I drove in the rain and my car did not melt

Yes, I did it. I took the 308 out in the rain. Today was the annual NW Region Ferrari Club of America annual meeting. Last year, it was in town and this year it's in Portland -- some 200 miles away. I've been watching the weather forecast all week and it was looking grim. Today was forecast to be 80% showers all day long. I decided to not be such a rain wimp. After all, it's not like a single drive in the rain is going to destroy the car, right? What's the good of having this car if I can't drive it?

It wasn't raining when I left the house and I didn't have to turn on my wipers until about 75 miles away from home. For the next 125 miles, the weather alternated from sunny and dry to torrential downpour. Fortunately, it was mostly dry when I got to Portland. Maybe since I was moving when it was raining, the water didn't have much of a chance to collect in the crevices in the car.

This year's meeting was held at Ron Tonkin's Ferrari dealership. As I pulled up, I could see a large bank of open garage doors with two rows of cars inside. These were cars for sale and there was lots of cool stuff. How about a new 2011 458 Italia? Only $255,000! There was also a bunch of stuff I'd never seen before. In the corner was an F50 and in the showroom was a 599 GTO and an Enzo! Holy smokes! The 599 was brand new and the sticker price was $442,000! I thought I was going to pass out! Not too surprisingly, the Enzo didn't have the price posted. If you have to ask, it's too much, right?

After some club business, we had a quick lunch. Then we were off to see Ron Tonkin's private car collection. As I walked through a door in a non-descript building, I nearly passed out again. In one corner, was not one but three 512 Berlinetta Boxers. As I was drooling over them, I turn my head and was bowled over again. In the corner was a 288 GTO. Next to it was an F40, an F50 then another Enzo (aka the F60). Wow! I still can't believe it. Seeing and touching two Enzos in one day, as well as seeing in person my favorite Ferrari of all time -- the 288 GTO. There was lots of other cool cars there, but I kept drifting back to the Ferrari corner. I just can't get enough of these cars.

On the way home, I met up with TK. She and a friend had hauled their horses to a facility to ride and take lessons. As luck would have it, the place was on my way home so I stopped by to have lunch with them.



Overall, today was great. I logged my longest drive so far at 412 miles. I even averaged 16.5 mpg! Not bad for this car. The car ran great and there were no problems at all.

What happens in Vegas...

So I find myself in Vegas for a few days this week for a user conference. It's a quick trip -- only two days. While down here, I realize that there's a Ferrari dealership half a block from my hotel. It's in the Wynn hotel, but here's the kicker -- it costs $10 to go in and have a look around! What? If I want to see some cool expensive cars, I need go no further than E@RTC on a Saturday morning. The dealership had a few F430s, Californias and a 599. Cool, but nothing I hadn't seen before. I stopped by anyhow, since there is a Ferrari Store there (no cost admission). It's the first Ferrari Store in North America and I'd never been to one before so I wanted to go. I ended up buying some outrageously overpriced items with the prancing horse logo and posing for a photo next to a Ferrari F1 engine on display. Overall, the store was ok. It seemed pretty sparse compared to any other store. Still, where else can you get a Ferrari racing suit and driving shoes for your child?

The uber-rare Saratoga top

Back in the 80's, I remember hearing about a company called Saratoga that made plexiglass targa tops for cars with a factory solid targa top like the Porsche 914 and the Ferrari 308. The Saratoga company went out of business many years ago and their tops are extremely hard to find. Mention one of these tops to people in the 308 GTS community and everyone starts salivating. Having one go one sale is like the shark tank at feeding time. One of these uber-rare tops popped up on eBay last week and just closed on Sunday. The result? 35 bids and a selling price of $2,635.00! Wow! Sure, it'd be cool to have one, but $2600? I bought a BMW E30 325is for half that! What an odd comparative...car...Saratoga top...car...Saratoga top...

Ferrari Fitness Plan

After a lot of rainy weekends, we finally had a dry one and on the first day of Spring to boot! Saturday was beautiful and sunny, but I had other things to do that day. Sunday was a bit cooler and cloudy, but I had a chance to take a few hours and pilot the 308 through cow country. The sun was out and it was mostly warm when I left so I took the targa top off. Even though I had the heater on, it was a bit chilly on the drive out. By the time I stopped to turn around, I decided to put the top back on because the sun was obscured by clouds. Still, it was a wonderful drive and I had a great time.

When I got home, I noticed something strange climbing out of the car. My legs were sore. It was like I just did a bunch of leg presses at the gym. The early 308s had a heavy clutch pedal. REALLY heavy. Heavy to the point where driving our manual transmission 3/4 ton Dodge Ram feels like a cakewalk. Somewhere around 1980, Ferrari switched to a different clutch actuation mechanism that supposedly lightened up the pedal effort quite a bit. There was even a Ferrari service bulletin (SB21-2) printed 03/19/1981 that outlined the change and included a parts list and diagrams to retrofit the new system to the older cars. Unfortunately, my car was never retrofitted. Apparently, the parts are available but cost about $1000. For that money, I think I'll just keep my heavy clutch pedal and continue to get a lower body workout every time I drive.

