Over a month of updates

Shame on me. I've been driving the 308 for over a month with no blog posts. 30 lashes with a wet noodle. We had a string of sunny weekends (which ended last Sunday) and I've been able to get out and about. I haven't had much of a chance to do any long drives so it's been mainly a few hours a week at E@RTC. Here's a brief photo diary.

April 22nd, All Italian Car Show at the XXX Root Beer Drive-in. Weather started off cool and cloudy with not a lot of cars in the early morning. However, by late morning the sun came out and so did the people and cars.

An old Fiat 500 next the the new Fiat 500. I had never seen an old 500 before and this was pretty cool. It's amazing how much the new 500 looks like the old 500.

Old Jaguars at E@RTC

Maserati Merak SS

Citroën 2CV with a roll top. I had no idea they only had three lug-nuts per wheel!

Here is a car I saw for sale locally a while back. The it's got the most unusual color combo I've seen on a 308. The outside is called Chiaro Verde and the inside is beige with red carpet. I can't say I'm too fond of the color, but no denying that it's very unusual.

Early 1970s Saab Sonnet III. What the heck is that? I've never heard of this car. With a V4 engine too!

Yeah! 1957 Cadillac convertible with a fairly young guy driving it. This thing is so big you can play half-court basketball on the trunk.

Ahhhh, one of my favorite cars of all time -- a Ferrari F40. I've seen several of these in collections and shops, but this is the first time I've seen one "out in the wild." The owner (who has an Enzo and a 599 GTO among others) was good enough to bring it out so we could drool over it.

KTM's reply to the Ariel Atom -- The KTM X-bow

Have an extra $110K laying around? How about this electric Fisker Karma? Check out the solar cells built in to the roof panel.

Porsche 356 racer

The obligatory shot of me in "Ferrari Row"

Series I Lotus Esprit

Finally, me coming back from the local propane distributor to get my propane bottle re-certified. Who knew that they needed re-certification after 12 years?

Now where did I put those keys?

Where else would I put the keys to my Ferrari 308? Why, on my Ferrari 308 key holder of course! There's an interesting story to this key holder. An FChatter was looking for a Ferrari key holder a while back. He couldn't find one, so he made do with some other key holder. In the meanwhile, his wife contacted a guy who made these things and convinced him to make a "Magnum P.I." key holder. Now the 308 holder is part of his inventory, all thanks to this FChatter's wife. It's been available since last year, but somehow I never got around to ordering one until now.



My first impression was holy smokes, this thing is huge! It's much larger than other key holders we have and bigger than I expected. The guy who makes and sells them is jd-knight on eBay. They come up for sale every now and again. A perfect gift for any 308 enthusiast!

The old "wet paper to remove the pilot bearing" trick

Back in March of 2010 (2 years ago!) when I replaced my clutch, I had a tough time removing the pilot bearing. I tried the grease trick, but all it did was make a big mess. I ended up using a puller to get the bearing out. I had hear after the fact that a pilot bearing can be removed using a punch and some wet paper. Well, I finally had the chance to try it out. I'm getting ready to put the SBC back in my GMC pickup and I needed to replace the pilot bushing before putting the new clutch on.



First, I shredded some newspaper and soaked it in warm water. I stuffed some in the pilot hole and used a piece of rebar (which was about the right size) as a punch. I alternated between hammering on the rebar and pushing more paper into the hole. Amazingly, it was working! I could feel the bushing get pushed out of the crankshaft hole. After what seemed like a lot of paper, the bushing fell out. Wow! I'd seen this done in a Youtube video, but now I'm a true believer.

On to more electrical stuff

Ok, on to some other small things I've been meaning to do. In the 308 dash panel, there are warning lights at each corner. These lights are in black plastic holders that are held on by plastic tabs. Over time, the plastic tabs get weak and can't hold the lights in the dash panel. All four of my lights were like this. I wrapped electrical tape around them, but it didn't really work that well. I found out that fellow F-chatter "sigmacars" owns a plastic molding company in Canada and he is reproducing these. They are exact duplicates of the original and they are cheap. So cheap that I bought a bunch of them in case I broke a few.



Installation is a breeze. Pull the old light holder out, pop out the colored lens and put the lens in the new holder. Reinstall the light holder and voila! Warning lights that actually stay in the dash!



