Why does Ferrari love Bondo so much?

Not lazy, just a quick and cost-effective way of putting a car together by hand. You know how long it takes to get two sheets of metal perfectly lined-up together? Not to mention, there's not that many people around who can do that kind-of work.

 

You sure the previous owner didn't just mess up?

 

Ferrari isn't the only one. Datsun 240Z's appear to have been sprayed with the stuff and blocked out afterwards.

 

I thought those seams were "leaded"? Are you sure that the car hasn't been "fixed" before?

 

You're right, I was thinking about my 365 GT4. The build quality on the bodies was much better at Pininfarina than Scaglietti in those days.

 

There was so much Bondo on the Rt rear panel of my 308 that it felt more like fiberglass than steel when I tapped it with my fingernails. There was a stress crack there too.

 

1/2" thick? Hmmm, then I don't have to be THAT much ashamed about my project (see profile and homepage)
In my 308 to GTO-look project I also use a lot of bondo but I made sure all the edges and stress points are solid welded together steel with only a skim of filler. But on the big surfaces it was inevitable (within my limited skills). When I was welding imagine the big eyes of surprise I had when the whole door pillar melted away in front of me, it wasn't made of steel, to get a proper door gap the pillar had an extra 1/2" of lead! The right rear fender was further forward than the left rear fender, one had lead at the door pillar, the other had lead at the rearlight panel. One pair of rear lights were vertical, the other pair was leaning backwards. The right rear wheel arch was sitting lower than left. The right door was much closer to the rocker panel than left. And so on. I corrected many of the assymetry and could hide the rest.
As for making the car smooth, I spent last years 4 week summer holiday AND this years 4 week summer holiday sanding, sanding, sanding, all by hand. When I meet a nice girl now, they don't look at my face but at my strong shoulders haha. I can easily understand the $20000 quote for repainting, if I put a fair price on my many hours.
With a boxer they had to use bondo instead of lead because a boxer is made of aluminium and glassfiber?

 

Thank God I haven't found any bondo on the 360 yet. Apparently the panels are hydroformed in partnership with Alcoa, allowing complex shapes to be made out of aluminum without any hand beating. A very interesting process, and saves many man-hours of hand work. Wonder why the car is not cheaper?

 

Come back here in 20 years! I never knew why, but it seems all old cars that have been driven have bondo on them.

I think the problem with the 308 is, it was never designed as a steel car. When they started making them in steel, they needed to make the complex shapes like the side air inlets out of small pieces welded together, because they couldn't be stamped in 1 piece. In the rear hatch I found, under a thick layer of all sorts of paint, filler, sealer, bondo, at least 4 welding seams, it is made of at least 4 pieces welded together. When the first join is not 100% correct, all the other joins will be influenced resulting in the need for bondo.
Also if they start building up the body on the chassis, an error of a few mm (1/16 inch) is easily made and then this small error comes back with every following panel that is attached. I saw a boxer with wider wheels, the left rear wheel was flush with the fender but on the other side it was sticking out by an inch.
Here is that boxer, it is not because of the way the picture is taken, I saw the car in reality (picture from FC member DrBob: http://home.tiscali.nl/308gto/BobHagendijk06.jpg

 

I have a 1982 BB512i and it doesn't have that much body filler. The cars were hand hammered on a wooden buck so there may be more body filler than on a machine made 360 for example, but no where near 1/2 inch. I would bet that car has been repaired for some reason before you bought it. Remember, you can't always believe what a prior owner or salesman tells you about a car they are trying to sell. What color is the body filler?

 

Bingo. The complex curves are very expensive to do from a design, assembly and painting aspect. But all those complex curves is what makes a Ferrari so beautiful IMHO. Lotus could have never done a Europa in steel without doubling the production cost, and Colin was a "bit" cheap.

Ken

 

Hmmm... perhaps this is why the 308 and other old Ferrari cars are so beautiful, yet the newer 'mainstream' models look so, well, watered down cheap and mainstream.

 

Just trying to confirm that the Ferrari 308's were all hand made. I believe that all Ferraris are hand made, but I would like to know for sure.

Thanks,
Brian

 

bondo? you should see what naked airplane skins look like. realize they are pressureized, expand and contract and are exposed to extremes in temperature. aluminum alloys are not like normal sheelmetal. odd the Boxer would have THAT much filler on it.........

 

airplanes never use fillers. not even fairing primers! ive painted a few citations, etc.

20k for a resto- paint job is a "bit" high. the car must be a wreck! i would shop around for a better $ . do you know how many hours that is? wow.
if it just needs some bondo reworked and not panels replaced ,welded.
it should be half that at most.

 

If you are seeing Bondo on your Boxer, you might double check into it's history.
Ferrari used a yellow high build spray on filler in the 70's and early 80's to get good lines on panels.
And while the body panels were buck made until 1985, they were not that far out of whack that a half inch of Bondo was used.

 

Spray on filler and Bondo is the same thing other than how its applied and the maker of the filler material, Boxers used alot of it to hide the hammer marks in the panels just as the 3xx series has alot as well.Certain areas such as seams and other areas around the turn signals on these cars will have very thick layers of filler on them from the factory.

Ferrari did take more time to make sure the panels were straight on the Boxers as you don't see any waves in them vs the 3xx series cars which gives the impression little filller was used but thats not the case.
$15-$20k is the starting point for a windows out, strip to metal paint job for a Ferrari

 

i dont know why you would strip to metal unless it is cracked crazed and a mess, how bad is the car in the first place, are we talking isolated repair areas , and a reshoot, or frame off resto ? i cant see why you would spend that much on a boxer, 3x8 etc, unless you got it for almost free...?

 

Just got my euro 78 308 out of the shop a month ago for hail repair - complete strip of the original laquer. hardly any bondo anywhere after the chemical strip. total bill was $19500, and it came out perfect.

 

Sheehan has a 512 Boxer offered at $95k, $15-$20k is not much compared to its value and doesn't seem out of line to me if it needed it and a nice paint job makes all the difference. Some early 308 owners spend that much and its almost the value of the car before the paint job.

Some will spend $10k+ on a engine out service on a 348 and thats 25% of their value, who said Ferraris make economic sense?