Cleaning out the shop

I made a decision this past weekend. I needed to clean out my shop and make more space. Not just clean up and organize, but do some serious purging to get more space. After many years and several homes, I decided to give up on my old Volkswagen Rabbit Pickup project. Now that I own the car that I've wanted almost my entire life, there was basically no chance that I'd actually finish the VW. While I would have loved to get that thing back on the road, it was time for it to go.

Taking up half my shop was the Rabbit shell and about a dozen boxes of parts. I first considered trying to sell the entire project as a whole, but it didn't seem like anyone was interested. I ended up listing the rolling shell on Craigslist as free. It's sort of like when you hold a garage sale -- either you're in "just get rid of stuff mode" or "try to make some money" mode. I started off trying to get money, but realized that space is more important to me than the few measly dollars I could get. In less than 24 hours after posting, I reclaimed half the floor space in my shop. That feels good. I still need to spend more time going through all my parts and get rid of them as well. Purging is good!

Earplugs needed for Dyno Day

Yep, still raining here. Last weekend, our local FCA chapter hosted a dyno day. Even though it was raining, a lot of high HP cars came out. There was a Lamborghini 670 LP-4 SuperVeloce, Ferrari F430 Scuderia (2 of them), Alfa 8C Competizione, Ferrari 612 Scaglietti, and Corvette and even a Bentley Turbo Arnage. High HP of the day went to the Lambo at 546. Mind you, this is four wheel drive at the wheels. The Scuds came out at about 460HP and the Corvette got about the same number. My car, on the other hand, probably puts out about 150HP at the wheels right now (maybe even less). New, the carb'd US spec '78 308 reportedly puts out 225BHP, which is about 187 wheel HP. While it would mildly amusing to have my car dyno'd, it would mainly be sad and embarrassing. Kind of gives me an idea of the a**-whooping I'd get if I tried to race any modern F-car.

This was my first time seeing a dyno run in person and it was pretty interesting. The tech had the drivers start slowly and work their way up the gears to 4th. Once in 4th, the tech started the sampling and the driver floored it. The power measurement was done from idle to redline in 4th. I'm not exactly sure why 4th vs. any other gear but perhaps this gives the most accurate reading. Each car repeated the 4th gear run a few times, then did a final run all through the gears starting from 1st. It was really cool to see each car flat out from 1st banging through all the gears. Oh and did I mention that it was LOUD? Here's a compilation video of most of the cars tested:

Compilation video

See, it really did start at a young age

A while ago, when I was going through some old boxes, I found some stuff from my youth. This is a 1:24 scale model of the Ferrari 308 GTS that I made when I was probably 14 or so. It was a kit made by Revell, and as I recall was marketed as the "Magnum PI Ferrari 308 GTS." I wish that I still had some of my old posters, especially the one that was 8' long and covered the entire width of my room. I was crazy about the 308 back then and it's still a little strange to me now that I actually own one.



This model is pretty detailed. Now that I know a lot about the 308, it's fun to pick out all the details as well as point out the inaccuracies. First of all, this model is a Euro model, whereas they used a US spec car in the show. You can tell it's a Euro mainly because of the small bumpers. However, this car also has a dry-sump oiling system (there is a dry-sump tank under the bonnet) and a single rear tailpipe, which identifies it as an early Euro dry-sump GTB car. Also, the Euro cars had a slightly different layout of the bonnet louvers. So, it has all the Euro dry-sump details, but with a GTS top and marketed as the Magnum PI car!

It's been a long cold winter so far

Is it just me, or does this seem to be the never-ending winter? By my count, we've only had one sunny dry weekend so far this year (last weekend) and unfortunately, I was busy with other things and could not get out to drive. I'd spend more time in the shop, but it's been so darned cold lately. My shop's not insulated so it gets absolutely frigid in there. I do have some space heaters, which takes the edge off though. I finally had a chance to clean up all the road grime from the New Year drive and I tended to the flaked off paint on the headlight louvers.



Some day, I'm going to take these things to a paint shop and just get them redone correctly. The louvers are aluminum and need special preparation to get good paint adhesion. I said someday, and that day has not come yet. Instead, I just did a quick and dirty partial respray. If you look closely, you can see what a bad job it was. However, from 10 feet away, it looks great.



