After a long search for a nice 308 GTB I found it in the Boston MA area The car is very nice and as we can expect from a 44 year old car, it needs some sorting and fixing. I will be posting a diary of my story with this car as well. If you are interested in learning about my other cars, you can see them in this links: 1989 Mondial t Coupe https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/restoring-my-1989-mondial-t.621713/#post-147491452 1984 400i https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/v-12-maintenance.307168/#post-147486027 having said the above, the first item for which I need support is that the car has a smell of humidity, I have taken out the floor carpets and left the widows down for 2 days and the smell remains. I have looked for traces of water just in case the car had been exposed to rain but nothing to be found, in fact the car has absolutely no rust and the seller confirmed that the car had not seen one single day of rain in the 24 years of his ownership "please send your comments and advice" Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
If there’s no actual humidity (I found cheap humidity meters on Amazon for my low cost ventilators which worked well), then it may be mould from a long time ago. There are various home remedies and some commercial products. I got the mould smell out of carpets with baking soda and vinegar but you would need to find where it’s coming from. It could be hidden in seat foam or other hard to find areas.
Ricardo. Go to home-depot and pick up 1-2 humidity buckets https://www.homedepot.com/p/DampRid-10-5-oz-Fragrance-Free-Refillable-Moisture-Absorber-2-Pack-FG60/301692928?source=shoppingads&locale=en-US&mtc=Shopping-B-F_Brand-G-Multi-NA-Multi-NA-Feed-PLA-NA-NA-Catchall_PLA&cm_mmc=Shopping-B-F_Brand-G-Multi-NA-Multi-NA-Feed-PLA-NA-NA-Catchall_PLA-71700000014585962-58700001236285396-92700052972852992&gclid=CjwKCAiAz4b_BRBbEiwA5XlVVoHRKg85C0X7CBtLM6EakGWg5-VN-tlLiUdg_lHb5UaBHPNYJKBSzxoCBsoQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds these work great
Hi Ricardo! So you did finally got it, big congrats! What I would do is remove both seats, recondition the leather, shampoo or steam the carpet, and maybe remove both door panels and just to see what is behind there.
there are not much carpets on a 308: if you remove the floor mats and the seats, you can wash the moquette with a proper machine. This should remove the smell of humidity: but it can come from the seats foam (not common at all, but could happen) you need to open them. Maybe (more likely) it can come from the textile venting ducts to the dashboard from the front bay: in this case you need to replace them. Congrats for your purchase! Ciao
Maybe use Ozone... https://pro-wash.com/2017/05/04/ozone-treatments-smelly-cars/#:~:text=Ozone treatment is the use,bacteria and viruses are killed. https://greenbiozone.com/en/use-ozone-generator-car/
First of all, Congrats on the 308! It goes without saying that you will need to thoroughly clean the interior as has been mentioned already. Another helpful tip is to goggle charcoal odor eliminator bag, there will be several options to choose from. These bags filled with charcoal will absorb all types of odors over a period of time. I had a company car years ago that was formerly driven by a smoker and this did the trick.
Hello: Yes that is exactly the plan, this weekend seats out, as they have to be redone so I will cut one open to see if the foam is the problem. I met with my my upholstery ma, "Escondido Custom Upholstery" who did my Mondial and he will redo them for me. The front carpets have been washed Etc. Will keep posting
Thank you. Funny it is that before I read your post, I went to amazon and purchased the humidity meter. I am taking a few days off from work and will be working on this. I will keep reporting. Sent from my iPhone using FerrariChat
Congratulations! Love this car (biased), like Albert wrote: ac evaporator could be hosting life on it.
A rust free 308 from Boston? You didn't buy a Ferrari. You bought a UNICORN. Congratulations on finding a fantastic car.
T Thank you. I have disassemble most of the interior to clean things up and sort out a car-stereo problem so I can confirm there is no rust but there are some other issues to deal with (normal for Alvar of this age?
Of course not, just cleaning it up, alarm delete and I did make the stereo work just to preserve the cool esa of the 80’s Alpine set up woth EQ and all. car is looking real nice Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
I keep my garage at a max of 50% and I get white mold on the leather. Or I believe it to be mold. It might just be something coming out of the leather.
I have that Alpine in my '79 GTB. I also have the equalizer, which I mounted between the dash bottom and the A/C vents. Not too difficult a job and it gets the equalizer off the console. You'll like your GTB.
Hey! Be sure to get some of the new fuse blocks offered on here. You'll be glad you did as they make a world of difference. Also, add some ground wires from the window motors to the chassis. My '79 used the door hinges for the ground points. Brilliant huh? As soon as I added the new ground wires, the windows actually worked quite well (after cleaning and re-greasing the mechanisms).
In Old 308's, especially ones that have been stored, you need to look behind the front trunk - remove all the side covers and under the vents and AC condenser, as well as under the brake booster... a friend had a dead mouse that was covered in mold under that one- that on a warm ish day gave off a distinctly moldy smell... not terrible but not pleasant. the mouse was literally dried out - up to skeleton - but covered in blue green mold... also might not hurt to remove and clean out the vent tubes - usually they get full of crumbling insulation foam... I would turn on my vents full blast with the ac fan as well -and then vacuum them out at the same time... usually did the trick for a year or so.. eventually took all the heater boxes apart - amazing what you find in there... lots of dead insects ... If the passengers floor board comes out - remove that as well, and vacuum there as well... also check under the car - there is a small plate that covers the brake bias valve - sometimes that can become moldy as it gets wet... its aluminum and easy to un screw. there are holes that go into the front compartment that can get wet ... usually its covered with a rubber grommit. that is about all the water admission points typically in a 308... the only other problem area is the wind screen where it touches base... sometimes they leak and behind the dash gets wet - and can get moldy smelly... that seems pretty rare.... but my old 308 did leak on my foot when it would rain really hard... it was horrible to track the leak, found it from the left front a pillar under the rubber ... small dot of rust - with a hole let water in that built up there...
