348 and Fiberglass hoods

I did some searches and found a few people who have fiberglass front hoods on 348's. A couple people have claimed that all 348's have aluminum hoods but I can't ignore the number of people I've found with fiberglass that appears to be original. Can anyone with a glass front hood chime in. Is it possible that the aluminum was reinforced with glass at some of the stress points?

Ben

 

Perhaps the aluminum was on earlier models & they switched to fiber?

 

To the best of my knowledge, all normal roadgoing 348s had aluminum hoods. The inner structure is a composite material, but not the outer skin. I assume the glass hoods are aftermarket (which are readily available), used to repair crashed cars. Maybe a few very early 348s had glass hoods but I doubt it.

 

348 and 355 hoods are essentially the same by the way - aluminum skin.

 

Funny you mention it.
I showed my Ferrari to my friend one day last year, who is a panelbeater. He asked if my 348 was all aluminium and I replied no, just the hood and engine cover. He then tapped the hood and told me that it is not aluminium. I called BS and said it has to be aluminium. He said whatever, I dont think it is.
When I got my a/c gased late last year, I was standing around the front of the hood area while the auto elec was gasing the a/c and I looked inside the intrusion area under the hood. Low and behold...............I could see fiberglass!! WTF I thought??
I went around and showed him and he said I told you so!! He asked to look at the engine cover. We opened it up and looked underneath and saw that it was fibreglass also. So I dont know what happened with my car. Must have been replaced somewhere along the line. I have the complete service history with the car, and I mean complete. Have everything that has been done to the car, but I saw no mention of fibreglass hood and engine covers.

 

I was at the local exotic car get together and looked at a couple other 348's they all appeared to have glass hoods up front. You can see the mesh if you look at the cutout where the rubber stops on the car contact the hood. Or is this just glass reinforcing the aluminum???

 

All 348 have aluminum hoods except the maybe the 348 competizione (I think, although they had carbon fiber all over the hoods may still be stock aluminum?).

The hoods are reinforced on the under surface with some kind of composite/plastic coating. Mine appears the same way on both front and rear bonnets.

 

Mine is aluminum skinned, it had a couple of rock dents that were there when I got it.

 

Every 348 I have seen including mine has metal trim in front of the bonnet but the bonnets are plastic. On the track I get hit by rocks all the time. No dents just paint rubs!

 

How about a carbon fiber ?
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WOW!

 

Engine cover and hood are fibreglass on my 348. No doubt about it.

 

How did you test that? Look under the engine cover in the holes? There is some glassviber glued to it. On mine too. But i had the paint of on the repaint. Its all aluminium. Only gfk put under the front and rear hood for whatever the reason was.

 

I opened the can o' worms with this one...............

 

Carbon Fiber looks great! How much less than stock does it weigh? How much does it cost?

 

They are 15lbs. Don't know the weight of the stock hood though

 

I think people get confused because the inner structure is composite (fiberglass), so they might see stray fibers around cutouts.

Also, a lot of ferraris are repaired with no documentation, because everyone is so concerned with clean accident history, so aftermarket body parts could be on a person's car without them knowing it.

 

at least if it was steel you could always just stick a magnet on it...

 

I am only going off what my friend told me mate. I can see the fibreglass underneath the exposed holes. I was yacking away about the 348 and as mentioned, he thought the car was all aluminium. When I told him only engine cover and hood, he said cool cool. He then 'tapped' the hood and engine cover and told me they were not aluminium. BS!! This guy is probably the best panelbeater/spray painter in town. He has owned over 40+ cars and is 28yrs old. The last 5 cars he has owned have all been Jap cars, so he does know a thing or 2 about fibreglass. He always repairing his broken front spoiler. He said it was fibreglass straight away and I said it cant be, but he said thought it was. When I went to the workshop and told him, he 'tapped' the rear, he thought the same thing. Fibreglass.
Maybe it is aluminium?? Honestly cant really say, as I dont experience with either. But he keeps reassuring me its not aluminium and its not metal.

 

Thats the sad part about it.
My car has had a respray on the LH front gaurd and front spolier. Thats all. No panel work, just rub back and paint. So I am assuming both stone chipped/scratched, no accident. That WAS documented.
IF my hood and engine covers are fibreglass, then I am leaning towards them being put on as "aftermarket", not because of any accident.
I am almost tempted to go out there and scratch them to see if there is aluminium underneath and not fibreglass.

 

I wil say again. All 348 hood and rear decks were aluminum. They have an aluminum skin with a fiberglass/composite under coat. But they are ALL aluminum. I know everyone has tap on it (I have too) and it sounds more like fiberglass. Look at the rolled edges though it is ALUMINUM!!!! Look at the welds on the rear deck. It is ALUMINUM!!!

 

Here are a couple of pics that should dispell any thought that the front or rear deck is fiberglass.
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Yes i also can only say it is aluminium front and rear. I got 2 rear hoods and 3 front hoods. Wich are 100% stock and 100% aluminium. Also i welded a small crack on my front hood if it isn't aluminium that wouldn't work. Also i removed the paint from the hoods and its aluminium. And all wracked 348 and 355 i see had aluminium hoods. Also you can feel it when it is cold outside the fiberglass bumpers are much warmer then the aluminium rear or front parts. Also you can see that the fiberglass under the rear is only glued under it i removed these fiberglass parts for weight savings. Its only there to make it sound nicer i think. Because it gets a more metalic click if i close the engine cover now.

 

Well that is fair enough then. Will have to pass it onto my mate that he is wrong now.

 

PAP.....PAP....tsk....tsk ............Sorry to inform you but your 348 is a 'kitcar'!!!