So if the weather is too bad to drive and the shop is too cold to work in, what's a man to do? Buy parts, of course! Continuing my quest for an imitation tool kit, I scoured eBay until I found a set of wrenches in the correct sizes and for a price I was willing to pay. I found a set sold by the Tool Academy in the UK. They are Sealey brand, and the set of 8 double open ended spanners (wrenches to us Yanks) are 6-7, 8-9, 10-11, 12-13, 14-15, 16-17, 18-19, 20-22mm just like in the OEM tool kit. For the pouch, I was able to get an F-chatter to get me the OEM dimensions and I had a co-worker make me a new pouch out of black leather. My tool kit is coming along nicely. All I need now are the screwdrivers, pliers and a spark plug tool.



Another part of the OEM tool kit is the jack kit. This consists of a pouch, scissors jack, handle, and lug wrench. On the advise of another F-chatter, I picked up this lightweight aluminum jack and handle from a Porsche 944. I know, Porsche parts in a Ferrari! Criminal! But, I won't tell if you won't. There is one modification I need to make this jack functional though. I didn't realize at the time, but the Porsche jack doesn't have a flat contact surface. The top of the jack has a tapered oval that must lock in to a tapered hole under the car. I need to make some sort of adapter to make the jack top flat so it will work under the 308 since I don't have a Porsche hole.



Some other parts I got are some rubber trim bits for the targa hoop and for the rear quarter louvers, as well as these polyurethane A-arm bushings. The 32 year old OEM bushings under my car are trashed and these new bushings should tighten things back up. These bushings are from Energy Suspensions (part 13.3101G). The original bushings are cast in steel shells and the proper replacements need to be welded in. However, the 13.3101G is split and once the original is pressed out, can be installed without welding. When it warms up, I'll tackle this project.



Last weekend (while I was busy) was the start of the 2011 E@RTC season. I can't believe I missed it -- the weather was beautiful there was a large turnout. There was even an Enzo and a 599 GTO there! Not to be thwarted, I decided I was going today. The weather was still a little dicey with a chance of snow today. When I got up this morning, it was 20 degrees but my driveway was clear. I started up the car and when I was ready to back out, I noticed some snowflakes falling. Hmmm...the car was running, what to do? I wanted to at least let it get up to temperature before shutting it back down again so I decided to just go. It was barely snowing so how bad could it be?

It was a fun and mellow drive to RTC. The turnout was pretty low because of the weather. Still, I counted 5 Ferraris, 3 Lambos and a handful of Porsche, BMW and Maserati. Representing the American Muscle Car scene was a beat up yellow Chevy Nova, Here I am parked next to a matte black F430 Spyder. This car was not painted this way -- the matte black was actually a vinyl wrap and was done very well. Wrapping is really popular in the Nascar crowd and we're seeing it more and more for "normal" cars (if you can call the F430 a normal car). Parked next to him was the red 458 Italia I was drooling over last year. Later in the morning another 308 showed up and parked next to me.



Things broke up pretty quickly and everyone left. TK had told me earlier that it was snowing harder at our house so I was braced for slick roads on the way home. Thankfully, everything was clear except our sidestreet and driveway. I know what you're thinking, "you'll drive the 308 in the snow, but not the rain?"

Missing tools

One of the things that's always bugged me is that my car was missing the spare tire, owner's manual, tool roll and jack kit. I'm glad that the rest of the car was as complete as it was, but these are the little details that just make things complete. When I got my new wheels and tires, I was able to use one of the old ones as a spare so I'm good there. I'd like to find a set of original tools, but I've seen these things sell for as much as $1500--used! The pouch itself goes for $300! Yeow! The wrenches and screwdrivers that came in them are pretty cheesy and the original pouch was vinyl. Rather than break the bank to get a set of original tools, I figured I'd just make do with something that looks somewhat original.

The early 308 tool roll is supposed to contain a set of metric open end wrenches, a few screwdrivers, a spark plug wrench, a pair of pliers and something known as a "carb tool." I've done a lot of searching, but no one seems to know what this mysterious carb tool is. It's a small tool that can fit in the palm of your hand. It's shaped like a cross and it has hex ends on either end. There's been a lot of talk on F-chat about this tool but no one seems to know what it's used for. I brought up the subject again and finally we figured it out. It's an 8mm hex wrench for loosening the nuts that hold the carb air horns on. That's the only thing that makes sense since there are no other 8mm hex fasteners on the carbs. I looked at pictures of the original tool again and something dawned on me. I've seen a tool like that before. In fact, I OWN a tool like that. I ran out to the shop and started digging around in my old random bicycle stuff and there it was.



I've had this wrench for at least 25 years. It came with my first pair of clipless pedals. The wrench was used to tighten the cleat onto the bottoms of my shoes. I measured the hex and sure enough, it is 8mm. I opened the 308's bonnet, removed the air cleaner cover and voila! The wrench is a perfect fit. The shaft is even a small enough diameter to fit perfectly in the cutout at the top of the air horn.



