cleaning my sticky interior

What did you use to clean them?

 

You mentioned they’re remaining bare plastic - you aren’t going to refinish them?

 

I did the same thing, just removed the sticky coating and the parts look excellent. As the plastic looked just slightly greyish after cleaning with the oven foam cleaner, I rubbed black shoe polish into the plastic and it turned nice black with a bit of shine and it lasts. Of course, I used Bally shoe polish.

As for the symbols, I transferred them from the Alfa Romeo Milano side vents which have the symbols on raised plastic pads. I cut them out carefully and stuck them onto the Ferrari vents. I bought four (used but in excellent condition) Alfa side vents because their slates are identical to the Ferrari's and I keep the slates as spare. Two of the Alfa vents came with white symbols and two with blue symbols so I put the white ones on the side vents and the blue ones on the centre vent. In this way, looking at the dashboard, you can immediately tell which one is your side vent and which one is your centre vent.

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I did something similar when I first bought my 348 over 10 years ago. Just bought a bottle of Goof Off 2 (the water based one in an orange spray bottle). Went to town with about 200 Q-tips, and never recoated anything. I thought it was a huge improvement and I never missed the soft touch coating. I also dissolved the open / closed markers, but if a person can't figure it out without the markings, they will just have to suffer.

Nice job!


BT

 

Any of you guys need the decal symbols, email me--We have plenty

 

Interested in price also

 

Do you have them for the 355?

 

I find the bare plastic to be a faded black.

 

I cut my own decals out of sticky back vinyl. 4.5 mm diameter I found looks best.. Cut a small piece for the control quadrant.
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Decals?
Seriously?
Sounds like amateur hour to me.
The only correct way is to laser etch them
The only company to do this is StickyRX
Simply the best

 

What do you think about my symbols transplanted from Alfa Romeo vents? At least, they are from another Italian car the vents of which seem to be from the same manufacturer as the Ferrari ones.

 

With all due respect Dominic, this is the type of post on this topic that has created the partisan, polarizing discourse on Ferrari Chat.

The OP on this thread started the discussion discussing his way of solving this problem. Not every owner has the budget or sees the value in spending hundreds and maybe thousands in correcting their sticky problem.

For many decals and other methods of creating and reproducing the graphics have provided adequate and satisfactory solutions for them. Some may even opt for no graphics.

The options for cleaning stickies are well known to the folks on this board and to label a relative new used as an amateur and deride his choice is not right.

 

Thanks Bob. Its about doing the job myself and getting some enjoyment rather than not wanting to spend the money. The laser etching and hard touch system is no doubt a very nice alternative but apart from that I have been able to do a very nice job on the refinishing all of the plastics and metal parts. Ive made no secret of the fact that after discussions with a well known paint supplier Ive redone them in a modern soft touch formula and they look and feel superb. Others I know have done the same . Years on and there has been no change in feel or looks. At the end of the day its my choice and is technically originally correct. Criticism comes with the territory Im sure. I can take it . Few shots of the results. Process done correctly in a heated spray booth and the temp and time as per manufacturers instructions. I maybe should have lacquered the decals in. Perhaps another time. No big deal.

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Looks like a very professional job. I also liked your vent symbols - couldn't see any difference compared to the original ones. Cheers.

 

Thanks Miro. I did some careful measuring and trial cutting before I came up with a dimension of 4.5mm. This sits best on the eye for me. 5mm looks too big and 4mm to small..The original indicators were quite soft and sticky with unclear edges but looked and measured around that 4.5mm dimension. Compared well with an image of a new vent that saw. I know its a minor detail but half a mm makes a difference. The devil is in the detail as they say. You do need access to a good vinyl cutter to make them. These were about the limit for my friends machine but it worked out ok.
Looked to me the originals may have been painted on and lacquered in as they just wiped off in a sticky mess. Not sure if lasers were involved. Im no expert though..

 

I took accurate measurements of the original dots on my vents (bought brand new about 3 years ago but they went sticky quickly as they were in stock for some time) before de-sticking them. They were as follows:

Solid 4.0 mm Dia
Hollow 4.5 / 2.8 mm Dia

So, you did the hollow dots spot on. Even though you did the solid dots 0.5 mm larger (who the h**l can notice such a small difference anyway), they look perfect on your pictures.

 

Sure. All good info. Cheers.

 

Very nice work and great info for the DIY'er crowd.

Laser etching is definitely a nice value added feature that sets the service apart...but there's nothing wrong with this method.