Now that the weather is getting better and I'll be driving more, I decided I should finally install my keyless entry so I have a way to lock and unlock the car. As you'll recall, my original system flaked out and I bought a new Spal door lock kit and Viper keyless entry system. I installed the door locks a few months ago, but I didn't have a chance to put the keyless in yet. As it turns out, the Viper was a dud. The system is supposed to produce a negative pulse along one of two wires to trigger the power locks to lock/unlock. I bench tested the system and got no negative pulse. After futzing with it for a while, I tossed it aside and went back to my original Commando keyless entry system. It actually works fine with the Spal power door locks. Hurrah, now I can lock and unlock the car without using the key. Yes, the key does work, but not very well and I only want to use it as a backup in case the keyless fails.



After hooking everything up, I checked my current drain again. With the ignition off, my sources of drain are the clock, the stereo memory, power door locks and keyless entry. These add up to 28.6mA . It's a little more than my target of 25mA, but I guess I'll have to live with it.

Come on Sun, I know you're out there!

After being rained out for 6 consecutive weekends, we finally had our season opener of E@RTC two weeks ago. It was still overcast and darned cold in the morning but when the sun came out, it was glorious. What a turnout too! At one point, the organizers counted 180 cars, the most for a season opener. They reconfigured the parking as well so most of the cars are closer to the shopping area. I think they figure that people will show up early to see the cars, then stay to shop before leaving. Seems like a win-win for the gather and the shopping center.



There was a strong showing of 308s -- 4 total and a 328. Not in this photo was a late-comer '77 US model. I spent a lot of time talking to the owner as I had never seen a '77. It was a GTB which made it even cooler. I really like digging into the little details that change throughout the years and I learned a lot about the '77s.



I spent so much time hanging out on the Ferrari section and didn't get much of a chance to see the other cars. However, I did get to see 2 things many car guys have NEVER seen. How about a bright yellow Vector M12? Only 18 ever made (and one of them was recently destroyed in a fire).



Not impressed? How about a McLaren MP4-12C? That's some 627hp V12 goodness right there.



At the event, my buddy SM was getting a group together to go for a little drive. I had other things to do around the farm, but darn it, I needed to drive! GM, the owner of the Giallo Fly (that's yellow to normal folk) 308 decided to come along as well.



Turns out that this was a Ford Mustang crowd. We had 7 Mustangs of all years, 1 Chrysler 300, 2 308s and a Maserati. It was wonderful spending the rest of the day driving around in the North Cascades.

Last Saturday was rained out, but this weekend is looking ok. More sun! Less rain!

March is almost over

Yes folks, March is almost over and guess what? I haven't been able to drive my car since the middle of February! We've had wet weekends for the last 6 weeks! No longer though. The forecast for tomorrow is partly sunny and 57 degrees. E@RTC was supposed to start a month ago but has been rained out this whole time. People have been chomping at the bit to drive so we should have a great turnout tomorrow for the E@RTC season opener.

Ok, so some of you may be asking, "what about the replacement for the diaper?" We, I'm ashamed to say...not much. Because my fiberglass mold was not that good (not to mention my fiberglassing skills), I ended up with a pretty rough part that needed lots of finish work. I'd say it's about 60% done. Since my last post, I've been on holiday for two weeks and I've been working on trying to get my Chevy 307 V8 back together and in my pickup truck.



All things in due time I guess. I do need to get this engine done so the diaper will have to wait. Even though I don't want to, I will most likely put the original diaper back on for the drive tomorrow.

Getting rid of that darned diaper

A few days ago, I found out that the 2012 season of E@RTC begins this Saturday. Great, but as of today, there's 70% chance of rain. Somehow I doubt that it will happen.

As I was thinking about detailing my car, my thoughts turned to the ugly, rusted, dented piece of metal surrounding the exhaust under the rear bumper -- the thing affectionately known on US 308s as "the diaper." People call it that because that's exactly what it looks like -- a saggy, low hanging diaper. On US cars, there's a lot to hide back there. There are 2 catalytic converters and the massive OEM thermo-reactive exhaust. The diaper is an equally massive piece of vented sheet metal to cover up everything. Euro-spec cars didn't need the cats and thermo exhaust and therefore had less bulk to cover. They had a svelt rear valance under the bumper and gave the rear of the car a nice clean look. On the other hand, the rear of the US cars all look like a baby that had just taken a big dump.

The Stebro exhaust was a lot smaller and lighter than OEM, plus it was stainless steel and could be polished. I decided to try and replace the diaper with something smaller and more euro looking



Here's my starting point with the diaper removed. The Stebro doesn't hang that low and i'm going to a panel to cover just the top half of the exhaust and fill in the space under the rear bumper.