Most people use either a deep socket (I do) or a nut driver to remove the air horns. I don't know that I'd ever use my new-found tool for this job, but it's certainly a good start to assembling my own nearly-original tool roll. A few months ago, a co-worker made me a tool pouch from black leather and it looks like the real deal. Now I need to find some wrenches and screwdrivers that are reasonable facsimiles. I'll probably end up buying an original spark plug tool though. That's a piece that's exactly the right size and length with a u-joint in just the right spot to reach down into the spark plug holes.

That's just the tool roll...then onto the jack kit, which is also missing...

New year's resolution to clean

A few days ago, a '78 308 GTS popped up on eBay. Starting bid was $30K with a buy it now price of $35K. The seller had a nice walk-through video showing how clean the car was. Of course, someone posted it on F-Chat and there was lots of discussion on the good and bad and pricing. Anyhow, I showed the video to TK and asked how my car compared. She said that it was no comparison. The eBay car was WAY better than mine and that the difference was "day and night." She even said that it was "embarrassing to be in a nice car that was filthy." What? Ok, I agree that the eBay car was very very clean. Up to this point, I've not done all that much for the looks of the car other than a session with the polisher and some spot cleaning here and there. There're a lot of places that need to be cleaned and freshened up with paint. Still, night and day?

Now that the car has been mostly sorted out, I'm going to spend time this year to really clean and detail. I do have some mechanical stuff to tend to (suspension bushings), but my resolution for 2011 will be to detail and to drive more. Of course driving more means more dirt, which will mean more cleaning. What a cycle!

And now for something completely different

In case you were wondering, YES I did end up going for a drive on New Year's Day. It was a short drive to meet some motorcycle buddies at a Bigbucks 10 miles from home. We talked about motorcycle trips for 2011 over a cup of overpriced and underflavored coffee. The weather has been about the same for the past few days. Clear, sunny and cold cold cold. I'm getting tired of looking at the compact snow and ice in my yard. It's supposed to rain before the week is out so hopefully, it'll wash all the ice away.

Ok, on to something different today. On my way home today, I thought about (of all things) Fair Scones. Huh? You know, those tasty jam filled baked goodies from the fair? I thought about the $10 box of Fair Scone mix I saw once at a store and figured there's got to be a recipe somewhere. When I got home, I consulted the Oracle (my Droid2) and sure enough, the recipe is a well-known secret. This recipe was printed back in a 1930's Fisher Cookbook and the folks at the fair pump about about 80,000 per day.

It's a pretty simple recipe:

2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons shortening
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup raisins (if you are omitting the raisins, add another 2 Tablespoons of milk)

Check out this site for the complete text on putting it all together.



Not too bad for a first attempt. I even got the TK nod of approval!

Snow can't stop the last drive of the year

Earlier this week, we got hit with about 5 inches of snow. Much of it melted right away, but the temperature in the last few days has been pretty low so the snow has been hanging around the yard even though most of the roads are clear. Even though it was very cold, the skies were clear today and the sun was shining so TK and I decided to take one last drive of the year. As you can imagine, I was a little tentative as I pulled the 308 out of the garage onto the crunchy snow in our driveway.



Once we got out on to the main road, everything was fine. Some of the shaded side roads were still a little dicey as there were still clumps of compact snow and ice here and there. TK had to remind me to "cool my jets" along some of the shaded twisty roads. We ran a few errands, then headed East to Duvall for lunch.



On our way back, we stopped off at a friend's barn to catch part of her riding lesson. She made a comment about how they knew we were coming because they heard a rumble coming up the drive. Hmmm...maybe that Stebro exhaust is just a little too loud?



Happy new year!

Filters by Baldwin

Even if I can't drive, I can still get parts. I'm coming up on an oil change soon so I got a couple of oil filters and an air filter.



These filters are made by Baldwin (B253 oil and PA2094 air), which is a different brand than the UFI oil filter I am currently using. The 308 engine has the oil filter on top, which means that it uses a special filter design. Any filter used on this engine must have an internal stand pipe, which keeps oil from draining out of the filter when the engine isn't running. Most 308 folks use either UFI or Baldwin filters, even though Fram, Mobile and others make them. I have heard horror stories and seen pictures of Fram filters collapsing. Also, I heard that a number of UFI filters exploded after a design flaw many years back.

Baldwin has an interesting story. They've been around since 1936 and they mainly make filters for commercial applications so they're not really well known in the public automotive industry. Most people have never heard of them because you don't see their name on the filter shelf at your local auto parts store. Rumor has it that J.A. Baldwin and Enzo Ferrari were friends back in the old days. Baldwin owned a Ferrari (rumored 275GTB4 or a Daytona) which he kept at the plant. They continue to make great filters for many Ferrari models. The funny thing is that Baldwin filters are available at most truck stops, and even though most don't stock it, you can have them order up a Ferrari filter for you! I got mine from Associated Diesel and while I was ordering, I got a Baldwin T-shirt as well.

