Dog eared passenger airbag in a 355 | FerrariChat

Dog eared passenger airbag in a 355

Discussion in '348/355' started by recoil, Dec 14, 2007.

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  1. recoil

    recoil Formula Junior

    Sep 7, 2007
    461
    Virginia
    Full Name:
    Steve
    #1 recoil, Dec 14, 2007
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 7, 2017
    So my sales guy has been emailing me pictures of my 355 (since it hasnt been loaded on the truck yet) to keep me "busy" until the car arrives (greatly appreciated). In one of the pics, I noticed the passenger airbag wasn't completely flat. They had fixed the shrinking leather issues and it looked great for a day, then the "ears" started to turn up again.

    I asked him about it and received this reply:

    "We refitted the leather to the airbag cover as intended. We also attempted to straighten the underlying plastic material at
    the same time. As with all of these the material ultimately goes back to its original shape, in other words it looked great the day we did it. It is not peeling away, the leather is firmly and permanently attached now. The problem lies with the underlying plastic. It will remain this way until the airbag deploys."

    Is there a way to make this sit flat?

    Steve
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  2. hacker-pschorr

    hacker-pschorr Formula Junior

    Sep 27, 2006
    584
    Land of Lambeau
    He could have found a much better way to word that.

    The 355 my father purchased has the same issue. All of the leather looks 100% except for the airbag cover has one corner popped up. If that cover is easy to remove, I have a friend that does custom leather work, I'm going to see if he can just make a new one.
     
  3. recoil

    recoil Formula Junior

    Sep 7, 2007
    461
    Virginia
    Full Name:
    Steve
    Wonder if it would lay flat if I hit it with a hair dryer and some pressure?
     
  4. hacker-pschorr

    hacker-pschorr Formula Junior

    Sep 27, 2006
    584
    Land of Lambeau
    Maybe use the heat from a hair dryer, not sure I would hit the dash with it - might break something :)
     
  5. recoil

    recoil Formula Junior

    Sep 7, 2007
    461
    Virginia
    Full Name:
    Steve
    Haha!

    Yeah, I didn't mean "hit" literally. :)

    Steve
     
  6. gothspeed

    gothspeed F1 World Champ

    May 26, 2006
    10,244
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    goth
    I would think heat would shrink the leather more :confused:??
     
  7. 285ferrari

    285ferrari Two Time F1 World Champ
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    Sep 11, 2004
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    Once that plastic is deformed it will never go back to it's original shape. You are going to have to replace the plastic piece inside to get it to lay flat again/ Example---take an old credit card and bend it in half--then flatten it back out--it will always forever have that bend in it and never be perfectly flat again
     
  8. recoil

    recoil Formula Junior

    Sep 7, 2007
    461
    Virginia
    Full Name:
    Steve
    True. I was just thinking of making the plastic pliable with heat and trying to encourage it to go back to its original position. What are others doing? Replacing the airbag? I recently saw a mod to remove the airbag entirely. I wonder if I could do that and make a coverplate?

    Steve
     
  9. gothspeed

    gothspeed F1 World Champ

    May 26, 2006
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    goth
    Drive it for a week, then work on it.... ;)!!!
     
  10. 285ferrari

    285ferrari Two Time F1 World Champ
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    Sep 11, 2004
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    Robbie
    I wouldn't remove the airbag unless you never have any passengers. I don't think the cover is part of the actual bag---the bag should be fine your just dealing with the cover...
     

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