Ferrari 308 Replica Rebuild

I haven't posted here for a while so I thought I would update the 308 project.

I have been working a lot on oem replica Ferrari 355 headlight buckets lately but in my down time, I have been progressing on the 308 build.  I have also been traveling quite a bit fr work and will be for most of December.....  Bummer.

I have been concentrating on the headlights trying to figure out how to get the 7" round headlights to fit in properly and work., I came up with using the stock Fiero headlight motor and 6x9 headlight mount as a base and mocked up some plywood and foam to see how everything fit together.

I moved the motor outward a couple inches and forward 3/4" to get it in the right spot and then mocked up a round headlight ring on a piece of thin plywood to see where everything worked out.  It turned out very nicely.

I need to build sides and bottom and a proper front fascia now but I found out that the spray foam for your windows isn't eaten away by fiberglass so instead of buying very expensive 2 part foam, I will head over to Rona or Home Depot and pick up a couple cans....  This foam is not as firm as the 2 part though so you have to take that into account....

Some mock up pics.
Fiero Headlight Motor Mounted outward and forward a bit.


Mocking up the headlight.


Open position front view


Open Position side view


The pics above are from a few days ago.  I took the top off to glass in the front angle tonight so I can finish fitting the tops to the Fiero mounts tomorrow night.

(Grey cup tomorrow so no work during the afternoon....)

I also went after the front clip and the driver's side of the car today to start cleaning up the nicks and bangs from the 20 year old paint job....  I go tteh front clip into priomer to see where ai astil need to so some work to get it all smooth.  It looks really good and has motivated me to keep going. Unfortunately, I start my busy month on traveling on Monday.....

A few more pics of the front clip in primer.  Some edges and more sanding needed but it is looking very nice.









I most likely won't be getting any more significant progress until the New Year now.

Take care all.

Cheers
Don

A few more updates and progress.

I have the passenger side headlight bucket fascia in foam and a couple layers of bondo on it in order to pull a mould so I can get a fiberglass piece to clean up.

I will be doing the driver's side tonight and I don't plan on having the headlight in the driver's side to pour the foam for the fascia as I found the headlight in the way. I'll cut the headlight hole after I get the fascia ready for bondo.

I have also cut more aesthetically pleasing fender vent holes and working on the passenger door to fix the broken fiberglass.  I also started on some moulds of for the side scoops so that I can have more accurate side scoops instead of the flat holes the replicas have.  I plan to mould the existing scoop and then pour some foam on the mould and shape more accurate scoops and then pull a piece for the mould and then graft that in.  I can do the grafting when I take the body panels off to move over to the '88 frame.

A few pics.

Cheers
Don

Headlight pics

The fender vent holes and the moulds for the side scoops.  I still need to add in some 45* plates at the top edges which will effectively become the top most vent stringer or whatever they are called.

Cheers
Don



Pics stopped uploading.  I'll try again in another reply.

Thanks
Don

keep the updates coming!!

 

 

Coming along nicely!!

Great work so far

I still most definitely want to do the front conversion on
my car. So does this mean I can pencil you in for May?

Dawg;

I haven't forgotten, just did not get over to Van like I thought I was in the past couple weeks. 

Tell you what, if someone else wants the hubs you have waiting for me, sell them and I will get my hubs over and you can work those down for me.  I have a spare set of 84-87 front rotors so I will get those over to you when I can and then once I have them installed with the new rotors, I can send over the ones currently on the car so you have another set to sell.

I am now changing up contracts as of yesterday so I won't be getting over to Van as much as I would have staying with my other contract. 

I will have to see when I can get over there or pay you for shipping on Greyhound or something.

Talk to you soon.
Don

Got both fascias done and sitting on the buckets in the car.  the driver's is too far forward as I haven't trimmed it yet so it is sticking up too high.  I will have to trim some of the front bumper frame off under the buckets area to get room  to have the lights go up and down.

I also bonded the rear section of the Fiero roof to the sail panel as well as made some side plates to look more oem with the side sail panel vents.  On oem 308's the front section of the vents is part of the body not the vents and on replicas they are part of the vents.  I cut one off and bonded it to the frame and I am now filling in the gaps with fiberglass and cleaning it all up.

Working on finishing up the front fender vent holes as well and then into a LARGE amount of sanding to get all the old paint off so we can straighten all the panels out and put some colour on.

A few pics.
Don

I agree.  Everyone here loves to see creativity in action.  It's inspiring!

Keep it up Don.

The Dawg

I'm curious.  Does the whole top tilt?  Otherwise, how does one get to the master cylinder and so on?

I've been throwing around the idea of creating a front end tilt kit.  Maybe a back end kit also.  I've always thought it would make getting to the motor so much easier if the bodywork was out of the way.

Cool factor would triple also....:)

The Dawg