I mocked up my panel using cardboard. It's secured to the car using the same mounting holes as the diaper. The new panel will come down from the rear bumper to about the centerline of the exhaust tips and wrap around on the sides to blend in to the underside louvered panels behind the rear wheels. This leaves the bottom of the exhaust exposed and will look really nice when I polish the stainless. A little bling in the back, but not too much. I also added a "mail slot" to break up the solid part of the panel. I think this looks pretty good for a mock-up.



A metal panel would have been good, but I'm not exactly experienced nor set up with the right tooling to do this in metal so I decided to do it in fiberglass. I transferred my cardboard template to a piece of wood, then used a router to cut down the openings for the slot and the tailpipe openings. I didn't have any mold release compound, so I used candle wax and smeared it all over the wood. This is a shot after three layers of fiberglass. When it hardened, I was able to pop it off the wood without damage. After some filler to smooth off the surface, I'll trim this piece to fit then start working on the side pieces.

58 degree weekend in February!

January was rough. In the middle of the month, old man winter hit us hard. We had a storm that basically shut down the region. Power outages, trees down huge piles of snow. Fortunately, snow like that usually doesn't stick around very long and I was glad to see it go.



Back to my carb adjustments (still). I tried different screwdrivers to get to the idle adjustment screw for the right front carb, but I couldn't find something to work. My buddy SL had a great idea -- take something like a welding rod and just flatten the end into blade. I didn't have any welding rod, but I did have some 1/4" all-thread rod. A few minutes with a ball peen hammer and file and voila! A long thin screwdriver.



It works amazingly well. As you can see, that screw is waaaaay in there and is barely visible. I had to wait, but this was finally the day to take to the road and dial in the idle mixture.



The 308's been sitting a while and I foolishly disconnected my batter tender. The battery didn't quite have enough juice so I needed to use the booster to start the engine. As it turns out, I made the idle mixture a little too lean and it was really hard to start. After making the mixture a little richer, the engine fired right up.

What a great day for a drive. I didn't really have a destination in mind, so I just drove North with the snow covered North Cascades in the distance. After the engine oil was up to temperature, I was able to put my foot to the firewall and let the engine wail. It did stumble just a bit so I made a stop in a parking lot to richen the mixture a little more. The engine runs great now, although I don't know if all my tinkering actually had any affect. The exhaust is still a bit smelly, but it does seem a little better than before. Winter's almost over so I guess I'll need to put off the other projects like suspension bushings until next Winter. Let the driving season begin!

Re-jetting is finally done (well, mostly done)

Yes, it has taken a while but I'm mostly done with the carb re-jetting. First I had to loosen the bonnet and remove the air cleaner to access the idle jets. Each carb has 2 idle jets and they are screwed into the side of the carb body. I pulled the 0.57 idle jets and returned to the original 0.55 size. Then I started the car and leaned out the idle mixture as much as I could before the engine started to stumble. I figure this is a good starting point. Once the idle jets were replaced, I could then put the air cleaner back on.



This is a shot of the tube where the main jet is held. Each carb has 2 main jets. Fortunately, the main jets are accessible without removing the air cleaner. I replaced the original 125 main jets with slightly larger 130 jets. The tube seen in the photo is actually three pieces. There is the air corrector (AC) at the top (where the threads are), then the emulsion tube (ET) and the main jet at the bottom. I only changed out the main and opted for now to leave the 200 AC jet and the F36 ET.

As soon as I got finished, it started to rain. The next dry spot of daylight I get, I'll take the car out and do some fine tuning. Basically, this means driving until it's up to operating temperature, then mashing on the throttle. The engine should rev smoothly with no hesitation. If there is, I'll richen the mixture slightly and repeat until any hesitation goes away. That's the plan anyhow for the next dry day.

Pretty quiet on the home front

Things have been pretty quiet lately on the home front. Why? Partly due to the weather -- it's been cold and my shop is not heated. Earlier this month, I had started to rejet my carburetors. To try and lean things out a little, I'm going to drop back from the 0.57 idle jets to 0.55. To maintain a richer mixture at open throttle, I have some 130 main jets to replace the existing 125. It's all a bit of voodoo really to get the jetting just right. We'll see how it works out. I've replaced the idle jets and leaned out the mixture. Now I just need a window of clear weather to drive the car and fine tune it.

The other reason for the quiet on the 308 side is my other current project. Earlier this year, a friend of mine was selling his old truck -- a 3/4 ton 1969 GMC stepside. Because TK's truck has a camper on it all summer, I've been wanting another truck to haul stuff around without needing to go through the hassle of pulling off the camper. So I bought the truck and I've been planning what to do with it. It runs, but not very well.



