My body shop made a custom set of recessed factory scuderia shield sheets to be molded onto a 355 fender to have the factory shields installed. I had ordered a pair of factory fenders with the recessed badge placements but they discontinued making them and I was only able to get the passengers side. So my body shop suggested he just customize a set for my car using the factory one as a sample. I will be selling the original factory fender with the shield for the passenger side on the classifieds but if anyone is interested in these to install on your 355 message me if you have interest so I can forward his indo. He's asking 350 per side. The plate he made is the square part which any body shop can blend in. Image Unavailable, Please Login
I actually have a pair of NOS (unpainted) passenger and driver side fenders. I do know of a factory in Taiwan that is qualified to reproduce them in metal. Problem is tooling investment is high and minimum 100 pair order. The only other way to lower minimum orders significantly is to reproduce them in lighter weight FRP or carbon. I can foresee a few issues with grafting as the shop wouldn't know the exact OE positioning. There's also a chance if the blending work wasn't adequate, the square outline shows up through the paint overtime due to vibration. Good thing you had one side to gauge positioning. Others wouldn't be so lucky. But something is better than nothing.
https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/fiorano-handling-package-vs-challenge-suspension-ecu.646692/page-18
I was definitely surprised factory fenders are about 15 pounds they're not light. I thought the car was made mostly of aluminum. Definitely not because magnets stick to it. I tried to source carbon fiber fenders but they don't have ones with the shield placement You're lucky you have lot of the hard to find parts for this car. It is indeed hard to find any original parts that the car needs most.
I haven't tested to see if the fenders are aluminum or steel, but my first impression is they are aluminum. I feel alot of the weight is concentrated in the mounting bracket near the door. I also didn't weigh it either.
I remember a few folks had some dies made. Not too hard to do at all. Inner and outer die then with a bolts in the middle draw it down to make the recess They look like this smaller version except different shape with 4 bolts The recess comes out extremely clean no warping, minimal if any thing but paint is required (must be done to bare metal only) Image Unavailable, Please Login
That's an interesting concept. The metal material of the fender looks so thick it looks like it wouldn't bend evenly without something breaking or need a hydraulic press that can do it evenly. The way I saw mines seems like he cut it then welded it back recessed somehow.
There is one guy in Norway have done this to his 360, see picture I found on his company Facebook page, here is the link Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
30 year bodyman speaking here, these fenders are like aluminum foil. If you fart on them they bend No issue at all
Mine were done by a previous owner. Doesn't worry me in the slightest but my car is well removed from standard
Are non-embossed fenders irreplaceable? I believe you can still buy them new or used. However, I would still recommend playing around with a second set, versus the original one on the car simply because it's already painted.
The emblem ones are no longer available from ferrari or at least they are out of stock. Ferrari randomly decides when to remake the parts based on projected demand over time.
Interesting I thought they are not aluminum bec of the weight and a magnet easily sticks to the panel.
I personally would rather have a clean 355 I can enjoy in my preferred configuration vs a purely original one that is worn and beaten up To be worried about keeping it original in my opinion takes away the full potential of fun you can have with it when it's missing something you prefer it to have. If you limit yourself from doing what you want with it bec you worry about valuation, then you're simply working for the next owner hoping to sell it for more money to them for the work you did to keep it in a condition that you believe the next person would prefer to have and pay a higher price for. I believe the next millennial generation who appreciates classic cars will rather have resto mods vs purely original cars since the future is all about blending the past with the future. The last of the purely original breed are the porsche 959, ferrari f40 and lamborghini countach. The years 95 and on were already heavily influenced by the aftermarket tuner scene so the generations from that point and on are more open to customized cars. Just look at cars like porsche singer and guntherwerks
Anyway, with respect to tuned/modified cars, yes, some “millennials” are interested in these things - myself included- but they want period correct mods — for a 355 that might be a Hamann body kit, vintage HRE wheels, etc. Extra/superfluous badges that weren’t done in period aren’t going to earn respect. If you don’t care, you don’t care, it’s your car, blah blah, blah. Just trying to set the record straight.
There are a ton of 355 owners who tack on sticker shields and often times, in the wrong location. I like 355’s shielded or non-shielded. I can certainly understand the desire to do it the OE way with embossment for those who want shields as every other newer Ferrari has embossment if spec’d with shields. Or painted shields. Shields/embossed fenders were offered on 355’s as early as 97 in special Cornes Edition cars in Japan. Then became options in 99 I believe. All Serie Fiorano Spiders have embossed shields.
