Ferrari Challenge Stradale Spider build
Discussion
Dear all,
some of you may already be aware of this car, she's fairly well known. I won't try and reinvent the wheel, the previous owner did a fab job of documenting the car, so for those interested, you can see it all at:
www.AldousVoice.com
So I'm going to pick up the story from where we purchased it. I've already started to document this on another forum, so will copy from there until we are up to date.
So, the story so far is pretty well known, but to clarify a few facts:
The car is currently on 38k miles or there abouts, it is in a damaged state, recorded category C on the HPI register, although as you will see in the coming thread, it has sustained very minor damage (in relative terms to what the mind envisages a cat C car). The car runs and drives, albeit with a bit less bodywork that Maranello planned. Thankfully, and as will be displayed later, there was zero chassis damage, which makes it an easy decision to return the car to the road!
We bought the car in Nov last year and by the end of the day had taken off the parts necessary to determine most of the damage. I will upload some pics later, and get you up to speed, allowing you to be updated as the project progresses. We will do our level best to keep momentum, however as it is a personal car I cant dedicate constant time and resource to it, so bear with us!
some of you may already be aware of this car, she's fairly well known. I won't try and reinvent the wheel, the previous owner did a fab job of documenting the car, so for those interested, you can see it all at:
www.AldousVoice.com
So I'm going to pick up the story from where we purchased it. I've already started to document this on another forum, so will copy from there until we are up to date.
So, the story so far is pretty well known, but to clarify a few facts:
The car is currently on 38k miles or there abouts, it is in a damaged state, recorded category C on the HPI register, although as you will see in the coming thread, it has sustained very minor damage (in relative terms to what the mind envisages a cat C car). The car runs and drives, albeit with a bit less bodywork that Maranello planned. Thankfully, and as will be displayed later, there was zero chassis damage, which makes it an easy decision to return the car to the road!
We bought the car in Nov last year and by the end of the day had taken off the parts necessary to determine most of the damage. I will upload some pics later, and get you up to speed, allowing you to be updated as the project progresses. We will do our level best to keep momentum, however as it is a personal car I cant dedicate constant time and resource to it, so bear with us!
So, first was to have a look at what we bought. The car is well enough known, so I won't go over that, but so you have an idea of what we are working with, here's what we managed to agree with the seller, Voicey (who I must say is not only a Gentleman, but also a very fastidious owner, exactly the type of person you want to buy a car from)
The car (obviously)
A set of F430 wheels
A Tubi Sports exhaust (valveless)
200 cell cats
So from its glory days, the car is now minus the CS door mirrors, the CS bumpers, the CS wheels. The good news is firstly we intend to restore the car to essentially how it was with all the buts, only difference is use a CS rear bumper as opposed to the standard, and build on it from there.
To assess the damage we began by stripping the car back in the damaged area, the key to note what was damaged as removed, and expose the damage to its full extent.
So far we know the bumpers (both) are gone, the radiator retaining frame (cage) on the LHF is gone, the radiator and fan are FUBARR, the LHF wing and headlight are also just fragments of their former selves. The wiring loom for the horn, fans, headlights, side repeaters, washer pumps ect has been severed, but thankfully rather cleanly, gives us options going forward.
However, so far, no visible signs of chassis damage!
Here you can see where the load bearing chassis stops, and the damage is confined to the structure that essentially holds the radiator, bumper, headlight and wing on, this is a very good sign.
So the final stage was to insulate the wiring to eradicate chance of arcing, remove all broken bits and see what's left. after this point we will have a comprehensive list of parts required.
The car (obviously)
A set of F430 wheels
A Tubi Sports exhaust (valveless)
200 cell cats
So from its glory days, the car is now minus the CS door mirrors, the CS bumpers, the CS wheels. The good news is firstly we intend to restore the car to essentially how it was with all the buts, only difference is use a CS rear bumper as opposed to the standard, and build on it from there.
To assess the damage we began by stripping the car back in the damaged area, the key to note what was damaged as removed, and expose the damage to its full extent.