Counting down to 2011

It's been quiet in my hometown...not much going on on the car front. I think my chances of taking the 308 out again this year are almost nil. It's supposed to snow again later this week so the car will just have to wait some more.

TK and I had a pretty good holiday. We weren't hosting this year and as a result, we had to log quite a few miles to get to all the family functions. Christmas Eve was at my uncle's place this year. We had a gift exchange and look at this cool carbon fibre money clip I got!



Since hoodies seem to be all the rage, my mom decided to knit hoodies for all her "grand-dogs". My dog doesn't quite know what to do with hers.

The last drive of 2010?

It was supposed to rain all weekend, but somehow it managed to stay dry today and the sun even came out for a while. We had a windstorm earlier in the week and a tree came down in one of our front pastures. No damage, but I wanted to work on cleanup while it was dry and daylight. I worked on it for a few hours before giving up. It was far too nice a day to spend on yard chores. TK even sneaked out to ride her horse and I was feeling the need to exercise mine. There were a few hours of daylight left so I took the opportunity for a little drive. First stop was to get some peppermint extract and Hershey's Kisses from the grocery store (big Xmas cookie baking session). After getting the supplies, I took the long way home dropping down into the valley along some rural county roads. I could have stayed out a lot longer, but the sun was getting low in the sky and I needed to get back. The car ran great as usual and the drive definitely improved my mood.

Will I get another chance to drive before the end of the year?

NW Toy Run 2010

Finally, a nice sunny day when the roads are dry! Today was also the 7th annual NW Toy Run. It's a yearly event to raise money and collect toys for Toys for Tots. TK and I rounded up a bag of toys and drove down in the 308. There was a pretty good layer of frost on the ground this morning but the sun came out and it was a beautiful day.



The collection site was a local raceway, which has a big parking lot. Some people came in, dropped their toys and left while others parked and just hung out. We stayed for a few minutes and walked around the lot to see some of the other cars. Most of the people there were the "fast and furious" crowd with their outrageously lowered, stretched tires and obscene camber angles. I got a good laugh at a few of the cars. Still, it was a good event for a good cause. Over 1200 cars showed up and the event raised $3500 for Toys for Tots and collected a 27' trailer full of toys.

When we got back to the car, I noticed something strange about one of the headlight louvers. I had known that the paint on the aluminum louver was starting to flake off and apparently the drive down had caused a large section to take flight. What I saw was a big patch of bare aluminum on one of the slats.



When I got home, I realized a large section of paint from the other headlight louver also took flight. At least I have bare aluminum now on both sides to match! I knew I'd have to get these things repainted so I guess this is the time. I'll wait until it warms up a little in the Spring and repaint both louvers. On the later US cars, the louvers are anodized black and many early car louvers have been painted or power coated back. I think I'll stick with the original and paint it body-color rather than switching to black.

20% is still too risky for me

When it comes to the 308, I'm a weather weenie. I freely admit it. I haven't taken her out in the rain and I don't really intend to. Here's why:

1) In 1978, no one gave any thought to rust-proofing. Ferrari didn't start using rust-proofing until about 1985. A lot of the older cars like mine had a bare minimum of sprayed-on undercoating which didn't offer much protection.

2) When I put the rear quarter windows back in, I didn't seal them like I had planned. I have a tube of 3M window sealant, but it's sitting on a shelf. I know that I'll get a heck of a leak in the rain.

3) Rain make a car dirty. Yes, I know. It seems trivial but this is a big deal. As much as I'd love to have all the time in the world to clean my car, this is not the case.

4) Surprisingly, the car has very little rust and I'd like to keep it that way. Water has a way of working it's way down to the lowest crevices in doors and panels where cancel begins.



This is what the weekend forecast looks like. It looks an awful lot like last weekend's forecast and probably the next one too. Doesn't look like I'll get much driving done.

Interior switches all match now

I feel better now. I spent a little time in the shop this weekend installing that antenna switch so it would match the others. Good riddance to that stupid knob switch.

The original switches are held on by a lock ring. The lock ring is completely round and has two small notches in the face. I assume that there is a special tool somewhere that mates with this ring, but I certainly don't have it. I decided to make a tool out of some scrap aluminum so I could tighten the ring.



I used aluminum because it's easy to work with and it's soft enough to not harm the chrome plating on the ring. A bit of cutting and filing and it was ready to go. My homemade tool worked perfectly and I was able to get the new antenna switch installed.



