328 Dash Vents

Friendly bump for this thread.

 

It's the next mold after I finish the Dino door pocket mold which is about 1/2 done, probably will take another 4 to 8 days.
Hmm, maybe I can overlap some of the work...

 

YAY!

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I don't need them now but I'm in for a few when they become available.

Craig

 

Woo hoo!!!! Thanks Verell!!

 

Am down with either a bad cold or the flu. Sorry, but it's going to set things back for several days.

 

No worries Verell, get better, we can wait...
Greg

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Hope you're feeling better, buddy.

 

Hope you get better Verell !
I'm in for one, maybe two.
How did I miss this thread???? I have a broken one, just let me know if you need it.

 

It's been one damn thing after another since the 1st of the year!! After I got over the bug, I badly sprained my knee & calf in mid January and have only been able to work about 2 to 3 hours/day since then. I have started physical therapy which I hope will let me get back to work full time. Last weeks 24”+ snow storm didn’t help, I had to take a day to rebuild my tractor’s snow blower in preparation of it, and it took me 2 days to clear my drive & parking area.

RGigante, It's good to know you have them. If one of your broken ones has a good 'ring' with the spring wire in it, I'd like to get it from you. The wire is held in place by small plastic pieces glued to posts. I need a part I can disassemble to make a mold of the ring w/o the glued on pieces. This is one of the rare instances where I need to modify a part to make a mold.

 

Sorry to hear about that, Verell!
I will send you pictures of the broken one I have.

 

That sucks! Hope you are healing well, buddy.

 

Friendly bump. Just wanted to see if you are feeling better and whether you have had any time to work on the 328 air vents.

 

I have an 88 328GTS and the center air vent broke - the connecting lever as well as one of the small pivot points on one side.

Since all three have been exposed to the same conditions for the same amount of time I figure if one has failed, then the other two are probably close to the same condition so I would be interested in picking up three and replacing them all at the same time.

Thanks

 

Same here. I'd get three as well. Hope verrell gets better soon so he can tackle this for us!

 

Hi All,
I've been following with great interest this thread. My 1989 328's left side air vent broke on of the hinge tabs from old age. The lever arm pin was ok as was one of the two hinges pin tabs. What was helpful is to pull out the vent carefully ( I used some penetrating oil around the rim) out of the vinyl covered dash surface. Next I used a 5/32 drill bit and DRILLED a new hole where the pin had previously been on the inner side of the support ring. I did this by hand just gently spinning the tiny bit back and forth. It took about ten minutes. Then I cut a small section of a nail from a fairly soft picture hanging nail. Sanded the ends to smooth out the cut. Inserted this approximately 3mm or so pin into my new hole then slipped the louver with its hole over the new metal pin. Voila. It works.... So while I was also perplexed about finding a replacement vent- this solution will work. Popped it back into the opening and everything works great. The toughest thing was figuring out that I needed to put some penetrating oil around the plastic ring to pry it up out of the dash ( I used a small metal spatula about 3/4 inch wide and 6 inches long).

Cheers,
Darryl

 

Now a year later. Any updates on these vents? The trail seems to have gone cold.

 

I had a broken vent and I went to a designer with a 3D printer. He made me a new one that is a reasonable replacement. I only had him do one as that is all I needed. It should be easy to do some more, just push print! The cost to produce, not including the design time, was $25 dollars per square inch or $75.00. Would you like one? I will take some pictures of the replacement this weekend.
View attachment vent cowl.pdf

 

Great news!
I will wait for your picture, but I'm interested in one, for sure.

 

+1

 

+1

 

The vent on the right is produced on a 3D printer. You can see a pattern from the layering of the plastic. The piece comes out of the printer complete with moving vanes. It doesn't require assembling.
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Wow!
+1

 

Happy 4th of July 2014!

This thread, Falcon's post, and the lack of new replacements motivated me to fix my one broken dash vent. The broken one came out very easily by pulling up on the inside of the collar (not the slats) and twisting. I removed the other two for inspection and cleaning. 2 of the 3 had been previous repaired; the arm connecting the slats had broken at the pivot ends and been repaired with small nuts and bolts. That would work great if the connecting arm is intact and just the pivot ends have broken off. In my case, I couldn't find a glue that would keep the two broken bits together.

I fixed the connecting broken arm problem by a bending .064 piano wire replacement about 25mm in length. A 90 degree bend on one end, a opposite 90 degree bend on the other end. Luckily, the "horns" that held the connecting arm had not broken off. I rummaged through some old model airplane hardware and came up with two hard rubber collars that are a press fit over the wire end. A spot of super glue to hold the rubber collars, all done.

A 3D printer-constructed connecting arm (and mounting horns if broken) "repair kit" might allow for keeping the originals vents.
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There's a not so cheap one on ebay,,
Ferrari 328 GTS 328 GTB 208 Late Dash AIR Vent Ferrari Part NO 61738800 | eBay