So far we know the bumpers (both) are gone, the radiator retaining frame (cage) on the LHF is gone, the radiator and fan are FUBARR, the LHF wing and headlight are also just fragments of their former selves. The wiring loom for the horn, fans, headlights, side repeaters, washer pumps ect has been severed, but thankfully rather cleanly, gives us options going forward.
However, so far, no visible signs of chassis damage!
Here you can see where the load bearing chassis stops, and the damage is confined to the structure that essentially holds the radiator, bumper, headlight and wing on, this is a very good sign.
So the final stage was to insulate the wiring to eradicate chance of arcing, remove all broken bits and see what's left. after this point we will have a comprehensive list of parts required.
I must apologise for the terrible pics so far, these were all taken on the Monday so were done on my BB, I have started to use the proper camera so will get this set of photos out of the way and continue with better pics.
But, back to the old girl...
The following pictures show how the damage is very concentrated to one area, surprisingly not even the boot floor moved. (I chopped the wing away to get better vision/access to the area)
Moving to the inside you can see how the right side is, and should be, and then the left, the key is the bottom leg is straight, that has saved us a whole load of concern and extra parts on the bill
Then the final test, are the wheels all pointing in the right direction? So off to a local wheel alignment centre who did a simple geo check using a Hunter system (as used at Ferrari dealerships) revealed that bar for a few small adjustments, we were perfectly in spec, camber and caster were almost spot on, a small adjust on toe front and rear will set us right. I dont have any pics of this stage as I totally forgot, but this is a very good sign that all is well!
Cheers.
But, back to the old girl...
The following pictures show how the damage is very concentrated to one area, surprisingly not even the boot floor moved. (I chopped the wing away to get better vision/access to the area)
Moving to the inside you can see how the right side is, and should be, and then the left, the key is the bottom leg is straight, that has saved us a whole load of concern and extra parts on the bill
Then the final test, are the wheels all pointing in the right direction? So off to a local wheel alignment centre who did a simple geo check using a Hunter system (as used at Ferrari dealerships) revealed that bar for a few small adjustments, we were perfectly in spec, camber and caster were almost spot on, a small adjust on toe front and rear will set us right. I dont have any pics of this stage as I totally forgot, but this is a very good sign that all is well!
Cheers.
Interior removed
[url]
|http://thumbsnap.com/tGYvozGO[/url][url]
|http://thumbsnap.com/oCgS8hZx[/url]
Basically there's no interior left with the exception of switches, steering wheel and instrument cluster, I want the car to remain drivable and totally operative.
The rest is now wrapped up and stored ready to be cleaned thoroughly at a later date.
Cheers
[url]|http://thumbsnap.com/tGYvozGO[/url][url]|http://thumbsnap.com/oCgS8hZx[/url]Basically there's no interior left with the exception of switches, steering wheel and instrument cluster, I want the car to remain drivable and totally operative.
The rest is now wrapped up and stored ready to be cleaned thoroughly at a later date.
Cheers
As mentioned, the car is basically ready for the body shop, I'm awaiting the arrival of a wing from Italy, once that turns up, we will be good to go.
The parts (not exhaustive list) being replaced are as follows:
All sections highlighted are now purchased, and ready to be fitted. The piece that forms the side sections of the boot (Number 7) is to be seam welded in, with the others to be spot welded and bonded combinations.
The parts (not exhaustive list) being replaced are as follows:
All sections highlighted are now purchased, and ready to be fitted. The piece that forms the side sections of the boot (Number 7) is to be seam welded in, with the others to be spot welded and bonded combinations.
So the final pictures of the damage assessments. I don't want to bore anybody to death with the same old pics, but here you can see most bits have been removed, and now the final removal of damaged sections will be done by the body shop.
The shaped wing support actually extends underneath the windscreen, once the screen is removed the bodyshop will unpick the remainder of that, along with the remainder of the LH wing, and remove the RH wing in order to change the front 'U' shaped panel (the same panel that holds the washer bottle opening).
