New F430 Spider Owner-Help

Well guys, I ended up buying a brand new 2007 F430 F1 Spider with tan interior. I get the car tomorrow, hopefully. I have a couple of questions....

* Has anyone had a dealer swap the Red tach for Yellow? If so, how much did it cost to do?

* Would you do the 3M front coating? How much should it cost?

* What is the recommeded break in on the F430.

Thanks Guys
Arnie

PS: Can a signiture be added to a user?

 

I don't know about switching tachs

Regarding clear bra's - most brands including 3m are fine. It is more important to find someone skilled to put it on. Cost around $1,000. Do the front bumpers, lights, about halfway up front bonnet, mirrors and intakes, rocker panels, as well as both windshield supports. You won't know it is there and feel much better.

The factory dyno's and drives the cars. You will find around 40-70 miles on the car. Some will argue the car is broken in, the manual says otherwise. I suggest breaking it in and always make sure you bring all fluids to operating temperature before driving it hard. Check oil every couple hundred miles as a minimum, just to see what is going on. A great car - enjoy. Best

 

I was qouted $850 two years ago by a dealer on Long Island for a 3M clear bra. One of my stable has it not a big fan.

Break in,do not know, always trade withn 3 years and do not drive that hard anyway!

good luck with your new car.

Lee

 

Thanks. I think I'm going to pass on the 3M. I'm hearing more bad than good. On the tach, my dealer said they won't do it on a F430.

 

Break in deponds on how anal you want to be. I put 500 miles on my F430 before I started to drive it hard.

The factory runs the engines for 8 hours before they are installed in the cars. Then as mentioned the cars are driven around 70-80 miles by the factory before they are shipped to the dealers.

 

ive never heard anything bad about 3m bra properly installed. pretty sure most people around here are fans of it....i will be getting it when i pick up my 430 next week

 

Leave the tach alone it may cause others to suspect odometer tampering.
I am happy with my 3M.
Good luck and enjoy your F430

 

I sent you a PM.

 

What a tough life... driving F430's, 599's, 430 Scuderia's 70 - 80 miles everyday to test them

 

The clear bra on at least the front bumper is a MUST! If not, you will have your car at
Premier every 6 months for at least 2 weeks and pay close to $1500.00 for a front bumper paint job.

 

Arnie, congratulations on the new ride!!! I'll bet you will get used to and even like the red tach. I would recommend the 3M treatment as I have done. The Diablo had 14 pieces and was well protected. My 360 only had the front treatment. I'm having the front treatment done on mine. Break her in per owners manual recommendations and then you will not have any regrets. Just got word, mine is at the port waiting for a ride to Chicago.

 

On my 997S I had 3M over the entire front including fenders and complete hood. $3000. Dealer couldn't tell it had been done. Worth every penny.

 

Do compete front fenders and compete hood clear bra!!
Brake in 6500rpms max first 500 miles

 

Do the clear Bra, I have had the best response with the 3M film. ( the new one is really good). Installer is the key.
How much you put on is a personal thing. I have had clients do everything from just the bumper to doing the whole car.
Drive it correctly for about 1k miles. That means no thrashing and no bogging. Lots of gear changes. There is a lot more to break-in than just rings and cylinders.
BTW congrats and enjoy.
D

 

Go to Premier and they wil (over)charge you $2000-$2500 for a crap job, but they will tell you it looks great! Remember the Emporer has no clothes.

You are welcome to see mine!

 

Thanks Guys:

Pictures finally posted at this thread link.

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=170514

Any recommendations on a great 3M shop??

 

Yea, Envisage Labs out of Torrance. Edrie and Bhane. Google them for the number. Request the 3M Aero film. I did bumper, grey intakes up front, lights and side mirrors only. That's fine. Bumper is a must on these cars. Congrats!!

 

call Jay Miller
805-320-1896
He lives around your area and he'll come to you. Great job and price.
Call him before you drive it. At least do the bumper, you'll regret it if you don't.
Congrats on the car

 

You do not have a clue as to what you are talking about. I know at least a dozen owners who go to Premier and everyone just raves. As for myself, I went to Premier and had my front bumper painted and had clear bra put on the bumper and all wheel wells. The job was beyond perfection and cost a total of $1700.00. This was 8 months ago and the car looks the same today as it did the day Premier finished. So get your facts straight before you criticize others work.

 

Calm down. These endorsements or critiques of various services available to the community are all user opinions and specific experiences, not universal facts. Colm has the experience to support his opinion. It's enough to talk about your experience; there's no call to attack his.

 

I have had at least 20 cars covered with Clear Bra, and I followed all the endorsements here for Premier, thinking I was missing something great.

Result: More than twice the normal price, poor installation and crappy Venture material (imo) I prefer 3M for is durability and protection. With Venture you will have to redo it more often, and some track guys I know replace it every few months.

They have a slick (if incestuous) marketing machine and the Sponsor cliques on these various forums tend to be self serving (gets rather tiresome) so someone needs to speak up, if for nothing more than to say buyer beware! YMMV!

So Ronnie360Spider what say you now?

I can show anyone a range of cars and they can make up there own mind which is best.

 

Congrats on the car! A beauty! Definitely do the 3M or similar IMO. You can still get rock chips through it but lots of the small stuff bounces off. Worth the peace of mind if nothing else.

I'm going to try and get something inside those front scoops too (black part) on my new 430. That always seems to get sand blasted.

I've had 10 or so cars done (I think all 3M but not totally sure). Usually costs about $800-1000 for full job. Some of the guys come right to house. On the last one I had done, guy messed up, I pointed it out, and he took it all off, put old one in garbage, and started over. Most of these guys seem to want to do a good job and get return business.

I've never had any problems with it. Only thing I didn't like - seems like no matter how hard they try, you can see the imperfections and the line where it stops on a black car (but I chose to do it on all 3 of my black cars anyway).

I doubt it will be very noticeable on red.

 

Do get the protective film (aka clear bra) done as an excellent installer can make a world of a difference in how visible this can be. Here's a link to what can happen with the wrong installer - http://forums.rennlist.com/rennforums/showthread.php?t=370012

Right Colm?

 

Are you the same Premier as in SoCal? If so, what is the cost to have it done?

Thanks

 

In my opinion you should definitely get the clear bra, I have it on my Porsche and I just got it on my Gallardo. I waited to get it on my Porsche and the little tiny rock chips got more and more and I finally did it but wished I would have done it sooner. You will get chips anywhere you drive, but if you go down the canyon, forget about it, rocks all over the place...

Also, in my opinion you should get the full hood and fenders as well as the front bumper and mirrors of course... The full hood and fenders are definitely more expensive but when you have it on, you can barely see that it's even there. Not to discount the people that have the partial hood and fenders, which i'm sure is fine, I just think it's worth the money.

You will get mixed opinions on the places that install them as well. Some will like a certain place and some won't, I got mine done at Sticker City, and they are great guys, my job on the Lambo is better than my Porschye but still the Porsche looks great, they are fairly close (Sherman Oaks)... I have heard Premier is really good but you may have to wait as they do "tours" and you need to wait until they are going to be in your area... And they aint cheap, but sometimes you get what you pay for... and sometimes you don't...

You live close to me so if you want to come by and have a look at my cars, ffel free to PM me or email me [email protected] . That's the best way to see first hand, the work on a customers car(s)...