F335 experts, need your opinion on Paint, buying car

Found my 355 finally.....Pretty certain about this one. 1997 Berlinetta Titanium Silver / Tan interior, 13,000 miles. Interior looks immaculate...Couple concerns though..

1) Driver's side Flip up light is More RECESSED than passenger side flip light
Could this be a sign of a front end accident?

2) On the passenger's side quarter panel...gonna try to explain/describe this best I can.....On the Passenger's side quarter panel paint, it looks like 2 thin pieces of hair/string, underneath the paint, like some hair got caught underneath while the paint was being sprayed on....
Could this be a sign of a repaint/accident, or is this acceptable as Factory paint?

Otherwise...the car is immaculate.. Any advice would be great! Thanks!

Ed

 

Well, how much more is the light down than the other? And from what you decribe of the paint, it could be a hair, but it also could be a paint line, from where someone might have sanded down that part of the body and taped it off to paint it and that line you see is what you would have left over when you remove the tape. The term some body call it is blowing out the paint, the idea is to kinda fade the new paint in with the old so there are no visible paint lines. Also, is this car from a dealer? If it is they have to legally disclose any major damage that occured to the car, to their knowledge. And a carfax report isn't always true. I say that b/c I got into an acciedent and the issurance company paid for it at a body shop, but my VIN# still comes up with no acciedents. Just something to think about.

And no that would not be acceptable from the factory.

Hope that helps

 

I own a titanium 360 (original owner). The paint job is flawless -- not even a hint of orange peel! I doubt an embedded hair/string would pass muster. Sounds like this 355's been reworked and sloppily at that...

I think you should take the car to a reputable body shop to be checked out before you have the PPI done. If they say it's been repaired/resprayed and the seller hasn't disclosed this to you, keep looking! (What else is he concealing...)

 

I would say that the driver's light is down about 1/2 an inch more than the passenger side.

As for the paint, it's not a tape line, it looks like when model cars are painted, and little hairs get stuck because you didn't blow them all off when you started spraying....but it's only 2 pieces. so I'm not sure myself. Thanks!

 

Here is the car I was looking at....really immaculate, except for the 2 problems I mentioned above...and it's a strange color combo......

Car was bought from Ferrari of Orange County couple years back according to the owner

http://adcache.collectorcartraderonline.com/10/8/6/73424086.htm

 

I'm not an expert, but I would think it's had some work done. Did you ask the owner? Why don't you just ask him and the dealer he purchased it from if this is an issue for you.

Good luck whatever you decide.

 

Looks super, maybe have a dealer give you an opinion letter. This color combo is hard to find.

 

My lights align perfectly, and that could be a problem.

Re: Paint... you can buy a paint gauge or have a body shop lend you one. It looks like a pencil and reads out the paint thickness. You just touch it to the paint and the reading should be same around the car. I think my readings were 3...If you come to a repainted spot the meter will jump close to around 10. The pen has two tips, use one side on metal and the other for plastic parts like bumpers.

 

My headlights don't align perfectly either. I first inspected my car at this year's Cavallino Classic and had several experts come over and inspect the car with me. I remember Tim Stafford being one of the guys who took a look. Everyone wrote off the misalignment to 'Italian workmanship' and no one thought it was evidence of any body work or fender bender.

 

Well the ad does say "no paint work"..... Might want to ask the owner and FOC. For what it's worth, I remember seeing this car on FOC's website less than a year ago for $105k.

-R

 

I asked the owner, and saw the car in person. He said that there hasn't been any paintwork done. But, he is the 4th owner. So From what he knows there hasn't been any paintwork done. I'm less concerned about the flips lights as I am about the hair underneath the paint. I have a 91 NSX, E46 M3, and a 94 RX-7, and NONE of them have little pieces of anything underneath the paint/clearcoat.

 

The seller is not the original owner. Neither he nor FOC would necessarily have knowledge of what the previous owner(s) did to the car.

I really doubt the factory would let a car leave with a couple of hairs embedded in the paint!

 

I agree............... I think you have your answer.

 

But Edmo, the car IS gorgeous. I'm happy you finally found yourself a gorgeous Titanium 355. It's beautiful.

I was going to see that '98 Titanium/Black 355 at the Lake Forest, IL. dealer but as you said, it's gone.

Keep us up to date!

-Matthew

 

Thanks MT JTN, the car was beautiful in person, Immaculate Interior....but unfortunately, the paint thing is preventing me from purchasing it. Also, I looked at a yellow GTS the other day and I have to say....the GTS is Pretty COOL. So I think I'm biased towards the GTS now. These cars make me soooo indecisive, I can't believe how hard it is to find one that I really like...and I want one really bad now...ARRGGG!!!!

 

I saw a brand new red 360 with a long black human hair on the driver's side door. It was very noticable. One has to wonder why the factory let it ship that way and why FNA in New Jersey didn't fix the problem either? Sadly, the dealer gets the car and gets stuck with the repaint job.

 

That is terrible........... Does FNA inspect the cars before shipping to the dealers?

 

That's a beautiful color combo! Not very common!

 

If you really like titanium and are leaning towards a GTS now... there's a 99 F1 titanium/blue GTS for sale somewhere in the LA area:

bling!

No pics unfortunately.

-R

 

thanks, but looking for a 6-speed...

 

Just found out that the "little hairs" I saw on the quarter panel might be "Stress Cracks"...I saw it on another 355 I went to look at...right on the edge where the quarter panel and the roof part connects. Here's the link to the thread I read it on.... any comments on this???

http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=30758&highlight=stress+cracks

 

Pretty much every 355 I've seen has these cracks right at the base of the C pillar. The general consensus is that it's just a design flaw.. nothing serious. Apparently the body flexes and causes the paint to crack there.

-R

 

I just saw a '95 F355 that I've been contemplating and yep... what do yo know.

It had those stress cracks.

I've read up on this. This is a design flaw.

Are there any dangers here? Is this fixable or do people just leave them alone?

-Matthew