Well, Time has come for me to replace the carpet and leather in the interior of my 308 GTSi. My wife has been bugging me about that for awhile. Last night she grabbed one carpet and pulled it right up and out of the car. Zero effort. The only thing holding it in place was graviety. Glue long since gone. I got the point. I am pulling the seats, consol and door pannels and taking them to a coach builder I found not too far from home for the leather work. He does coaches, cars, boats, etc., his work appears excellent, and the price seems reasonable. Before I get too stupid, anyone what to share any tips (Do This --- DON'T DO That!). I'll take pics as I go along. I surely would appreciate any helpful hints before I break something. V/r, mwr4440
Good luck to ya. I never get tired of seeing people recondition the interiors in these cars. I myself am getting ready to tackle the rear window area. I'm using a burgundy hide to replace the funky red/tan striped cloth that currently lives there. I too will try and document what I've done. One bit of advice I remember someone posting is to be sure to document what you remove with a camera so you know what goes where when you try to reassemble.
There should be a few tips in this thread... http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=83679 I just finished a complete interior restoration. Took me two years to finally complete but there were other complications and jobs I did that stretched it out that long. If you have any questions feel free to ask. I now know the insides of these cars better than I wanted to! John
I stripped and re-built my interior over the course last winter and this Spring. I guess I was lucky because everything needed a damn good clean as opposed to replacement. Obviously, I don't know what your carpets look like, but mine looked like new after they were removed and very carefully cleaned. I used Woolite Oxy Deep and worked it in very thoroughly with my finger tips. I then rinsed everything using clean warm water in a carpet cleaning machine (without any additional cleaning fluids). I reinstalled the carpet with strips of Velcro (rather than gluing them in) so that they'd be easy to remove and clean in future. I must say, my carpets now look like new and I am very very happy with the results. At least give one of your pieces of carpet a shot at cleaning -- you might be surprised. In my case, I really wanted to keep all of the original components, and don't mind that they have a bit of a patina to them. It adds to the charm ... or so I am told!!
I did it. Back in 02 I replace EVERYTHING including new headliner and dash vinyl. You will be happy you did it.
I guess I was also lucky with my headliner -- a couple of hours with a tooth brush and baby shampoo and it looked like new.
i just redid my door panels, console, and seats using the leatherique process. if your seat leather is in good physical shape the process can restore it. go to leatherique.com and take a look. i am very happy with the results. my interior looks fantastic and i have gotten a lot of compliments on it. i would recommend the beeswax sold by ruelle.com to preserve things after the leatherique process. good luck.
Re-did my interior last year. Put new leather everywhere, but vinyl on dashboard. changed from black to tan color on leather & carpets
All, Thanx for the encouragement. I have no idea what I am tackeling so...... First question. What parts (I am betting weather stripping) do I just need to buy as it/they normally get destroyed in the removal and restoration process? Ferrari Part numbers would be GREATLY appreciated. Second: Are the inner door sills just glued to the carpet? Cannot find anything holding them in place. Thanx in Advance Mark
I put all new gaskets on mine but only because the old ones were in pretty bad shape. They should be reasonably easy to find except maybe the front targa top/windshield piece. It may be different for your car than mine but the older style like mine are getting hard to find and spendy! For the inner door sill I assume you are talking about the stainless trim that laps over the carpet? If so it's held on with about three rivets through the lip on the the door sill that holds the rubber seal. They will be under the seal. Peel the outside lip up and you should be able to find them.
Where did you find the windshield piece? I need one too :-( I have been wondering if it would be possible to make a mold of a good one and then fabricate the just corner sections (the only bad parts on my current one) and section them in? Aaron
Jdubbya, Yep I think we are talking the same as there are two sills per door, the inner (higher on the car) sill that overlaps the carpets, and outer (lower) sill. I'll look again. Will a standard hardware store rivet gun and rivets do the job? Where do you recommend getting new seals? Expense is always a small concern. I ain't a rich owner, but a patient and determined one. Thanx in advance, mwr4440
I got the front seal from Trutlands ($325 almost two years ago) and I thought at the time they told me they were having a hard time finding them anymore. Molding new corners might be a good idea! It's part # 60380201 Yep, a standard rivet gun and steel, or better yet stainless rivets. 1/8" should work unless the ones in there are a lot bigger. I ended up with a wide selection of 1/8", 5/32", and 3/16". If you plan on pulling many of the larger steel ones I recommend getting an air rivet gun. Harbor freight has them pretty cheap and so far mine has worked well. The seals are supposedly getting harder to find. See above for the front seal and I got the rear seal from Daniel at http://www.ricambiamerica.com The rear seal (door and rear of targa opening) part# is 61705500. If you need them the rear window is 60370301, the right rear quarter is 60522800, and the left rear quarter is 60522900. Hope this helps! By the way before trying to drill out existing rivets it's best to punch out the old stem using a small punch or awl. It makes drilling them a lot easier and sometimes helps them from spinning. I can't believe you guys made me dig through my receipts though. I'm not sure I was ready to start totaling things up yet. Just the part numbers above was close to $1K. I'm not a rich owner either, in fact I'm a lot poorer than I was before starting this project!! It's nice driving a pretty car though and if I didn't do it who would. I look at it as saving a part of Italian history! John
