputtering like before. It ran for a few minutes to warm up, then I took my time with the carb adjustment, following Birdman's tutorial on carb synchronization. First it was linkage adjustment, then idle stop adjustment and idle mixture adjustment. It seemed like with each tweak, the engine ran better and better. It's a complex arrangement that just takes lots of patience. There are four carbs with two venturis each, which amounts to essentially eight separate devices to adjust. One adjustment affects everything else so there's lots going around and around. The clean carbs along with the slightly larger idle jets made a huge difference. The engine starts easily now, and it idles and revs without any coughing or spitting.

One other thing I was able to get to today was the side quarter windows. I've never installed fixed pane windows before, although I know one technique. Using a piece of rope (or in my case, baling twine), put the rope into the rubber weatherstrip all around the window. Then place the window onto the outside of the opening with the rope ends inside the car.



Once the window is in place, slowly pull on one end of the rope. This will basically roll the inside edge of the seal onto the window opening lip. As you pull, the window will just pop into place. There were a few tricky spots where I needed to poke at the seal to get it into place. Otherwise, installation was pretty simple. I also put the window louvers back on. All that's left here is to put a bead of caulking around the window to seal it completely.

Up and running again

Thankfully, the parts from Pierce Manifolds arrived on New Years Eve and I had a chance to put the carburetors back together today. Since I had them all off (again), I figured it was prudent to go through them all again, just to be sure. Good thing I did too because I found that another carb had an accelerator pump problem. This one had a clogged pump nozzle, and gas only came out of one side. I cleared out the hole with a single strand from some stranded electrical wire and now it works fine. I was also able to verify all the float heights.

On to the main reason I pulled the carbs apart again. The accelerator pump on one of the carbs did not work at all. I swapped out the pump diaphragm but that did not help. I compared it to another carb and discovered the problem. These carbs have lots of holes, some of which are closed off by lead plugs. In the pump body, there is a hole that is supposed to be plugged. Somehow, maybe during ultrasonic cleaning, this plug went missing. Because the hole was open, the pump diaphragm just pushed fuel back into the float bowl rather than through the pump nozzle. I had an old lead fishing weight in the shop and I cut out a small piece of lead, formed a small cylinder that was slightly larger than the hole and staked it in. Now this pump works as it should.



I still need to do some tuning, but it does seem to run better.