456 Interior

I decided to send my seats out to be recovered. Topsonline did a great job with my 308, so I asked Vic if he could make covers for a 456GT. When I brought him the seats, he asked me if I could bring him the rest of the interior so he could make patterns. I pulled the rest (minus headliner) and dropped it off to him. In the next couple of weeks, anyone who needs interior parts for the 456GT will have an option.
He is making patterns for: front seats, center console, rear seats, rear side armrests, rear headrests, rear console, back shelf, and door panels.

 

I took the opportunity to devise a radio upgrade in the mean time, so the extra effort was minimal. Vic is such a nice guy, I'll be glad if he gets the business, and since he does great work, all owners of the 456 (pre M) benefit. I keep seeing tired interiors on the 456 cars for sale (I haven't seen one right yet,) if these cars keep increasing in value, recovering the interior will make more and more sense.

 

I don't know which leather, but the books they have are the same as GAHH, and the samples look the same as those I received from World Upholstery.

Vic tells the the price will be similar to my 308, although these seats are much more complicated from what I can see, so I am not entirely sure yet.

 

The radio upgrade has been done before, but I'm taking the time to come up with a system.
It's an Alpine detachable face head unit. At Pacparts.com they sell connectors for the face and head, those are soldered to a ribbon cable. I am 3D printing a faceplate adapter for the font console and a mount for the factory trunk mount to replace the CD changer.

It's wired up and working, I'm about to trace the factory wiring for hookup in the trunk and I'm waiting for my 3D printed parts to arrive.

The end result will have bluetooth, USB, and Sirius XM, and be completely non destructive so it can be returned to stock.
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By reliable, do you mean shielding?

 

My understanding of CAT6 cable, is the shielding works because serial data is passed in pairs through twisted wires. In this case I don't see an advantage because the data will not be passed in pairs. -i.e. I cannot identify the pin out for serial pairs.

 

Perhaps we're saying the same thing, but here's my understanding of TP and we can extrapolate from this why I don't think it will work as intended:

From Wikipedia: Twisted pair cabling is a type of wiring in which two conductors of a single circuit are twisted together for the purposes of canceling out electromagnetic interference (EMI) from external sources...One pair can induce crosstalk in another and it is additive along the length of the cable. Twisting the pairs counters this effect as on each half twist the wire nearest to the noise-source is exchanged.

Meaning a TP cable won't work in this application unless I can identify the pin out to create data pairs. It's also inherently a longer cable for the same run distance - meaning the twist is longer than a straight run.

For those reasons, I don't think TP has any benefit other than it's easier to run from front to back, especially through the trunk grommet.

As far as the ribbon cable goes, I have tested it outside the car and functions work, but that may change once I hook up to speakers.

Now to tone out the wires. I'll post a diagram of the colors in the trunk and at speaker locations when complete.

 

Radio adapter FYI.
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I am printing in "strong and flexible plastic" in black, on Shapeways. It will have a rough texture. There's not much of the bezel visible, so I'm not going to paint mine, but it's an option if you want to do so. If you're going to paint, then print it in smooth white.
I don't see why it won't hold up, I have printed parts for my 308, 246 and California.

Fit hasn't been tested yet, I'm waiting to receive it.

I am working on an adapter to replace the CD player with the Alpine head in the trunk next.

 

Arrived today, now to send the surround and ashtray door out for powder coating.
If anyone wants one, I made it available: https://www.shapeways.com/product/RQKGU3D4K/ferrari-456-radio-adapter-alpine?optionId=62012182&li=shop-inventory
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If anyone is interested in these radio parts, note that I made these for the Alpine UTE 62-BT, I have no idea what other faceplates might fit.
The texture is a slightly rough black, I'll update the shapeways store for other materials in case you want to prep and paint an adapter.

 

Fabulous.

I have these for the trunk too for mounting in the CD changer position. You will need some 12-15mm long x 5mm machine screws. The lower hole is in the wrong position, but I may not fix it.
TBH Shapeways charges a lot for these, which should be easy to fabricate, but I didn't want the hassle.
I thought ahead on the faceplate and made a little shelf so the connector stays seated. On the trunk side, I couldn't get shapeways to print a part wide enough, so I used a piece of foam to make sure the connector stays attached.
I also am installing satellite radio (one of the reasons I chose the Alpine) and plan on installing the antenna on the rear brake light.
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Taz,

Dave told me that it would be $1000-2000 to refinish the two pieces. So I am working locally instead.

I believe the factory part is in fact powder coated. FWIW I have quite a bit of experience in finishing having owned and run a custom furniture shop that used all kinds of finishes from lacquer, to 2k Urethane, to polyester and powdercoating on various substrates. Short of powdercoating, I don't know what the refinishers could use that would be as durable as the factory finish. They're welcome to chime in if they want.

Done properly, powdercoating can be a very high end finish (not what most people imagine when they think of a powdercoat finish.) The two pieces are steel, so if it doesn't turn out like I hope, I will revisit.

Tiger Drylac makes a powder that is almost an exact match from sample. Because the plastic buttons don't match the metal exactly, I think the result will be as good as factory.
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Just the two steel parts are powdercoated and that's all I am refinishing. Ferrari may have used a different process, although the OEM finish is very hard like a powdercoat. Regardless, if powder coating works on these parts, it's an excellent solution.

The plastic does not exactly match the steel and undoubtedly a different process.