While I was at it, I removed the lock rings from the other three switches so I could replace the aluminum plate underneath. Several months ago, I bought a used plate that still had the switch markings on them. The markings on my plate were gone and it was nice to put the new plate on. My antenna switch plate is blank and I'll be good to replace that one too someday.

Just look at that bank of switches. A row of matching, Mickey Mouse ear goodness!

Finally, a chance to hit the road

We've had a break in the weather and I took the opportunity to drive the 308 in to work today. I actually took a short drive last night to bring the fluids up to temperature and bleed the cooling system. Generally after the system is opened, you need to spend some time bleeding all the air out. When I got back last night, I opened the radiator bleed screw and got a little air out. Checking the coolant expansion tank this morning, the coolant level looked good and the temperature was good at 190 degrees F. When I get home tonight, I'll crack the bleed screw again to check for air. The engine seems to be running well and I'm enjoying driving every chance I get.



Sitting side by side with other cars, you can really tell just how small a 308 is.

Obsessing about a switch

Yes, I've been obsessing. I could care less about some things, but I'm absolutely crazy about others. One thing that I really like about the 308 interior is the old school toggle switches. These switches with the black plastic "Mickey Mouse" ear toggles are incredibly cool and it really bothers me that someone replaced the antenna switch with a stupid push-pull knob.



I've searched high and low for an original switch. I got a replacement from Superformance in the UK, but it wasn't right. Functionally, it was just like the original, but it didn't look right. I got another 3-position switch which was made by Lucas (same as the original) for a Triumph motorcycle, but it didn't look right either. Finally, I decided to live with a standard 2-position switch which was more readily available. I've given up on the originality of the 3-position antenna switch controlling a semi-automatic antenna and I'm going to use this 2-position switch controlling a full-automatic antenna. It may not be 100% correct, but it will look right on the console.

Waiting for a nice day

The 308 is back on four wheels. Below is a good shot from the wheelwell opening where you can barely see the front of the alternator. After the alternator, I needed to hook up the coolant line again and refill the cooling system. While the sounds like a pretty simple task, it's actually a bit involved. Because the 308 radiator is in the front and the engine in the back, there is a lot of plumbing. When I filled the system before, I used over 5 gallons of coolant. I only partially drained the system but it still took almost three gallons. Also, because there is so much plumbing, all the air needs to be bled. There is a bleed screw in the thermostat housing and one at the radiator. Both of these need to be opened to make sure all the air is out. It generally takes a few bleed cycles to get all the air out so I'll need to check for air the next few times I run the engine.



The other thing I wanted to work on was the antenna. This car originally had a semi-automatic antenna. This was operated by a separate three-position switch on the console. Not all power antennas are the same. An automatic antenna has two wires. One requires a constant 12 volts and the other is the control; when the control wire gets power, the antenna goes up. When power is switched off, the antenna goes down. A semi-automatic antenna also has two wires, but each wire controls direction. When one wire is powered and the other grounded, the antenna goes up. When the wire is grounded and the other powered, the antenna goes down. The original switch reversed the polarity to make the antenna go up and down. Somewhere in the past, both the original antenna and the original switch were swapped out. However, it was never hooked up correctly and the antenna didn't work.



Apparently, semi-automatic antennas are really hard to find these days. Because of the somewhat complex wiring, nearly everyone uses fully automatic antennas. I bought a pair on eBay a while back, but I found out today that they're trashed and unusable. The original antenna switch is also impossible to find so I decided to just make do with what I've got. I opened up the console to get to the back of the replacement switch. Modifying the wiring ended up being pretty simple. I just split the power lead to feed the antenna as well as the switch. Now the antenna goes up and down so I'll actually get some radio reception.

It's been raining cats and dogs so I'm still grounded for now. I hope it stops soon!

Alternator's back

I got my alternator back, just in time for the rain. A local shop replaced the bearings, brushes and regulator and checked the windings. Supposedly, it tests out ok so I should be good to go. However, even if I get the car back together, the weather forecast is for rain all weekend so I won't be doing any driving this weekend. Bummer.

Alternator being rebuilt

I found a local place last week that rebuild alternators and starters. It's a one-man show and the shop was absolutely chock full of starters and alternators. Even the floor was covered with them. He put mine on the test machine and while output seemed OK, I figured it prudent to get it completely rebuilt anyway. Since access is such a PITA, there's no way I'm putting a possibly flaky alternator back in. The guy told me my alternator had been rebuilt in the past, probably by a now-defunct local company called Start-Mart. They were notorious for only replacing the bare minimum of parts, then repainting the entire unit so it "looked new." My entire alternator had been painted silver and even though it's a Bosch, the voltage regulator was some cheapy replacement. I feel confident it's in good hands and I'm looking forward to getting up and running again.

Hurrah, alternator is out!

