430 GogglesPisano's F430 Ownership Journey

It doesn't have a crossover section so it's more deep and throaty I guess you could say versus high pitched. Definitely a nice growl when you start but still sounds mean under full load. The added heat shielding over the Tubi branded version was a plus to me. As for weight, it's definitely much lighter. The stock muffler is like a boat anchor in comparison. The main reason I bought it was neither of those things though. I feel like the fear of cracked headers is pushed really hard into new owners. I bought it before I even had the car because the mounting system designed into the sport exhaust allowed it to expand and contract with the headers but is much more robust and supportive than just going to Capristo brackets. I must have ended up with a bad batch though because both of the exhaust valves on mine rattle like an old tooth in a mason jar when it's cold. I did some adjustments to make it less noticeable but decided to give up troubleshooting it in favor of a Kline. Once I get a free weekend to swap them out, I'll have it up for sale on the cheap if someone wants to continue the project.

 

Finally had a free day to tackle my Kline install. Overall, went very smoothly but I did find some more work while I was in there. When I pulled my diffuser off, I noticed grease/oil all over the left side of the car. Worried that something was leaking originally, it turned out that the CV boot was leaking grease past the larger clamp and slinging it perfectly in a line along the bottom which was the give away. Nothing is torn and the clamp is intact, but it spins freely with my hand. Has anybody else ran across this before? Wondering if I can just get a new clamp since the boot is in good shape.

Also, when removing one of the heat shields, I noticed that water was collecting in the frame and dripping out of the two riv nuts that the heat shield bolts into. Wondering if I should drill an extra drain hole? The bolts have some bad corrosion around the aluminum shield because of it.

Oh, added a touch of gold foil on top of the transmission tail. I wanted to do the adjoining piece as well, but I would have needed to remove the cat and I didn’t want to go that far today. Next time.

 

Did a few smalls today. The heat shields over the inner CV boots were pretty toasty. I put a fresh coat of resin on the outside, sanded them down, and covered them in a woven heat resistant wrap. Used some fiberglass split rivets to refasten the brackets and put the pretty side up this time . There are a few other heat shields where Ferrari put the nicer side down that I’d like to address in the future.

Also took a quick second and replaced my aging F1 actuator dust cover with an aluminum one.
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We’ll, I was going to thread the ends nicely like John did, but I took the project on late and didn’t have any small hardware in my stash. Anyway, took my badge off and cleaned below it. Added some double sided tape to the underside and reattached. The clips used on mine had a plastic sleeve though so they were easy to take off and also slide back on.
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man, that was an adventure all on its own. My cleaning/polishing supplies have been depleted a bit since it’s been a while that I’ve had something worth polishing. I used a light cleaning compound to get rid of the dirt and marks with my mini buffer and put the badge back on. Then…the sun came out and showed me just how much I mucked things up. The compound wasn’t fine enough and the whole areas was very dull and noticeable. Had to take everything back apart, make a quick trip to the auto parts store and picked up the last bottle of Maguiars ultimate polish on the shelf. That was able to get the shine back to where it was suppose to be so I feel better now.

pic of my cheapie mini buffer I bought from Amazon and the installed pic.
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The pad quality leaves a bit to be desired but overall it’s great. Pads are an easy fix. Was definitely more in a hobby budget versus the prices that some of the pro models cost. I do have a porter cable for larger jobs, but my car is ceramic coated so I don’t really have much opportunity to use that anymore.

 

Forgot that I didn't update the thread on that...

It wasn't that much. Maybe an ounce at most? Enough just to make a bit of a mess, but not enough to worry about. I bought some Redline CV2 grease anyway as I had a chance to slide the boot off with the old clamps off. I tried to smear a bit more in the bearing, but it was pretty packed. Really, any amount in the boot that had the chance to sling out was excess anyway.

Someone more knowledgeable can correct me, but the inner CV joint doesn't get the boot packed full with grease like a ball joint would. It's more of a dust protector so any grease that flings out would have already left the bearing anyway and worked it's way outwards and into the boot.

For the replacement clamps, I bought generic clamps off amazon that worked great for the repair: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07QPRVK76?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

And a proper tool: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0002SREPY?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

 

So, the front end of my car has been repainted. It’s not news to me as it was disclosed and documented through the Ferrari dealership that was doing the paint work. It was all for rock chips that the previous owner wanted to get rid of (and fortunately had PPF installed after). However, someone must have manhandled the passenger side emblem during the process. I first noticed small cracks next to the cavalino and thought maybe it was age or sun, but also noticed the bottom was sitting slightly higher and there was evidence of black double sided molding tape poking its head out from the top. Small stuff like this just irritates me even though the average passer by probably would have never noticed it.
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Anyway, I decided to replace the shield with a new one finally. I tried the string method but it kept breaking with the heavier tape that was used. I then resorted to a panel tool after taping up the surrounding area so I didn’t mar it up. Eventually, the panel tool did the trick and I was able to pry it off. The old badge was missing the bottom nut and, when I finally got it off, you could see the poor tape job underneath. The residue was a chore to get off, but some elbow grease and goof off helped. The new one has much thinner double sided adhesive over the entire badge, but not at the edges. I centered it with tape and then mounted it. Now I can sleep at night again

If anybody attempts this in the future, just a few notes…
1. The nuts are 5.5mm if you have a socket that small.
2. The thread is 3mm if you need replacement nuts (I fortunately had some but poorly assumed they would all be there on the old one)
3. Finger tight only! Don’t even use a ratchet. Just your fingers on the socket end as these will strip out if you even think about over tightening them. I caught myself just before righty tighty became rightly loosey.
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Definitely. I’ll see if I can find some time this weekend.

 

Sure. So this wasn’t the first iteration. I originally used some of the gold foil heat shield material and just stuck it over the old covers. Unfortunately, the heat in this area was a bit too much for the adhesive on those so they started peeling up. Also, I didn’t quite like the look of the gold there once it was on so I found this stuff on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09M3SRGKL?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1

It’s also self adhesive, but I didn’t want to take the chance of it peeling like the gold did. To prep, I spread a thin layer of fiberglass resin over the covers after I had them leveled off and sanded. I waited until that got tacky and then stuck the new material on. I didn’t want it to bleed through as the material darkens up a good bit with the resin. However, for the edges I needed a stronger hold as that is where it was most likely to peel up (as my gold foil did). So, I went over that area with a few coats of resin to feather it out into the field of the underside. You can see from the underside pics that the folded edges of the fabric are dark where the resin saturated in.

Because it’s a fabric, this might become dirty and stained over time. I’ll see how it wears. If it gets nasty and I need to do it again, I’ll just spread the resin over the top as well to make for an easier cleanup. It starts to look almost like carbon fiber when saturated.