Last week, I found another truck on Craigslist. It's a 1967 Chevy pickup that I could use as a donor. It has ok doors (to replace mine which had rust holes in them), a running motor (better than in the '69), power steering and few other odds and ends I can use. I pulled the motor a few days ago and as luck (or lack thereof) would have it, the block is cracked (doh!) and unusable. Oh well, I'll use what I can and hopefully I can recoup some of my loss by parting out the rest of the truck.

Oil change

I finally changed my oil. Those observant readers will note that I have not blogged about changing the oil since 2009. Yes, I admit it -- this is my first oil change since the car's been back on the road. Overdue yes but better late than never.

Rather than using a synthetic, I'm running good old fashioned Castrol GTX 5W-30 dinosaur oil. Word is that these older engines will leak oil with modern synthetics and it's not like I need even more leaks. What do you call a Ferrari that doesn't leak? Out of oil!



Just for kicks, I decided to cut open the old UFI filter. Not much to the inside of a filter. Just the paper element, a spring and a seal. The one thing unique about 308 filters is the stand tube (the silver metal tube in the photo). Since the filter is installed upside down on the top of the engine, the stand tube keeps oil from draining out of the filter.



I cut out a section of filter paper and used a vise to squeeze out the excess oil. In the paper, I can see a few small specks of metal -- probably one speck every three or four folds. I think this is ok and nothing to worry about. If there was more metal specks, then that would be something to worry about.

Good things come in pairs

I suppose it's only fitting that since TK has two horses in the barn that I have two Ferraris in the shop. She has her horse and a friend's horse and now I have my Ferrari and a friend's Ferrari.

My buddy SL had been actively looking for an F360 for months. After seeing lots of duds, he finally found the perfect car in Tour De France Blue. This beauty came from Texas and it's absolutely stunning. He doesn't have a place to keep it so I offered up the extra stall in my stable.



In addition to his car being amazing to look at, it's amazing on the road. It has over twice the power as the 308 and it really plants you in seat when you get on the gas. I can't imagine what a new 458 is like with less weight and more power.

Let's not forget SL's co-pilot -- Ferrari Barbie. In her Ferrari racing suit and matching helmet, she's a total hottie!

Brrrr...it's getting COLD around here!

A few weeks ago was the official end of the 2011 E@RTC season. As luck would have it, we had a sunny and dry morning but it was darned cold. Many people braved the cold and made it out.



A little later in the morning, this beautiful 1984 512BBi showed up. When I was growing up, the 512BB was another one of my dream cars next to the 308. However, the BB is so far out reach of a poor working stiff like me that I'll never own one.



Another cool car is this Aston Martin in a color I'd never seen before. It seems like all the Astons I've seen are some shade of silver and this one in Maroon was gorgeous. Another car I'll never own...



Lastly, a new car that few will see and fewer will own -- a new BMW 1M. Not to be confused with the BMW M1 of the 70s, I guess BMW needed to keep with their M designation and ran into a problem with the One Series. Very few of these cars will make it into the States. The owner of this one had to go to Oregon to get it. According to him, it's a blast to drive and a really fun, high powered good handling car.



Two weekends ago, the local Ferrari club chapter had a tour of a local fabrication and restoration shop. I wasn't sure what to expect since I'd not heard of this shop before. As I neared the shop, I saw a red 308 roar by and followed it in. It turned out to be friend and fellow 308 owner TV. The shop was near his house and despite threatening rain for the day, he risked bringing out his F-car to the tour.

Walking in to the main part of the shop, it was apparent what these guys did. There were metal working machines all over. Everything from welding gear to an english wheel to lathes and mills. Their clientele were mostly sport and club racers and this shop did everything from ground-up fabrication to race preparation.

This is an example of the work these guys do. This old racer was pretty sad under the paint and basically needed a new body. Just like the artisans of a time gone by, this body was fabricated by hand from sheets of aluminum. Wow, what workmanship. Next to the raw aluminum body was a frame jig where a tube frame was being fabricated.



This shop was huge and had lots and lots of cars in it. I found out that these guys also do most of the restoration work for Richard Griot (of Griot's Garage). I believe that this white Porsche is one of Richard's newest cars, sent to the shop to be checked over.



Here's a cool little racing detail I didn't know. These brake rotors are painted with three temperature sensitive paint stripes. Each color would burn off at different temperature so the crew could tell at glance how hot the rotor got. Red paint gone? Driver needs to be easier on the brakes!

