It has taken me some time to start this thread but I finally took some time to upload pictures. So bare with me we have some catching up to do.
About 2 months ago I visited a friend in San Jose California and agreed to take his late mother's Mera and bring it back to a presentable condition. Sadly the car had sat outside uncovered and unloved for a couple of years due to other pressing issues in their lives. So when I pick it up it was looking pretty sad.
Here is it when I started.
Fresh gas at the bottom of the hill from its home, getting ready to head out on its 3 hour drive back to my home.
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[This message has been edited by DeLorean00 (edited 04-30-2017).]
One of the first stops was to my detail shop. I had to remove the louvers and emblems for them to be able to polish the paint.
The paint was extremely dull.
The paint on the louvers was faded and peeling badly. So I took aircraft paint remover and stripped them all the way down to metal and then repainted them with a nice thick coat of SEM trim black.
The interior, however, was still very tired. It was all stock 1988 Formula interior with no upgrades. It really let down the appearance of the car.
So I started by buying a set of door panels off eBay that had the lower carpeted area cover in leather. However, they were beachwood and had holes for manual windows. This turned out to no be a problem because I was able to take the map pockets off my door panels and switch them over to the new door panels completely covering the window crank holes.
Now that the door panels were sorted out I ordered a set of MrMikes Italian II seats with black and black dot centers and red stitching. The covers will arrive tomorrow and I hope to get them installed during next week.
I also picked up a new steering wheel.
And I ordered TXGOOD cupholder armrest and console door. MrMike was able to mail him the same material used on my seats so they will match perfectly.
I have black vinyl sun visors coming as well.
There is a lot of work going to be happening to this car, so I will try to keep this thread updated.
Thank you! I ended up buying this car off my friend's father. They were out of garage space and after I restored the car it would likely have to be parked outside again. Plus I love the car and the family that owned it. I am building this car for myself, and I am going to keep it. I've never really done that before. I am always building cars for customers or friends.
Back to the car, I ordered one of Rodney Dickmans Mera bumper kits. I think it will look so much better with the smaller bumper and factory Ferrari turns along with the fog lights. I can't wait for it to arrive.
[This message has been edited by DeLorean00 (edited 04-30-2017).]
Thanx for sharing your build. Very cool. It's going to be very nice.
Bob
Thank you, Bob! I remember seeing your body a few years ago still attached to the car that was wrecked. I thought it was an awful shame and did not think anyone would bother fixing it. I love that you are building it and not afraid to modify the design. I think the finished product will be amazing!
Thank you, Bob! I remember seeing your body a few years ago still attached to the car that was wrecked. I thought it was an awful shame and did not think anyone would bother fixing it. I love that you are building it and not afraid to modify the design. I think the finished product will be amazing!
Thank you, Bob! I remember seeing your body a few years ago still attached to the car that was wrecked. I thought it was an awful shame and did not think anyone would bother fixing it. I love that you are building it and not afraid to modify the design. I think the finished product will be amazing!
You wouldn't happen to know any history on it, would you? I was curious as to make and what happened.
Originally posted by hcforde: Thanks for sharing, again!!!
No problem! More updates will be coming!
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Originally posted by RCR:
You wouldn't happen to know any history on it, would you? I was curious as to make and what happened.
Bob
Nope, I just remember seeing it listed on salvage vehicles auction pages a number of years back. I work in the car industry so I am always watching or am at different actions. If I remember correctly it was rear-ended and pushed into another car in the front and it had larger wheels (17"-18") on it.
You wouldn't happen to know any history on it, would you? I was curious as to make and what happened.
Bob
Actually, I just checked back to see if I could find the car I was thinking of and it appears I was mistaken. This was the car I remember seeing, and that appears to not be yours. But I still think I might have seen your car as well because it seems so familiar.
Originally posted by DeLorean00: Actually, I just checked back to see if I could find the car I was thinking of and it appears I was mistaken. This was the car I remember seeing, and that appears to not be yours. But I still think I might have seen your car as well because it seems so familiar.
