348 TS removable top scratched bad!

This has happened to many ts owners, I know my own targa top was damaged by those screws. Do you have the "boot" for stowing the top behind the seats, or is it sitting bare? Very silly design flaw. I'm only 5'6" tall, so I didn't need to have the seat pushed all the way back, and it still got scratched by the screw heads.

 

Yep, the behind the seat storage in the 348TS is a very poor design. I did exactly the same thing when I first bought mine and scratched the top all up. Ferrari should have designed a spot for it in the trunk or a latch type mechanism on the rear deck. I smoothed mine and painted it red. I'm not sure how you would repair the texture but I am sure there is a way. BTW - painting the roof red is considered sacrilege by some, if you care, I don't.

 

As mentioned by Jeff above, there is a vinyl cover for it so it's always projected when behind the seats. That cover also has another vinyl cover to keep it clean when stored.

Do you have these 2 items?

 

According to the picture in the owners manual (page H24), the original idea was for the top to sit behind the seats with the top/outer face against the bulkhead, and the inner/headliner side facing the seat backs. The top was then supposed to be covered with the targa top bag/cover which is held in place with press studs.

Storing the top this way though does not appear to be possible though as the ECU covers prevent the top from fitting this way round, so you have to fit the top with the top/outer face facing towards the seat backs and the inner/headliner side facing the bulkhead.

The targa top bag/cover should still then be placed over the targa top to help protect it Assuming you actually have the cover/bag of course).



As has already been posted, if the top is badly scratched then I would look into doing.

 

I am sorry to hear the damage on the top. I always insert thick sponge between the back of the seat and top so that top surface touches only that sponge. Vinyl cover is little tight and not so convenient to me so I use sponge.

Now I changed and installed bucket seat both sides. Back of bucket seat has no bolts and screws that I feel little more secured.

Is the top coated by some kind of gel? I don't know if it is regular paint.

 

I dinged mine up too, but not from putting it behind the seats.

I leave mine at home, I don't drive in the rain.

 

You can't restore the original finish, options would be to flat and paint or obtain another from scrapped car.

 

Get it painted to match the car.

 

Hello Tony,

First congrats on your 348ts. Sorry to hear that you scratched the top. Unfortunately, your best best at this point would be to have it sanded and painted to match the color. No other way to fix the scratches.

Let me give you a word of advice though when you recondition the top: you MUST protect it with more than just the factory vinyl cover. Here is why: the factory vinyl cover is not thick enough from the screw heads "imprinting" themselves in the top. There are several ways to prevent this; I used little round felt furniture self-adhesive pads that I glued to the screws. Search the forum for my write-up on this. I found some that were perfect color match to the seat back. Of course you can use more "primitive" ways such as soft thick towel, padding, etc. But, I repeat, DO NOT rely on just the vinyl cover.

This cover storage getting scratched is piss-poor engineering from Ferrari. The screws on the back of the seat should have been counter-sunk, have protective covers on them; there are dozens of solutions. It is a joke on a $100k car back in the day.

 

I asked the same thing -- no answer and sure enough screw heads left small round whitened areas and when staring at car in garage they really stuck out.

The other day I took a sharpie and rubbed color in. I'm amazed at the improvement.

Still have smooth spots but I can't see one and the other is not so bad.

I messed up my car a few times already-- frustrating.

 

Once you fix it just be careful not to recline the seats all the way back and allow some room for flexibility when your driving.
Mine was perfect when I first saw it and test drove it and was a sunny day. Took the top off and stowed behind the seats. Paid the deposit and when I picked it up it was all scratched.
They repaired it free of charge.

 

This is one of the advantages of being 6' 2" with My 348 TS - There is just no way I can have the roof behind the seats and drive the car and so the hardtop stays in the garage, sat on a nice thick piece of foam rubber to keep the pins off the ground, and I have the folding soft-top sat on the parcel shelf for when I park up for long periods of time and if it rains (the folding soft-top is an absolute God-send for 348 TS/GTS/355 GTS owners!).

I did try driving the car with the hardtop behind the seats when I test drove the car but it was ridiculously cramped for Me to the point of being dangerous. Because My legs were bent so much My feet were splayed out and I kept catching two pedals at the same time!

(We had a car pull out on us and I had to brake firmly, which was fine but I caught the throttle pedal as well as the brake pedal and for a split second I was about to decrease the 348 population by one!. I just managed to twist My ankle off the throttle and we survived okay. To be fair, the car salesman was a lot calmer than I was during the incident. He just looked at Me when the danger had passed, smiled, nodded and said: "Hmmm...... Close!". My face was: whilst his face was just: . I think that may have been part of the reason that I bought the car - We'd already had our first mini adventure together! ).

We took the roof out from behind the seats and pushed the drivers seat all the way back to the rear bulkhead and all was fine then.

Back at The Ferrari Centre, the owner of the dealership, Roger, said that most tall drivers either leave the roof at home on sunny days or leave it on the car if it might possibly rain.

He then mentioned that you can get a folding soft-top for them but warned that they were: "Hen's teeth rare and not cheap when they do come up for sale!".

The Friday after the test drive, after a week of thinking: "How hard could it be to make a folding soft-top?" (how many TS/GTS owners have had that thought?), one came up for sale in the USA on ebay.com and so I grabbed it immediately, and I have to say that it's been one of My wisest purchases ever!

If 348 owners have a copy of the owners manual (as I'd hope you do, either hard copy or downloaded), have a look at page H24 and the picture of how Ferrari envisaged the roof going behind the seats. As I have previously posted, the inner face was supposed to face the seat backs and the roof curve around the seats. They really didn't take the drivers height into proper consideration at all!

(What's even more annoying in a way, is that the FIAT x1/9 is a smaller car overall than the 348/355 [by quite some margin!], but it's hardtop is of a similar size, and yet they managed to accommodate the roof panel into the front boot [or trunk for our American cousins], and not lose any of the cars load carrying ability at the same time! The X1/9 was a remarkable engineering exercise in packaging! ).

 

I don't have my 348 top right in front of me but mine has a few areas in need of touch up as well. I forget the actual shape and coarseness of the texture, but one of my thoughts to touch up or repair would be to mix up some black epoxy and meticulously try to replicate the bumps with drops of the epoxy and a tooth pick or similar tool. Ill be looking more closely at mine in about a week

 

You try to replicate an area of that textured surface and I'm sure it will look a right dogs dinner, but give it a go, what have you got to lose.

 

I guess that would depend on ones skill level...

 

I was thinking the same thing - it would be much better to have the top stow in the frunk. My Pontiac Fiero had a removable sunroof and it stored really neatly in the front compartment. There was even a wind deflector that was there which you installed when you took the sun roof out.

 

If he took a mold of a good area and found a reasonably matching tint-able putty or vinyl glue, you might be able to do some old-school Photoshop. I'm sure there's a body shop somewhere that has a trick for this.