The shaped wing support actually extends underneath the windscreen, once the screen is removed the bodyshop will unpick the remainder of that, along with the remainder of the LH wing, and remove the RH wing in order to change the front 'U' shaped panel (the same panel that holds the washer bottle opening).
The headlights...
Splitting the headlights...
The worry, the drama, the sweat, potential tears... Well thankfully i've split a few in my time, but still a nervous moment. Thanks to the last people here, the job was made simple with silicone, which has proved a very good choice. Not only did it stand the test of time in terms of keeping out condensation, it was also still very much a formidable bonding agent, just a little more 'workable' then the original stuff applied by Valeo. Although the headlight is flawless, it would need to be painted freshly to ensure a 100% match.
The second, new headlight has also been split, it is currently in Rosso Corsa as it was already in the Ferrari network, sitting on a shelf for a while so proce was acceptable, and seeing as im not going to be order a Bianco Fuji one from Ferrari (and if I could the colour match would not be 100%), it would need to be split anyway, so colour was irrelevant.
Splitting the headlights...
The worry, the drama, the sweat, potential tears... Well thankfully i've split a few in my time, but still a nervous moment. Thanks to the last people here, the job was made simple with silicone, which has proved a very good choice. Not only did it stand the test of time in terms of keeping out condensation, it was also still very much a formidable bonding agent, just a little more 'workable' then the original stuff applied by Valeo. Although the headlight is flawless, it would need to be painted freshly to ensure a 100% match.
The second, new headlight has also been split, it is currently in Rosso Corsa as it was already in the Ferrari network, sitting on a shelf for a while so proce was acceptable, and seeing as im not going to be order a Bianco Fuji one from Ferrari (and if I could the colour match would not be 100%), it would need to be split anyway, so colour was irrelevant.
So as I've been stripping the car, i've been noticing small issues that are hidden but a shame.
Its funny as nowhere that Aldous had been working has any issues, as you all would imagine he's done a fine job in looking after her, but I'm finding small bits and pieces in obscure areas, particually the roof, where clearly, despite a good paint finish, the last bodyshop clearly made some mistakes on the reassembly. To be honest, the roof mechanism is a shambles when studied up close, most moving parts are not aligned well, and some damaged, clearly from re-assembly.
- For example, im finding screws incorrectly places, some missing, small alignment issues and pieces not fitted correctly. In the grand scheme of things not a massive deal, but I will rectify all the problems as I wouldnt want such a nice car to suffer these things, visible or not.
A small example, screws overtightened on the retractable flaps, causing cracking. Sure, might last another few years but not long after that. While we're here, we will do it all correctly.
Its funny as nowhere that Aldous had been working has any issues, as you all would imagine he's done a fine job in looking after her, but I'm finding small bits and pieces in obscure areas, particually the roof, where clearly, despite a good paint finish, the last bodyshop clearly made some mistakes on the reassembly. To be honest, the roof mechanism is a shambles when studied up close, most moving parts are not aligned well, and some damaged, clearly from re-assembly.
- For example, im finding screws incorrectly places, some missing, small alignment issues and pieces not fitted correctly. In the grand scheme of things not a massive deal, but I will rectify all the problems as I wouldnt want such a nice car to suffer these things, visible or not.
A small example, screws overtightened on the retractable flaps, causing cracking. Sure, might last another few years but not long after that. While we're here, we will do it all correctly.
Nice to see the pictures over here Michael. I actually replaced two of the metal cables in the roof that had frayed due to incorrect routing and a broken guide!
I'm glad someone else has picked up on the less than perfect re-assembly job done by the bodyshop who painted the car white - I got a bit of stick for saying the job wasn't up to my standard. I have since worked on another car that had a CS kit fitted and painted by them and observed a similar standard of workmanship.
I'm glad someone else has picked up on the less than perfect re-assembly job done by the bodyshop who painted the car white - I got a bit of stick for saying the job wasn't up to my standard. I have since worked on another car that had a CS kit fitted and painted by them and observed a similar standard of workmanship.
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