Has anyone here purchased the Scuding F430 tail lights yet? Do they match the red plastic color precisely? I don't need them, but preparing for possible future need. BTW, there is a gentleman on the 360/430 facebook page who is engineering a kit to prevent breakage of 430 tail lights. When he finishes it, I will suggest to him to post his contact info in this thread.
It will do no harm to put some dual pack araldite on the plastic between the 2 studs on the top, the stud bar should steady the rest up. You will see all sort of glue repairs to the lower single stud but will never work longtime as it is not addressing the problem
well, scudding.com has something wonder if we can put some cushion life wrap around the lights so it reduces the overall vibration of the car . speaking of which, how often are we to change the motor and transmission i'll heat wrap all exhaust when going to do header/exhaust james R 08 f430
The Stud fix looks pretty solid. I did mine the same way. I actually used parts for my 68 Mustang. They were the rear quarter extension hardware package. Worked perfectly. It even had padded bolt washers to help with the vibration. The stubby 1/4" ratchet I made a few years ago helped also! 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
I noticed that at least two of my taillights were contacting the bodywork to the point where the bodywork would rub spots on the taillights. I added washers of the appropriate thickness between the stud shoulders and the mounting bracketry to keep each taillight from contacting the bodywork. Maybe OCD-maybe what's needed. Interference between a taillight and the bodywork could cause the stud mounts on the taillight to break when the mounting nuts are drawn up tight. Tom
I converted all my tail lights with Scud ing Swiss LED conversions and was aware of this problem prior to their removal. I bought a repair kit from one of the members who makes surrounding reinforcements for all the studs and preemptively repaired/reinforced the attachment points, and also beefed up the supporting plates with epoxy putty on all the studs. also the kit is supplied with rubber grommets that should be placed in the mounting holes 3 per light on the body work then the studs of each light be inserted through the grommets and a nyloc nut threaded onto the studs without over tightening them. The studs are snugly held to the bodywork as the mounting tension is distributed to the flanges on the stud and not transmitted to the plastic. The studs then support the plastic assembly as a tripod like arrangement, but if the bottom single stud fails then the assembly is cantilevered out on the two top studs and the failure ensues. Upon removal my oem 15 yr old tail light assemblies were not (yet) fractured/ broken but since I was converting to the LED I had hoped that this reinforcement preemptively would prevent the possibility of a removal/repair in the future. My advice would to be to do the same if you are contemplating the LED upgrade to the tail lights on your 430, since you will have them completely out for the upgrade. I think his kit distills all the known issues with the 430 tail lights and is the best engineered reinforcement/ repair that addresses the known problems. Probably better to reinforce them before the bottom stud breaks off and the entire assembly is then jeopardized. The rubber grommets isolate them from some of the vibration or at least dampens it. I suppose the plastic can still fatigue with even transmitted vibrations but this should delay that eventuality as long as possible.FWIW https://www.ebay.com/itm/Ferrari-Tail-light-Tail-lamp-F430-430-Scuderia-reinforcement-and-repair-kit/283843557079
Snapshift, I did the same. I also bought new taillight housings from Scud Ing and used the reinforcements prior to installing. My original taillights are stored in a safe space for if/when I might want to reinstall them. I REALLY like the conversion to all four lights coming on under braking (with the Scud Ing ECU). With the LEDs it’s a lot brighter, and safer, than stock.
You bet! Same here. I also did the 3rd brake light upgrade to LED with the momentarry flashing upon application. It gets your attention. Should have no further tail light problems for the forseeable future.
My outer tail lights are failing and I am about to buy the SCUD Ing lens replacements. I am not going to get the LED bulb upgrade as I never drive the car at night. Do you know if you can just swap the bulb holder and the bulbs from the OEM lenses to the SCUD Ing ones? Also, if I understood you correctly, you used the Ebay kit to reinforce the SCUD Ing tail lights right? Any issues doing that? Thanks
The original lamp holders should fit just fine in the new Scuding Swiss replacement tail lights no problem. I bought the reinforcement kit to proactively prevent any breakage of the cantilever supports holding the mounting bolts. I see no problem in doing that if you want to protect your new replacements. I epoxied the reinforcements onto the OEM tail light supports and also applied extra epoxy putty to make a bridge between the supports to strengthen it even more. I did upgrade to the LED system but used the OEM tail light lenses as they were still good, I just reinforced them proactively. I think you can also get a kit from normal guy supercar website to reinforce the taillight lenses also. I basically just formed that part with the epoxy putty in addition to the Ebay ones that you mention. Good luck with your repairs. Fairly straightforward.
Which part of the fixing attachment is failing- if it is the single post at the bottom that has broken you can fix using my repair as shown in previous posts. As long as the plastic in the 2 top posts is only cracked you can re inforce this with epoxy. I fixed mine 6 years ago and still going fine 10000 miles later. Once you sort out the single post the rest will be fine
nearly all the bosses were cracked on my new-to-me '07 F430. after repairing the factory plastic the best i could i scanned the lights and designed some reinforcement / splint parts for both upper and lower areas. will see how they hold up in polycarbonate. as others have suggested, also used some decently high durometer rubber washers on both sides of the body metal to help isolate the more extreme shock. (i noticed there's a fourth hole in the sheetmetal bracket on the vehicle so included provisions for a fourth boss just in case it's needed in the future.) Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
The bottom is completely broken off the lens assembly along with one of the tops. The inside of the lens on those 2 lights is also cloudy, likely from moisture seeping in so it just makes sense to replace the whole assembly anyway. Now just trying to figure out which reinforcing kit to go with to prevent it from occurring again.
have a look at scuding.com in swizerland, they do good stuff and new 430 lights. Be careful about the carriage and currency exchange
If you get new ones, just cut back the single post and replace with a screw bar as per my post on here, the reinforcing kit is then not needed
Just bought 2 of them. US dollar is strong now so exchange rate is 1:1. Shipping not the cheapest though but it's ok.
Please report back with photos. I'm curious how closely they match the factory tail lights, or if there is a noticeable difference side by side.
Here is a pic of the Scud Ing taillight. Notice it has raised lettering on it that OEM taillights do not. I replaced the Scud Ing taillights with OEM for the Sebring Concours so I wouldn’t lose any points but prefer the Scud Ing for normal use. My OEMs are packed in boxes to preserve for the future. Image Unavailable, Please Login
I realize that, but they do not have photos of side by side comparisons. Dreamgiver says he is only buying two, so that offers the opportunity for side by side comparison photos.
