Modified Ferrari 348

Dropped off the 348 at a bodyshop in Essex to have the rusty bits sorted.

Also managed to win an auction on ebay this afternoon for another set of 355 wheels for £621. They need painting, but not a bad price and saves me the hassle of sticking the 348 on milk crates.



Car should be ready end of this month and then we start filming it for the next 9 months.

According to the draft script, it should be getting wrapped in early August.

Here we go again...........

4 years later and panels need work because the previous full respray was crap!!!

There's so many panels that need doing that I may just get the whole car resprayed again and not wrap it later. If I do, I'll go back to mettalic black.

The problems on the car.....

- Front wing (bad rust)
- All wheel arches becomeing rusty
- Front bonnet which is aluminium has an issue on bottom edge
- Engine lid which is also aluminium has spidering on bottom edges
- Paint shrinkage on front bonnet
- Big ding on front bonnet where wife dropped a case on it
- Both buttresses beginning to blister

Paintwork is being done by Motts Body Repair in Essex who also do work for the local Ferrari/Maserati dealer. www.mottsbodyrepair.co.uk

Hopefully have the car back on the road by March.







So as the car may not be wrapped and I will have 2 sets of wheels, I'm thinking of painting one set in the original colour and the other set Bronze.

Interesting car you are building. Audi V8!!!

and I really like the 928.

He showed me those doors and the first thing I asked was "where can i get a set made"!!!

They looked really good.

Yep, it was done by Al and back to metal respray.

Yep, no oven.


Not after last weekends Grand Prix!!!


Visited Motts today to have a look at the car. I pick it up next week.








Only big thing left to do is to fit the Challenge lens covers. They cost $450 for the set and very hard to get hold of now. I'm having the edges painted black.

The main reason I'm putting them on is because replacing those lights costs a fortune. About £1,300 for teh set if you can get hold of them.

Picked up the 348 on friday morning.

It was delevired to the local Ferrari dealer Lancasters to have the aircon/heater module replaced with a used one I picked up recently. The old one was showing errors and would switch off and pump cold air into the car giving me frostbite.

Also had them clean the accelerator pedal linkage as it was a little sticky.

So picked it up all clean shiny and looking as new. Lovely.

Check out the challenge lens covers. Going to paint the screws black.




The next day (yesterday), in celebration I'd thought I'd go out for a late night drive around London with some friends, especially as earlier in the day I got annoyed by Ryan Air. What is it with that company!!!! The worst company in the UK and they still may money!!!!

But I digress.

I got into Town earlier and as it got dark, switched the "pop up" headlights on and.....



One of the lights wasn't lifting!!!!

Quick check and it appeared that one of the brackets had come undone. Fortunately I have very slim artistic hands or girly hands as some would probably say and managed to fix the bracket on whilst parked up in busy Soho.

No pic of my hand or of me in Soho unfortunately, but it gets better. So keep reading.

Parked up in Sloane Street waiting for my friends to arrive.






Friends arrive. Another 348, 430 spider and a Gallard SL. Two black and two yellow cars. Not a red car anywhere.




We all have walkie talkies and whilst driving in convoy, one of them asked why my reversing light kept coming on. The reversing lights on the 348 are big and a very bright white and there are two of them.

Huh??????????????

So I checked as I was driving and it seemed that second gear was activating the reverse lights. So I had to skip 2nd gear every time.

After a while I got annoyed and whilst in traffic had a look at the gearstick selector. The rubber that keeps the debris from falling into the gearbox area was not attached. So every time I put it in 2nd, it activated the reverse lights.

<insert appropriate swear words>

No option but to take it out and as i had no tools with me..... I used a pen.




And when things can't get any worse, whilst parking up in a parking spot, failed to notice that the pavement was at an angle and.....



Front splitter damaged.

Back to the paint shop it goes.

I blame it all on the North Koreans!!!

Bodywork all fixed, but unfortunately the drivers door jammed shut and the passenger window not working.

Car is now at HR Owen.

Door issue is a faulty actuator on the lock and the window issued due to the wiring loom breaking in the door.

Looks like no Auto Italia at Brooklands tomorrow for me.

Nice.

Have you got the colour code and was it matt, satin or gloss on the wheels??

I had a colour card made up and took it to the Autosport show last week and checked it against other gold wheels and it turned out it was too dark. Have been searching for the right shade.




Thanks. Still lots of modding to do over the next few years including the jenvey throttle bodies.


Shhhhh.... don't let the secret out.

Very nice. I also really like this




I'd rather turn mine into a 288GTO

Haven't seen that thread. Got a link?

To be fair, although it's broken down a few times and recovered over the last 9 years, it's mainly been small things.

From memory......

Overheating due to thermostat getting stuck (Recovery truck required)
Alternator blowing (Recovery truck) Item rebuilt
Alternator blowing again (Recovery truck) Item rebuilt... again
Total brake failure (Recovery truck) Turned out to be a bad relay
Clutch release bearing (Happened in my garage) - replaced with upgraded parts
Handbrake failure due to rust
Air con control unit failure - Replacement cost £500

Haven't had any gearbox or engine issues. Mostly electrical things.

Not bad for a 20 year old car and to be honest, if you are a bit of a mechanic (which I'm not) the running costs aren't that high as a lot of the things you can do yourself.

Thanks all.

Never had the chance to visit Cornwall unfortunately.

I'm going to drive around with just the gold wheels for a few weeks to see how it looks and then decide whether to stripe or not.

Here's a pic with a 430 and 911 just for you!