355 Dash Leather and Sticky Parts Refurb

This seems to be among the most searched for subjects for 355 owners- so I’ll try and share as much wisdom as I can.

We all know 355s suffer from a few very common cosmetic maladies as they age- The leather tends to shrink form the dash, exposing staples and nasty yellow Fiberglas, and the plastic parts covered with Ferraris “Soft Touch” coatings tend to break down and get sticky, gooey and messy.

As with all things Ferrari, fixing them is a simple as a trip to your local dealer or independent shop. It ain’t cheap but it’s not horribly expensive, and many sponsors have shared images of startling before and after transformations. I bought my 355 with a few interior ailments, negotiated that into the price, and was perfectly prepared to pay the $4-$7K required to get it sorted. But then I figured I’d save a little bit by pulling my sticky parts myself and sending them off to be refinished…. And then I thought- well, while I’m here I guess I could take a crack at the nasty dash leather, and it sort of morphed into a complete strip down of the interior. Lucky for me Winters here BLOW, so the car wasn’t going anywhere for a while.

First of all- NO OFFENSE to the sponsors who do this kind of work- they are pros and their efforts are worth every single penny- but we’re talking about old cars that have devalued to a point where certain expensive refurbishing does not make a ton of sense- financially. That said PLEASE do not do this to save money- Do it because you want that pride you’ll feel every time you get into the car. But this is not the kind of thing that is done “right or wrong”- there are many shades of grey- each different upholsterer does it a little bit differently- so Your Mileage may Vary.
I have done endless searches both here and on the UK site for exactly how to do all of this stuff- and now that I have done one for myself I have to say that an awful lot of the advice I got online is WRONG- dead wrong. So I’ll only relay to you what I actually experienced- so nobody gets surprised.

Let’s start with the stickies- The center console comes apart way , way too easily- I mean- who designed this system?? You unscrew the ashtray bottom and basically everything falls apart. I took out the ashtray, the HVAC panel and the Switch Panel- Mine is an F1 which is held in by four long screws- 6 speeds are similar. Label everything and take good “Before images” so you know where everything fits back. I did the HVAC panel first with a new overlay from Daniel- best $80 you’ll ever spend.

The knobs come off AFTER you disassemble the box- they’re held on by c clips- DO NOT try and pull them off before releasing these clips- once off you should be able to push to clear indicator lines OUT of the knob leaving only black plastic- I wound up using the Easy Off method of removing the stickies- it works ridiculously well. Get your self rubber gloves, some coarse steel wool, some 0000 fine steel wool, some 1200 grit wet/dry paper and a NYLON mini scrub brush- DO NOT use a metal wire brush.

BATHE the parts in Easy Off, (Only use the solvent based Easy Off- the “Green” kind does nothing)wait five minutes and start removing with the coarse wool- Once you’ve got most of it off shoot some Easy Off onto the fine wool and start scrubbing- finish with some wet/dry paper under running water- this will both clean the plastic and remove the Easy Off. When it’s all clean and dry you’ll be left with a very smooth black plastic surface- not bad!

For flat surfaces I refinished using two thin medium coats of Plasti Dip spray- Winds up looking exactly like the OEM stuff- and for knobs, the steering column surround and the Ashtray I used the Texture paint from Rustoleum- This is GENIUS stuff- Fog on three light coats and it is absolutely textured plastic- just perfect! I shot the ashtray surround with Plastidip and the Ashtray center with texture- You’ll need to use some elbow grease on the ashtray- unscrew the Pininfarina flags and sand down to the bare metal with coarse steel wool- I primed it first, then shot texture.

Moving on to the large plastic panels from the center console- Just take your time and DO NOT dig too hard- and resist the urge to use ANY kind of thinner or solvent or paint stripper- Easy Off works fine.

The HVAC overlay is self explanatory and transforms the HVAC unit- You’ll be amazed!