After consulting with the experts on F-chat, I found a way to solve my problem. The alternator is actually mounted on a bracket that is bolted to the engine block and is held on with two nuts. I was able to get a stubby wrench in there, but I wasn't able to get enough leverage to get the nuts loose. My inner McGuyver kicked in and I rigged up an old auto-body slide hammer to bump the wrench and loosen the nut.



With the alternator free, I needed to disconnect the wiring. Fortunately, the wires are just long enough to turn the alternator around to get to the back. I removed a heat shield, disconnected the wires and wiggled the alternator out. Now to find a local shop to rebuild this thing!

The Italians are laughing at me now

I had said before that the 308 clutch was the easiest to replace of all the cars I've worked on. Well, the 308 also makes up for that ease by having EVERYTHING ELSE impossibly difficult.

Take the alternator, for instance. My charge warning light was coming on and I figured I should probably get my alternator looked at before it completely crapped out and left me stranded somewhere. I've been dreading getting back down to the alternator. The last time I only had to loosen the belt to get to the timing belts. This time, I would have to completely remove it. I put the car on jackstands again and pulled off the right rear wheel and wheelwell liner. Deep down in the bowels, nestled next to the fuel tank was my nemesis. The darned alternator.



Working on this car is like the "knee bone's connected to the leg bone" song. To get access to the alternator, the aluminum coolant pipe needs to be partially disconnected and swung out of the way. Well, in order to do that, the coolant has to be partially drained through a petcock in the rear cylinder bank. After that, the pipe needed to be unhooked from the thermostat housing. And where is that, do you ask? Why, it's under the air cleaner snorkel! Which means loosening up the engine cover to get to the air cleaner, then removing the carb trumpets, then...then...then...urgh!

Finally, after draining over a gallon of coolant and making a ruddy mess, I get to the point of loosening the alternator mounting bolts. I thought I was so smart last time in reversing the top mounting bolt so I could get to it easier the next time. Well, all the bolts loosened easily. I started to drive the lower pivot bolt through when...it would move no more. Huh? I stuck my hand back there to see what was going on and I could not believe it. It seems that the dipstick tube is keeping the bolt from sliding all the way out of the alternator mounting hole. What the heck?



That's when I called it a night. I can just see it now -- two old Italians hanging out in a cafe in Italy. "Hey, Giuseppe what fun we had putting those Ferrari engines together! Just wait til some stupid American tries to work on it! Hah!"

My car is trying to tell me something again

The weather has been nice again so I've been taking advantage where possible. I drove the 308 to work one day last week and again yesterday. On the freeway on the way home, the alternator warning light came on at about 3500rpm. I increased the revs but the light stayed on. Hmmm...not good. After a few minutes of changing engine speed, the light went off. Then it flicker on a little, then eventually turned off for good and it didn't come on again the rest of the way home.

Now I'm trying to figure out what to do. I suspect that the alternator is on it's last legs, but I don't know that for sure. The battery is less than a year old so I don't think that's the problem. Since the alternator is a PITA to get to, I don't really want to pull it to get tested. If I pull it, it'll be to replace it with a new one. Now comes the research to figure out what alternator will work. The "proper" one from a Ferrari parts place is almost $500!

A new place to go on a Saturday morning?

I found out last night that Griot's Garage has started hosting a "caffine and gasoline" event on the first Saturday of each month. It's a bit of a drive for me, but I figured I'd try a new venue other than RTC.



The difference between this event and E@RTC is that there was a much more diverse crowd at Griot's. In addition to the handful of Ferraris and Porsches, there were Corvettes, a few hopped up Audis and a 280Z that was so clean, you could eat off the engine. I got there later in the morning and I think a lot of people had already left.



I've visited Griot's new facility before and one of the really cool things is to see what cars Richard Griot has on display. The man owns LOTS of really cool cars and his newest toy is this 1966 Ford GT40. They fired this thing up and the sound was absolutely amazing. Have a listen here.

Highs in the mid-70s!

Today was forecast to be a nice day and indeed it was. I decided last night that I was going to head down to E@RTC in the morning. There won't be very many warm dry weekends left this year and I definitely wanted to take advantage of the opportunity. Before I left the house, I took a little time to clean some of the dust off the paint, clean the wheels and dress the tires.



As expected, there was the throng of Lambos and the other regulars, but it seems like something out of the ordinary always shows up. I parked next to a Giallo Fly '78 308 GTS and behind me were four Tesla Roadsters. I had never actually seen a Tesla in person so I talked to one of the owners for quite a bit. I learned lots of new things about how the Tesla works. It'd be really cool to own one, but the price would need to come down dramatically before I could possibly afford one.



