Nice work!!!!
I got home just fine (4hrs45m in my Jag), thank you. The car is still at Alun's. I visited on Friday and Alun still wanted a few days for valeting and detailing. I will arrange transport for sometime in the next couple of weeks. Yes I saw your car, don't worry one day it will be brilliant too. There's also GRP 308 shell in there as well, but that has been mechanically stripped before being brought to Alun. The engine bay layout on a GTS is slightly different to a GTB. My coolant header on the driver side of the car and the oil cooler the kerbside. The GTS does not have dry sump, but I don't know why that was the case. My coolant tank looks odd because it is an aluminium remanufacture I had made a couple of years ago. At the time I was struggling to get an OE tank and mine was like a collander. So I did engineering drawings of the tank and sent it off to a company that does all the bling stuff for Subaru's and the like, on the provision that it was black and not a polished chrome finish. The tank doesn't look bad, it fitted perfectly and transformed the cooling performance. They even had a go to replicate the pressing marks on the front of the tank. You might also note some wires on the oil cooler, I modified the GRP cover to accept a couple of 125mm IP68 fans. They are not strong, but give a little bit of cooling. But once the header tank was fixed I found the cooling was fine and so I still haven't got around to running a permanent wire to them (another little project). David Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
I just got back from visiting Al, he showed me your 308 and i couldn't believe how fantastic it looks, these pics dont do it justice, the car looks better than when it left the factory.
And finally I have the chance to go and bring the 308 home. A fairly rough couple of weeks at work meant I made plans to collect it and cancelled them. Booked holiday and cancelled that... So Saturday I am going down to Wales to collect the 308 and bring it home. By Sat night I hope to be back to the Worcester area. Then Sunday takes me home to Durham in a couple of easy stages... I hope to do a final resume and a round of pictures to try to do justice to the fanastic paint job, that is now on this car! David
Hi David, I've been off line for a while and haven't thanked you for the explanation about your header tank - very interesting so thank you for that! So today is the big day: good luck with the journey and finally as I write this you're on the way to collect! Today the weather is clear and dry, let's hope it stays that way for you. All the best
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After all the second guessing, it ran like a dream. 7 months laid up and it practically didn't miss a beat. Saturday met Alun's better half, who had copped for taxi duties. To the workshop to check the car over and finally had to hit the road. Alun must feel as if I've taken one of his children, after he has spent so much time with this car. A nice gentle 1/2 hr then stopped in a lay-by and gave it a serious look over. No leaks, no symptoms, nothing wrong. A couple more stops, to be certain and overnight in Worcester. This morning (Sunday) the car was a little grumpy, it was soaked with condensation so there was a little bit of electrical misfiring - probably wet plug leads. After a couple of minutes idling it was fine. A steady run up and around Birmingham to use the A38 (in preference to M42) and then on... M1, M18, A1, A19 and A181 to home. Roof was on and off, then on and finally off... great. Home in time to get a few pictures in the late sunshine, so grabbed the decent camera and went to find a picture spot. NO DATACARD IN THE CAMERA... Dohhh. So these camera phone pics will just have to do for now. (The B&W was shot later with the Nikon in the garage... the stripes are a refected flourescent light - impressive reflection?). David Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Alun worked his magic on my giallo 348TS a couple yers back, there's nothing quite like that day of car collection. Looks like he did a great job on your car too. His talent is undoubtedly incredible .
The cars holding up really well Steve, I keep looking at the arches half expecting a resurgence of the brown stuff...as you do... but no sign as yet. Actually it was only 08 Alun did mine, suprised myself as it seems like a lot longer ago. Actually the cars really not running right at the moment but I'm not sure who to turn to regarding getting the problem diagnosed and sorted. I'm loathe to turn to a F dealer as the last time I trusted the car to one in Gloucester they let me down by leaving electrical connectors disconnected and also didn't even totally sort the oil leak the car went in for. Also the weathers been so cr*p I haven't been inclined to take it anywhere having spent so long getting it nice up underneath and in the arches, but it is playing on my mind most days.
What a story, and the car looks fabulous! I found this thread from your advertisement on Pistonheads, and have emailed you about it. Looking forward to hearing from you Thanks, david
Wow - what a great result! How did I not stumble upon this thread sooner? I love perusing the restorations. All the best, Andrew.
It was my mate Al who done the work on this 308 if you like this sort of thing have a look here. http://www.alsaautomotive.co.uk/gallery/ferrari_gallery/ferrari.html