Pretty nice car. I loved driving my Ferrari kit. I put 100k on it in 7 years. Nearly trouble free after the initial build.
Thank you! I just finished building a Ferrari 355 a couple years ago. But I never really got to enjoy it as I sold it to buy my house. So I am happy to have another one that I can enjoy while I finish it. I don't think I will ever do another scratch build as I am too much of a perfectionist so it took me almost 10 years to build because I wanted it done right.
That 355 build was insane, hope you get to enjoy this one
Thank you. My F355 took me almost 10 years of nonstop work to build. This car was done when I got it, I am just getting to improve on it. I think I appreciate the Mera more because I did not have to build it. While I enjoyed building my last car, you do get to a point where you just want to drive it and have fun.
Your 355 was great looking everywhere. The 355 was the first Ferrari that didnt really appeal to me so never wanted to build one. I like the angular lines of older ones better. I even like the pre 1989 Mercedes SLs for the same reasons. Later curvy ones just didnt do it. You did a spectacular job on it though. Id be tempted to leave mirrors off completely and put small hidden cameras in the rear corners and small monitors in the dash...just looks so clean without the mirrors cluttering it up. I have done that to several Lambos here. I have one camera on one motorhome thats less than 1/4" and you can see both corners for almost 180* out the rear. Its on all the time. I only use the mirrors for parking since their pretty much worthless for anything else.
[This message has been edited by rogergarrison (edited 05-03-2017).]
let me know if you need help with the steering wheel column area i put a steering wheel from a c5 in my car and the steering wheel controls work its pretty cool.
Thank you. MrMike always has the best upholstery and awesome customer service. This is my 6-7th set I've bought from him.
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Originally posted by mmeyer86gt/gtp:
let me know if you need help with the steering wheel column area i put a steering wheel from a c5 in my car and the steering wheel controls work its pretty cool.
That sounds awesome, do you have a thread about it? I think I'm going to leave the interior more or less stock on this car. Being it's a Mera it might one day be worth something in the original configuration. So I am keeping all the original parts so I can put it back to stock if I ever need to. My last car was so far from stock I actually enjoy having a car that is pretty stock.
Today I added some original Ferrari 308 door jamb stickers.
I also added some water transfer decals on my steering wheel. The wheel is a cheap aftermarket and it is obviously way too modern to be factory 308 wheel so I added the decals to make it appear to be an upgraded part that was made for a Ferrari.
Those decals are great. Ferrari loved putting their logo everywhere. Theyre on the backs of outside mirrors, wheel centers, on each dash gauge face...and on and on.
Dean, I like the details. It's good to see you posting again.
Joe
Thank you! I am happy to be back. This time building a car that I am going keep!
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Originally posted by rogergarrison:
Those decals are great. Ferrari loved putting their logo everywhere. Theyre on the backs of outside mirrors, wheel centers, on each dash gauge face...and on and on.
Thank you! Yeah, they are awesome! I already have a number of places I am going to use them. I am going to put a small Ferrari logo on the face of the Speedo and Tach, I might put them on the glass of the mirror in black Ferrari script, and I am sure I will find other places as well. The best part about all this is these are pretty easy to remove in the future. I am building the car using Ferrari logos at this time because it is already logoed as a Ferrari so I am going to have some fun. But in the future, I might turn it back into a Mera if I can get ahold of the nose badge and a few other items. So the seats have the silver horse emblem, however, the black stamped Fiero logo off the GT seats that is sewn on fits right over the horse. So if I wish to change them to Fiero I will just pull the covers and stitch the Fiero patch over the horse. Also, I am saving all the original seats, door panels, steering wheel, sun visors etc so I am able to put everything to 100% stock in the future if I decide to.
The last of my parts are beginning to arrive. I have had a very busy work week and I do not think I am going to get time to work the Mera until the weekend. But I have some big changes coming!