Next up was a Harley Davidson motorcycle with a dual front tire conversion. A local guy is developing this as a retrofit kit for all modern Harleys. The unique thing about this setup vs. other 3 wheeled bikes is that the bike can still lean into turns like a normal motorcycle. Hopefully, he can get the funding he needs to get the product from prototype to market. Check it out at his website. He's got some cool videos of the mechanism in action.



Also something else I'd never seen before in person was an Ariel Atom. It's hard to describe what this thing is. You could call it a go-cart on steroids. It's basically a tube chassis with a big engine. The owner was talking to some onlookers when he started digging around on the floorboards. He pulled out a strip of rubber that had been flung into the cockpit. Apparently this is something that happens quite often with an Atom. During hard cornering, rubber is scrubbed off the tires and since the Atom is completely open, some of this rubber winds up with the driver. Also, there's no windshield so you need to wear a helmet with a faceshield. Crazy stuff.



On my way home, I had to make a stop to get some new lighting fixtures for the house. A Home Depot run in the 308? Why not?

Fakes and the real thing

When I was 308 shopping, I had multiple RSS feeds set up in my reader and I looked at a LOT of ads. Even though I now own a 308, I still have these feeds going and still look at ads to see what the market is like. In short, the market sucks (for a seller) and it's definitely a buyer's market. Every now and again, I see an ad for fake 308s -- the most famous (or infamous, depending on how you look at it) is the Pontiac Mera.

Based on the Pontiac Fiero, the Mera rebody was actually a dealer option in 1987. I remember seeing pictures of these back in the day and thinking that maybe this was the only way I could get something close to a real 308.



Have a close look at the picture above. Can you tell which one is the fake? From the back at this angle, it's actually pretty tough to tell the difference. It's obvious from the front and sides but from the back, these cars would fool a lot of people. The real 308 is on the right and the Mera is on the left.

The kicker is that 308 prices are so ridiculously low now that it makes no sense to have a fake. I'm shocked at the lengths some Mera owners go to to make their darned Fiero look like a Ferrari. Have a look at this joker. How much did he spend on that fake Ferrari interior?

Here comes the rain again

Well, it's that time of year again. The brief clear days of summer are becoming few and far between and drive time has been severely limited. It's been either raining or threatening rain so now I'm planning my winter projects. I should have the time to put on the rest of the parts that are stacking up. I need to fix my parking brake handle, do some work on the rear brake calipers and I still need to find the source of that annoying rattle in the back. If I can afford it, I may even try to attack the 2nd gear syncro. I found a used transaxle locally that's supposedly in good shape. The price is reasonable for a used 308 tranny so I may go that route. Strange that a "reasonable price" for a used transaxle will get you a used Honda Civic.

The infamous 308 Trouble Light

Years ago, I bought battery charger for my motorcycle battery called the Xtreme Battery Doc. I've found that in addition to keeping my moto battery topped off, it does a good job on the 308 battery. The problem is that getting to the battery to hook up to the battery leads was a pain (open bonnet, remove spare, remove batt cover) so I wanted to install a "normal" cigarette lighter socket. There is a cigarette lighter socket in the 308 console, but it's not the "normal" lighter socket you see today. Rather, it has a small hole where you put the cigarette and I think you pull the black plastic outside ring to heat it up. Honestly, I have no idea how this thing is supposed to work because I've never tried it.



I kind of like the look of the console lighter, so I decided to leave that one alone and try to replace the trouble light socket with a normal socket. On all 308s, there is a 12v socket under the dash to the left of the steering wheel. As part of the 308 tool kit (which I am missing), there is a small 12v trouble light that plugs into this socket. I don't know anyone who has actually used their light or the socket. Having a light has become more of a concours bragging rights thing, as in, "I have the original tool kit roll complete with carb tool, spare bulb holder and trouble light." I've seen pictures of the light, but never one in person. Anyhow, I was willing to sacrifice the trouble light socket for a place to plug in my battery charger.

I went to Napa and bought one of those generic sockets and proceeded to unscrew the underdash piece holding the clock, oil temp gauge and trouble light socket ('78 GTS, before they relocated the gauges to the console). When I set out all the pieces on the workbench, I noticed something interesting.



The battery charger came with three different attachments -- alligator clips, ring connectors and a cigarette lighter plug. I never noticed before but the cig plug had a plastic piece snapped on the business end. When I removed this piece, the plug end was exactly the right size and shape to fit perfectly into the trouble light socket!





You can see that it's a perfect fit -- even down to the ridge on the center shaft to lock into the socket. I put everything back together and sure enough, it works as I would expect. The socket is not keyed so I can just plug in the charger at any point to maintain the battery. Best part is I didn't have to make any modifications at all.

I tried searching online, but it doesn't look like this charger is made anymore. What I'm really interested to know is, what kind of plug is this that fits into the 308 trouble light socket?