The Dahs vents (Reomval covered in the text below) just require patience- I did not disassemble the moving vent portion from the vent housing- I just cleaned it all as good as I could and carefully refinished it with plastidip. You’ll melt off the factory arrows and white lines when you strip everything- I had some replacements made up out of vinyl by a local sign shop for $8 and carefully stuck them back in the factory locations- It wind up looking perfect.

As you can see below- the vents start off in very poor shape- once stripped they look good but not "Factory", and the arrows have melted off! The column surround after stripping and texture painting looks fresh and new!
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OK on to the Dash- Lots and Lots of BAD advice on various forums- so I’ll try and relate what worked for me. Firstly- You do not need to remove the A Pillar coverings and sunvisors and you do not need to pull the steering wheel- You can do the whole thing with everything in place.

First you have to remove the vents and airbag- start with the instrument Binnacle- unscrew the two Phillips head screws on the lower lip of the binnacle- then the binnacle tilts back to reveal the elegant Italian wiring loom- Every plug on the back of this binnacle has a release clip that either pushes in and pulls out- yes- they mix BOTH styles in this car- so please use a good strong flashlight and examine each clip with an inspection mirror before removing- NEVER force anything- once the clip is released it should wiggle off with moderate effort. Everything is different sized so no need to make any notes. Your battery is shut off- right? If not you’ll wind up with error codes to clear later- so make sure it’s off.

With the binnacle off you should be able to reach your right hand in towards the top of the left side air vent and release the little clip on the top- just some force pushing the top of the backside of the vent down should pop it out. Now with your left hand reach in and do the same for the center vent- these tend to get squeezed out over the years by the leather shrinking- so your will most likely pop out.

Now you have to release the right side vent- which must be done from the front. I put two Kenwood stereo tools into the top of the vent from the front to lever it out- Since my leather was going it did not matter.

With all vents out it’s time to remove the airbag –Four simple Torx Security bolts- a little fiddly since there is no room but easy. Once the bolts are out reach under the dash and you should feel the back of the airbag unit- PUSH it up and out. Leave the defrost vents in place- they come out with the dash- When you have it out release the plastic clips with a Dental pick- they have a “C” profile so you need some outward pressure to release them or the tangs will break . The vents unscrew with an allen wrench and the plastic defroster manifold just pulls off. Now you should have the dash with five big holes staring you in the face- take a breath- we’re just getting started.

I have been re-reading the same thread on Ferrarichat for a year- about how you need to drop the lower dash to remove the upper dash- and this must be done with everything in the car. The problem with that is the two dashes are held together with two rivets and SIX little nuts and bolts- and getting the nuts off is a Royal PITA. After doing this I believe you can remove the Upper AND lower intact.

If you leave your steering wheel in place you will need to remove the little piece by your left knee (Left side drive cars)- this piece is hold on by a small pop rivet visible on the metal binnacle bracket- the two big rivets stay- the two small rivets get drilled out- the nut closest to the door can be accessed with a flexible shaft and an 8mm socket from underneath- fiddly but easy- and the other nut can be removed by reaching into the binnacle hole and getting an 8mm VERY SHORT wrench on the nut- half a turn and it’s loose- your fingers can do the rest. The left and right side lower dash is screwed into the A side of the car with a single Phillip head screw tucked behind the carpet.

Now- I would up undoing all six fiddly nuts in the car and then the upper dash just lifted out with no problem- but I think the pros only release the short piece and pull it out as one big unit. The dash is held to the metalwork of the car with four obvious bolts- you can’t miss them.

Now you have your dash out of the car- your car looks like a war zone and you’re beginning to doubt yourself… It’s not that expensive to farm this job out at this point- and I would honestly STRONGLY recommend you do so- The labor to remove and reinstall is a big part of this job- and the stripping, prepping, wrapping job is a long one.

OK so if you’re soldiering on- time to strip the factory leather off- Those little 1/8” staples just pop out- and you’ll notice some of the underlying foam will stick to the leather- some to the dash. Examine this foam- It’s a grey foam rubber based closed cell foam- Not really available and you DO NOT want to try and match it exactly. Get all the leather off and start scraping the foam away with a small metal scraper- be careful not to gouge the fibreglass.

