Wanted 360/430 Spider Wind Stops

If you replaced the wind stops on your Spider and still have the old ones lying around, I want them badly! I've made replacement gaskets for these things and need to test them out.

Once I've fixed them, I'll send them back (you pay shipping) and you'll be free to sell them and recoup part of the investment you made by buying new ones. If you've bought aftermarket wind stops, you can throw them in the trash and replace them with a more OEM look.

Here's one of the roll bar wind stop gaskets fresh out of the mold.
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Please note: I AM NOT SELLING THESE GASKETS ON FCHAT SO DO NOT ASK!!! (thanks)

 

Here's the first installed gasket in an actual frame with "no see-um" screen. The original 30/50 mesh screen is absolutely unobtainable so I used 20 mesh nylon in this example. I've got a number of other screen fabrics on order to see what will work best.
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It took about ten minutes to mount the screen and gasket into this original 360 frame. The process is pretty simple and involves working around the gasket pushing it a little at a time with my thumbs so that the tension is even across the screen.

When the gasket is almost all the way in, I went around the outside with a snap blade knife and trimmed the excess screen.

To finish it off, I flipped it upside down and pushed the back of the frame against the table surface and that drove it in the rest of the way.

The screen could have been aligned better but since this is only a test to see how the gasket holds up with the screen installed, it worked great. The screen is literally tight as a drum and stretched over the slightly curved form. This gasket was cast using Shore 60 A urethane. I have harder Shore 80 A urethane on order to see if that works better than 60 A. The 60 A seems very close but a little harder might work better with this application. Shore 80 A is about the same as tire rubber.

 

Thanks to all the folks who have sent me (or are sending me) wind stops (that's what they're actually called). I have enough to complete development of the gaskets and test them out on a good number of frames. I've found what appears to be a very close, if not exact match, for the screen fabric as well.

As for selling these, I talked to Daniel at Ricambia and he stated that there is no market for these gaskets so I will likely not be selling them. I developed these gaskets as an experiment to see what it takes to produce high quality rubber trim components for another project I'm working on which will require about a dozen custom gaskets, trim pieces and weather seals.

Again Thanks and Merry Christmas to all...

 

Mike - I wrote up an article that describes exactly how I made them and what materials I used. It's got a few bits to add as I haven't finished the journey, but here it is if you want to give it a read.

https://www.ferrari360.org/2021/12/creating-automotive-trim-using-two-part.html

If you see any typos, please send me a PM. Thanks.

 

I can see why Ferrari never offered gaskets and screens as separate parts. They are difficult to set properly and require not only a trained hand but a frame to pre-stretch the screen. So to properly address this, a service would have to be offered where the old frames are sent in and refurbished with new gaskets and screens. But as Daniel at Ricambia already pointed out to me, there is no commercial market for these things. Selling few here and there is a hobby and not worthy of all it takes to make it work.

Now maybe in five or ten years things will be different as virtually every 360/430 Spider will have failing gaskets by that time. My car has good looking gaskets now but they are hard, fragile, and are on the verge of cracking. In a few years, they will need to be replaced.

 

Update: Final generation of the gaskets are underway. The results look pretty good. I still have to make the production quality molds so it will be another week or two before I have final representations ready.

Thanks to those who have sent in their old wind stops. I will probably have them ready to ship back in maybe three weeks if I'm lucky?

I have to add that this journey has been filled with lots of data points. There's only so much that can be learned by reading and watching videos. There's more that can be learned by screwing up and eventually getting it right. After making these gaskets (several times!), I now have the tools, skills and knowledge to make the parts I need for my other project.

For the folks with older cars that have rubber that's no longer available or ridiculously priced, producing aftermarket parts with urethane and silicone is absolutely doable for a reasonable cost in time and materials.

 

Update: After weeks of failing, I finally have the molds and the process to cast these gaskets. I also found a decent fabric that's a heck of a lot easier to install in the wind stops. The reason for all the failing is that I switched from a more or less hobby urethane to an industrial one. The industrial material, which is far stronger and UV resistant, has a very high surface tension that causes the castings to fail if everything isn't perfect. The industrial urethane requires a preheated mold and has a setting time in minutes vs. nearly an hour for the less industrial material. That means the process has to be perfect or all I have is a gloppy mess and a failed casting.

I'm going to try and make a few sets of these gaskets, perhaps six or so (depending on how I can stretch my stock of the material).

Once I have some inventory, I'll offer them for sale in the classifieds as required by the rules of engagement for this forum.

 

From what I've seen, when the gaskets get to the point of cracking, the frames themselves are likely in need of sanding and repainting. That's incredibly labor intensive. There's also the matter of what people are satisfied with. I might be happy with the results but the customer thinks it sucks. I'd rather just supply the parts and let the customer do their own refurbishment to their satisfaction.

The new screen material I've found is far simpler to use than what I started with. It's a lot more DIY friendly.

I'll put up a classified ad and a DIY instruction guide when they're ready.

 

I've decided to sell the stock I created. Here's the ad.

https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/360-430-wind-stop-gaskets.657339/