My 355 mini-Restoration story

Well, finally got my 14$ spark plug wires from Rockauto and it frankly not what was promised to me....They shipped me 2 wires, not 8 and I'm not sure what they were thinking when they listed this item as "spark plug wire set"??? They also confirmed to me on the phone that these were indeed a full set of spark plus wires. Anyway, at 14$, it's not a big loss nor was I expecting the real deal at that price. Will probably order a set from kingsborne shortly.

I also am having an insanely terrible time getting the fuel pressure regulators. I initially ordered them from Rockauto for 179$ each and was so happy but they later called to tell me they only had one in stock.

I must say that, altough they have good prices, I am not too impressed with this company so far...

I have been searching everywhere else for a fuel pressure regulator and cannot seem to locate one anywhere. Ferrari north America has zero in stock (even if I was willing to pay them over 1000$ a piece, I still can't get one) Bosch has zero and they have to manufacture them to order in germany and it can take months.

There may be an option to put a universal/adjustable fuel pressure regulator, has anyone done this to their 355?

For the budget, I think it's safe to say we've completely busted it already and I am now looking at probably spending 20-22k to get this car in the condition that I want it in

After reading all your suggestions and horror stories concerning the exhaust manifolds/headers, I decided I was not going to enjoy driving the car if I constantly needed to worry about the headers and monitor their state daily or be always listening for weird noises to come out of the engine...

I therefore contacted Fabspeed and took the plunge with a new set of high performance headers as well as bypass cats and a secondary cat bypass. I am going to keep my original exhaust for now since it's still in good shape and I can upgrade it later on....

Dealt with Jeff & Alex (mostly Alex) at Fabspeed and I must say those guys are very accomodating, patient, helpful and took good care of listening to my needs and priorities. I can't wait to get those parts (see pics) As soon as they come in, I will have the headers ceramic coated and put those babies on the engine and post the pictures!!!!

I will also do a proper inspection of my original headers and get them coated/reconditioned also and sell them if they are still good for a while. After all, they only have about 13k miles on them and might still be of good use to someone. I am probably being paranoid by changing them so early but I am just not comfortable keeping them but a more experienced Ferrari owner not wanting to spend 3K on headers might consider them useful (if anyone is interested, let me know)

Next step: we wait for all ordered parts to arrive. In the meantime, I will have my mechanic remove all parts that can be powder coated and get them redone.
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Not planning on getting the bypass cats and sec.pipe powder coated. I can always do it later on if needed but for now, I will see how they age and look.

Here's an update on the budget and expenses so far:

Initial budget: 15,000$
Revised budget: 22,000$

Spent so far:
air vent cover for interior: 150$
major service kit: 870$
fuel regulator: 180$ (bought the last one at Rockauto, still missing one)
cv boot kit: 79$
thermostat: 145$
air box rubber sleeves: 180$ (rutlands has these listed at 38$ but there is zero stock)
oil filter: 25$
tensioner bearing: 58$
Fabspeed headers, bypass cats and sec. bypass: 5000$

upcoming expenses:
labor for major engine servicing
ceramic coating headers
powder coating various parts
windshield
full paint color change
door sills
skid covers
internal antenna
releather upper dash
paint/refinish interior sticky parts
3M protective film (for stone chips)
repair/refinish mags

another update coming soon....

 

The parts I purchased are not interchangeable besides the Bosch fuel pressure regulators. I simply used the original ferrari part number and shopped around all the various resellers online.

 

I am having fun with it and, altough I do not have an infinite supply of funds...I will do my best to have it ready by April. I am going to try not going over 22k if I can help it....One thing that will help greatly will be your "how to" as far as getting the interior done....will post pics of that as well.

 

It's actually a radar detector switch. The previous owner installed a radar detector which frankly I do not know how to use. It constantly emits an extremely annoying bird chirping sound. I finally figured out how to switch it off. I plan on leaving it there because I don't want to end up with a hole.

 

Your posts and suggestions are great but are making me spend money, get off this thread!!!!! lol! just kidding!!!

I am curious to see what they look like, can you post a pic? Do you have the hp cats or bypass pipes?....

 

Can you tell me more about the ABS cancel switch? What will that do? why install that? I've never heard of it?

Also, for the ceramic coating, do you reccomend doing the secondary cat bypass Y-pipe also?

 

Don't remind me....my installer said he can work around it and he has succeeded most of the time with the Ferraris he has done. I will keep my fingers crossed.