Once I had enough removed I went to work with the paint thinner and metal brush- This took HOURS to get the dash clean and smooth- and I was wasted from breathing all that thinner- so consider a charcoal canister gas mask. Unscrew the metal brackets that hold the vents in and drill out the rivets for the metal tweeter mount
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OK- you’ve got a naked dash- time for LEATHER!

To give the factory appearance we need to recreate the same type of foam underlayment- I wound up buying the recommended ¼” foam from World Upholstery supply- but once I had it it seems just a bit too thick to me- Too thin foam and your vents will have large gaps- too thick foam and the vents will tear the leather when reinstalled. I found some “Headliner’ foam locally that measures just about 3/16” thick- it’s grey foam with a slick black polyester backing layer.

I glued it onto the dash backwards-I used some low-strength adhesive to glue it foam-side down to the dash- You need very light low strength adhesive like Duro All Purpose so it does not saturate the foam- If you do so it will stick unevenly and you’ll get a lumpy dash- I’ve seen a few pro jobs that look lumpy so I know it happens. The black shiny part facing you makes sliding the leather around very easy- and it just about eliminates the chance of the foam part bunching and creating bumps or ridges.

I know the pros don’t do it this way- but it worked for me. Do remember to let the foam wrap around the vent openings like factory but NOT onto the Fiberglass on the back- and of course remember to trim the foam out of the airbag opening and remove that little trapezoid of foam where the 355 logo goes.

I know one of the very professional sponsors here says they use 8500E black leather- But honestly I thought Black 917 is the match for the OEM leather- perfect color, perfect consistency- perfect feel. The 8500E is much more of a matte finish- nothing like Connolly in my opinion. I bought mine from World Upholstery- Ask them for some samples and decide for yourself. A ½ hide is enough to do a couple of dashes and a few odds and ends- I wound up rewrapping the trays in my center console and parking brake tray as well.

You will want to lay your dash down on the leather and make some white china pencil marks- mark the openings and give yourself PLENTY of extra material- you’ll need it. The lines will help you know where to put the spray adhesive later on. A great tip I got is to cut the material you need and draw a line horizontally across the front in China Pencil- Don’t worry lexol will dissolve it when you’re done- you want to have a “Horizon” line so you can see if you are pulling the leather out of shape- pros don’t need this but you and I DEFINITELY DO.

I screwed up the first attempt at this because I wound up pulling the leather too far into the concave curve sunder the air vents, causing great ripples elsewhere.

What I did was to draw a long straight white line from left to right, then I laid the leather over the naked dash, got it centered and clipped the left side of the leather to the short part of the end of the dash that curves inward to meet the A pillar. Ten I stretched the leather nice and firm, but not too tight, across the dash and clipped to the matching right side curve- use wooden clothespins and don’t let these sit for more than one hour or they will mark the leather.

Now you have the leather laying flat over the top of the dash- your white line should be perfectly straight, and the rest is just hanging looking awful. Time for glue.

I suggest you get some Weldwood high Strength Adhesive in the blue can- this works TEN TIMES better than any other adhesive.

Here’s how I approached this- I know EVERY OTHER forumite who did a 355 dash suggest leaving the big long flat areas for last- nonsense. I’m sure the factory glued the long curved part first – and you really have to in order to keep the leather straight and true- I flipped the dash over and sprayed a medium wet coat on the back of the dash and the leather – DO NOT glue the leather to the underlaying foam- it will get stuck at the edges only and of course to the bare fibreglass.

I did about the middle 2/3 of the dash- leaving the edges free and clear- and this worked great. Once the glue sets up- and give it a FULL five minutes- You want to use the palm of your hand to PUSh the leather up and over the top of the dash, using your fingers to stick it to the underside- DO NOT pull the leather from the edges- you need to be smoothing and flattening as you work- Start at the middle of every glue seam and work your way outwards.

