Hello all! I've had a very stressful week at work so naturally the perfect weekend antidote is work on the 348. This Saturday, I decided to refinish the door sills. BTW, please I do not need any replies that say: get carbon ones, new ones, etc. My car is bone stock, and that's the way I like it! My 348 only has 11,000 miles but the door sills had some scuffs on the from getting in/out of the car. Not cool for a museum piece as my 348 has aspirations to become. Here is what you need: 1. One can of semi-gloss metal paint/primer. I think semi-gloss is the best match for OEM. 2. 6 1/2" by 8 sheet metal stainless screws that are pre-painted black from the Ferrari department of Ace Hardware. See photo below. 3. Goo Gone or some non-environmentally friendly cleaner to remove the sticky residue from the rubber insert. 4. Some elbow grease, some good Jazz CDs and a couple of IPAs to round up the parts list. STEP 1: Remove the weather stripping by pulling up on it. STEP 2: Remove the 6 sheet metal screws from driver and passenger side (3 per side). STEP 3: Working from the INSIDE of the car, pry on the door sill to pop it off (it has self-adhesive underneath). Best way to do it is to pry from the center by the seat and up. I tried to pry from the back and it was NOT the way to do it. Gently peel it away from the car and also remove the rubber insert with FERRARI sign. STEP 4: Drink at least 2 IPAs before you embark on this step as you will have to spend at least an hour to clean all the sticky residue left over from the rubber insert. I used all kinds of chemicals. Probably lost at least 4 years of life inhaling the fumes and being in contact with the chemicals but at least I will die happy knowing the car has scratch-free door sills. STEP 5: Once you have removed the adhesive and degreased the sills grab a coat-hanger and go to your back yard to paint. If you do not have a suitable back-yard and tree to hang the door sills, I suggest you go to your neighbor yard to do this. Use one of the screw holes to hang the sills from a tree. STEP 6: Apply 3-4 coats of semi-gloss black paint. Again, I found that this sheen is the best match to factory. STEP 7: Wait 24hrs for re-assembly. If impatient, like me, wait 2 hrs and carefully re-assemble but do NOT glue back the Ferrari rubber inserts at this time. STEP 8: Call your wife to the garage and tell her what you spent a perfectly good Saturday on. Watch her shake her head in disbelief. STEP 9: Enjoy couple more IPAs and pat yourself on the back for a job well-done. STEP 10: Next day, use weather-strip spray adhesive to re-attach the rubber inserts. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Very nicely done. I just replaced mine (will update my thread in next few days) and discovered rust coming from the sills themselves.
Really nice DIY job. Love the required IPA's. I would have probably had the paint all over me though.
Mine were rust-free, just scuffed up paint. The machine screws, however, were rusty (they were in contact with the door opening rubber gasket which probably retained moisture. Hence the idea to replace them with stainless ones. I also should mention that this project has an added benefit of checking for incipient hidden corrosion under the door sills and, if found, doing some remediation before it gets too severe. My car, luckily, had none.
