Pulling Dash in a 360; bringing back my daily driver to new!

Sorry I have neglected to update this thread! It took a lot longer to get the dash done correctly, and when I finally DID get the car all back together I have been too busy driving it to get some good pictures taken of it. Already has and extra 2000 miles on it.

Anyway, the dash ended up taking almost 3 MONTHS to get finished, as once I pulled it, the guy couldn't get to it for a month, then when he finished it the first time, had used the wrong color thread. The yellow thread he had obtained for the first go-round matched perfectly to the old yellow thread.....when you compared it still spooled up on the roll! Once it was stitched out it was a very light yellow, almost looked white. This then started the soap-opera of Matt at ReOriginals trying to find the correct yellow thread for my local guy to re-do the dash with. After many "oops, we thought we mailed that to you matt" from some of Matt's suppliers, we finally got the thread in and the dash finished.

Having said all that the dash still isn't done to my liking (the stitching lines aren't straight enough for me and the padding in a few sections is uneven) so, in the near future the dash is coming BACK out and going to Matt in Houston. Some could live with this, I can't, especially looking at the dash every day. but, after 3 months I wasn't going to get the guy here to do it a THIRD time and wait some more. Also, I don't trust it to come out right anyway.

So, I've been driving the heck out of it again since mid-December and had picked up a few more rock chips, had decided to get the bumper resprayed again and this time put a clear bra on it. I initially didn't figure to do it, planning to just respray it every year, but have been shocked at how FAST I re-accumulated the chips. The roads in South Louisiana and my poor driving skills just will not allow the rocks to stay off the car.

BUT, this was all made moot by the largest raccoon that I have ever seen ran out in front of the car while I was doing about 60 yesterday morning at 5 am. It was very dark and that sucker just shot out of the ditch at the roadside. BAM! I knew I had tagged the bumper pretty good and when I got to the office saw how bad the cracking was.

Now the car goes back to the shop in New Orleans Monday for its routine maintenance PLUS the bumper coming off for either a repair or replacement and a complete respray. THIS time the clear bra goes on.

I'll take some pics and post them Saturday after I clean the car up of how the engine bay and interior came out (all VERY nice except for the dash stitching imperfections)

One of my kids added the caption to my bumper tonight in the garage. I think this should buff right out.
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Thanks. I did do a durability/wear-and-tear summary at the one year point in my ownership. This was about 5 months ago or so. Here ya go! :

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=251729

 

The car seems to be bullet-proof. Not so sure about raccoon-proof though.

 

OK, here are some pics I managed to take of the engine side covers and the airbox and filter covers. Both are done in a basecoat-clear coat. The side covers still have to be wet-sanded and polished and this will be done while the car is down getting the bumper repaired. I'm going to wait until the repair is done and the car fully detailed before taking any good interior shots and whole car shots. That's also an excuse for the car being pretty dirty and I'm not cleaning it all up for pics before it goes away to the shop for 3 weeks.
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Oh I'm sure for most potential buyers the fact that dash has been recovered and the spoiler damaged/repainted would take a lot off of the value of the car. Shoot, if it was ME looking to buy one and another 360 that was in great shape with zero history was for sale exactly like mine I'd buy that car unless I could get mine at a steep discount. The reality of what devalues a used F-car is what it is; buyers are looking for pristine examples. having said that, these things have so fallen off the deprecation curve that all the work I'm doing to it keeping it as-new isn't going to end up impacting it a ton. Say a year from now 01 360 spiders are selling at 80-85K, I'd guess mine would sell at 70-75K. Just a guess mind you.

But, as I'm driving this sucker, I'm not too concerned about what I do does to the value; I can't stand to look at a worn car. That's the restorer in me.

 

Oh no, my wife would shoot me if I dropped 250K or more on a new F-car; I got 5 kids to feed that the oldest just started High School! I'm the third owner, bought it mid 2008. I'd consider anything with 25K + miles a high mileage car in the market right now. Having said that, I wouldn't hesitate to buy a higher mileage 360 as long as it came with all the service records and you could show it was well maintained and al, the campaigns have been done. You'd be getting that car at a steep discount compared to a 3-4K mile car. If the seller isn't discounting a high mileage car they have their head in the sand. Of course, that's also why I'll end up keeping this one.

 

As an update; the car is still my daily driver, up to 40,000 miles now and the dash has been done for a second time to stellar results this time.

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?p=140743124&posted=1#post140743124

I am now having Robbie do the Sticky-no-more treatment to the rest of the parts that have succumbed to the tackiness, and despite little things here and there the car has run like a champ.

having said that, if you really drive a 360 as a daily drive, and keep it up repairing it constantly like I do to keep it as new looking as the day it rolled off the line.....it's gonna cost you!

I'm up to two bumper re-sprays, one respray of the entire front of the car from the doors forward, a bumper repair from hitting a raccoon, multiple leather repairs including the seat piping and bolster wear, two repaints of the door pockets and center console, etc... It's the cosmetic stuff that adds up and these cars do wear.

As far as the mechanicals go, no major failures, just one belt change and at 40K miles I am still on the original clutch...but it is due real soon the replace.

One thing that also wears worse than other cars exposed to the elements is that top! The seams aren’t the best and that plastic window doesn’t hold up, nor do the integral elastic straps that are inside the top. I’ve also had the header bar hydraulic unit fail.

But I will still keep driving the wheels off of it, and fixing it as it breaks, keeping it new!