very cool!
Finished up the center section today...machined down the louvers to get the right profile, it fits in the OEM grill nicely, secures to body tightly. We will break this one down, have our parts cut and be ready to produce these things. One piece of the puzzle checked off the list. N Now on those end caps... Image Unavailable, Please Login
Eurospares are showing 348 Serie Speciale rear grills for sale at the moment (no end caps though!): Ferrari 348 TS (1993) - Front and Rear Lights: Page 128 | Order Online Eurospares (Please note that this post is for reference only to assist 348 owners wishing to carry out a Serie Speciale conversion - I have no affiliation with Eurospares in any way, shape or form!)
Yup....we've seen it. Not a bad price considering what the standard grilles are going for. I considered buying it but it's more fun to make something. Would have been a lot cheaper though.....and now with mine, we can make as many as we want. I doubt there will be a big demand but maybe....
It's the end caps that are the real issue with this conversion. Strangely, there doesn't seem to be an official factory part number for them and no one seems to have any (and owners are understandably very reluctant to loan their end caps out to be copied for fear of something going wrong and never seeing them again!). Have you sorted out the end caps for your conversion yet?
I had addressed the end caps earlier in the thread I think. We will build our own. I have a bunch of pics that I have collected since the beginning of this project. Once I have the spacers in the car and the tail lights set, we can fab those up. Probably will make a set, take a mold off those, then build them out of carbon. I have a very talented carbon fiber guy that can do all of that work as can my guys. They're not terribly complex, just need those spacers so I can work off them. I've never seen them but I think they are cast aluminum. I would think they are either drilled and tapped on the back side(attached thru the grill and the body) or they have studs in them that go thru the grill and the body...nuts securing them. Not a big deal...just a puzzle piece.
Having a SS I have been following your progress. I must say that the replacement piece you designed appears so much more better engineered than the tinny stock piece. I would probably opt for a replacement. I have had to tweak the bolts and JB weld parts to keep it from vibrating. My last 348, a Spider had to have the regular grill rewelded when the stock welds gave out. I also think that black anodizing your replacement grill would be awesome. I may be able to provide molds of the end caps, but I am not sure how easily I could remove them. It's possible I can get you some impressions of the outside and inside that might help you make a 3D model.
Our piece will be substantially stronger than stock. It's a stout piece. Should be a pretty easy replacement for the OEM part. If we need that outside impression, I might take you up on your offer but I think the grill's louver profile will dictate the shape. I have really good pics of the end caps so I think those will provide me with what I need.
Painted the center section black today, finished up our sketches for them to be done in CAD, dropped those off with the water jet guy and with some luck, we'll have enough pieces for 10 units back here late next week. Going to talk to the spacer fab guy later today..... Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
It shouldn't be too far off now. The guy who is cutting the spacers will be the holdup. He says we're next in line. Breath will not be held. I was cleaning up pics and found this one that I thought was cool. A lot of $$ laying on that blanket... Image Unavailable, Please Login
Chris Just found your thread and am very interested in one of these kits when you get it finished as just purchased a 92 348 and the grill is missing . Let me know when complete thanks Steve
Been a while since I've updated...had a busy beginning of the year and things like this often have a way of slipping between the cracks. Had to find a new machine guy for the spacers....the old guy was just dragging things out far too long. So, with some luck, we should see some spacer pieces in a few weeks to a month(machine shop is expanding so they are working off an on). New machinist is good and fully on board. Got the first set of pieces back from the water jet guy...these are the pieces for our center grill section. Pretty slick. The end cap guy is 'on call'....as soon as we have some spacers, we get him in here for him to do the end caps. He'll be the quickest of all the guys involved in this project.... Never thought this would take as long as it's taking but as a side project that I'm trying to keep way below budget, I guess that's the way it goes. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
The new machinist is a good guy....looking forward to working with him. These are going to require a pretty elaborate fixture to get them where they want them for machining. Looking forward to the process. Not looking forward to the bill. Ha.
Chris, I got to say that this assembly is far better engineered and assembled than the factory version. It will stand out in comparison as a non-stock replica just because it is TOO GOOD. I'd almost swap out my stock assembly for your except it might affect the car's value for the worse, ironically enough. Still looking forward to your progress reports.
It's going to still use part of the factory grill. Don't worry....there will still be some of that fine Italian engineering going on.....
Figured it was time for an update....not a TON of progress but definitely some progress. Looks like the CNC model is just about done....assuming it should start to be in the process of being cut any day now. That's exciting. Attached are some pics of the 3D model the guy sent me....this is the cleaned up model that they will cut the metal from. Pretty cool. The initial scan that was done was a very rough scan...just points plotted into a CAD program. From what I gather(not hugely knowledgeable on this stuff...still learning), all the points in between are what this guy 'filled' in. In hindsight, I should have dropped the part off to a place with a different type of scanner that could have made a much better scan....way easier to work off of. That cost was pretty high for that process.....I'm sure this guy's time will probably be about the same as what it would cost. He's treating me very fairly though and doing this in spare time. Great guy and SUPER easy to work with. Key things. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
We finished this up too...our center section. This is our very first production piece that was built from our water jetted parts. Fit perfectly. This one is in the rough version...no profile on the cross bars or anything like that. We just wanted to test fit and check alignment. It was spot on. My employee who was behind it got it 100% dead on. Great work. I had him trace out some upper and lower pieces so we can get those water jetted should the need arise where we will have to build a FULL rear SS grille....ours will be very substantial compared to OEM. I will see if there is a way to shave the weight down...might not be able to do that easily. The OEM one is so flimsy...I've studied so many pics of these grilles and can see them drooping and sagging. The one we're doing won't. At that point, we will have a FULL SS kit....no need to modify the factory grille....a couple people have inquired about that(they do not have any OEM grille). Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Thanks ///Mike. It's great to be able to provide these small volume niche pieces to the community. This one is a pretty fun project....lots of details and challenges to figure out. And without the help of the community, it wouldn't be possible. So it's good to give back. We built a really cool tail section for the Ducati Hypermotard about 4 or 5 years back that started out as a "maybe we'll sell 4 of them" to producing them 4-5 at a time. Now if this SS part makes me enough money to pay for my 348 like the tail section paid for my Hyper....I'd be in great shape. Not sure if that will be the case....
Perhaps not these parts alone since they're primarily of interest to a very small subset of owners of a limited production car. However, there are other rare bits that fit *all* 348s which are not being reproduced yet (at least to my knowledge), so maybe this is the beginning of something.