For those interested in the Mera details here is the information tag on the deck lid.
This massive totally wonderfully over engineered wood crate houses my new updated front bumper grill and fog lights bought from Rodney Dickman.
These are my beautifully recovered sun visors from Russ88TTop.
Next, I bought 5 of these replacement Ferrari key heads from eBay. I am going to put a GM key in them and trim the tabs on the ignition switch to allow them to fit properly. My main goal is to see if I can find a keyless entry or car alarm that remote that I can fit into the head of this key and make it work. It would be really cool to be able to only carry the ignition key and use the buttons to lock and unlock the car.
Last but not least! The part I am the most excited about. My new cupholder armrest and console door made TXGOOD! I had MrMike send him the perforated and regular material he used on my seats and TXGOOD made the console using the exact same material so it will all match.
If you really want to do it right, I have a set of F 308 front and rear flasher/turn signal lights that can be had cheap (just removed from my 87 Mera to put it back stock).
Nelson
[This message has been edited by hnthomps (edited 05-09-2017).]
If you really want to do it right, I have a set of F 308 front and rear flasher/turn signal lights that can be had cheap (just removed from my 87 Mera to put it back stock).
Nelson
I really love that look, that car is beautiful! I am so jealous of the t-tops, that is the one thing I want more than anything.
I think I am just too afraid to drill into the panels to mount the lights. I agree it looks really authentic and if this car had bad paint I would probably do it. So I know I am loaded up with the Ferrari paraphernalia, but I fully expect to turn this car back into a Mera in the future. Right now the Mera nose badge is very hard to come by and my car is already badged as a Ferrari so I am having fun with it. But I am thinking ahead to be able to put it all back to stock within a weekend if I choose. My seats have the horse yet the stock GT badge fits over it so I can sew that on and they are good and the rest of the stuff I can remove or replace. Depending on how the Meras are looked at in the future I might even put all the stock gray Formula interior back in as I am saving all of it.
But thank you for the offer! I really do appreciate it.
Thank you, shem! I am having a lot of fun building it. I have never built a car for myself. It at times makes me uneasy knowing I am spending money on a car that I don't plan to sell soon.
Man that thing is already shaping up nicely! Looked decent before, for it's age. A bit of wear here or there, but still could have been a decent daily from the day you got it. I'm jealous!
Man that thing is already shaping up nicely! Looked decent before, for it's age. A bit of wear here or there, but still could have been a decent daily from the day you got it. I'm jealous!
Thank you, I appreciate that! I have lots of plans and improvements coming!
Over at Mad Mechanics, mera308gts found of my car when it belonged to one of its previous owners.
That picture shows it without the black top someone added. It was only a large black piece of vinyl decal to make the roof area look black like maybe a targa top. However, that vinyl was way past its prime and it was torn faded and peeling in places. It really was the first thing you saw and it let the whole car down. I debated over replacing it with another piece of vinyl because I really did like the look from a distance. But I have decided not to because it made the car seem tacky up close.
The car really does look good in the pics. Your mods so far are good, too.
T-tops is the way to go for these cars. I'd love to add that to my mod list someday. I think that between some of the write-ups here on PFF and your own skills, it should not be a problem. JScott did a really good write-up a few years back, and he's out on the west coast too. He might be able to lend advise.
Personally I would not put a T top in a car like this. IMO it looks wrong. Make it a hardtop 308 GTB. On my 88 Mera the previous owner put a vinyl roof to make it look like a targa top. The vinyl material like they used on cars from the 70's. Looks really good. But I have to constantly tell people the top is fake. I've personally seen a few Mera's with T tops. I'm not a big fan of that look.
------------------ Rodney Dickman
Fiero Parts And Acc's Web Page: All new web page!:www.rodneydickman.com Rodney Dickman's Fiero accessories 7604 Treeview Drive Caledonia, WI 53108 Phone/Fax (262) 835-9575
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