Just about ready to park the car for the season

It's Friday and the "official" end of the 2011 season of E@RTC is tomorrow. It doesn't look too good though with a forecasted 20% chance of rain. In fact, the past 2 have been called due to rain. I think we may be done for the season.

Here are a few cool things from the last event. A Noble M12 GTO-R3. It's powered by a twin-turbo Ford Duratec V6. It reportedly puts out 415 bhp and can propel this 2380 lb car 0-60 mph in 3.7 seconds. From what I've heard, Noble's can be a handful because they have a tremendous power to weight ratio, but don't have any of the really advanced electronics to keep the car from killing you. I briefly talked to the owner and he said, "it's faster than a Lotus Elise. What more do I want?"



Have a look at this really cool Morgan Aero three-wheeler. I think it's from around 1925 and it's powered by a V-twin in the front. The coolest thing about it is that the engine valvetrain is almost completely open. You can actually watch the rocker arms and valve springs move. Very cool.



Of course there's the obligatory Ferrari shot:)



I've been on vacation for the last two weeks. TK and I jumped in the camper and drove down South then East in a big loop. It was a fun trip and there was one thing that really stood out. In Lincoln City, OR we met up with TK's parent for dinner. We stopped off at a restaurant called the Pier 101 Bar and Grill. As I was thumbing through the menu, I realized it was Friday and that they served prime rib on Friday and Saturday. Since we had a fridge, I decided to get the "Big Cut" and we could eat the leftovers later. When the waiter came by, the conversation was like this:

Waiter: What can I get you sir?
Me: I'd like the Big Cut of prime rib.
W: Have you been here before sir?
M: No, I haven't.
W: Well, our regular cut of prime rib is two pounds.

(silence)

M: Hmmm...ok then. Thanks for letting me know. I think I'll have the Regular cut then.

Two pounds? Was he kidding? When it showed up, it was apparent that he was NOT kidding. This thing was massive. It was cooked and seasoned perfectly, but I could only eat about 1/4 of it. We took the rest with us and ended up eating on it for the next four meals. What a bargain? Locally, you'd pay the same amount and get 1/3 the portion. So, if you find yourself passing through Lincoln City, OR on a Friday or Saturday, I highly recommend the prime rib. Regular Cut or Big Cut -- your choice.

Alert! Winter approaching

Since my last post, not a huge amount has happened on the car front. The only thing I've worked on since fixing the power drain issue is tending to the door jamb light. This was something that worked at the beginning, then stopped for some strange reason. The bulb was ok but it jsut wasn't getting power. I traced all the wiring and it turned out to be a connector behind the clock. The wire pin for the door light was not secured completely in the connector. After straightening the pin and getting a good connection, the light works again.



Stuff that needs to be done around the farm has cut into my drive time. Still, I've managed to get out a few times in the last 2 months. Here's a recap:



One of the big events this year was a Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport at E@RTC. We had the center court again and it was an absolutely great day. The Grand Sport is the convertible version of the speed record setting Veyron. It arrived with two vintage Bugattis and they made a big show of arriving. Add an Enzo and a couple of new and old Rolls Royces and there was a lot of money sitting in the center court.



Another cool car showcased was the new Lamborghini Aventador. I'm not a big Lambo fan, but this one has received a lot of press here locally. You see, Lamborghini and the UW set up a research lab to develop and test the new cars. They're doing everything from R&D to crash testing. Pretty cool stuff. The car though? Eh, the jury's still out on that one. You could tell they're going for the whole "steath fighter" thing. Matt black, odd angles, things sticking out that really shouldn't be...

There's no mistaking it's a Lamborghini though.



Amoung other cool things was this 60's Mercedes 300SL Gullwing. I think the plates were from Colorado and from the looks of it, the car just arrived -- road grime and all. This was a great car, not only because it was a Gullwing, but because the owner actually drove the thing. It was unrestored and original. The only other one I've seen was a museum piece.



On a whimsical side, the local Fiat dealer brought out a fleet of new Fiat 500s. I got to sit in one and play with the controls. For such a small car, there was plenty of room inside. Ever since seeing one on Top Gear, I'd always though these were neat cars. If I'm ever in the market for such a thing, the Fiat 500 will be on my short list.



And finally, my humble little 308 nestled between two of the newest Ferrari supercars. It still amazes me how much bigger the newer cars are.



It's raining now and has been for the past week. There won't be many more driving days this year but I'm hoping to use them as I can. Maybe over the Winter I'll finally have a chance to rejet my carbs, install my keyless entry system, adjust my steering wheel and replace my suspension bushings.