I know others recommend using hammers and tools- I cannot imagine why- I watched a local guy wrap a Mercedes dash and all he used was a pair of well worn hands. As you get good tack around the wrap- just secure everything with wooden clothes pins- After ½ hour it’s really setup and the pins can be removed leaving no permanent marks.

Now make sure your white line is still straight- I went right for the lower seam at this point- You want to use your palms again and smooth and push the leather towards the bottom of the dash, wrapping at the bottom- this should give you a nice smooth appearance with not a single ripple. You are not PULLING the leather tight here- just getting smooth and snug.

As you wrap the leather you will see you have to go over the studs- DO NOT make slits here- look at your old dash leather- the factory cut U shaped holes so the leather cannot rip- do the same. Do not glue or wrap the ends of the dash or the concave parts where the outside air vents are- we’re just going to get the center of the dash nice and smooth for now.

Now for the hard part- you need to wrap the leather around the outside edge of the dash and you have to wrap across the concave part of the dash where the outside air vents sit- Start feeling your way through this- you’ll see it is really hard- the leather just does not want to follow this curve- it’s backwards! I wound up pulling the outside edge first- getting the ripples out and getting a nice smooth pull towards the flat upright part that is hidden against the door trim- now the leather was away from the airvent, so I then went and glued the bottom part first- using lots of palm pressure to PUSH the leather into the curve- I wound up using clips to hold it and hot glue to anchor is, along with the Weldwood.

It will look a bit “Off” at this point- cause there’s lots of tension- so the first hole I cut to release some of this tension was along the instrument binnacle- I glued the right half down to get a nice smooth look across the center air vent- then I cut and glued the center airvent- Be careful to give yourself a lot of leather to push into the corners- DO NOT cut right to the corner or you’ll be throwing this leather out.

I used my hands to push and smooth the leather over the edges, got a good long glue seam- the factory trimmed the leather tight here so NONE of the leather would lay under the metal bracket- and that’s why they shrink- I left them untrimmed and bolted the bracket OVER the leather ends- In fact- do it now- make sure you can push the vent into the leather and then get it to clip into the metal bracket- It’ important that it fits- The edges of the leather will tear a bit to get the fit- so be very slow about this- But look at your old leather- it’s torn just a bit too.

My next step as to do the airbag hole- I made sure I had no foam on the lips- cause that’s where the airbag frame sits- Don’t worry about the leather fitting into those lips- the airbag will push It in.

Now we have the two big square holes wrapped and looking pretty good- it’s time to tackle the right side air vent hole- This is the hardest part of the job, and honestly the part where many amateurs have failed. I cut my corners, leaving a lot of room for the vent to sit deep- and did the bottom first- PUSHING the leather into the concave cure and over the edge of the hole- then did the same for the other three sides.

I got it fairly good with a few minor ripples- I hit this area with a clothing steamer the way to pros do, and by the next morning it was almost perfect.

The left side of the dash is easier- since you can now make all the relief cuts to wrap the opening of the binnacle- this created less tension so you should be able to push that leather deeper into the concave area- after you wrap the vent hole do the Binnacle, pulling and pushing to remove any ripples you developed. Now you have the WHOLE DASH wrapped- time for damage control- Go over the leather with some Lexol cleaner on a terrycloth towel- gently polishing off all the glue you got on it so far.

A couple of large smooth ripples should be present on the top of the dash- They should release a bit when you screw the Defrost vents back- if you have any tight, shallow ripples in corners- you might want to release the glue seam now while you can and rework them- You should have NO areas of tight rippling. My dash looks perfect but it looks like leather- you can see the leather creasing just a touch in the corners- after one or two Summers that will be long gone- shrunk up and tight as a drum.

