Holy 13 year later revival thread bat man :D
You dont say, not bad placement at all. Talking about wing badges, look at how wrong these badges look on the FXXXXXXXX.....X They don't look recessed to my eye and look very odd , and that's a factory car 13 years after this thread was started. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Does anyone know if this fender shield from a 1996 355 spider looks to be original and indented into the fenders? To me, they look indented but wanted others who are more experienced to chime in. I am looking at a car to purchase and the seller sent me these pics. If so, was the front fender repainted? Seller states that the paint meter readings from the front fenders are the same as all other panels…
If they were embossed by a third party, wouldn't the fenders need to be sanded, stripped of paint, indented, and repainted? I looked online and the side shields were not an option for 1996, but the paint meter readings are between 5.60-7.25 microns for all the panels... Seller stated that all of the panels are original paint but I am suspicious due to the presence of the indented shields.
Also, since these were not installed at the factory, would it hurt the value of the car bc they are not original? I found a very low mileage spider and paying a premium for it so want to determine if this will adversely affect the value the car. I assume the fenders were repainted even though the paint meter readings say otherwise.
You are correct. 96 cars didn’t come with them. How can I tell it’s a third party? The paint around the embossment is rough. The lines aren’t sharp. It looks like it was done as opposed to bought fenders with embossing as the work is hard to do accurately.
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There is a 95 or 96 F355 berlinetta here in the NW that has shields. The owner says the previous owner bought new factory indented fenders and shields in order to properly do the conversion. It certainly looks factory.
Wondering if the pics I posted are original factory shields as well because the paint meter readings are consistent front to back on the car.
You’re not listening to what he’s saying. 1. pre 98 355 don’t come with embossed fenders. That implies the fenders were either purchased later from Ferrari, then “painted” OR, the fenders were embossed by a 3rd party. 2. The fenders could’ve been embossed by a third party without having to paint the entire fender. Perhaps they just painted the embossed area. The paint work isn’t smooth around that area, so something is already off.
Since the shields were added after the fact (pre 98 cars don’t come with embossed fenders), would this adversely affect the value of the car? The car in question has 7k miles and the owner states that all of the panels have original paintwork (as per paint meter readings) and I am paying a premium for the car assuming it has its original paint from the factory.
It really depends on what you personally value. It sounds like you want a car untampered with. Well, these fenders have been tampered with. Would it be difficult to replace the fenders with non-embossed ones? Not really. Those are easy to find. Factory embossed fenders are unobtanium. It is not unusual to see paint work on the front of 355’s as they are sensitive to rock chips. It’s either you like with rock chips or unoriginal paint work.
Heck, you could probably find a set of used non embossed fenders that still have it’s paint perfectly intact.
