Improving my 328 GTS

I've been making a few improvements to my little 328 since I bought helast May. Thought I'd share some of my progress on FChat.

The car has had a full mechanical overhaul over the winter (inc belts) so all is running perfectly.

Today I removed the rear lights with the intention of replacing the rubber gaskets, which had gone a bit manky over time as you can see in this pic.
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Whilst I had the lights out, I gave the area a thorough clean, polish and a few layers of wax.
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The gaskets had clearly seen some happier days.
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The lights were pretty grubby and needed cleaning inside and out.
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To clean inside, I put a cupful of rice in each lens unit, hot water and bleach (a tip I got from this forum). A good old swish around, rinse and dry and pretty much all the grime came out making a big difference.
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I used Meg's Plastx to polish the black surrounds, lens bodies and the lenses themselves. Came up really well.
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I bought a new rear horse from Eurospares which is identical except that the pins are in a different place. So no good at all then...
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Please excuse the blurred iphone pic. The top horse is from Ferrari UK but is a slimmed down modern version so not right for the 328. Fat horse bottom right is the new one.
I'll just clean up the original and put it back on.

 

When I bought the car last year, I had the aftermarket alarm system removed. Unfortunately, someone once thought it was ok to drill a couple of holes and install this red pimple and switch.
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I've now had it filled and re-finished. Much better.
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Removed the plenum chamber and had it powdercoated in factory correct crinkle red/grey.

Before - paint was poor and silver paint not correct (too bright)
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After. Very happy with the result.
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And back on the car.
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Had a few bits taken off and cleaned whilst we were in there.
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Wow that plenum chamber refurbish looks terrific!

 

Looks great Graham! Did you re-trim the console top?

I have a LED in mine too which I would like to get rid of. At least they put the switch in the glovebox. I thought about finding a small Horse to stick over the hole but it would be nice to just get rid of it.

 

My lower rear grill was showing its age so I had this blasted and powdercoated too. Came up great.

Before
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After
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And reinstalled.
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Hi Andy. Ferrari Centre in Maidstone did it for me. Re trimmed the centre console and they got the leather match spot on. It was a couple of hundred quid but it was really bugging me so well worth it in my view. Cheers

 

Thanks Mark. It was a lot of hassle but very happy with the result.

 

Great job there, lots of small improvements add up to a big difference.

 

Your doing a great job, thanks for the before and after pictures.

Are you planning on replacing the firewall foam insulation to the correct looking material that is dark brown/bronze in colour with a very soft film on the surface? I noticed from your pics the upper portion of your firewall foam insulation material my not be correct but your lower portion of the firewall foam insulation is correct.

 

Thanks. I probably won't get the firewall material changed. Wasn't aware it was incorrect but thanks anyway.

 

I dont believe that material is available any more. Have you found some?

I used silicone rubber foam.

 

HVL Exclusive Italian Interiors, has a foam with a texture soft plastic type film surface but the surface is grey. I ordered some and plan to dye/spray paint the surface to the dark brown/bronze like the original, I will let you know how it works out.

 

The foam must be made of silicone rubber or similar otherwise it wont withstand the temperature. Its right next to the exhaust manifold. Nitrile rubber foam wont work.

The original foam was charcoal grey. A while ago Ferrariparts still had some of the factory pieces in stock and they were not the bronze color, I think the color changed with age and heat exposure.

 

Yes could be charcoal grey thanks. The material that HVL has is a closed cell foam used for firwall applications, unlike the soft cell that was originally used that was useless as a firewall material ..........I guess after 25 years the foam turned dark brown, as that's the colour of the piece I remove from my car.

 

Correct on both counts I think. PVC nitrile won't stand the heat ( I tried it, it turned to dust) & when I removed my original foam the piece behind the heat shield was very much a silver-grey colour.

 

As Andy said, I would check what its made of - if its silicone based it should be fine, pretty much anything else is likely to fall apart in the middle beside the exhaust manifold.

 

I had the same experience with the rear cavalino for my '77. So what car DOES it fit???

 

I've got the exact Clifford Immobiliser fitted to my 328.
Mine still works though but my car only came with one fob and a few years back I contacted Clifford to see if I could get a spare but they told me that model had been superseded..

 

Hi there,
The alarm went off twice when I was viewing the car so I decided to just remove it. Makes no difference to my insurance and gives me peace of mind that it's not going to go off in the middle of the night or while I'm away. I'm happy that the car is secure enough.
Graham

 

I have no idea George. I'd send it back but a friend has agreed to buy it from me for his model car cabinet.

 

Mine isn't an alarm,just an immobiliser,,the red led flashes when its armed which is approx. 30sec after the engine has been switched off.
The rectangular rocker switch was supposed to be some sort of manual override when pressed in a sequence of sorts but I have disconnected.

 

I notice on eBay uk a search on Clifford key fob brings up a few different models.


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Hi all,
I'm reviving this old thread in order to know if someone could give me a tip on how to disassemble those rear lights.
I'd like to clean up a bit in that area and looking inside the rear trunk I was wondering how to unscrew the 3 nuts per lights. They are all screwed on a long stud/tip and some seem in very very thight places.
Help would be appreciated.
TIA