Glass 308 advice

I went to see a fibreglass 308 yesterday and would appreciate some advice. The car has done 45,000 miles and is for sale at £23,000 - around S40,000. It has 7.5" wheels and aircon. The body was pretty good but there was rust in the steel reinforcement in the engine cover, slight bubbling in the metal windshield frame, a strange piece of metal sticking out of the LH rocker panel just ahead of the rear wheel {it seemed to be pushing the rocker panel out from behind} and the aluminium hood had slight damage round the cut outs for the windshield wipers. On the plus side it has loads of history, bills going back to the late ‘70’s and the engine seemed good - a dry sump motor on carbs. It has recently had the rear callipers rebuilt, new discs/pads and the cambelts replaced.

The car can be viewed on www.forza288.com

does it sound like a reasonable buy?

TIA Andy

Hi Andy,

With all of the "cosmetic" flaws as you have described, most of which were rust, and slight damage, I think the price is way too high. I would expect to pay $35k-$40k for a very nice example with none of the flaws that you listed. These cars or coming up on thirty years so one would expect some minor stuff, but obvious rust and a rigged contraption to hold the rocker panel out seems a little "off" to me.

The engine has probably been taken care of and service when it should have, but clearly the body has not been so lucky.


Just my opinion.

JL

Andy,

I looked at both fiberglass GTBs on that website. The LHD you looked at appears to be more original than the RHD. I think the issues you mentioned are minor and easily rectified. You might use them as bargaining points.

Apparently it's a very well documented car with recent servicing. And 43,000 miles means the car has been used regularly: best thing for that car. I'm not sure about relative values of early fiberglass GTBs in the United Kingdom, but I know that prices for glass GTBs have been on the rise in the US for the past two years. Consider the car you saw at Forza 288 a promising prospect.

Barry