The only thing left to do is to cut and glue the long Defrost vent strips- I cut them from the back so I could center the cuts accurately- DO NOT cut all the way across- leave a square of leather intact to cover each fiberglass cross piece- then cut a slit for the screw to go through- this will keep this area from shrinking up later- A bit of glue from behind should allow you to push enough leather into that slit to get a nice fit- and don’t worry about gluing to the top- you can’t using this method but it does not matter- since the defrest vent metal frame will compress the leather for a perfect fit.

At this point I replaced the black rubber cord insulation with 5/16’ wide foam weatherstripping foam- which compressed nicely and makes for a nice snug fit- I hit my leather with some nice steam heat first, then screwed the vents down snug- The steam helps relax the leather at first- prolonged steaming will begin to slightly shrink the leather- nice to remove large smooth ripples.

Once done you want to BATHE the leather with conditioner- I hit it with a nice wet coat of leatherique- let it sit overnight- you’ve handled it a lot- so conditioner will bring back the natural luster of the leather-

 

Installation is simple- Even doing it the knucklehead way I did- screwing those little 8mm nuts in blind- I got it done in an hour.

When you fit the vents back be super careful- you want to push them in slowly- if you’re aggressive here you’ll tear the corners. I rewrapped my airbag at the same time using the same material- but went with a very thin 1/8” open cell foam. The airbag foam HAS TO BE thinner to get the correct factory look.

After I stripped the airbag I used a heat gun and clamps to slowly reform the plastic frame- i was afraid to drill out the rivets so I left it all intact and worked o it as a unit. The corners are hard! The factory pulled the leather over the corner and slit them- using hide glue to cement the leather seam. I did with Weldwood only- I got a good wrap and tried to get a nice straight overlap seam- then clamped them while the glue set- It took two tries but I think mine is close to perfect.

So- Two long weekends and everything is done- I would up doing some stuff you might not want to- I disassembled the switches- careful to hold the flying springs in place- and refinished the switch bodies- I straightened and repainted the black defroster mesh, I had little white arrows made by a vinyl guy and applied them to the vents to get the factory look. The finished job looks fantastic- not perfect, but fantastic.

I have now seen about a dozen interior refurbs on these cars- and I would say I wound up being in the top 1/3rd quality wise. So if you want perfection- by ALL MEANS get a pro to do it and turn to the sponsors here for the sticky stuff and leather. But if you are adventurous and like the feeling of finishing a big project- take a shot at it!
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My car spent a good deal of it's life in Vegas- but was not shrunk up horribly- Just the center A/C vents had a big hunk of yellow Fiberglass staring me in the face every time I got in... so I'm very pleased with the results. I left very long flaps of leather on all the areas where I've seen shrinkage occur- so I would suspect this car is never going to shrink in the same fashion again.

 

I prefer to be called a "pimp"...but I'm good with "stud". (8mm)

Yeah I've got three fcars to feed- hey I like to have projects- what can I say. I'm lucky enough to have a nice sized garage attached to my business, so I can sneak an hour here and there and go wrench for awhile.

My wife knows every Saturday morning I'm off to the garage to take something apart or put something back together- Gotta put the intake manifold back on the Carrera this week...

Fascinating to pull Ferraris apart after a lifetime of working on BMWs and Porsches. The low-volume handbuilt nature of the cars is very evident- both in the good sense and the bad.

 

That's the Hill Engineering piece- beautifully made- Daniel can get them at Ricambi America-

http://www.ricambiamerica.com/product_info.php?cPath=600_533&products_id=343591

 

Oh and for those who are curious- To seat the vents the first time after installing the leather- I got the leather around the vents- especially those tight corners- fully lubed up with Lexol conditioner- wet and messy- and then slowly pushed the vents in- this prevents scratching and tearing-

 

Daniel can get any Hill piece for you- Price works out about the same-

Oh and for those who inquired- My total cost for leather, glue, foam, paint and the vinyl graphics was right around $400- Plus around $10,000 worth of my own labor!

 

Yeah don't underestimate the time- especially if it's YOUR car- Cause the first time nothing makes sense about how the dash is connected- I could do one now in about 1/8th the time- but my first (And only) 355 dash project was sloow.