1995 F355 GTS: Restoration and Major Service

Been a bit quiet on my car, have been keeping busy finishing off a friends F355 engine out/restoration. Now thats completed I attended to replacing the captured exhaust hanger bolts and nuts as the old ones had begun to deteriorate. Now from the headers back to the exhaust tips there is not a single bolt, washer, spring or gasket that is not brand new.

I decided to swap out the unknown battery with a red top Ultima Battery for piece of mind. Turns out the Bosch that was fitted was 2 years old. The CCA was rated at 540 and the Ultima churns out 880 CCA so felt good about making the switch.

Also attached are some progress pics from my friends 98 Berlinetta engine, we worked on it in our spare time with the aim of restoring it like I did to my car and took it a but further in some parts like removing the engine from the cradle and repainting it.

He is a former Ferrari tech, so it was great to work along side him whilst he did the timing etc. I took care of all the cleaning, plating, painting and assisted in the assembly work.

Practice makes perfect it was great to get a second crack with all the learnings from my restoration. It didn't look a thing like this before the overhaul!

Managed to score a Ferrari factory workers shirt from a fellow forum member, put it to good use on one of the days when working on the car, even had a lunch break of pasta bolognese to get the real Italian feeling.
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Didn't see this post, sorry. I haven't had a chance to fit Fiorano springs, I ordered and paid for challenge sway bars but got refunded as Super Performance doesn't have any stock.

I will install fiorano springs when I get the challenge suspension mounts welded in at the front.

 

Yes I will be attending the concorso. I look forward to meeting you. The car turns 21 next month from its delivery date, so there are always something to attend to. For anyone else it would be close to perfect.

I had a list a mile long to get through in starting this restoration, thankfully I have ticked off the vast majority of them, and most of the costly fixes.

Still to do:

Install fiorano springs
Weld in challenge suspension pick up points and paint front wheel wheels
Source headliner material to re trim the spare body coloured targa panel
Replace door sills eventually (slight corrosion has started)
Paint side skirts when sills are removed and replaced
Paint rear bumper

One day I will either paint the front end to correct the chips and marks that have occurred over time, or just wait it out and paint the whole car in a few years. No point in getting it absolutely perfect at the moment as I probably wouldn't want to drive it!

Mainly the only area that betrays its actual mileage is paint work items. The car looks like it has under 10,000 kms on it. Odometer shows 53000 kilometres at the minute.

Over time I will rebuild suspension and change all the bushings and get the hardware plated to refresh this area. On inspection the bushes look fine and there are no leaks on struts.

For now I'm very happy with the car and the work completed so far. Definitely getting what I wanted and expected out of 355 ownership. What a great car it is!

 

Cheers Dave. I will need to measure my wheel inserts, id like to replace all of mine (only two cracked I count) with your offerings. Will freshen up the wheels even more with the fresh inserts.

Lol I do love the 355, I have restored 3 now. One which was flipped, this car and my friends car. Its hard to put a value on this sort of work because the hours put in are massive, not to mention the parts aren't cheap. Its fun as a hobby though. These cars love to throw up all sorts of little issues along the way that are unexpected and costly. Would have to have a patient and understanding owner to make the project feasible and be willing to spend the required $ to get it to this level. Most shops in Australia wouldn't be interested in this sort of work and for good reason I guess.

Over time with values increasing and the right type of owner (passionate enthusiast) we may see more F355's properly sorted.

 

Yes! The radiator fan on the left hand side was broken at the fan blade so the motor would run but the blade wouldn't spin. This didn't allow fresh air to be pulled into a/c radiator which sits behind water radiator so it would run hot and not be effective at all. Now it's working as it should. Ice cold and blows warm when adjusted to do so.

 

Hi Mark,

No updates of worthy note. The car is pretty much sorted at the moment.

I touched up all the little chips with some paint matched Rosso Corsa.

Tomorrow will be attending a large FCA drive day to Gosford Classic Car Museum to view the 24 Ferraris on display amongst the other 400 odd cars on show. There will be around 80 members going so the turnout should be sensational.

I have registered to attend Corso Pilota in September just 10 days before the concours. So I will have some fun with the car and learn about its limits with the Ferrari test drivers and then have my work cut out cleaning her all up to a nice standard for the concours.

Funnily enough Ferrari wants proof to ensure my car is serviced and well maintained prior to the event, maybe I should just link them to this thread!

Will post some pictures of tomorrow.

 

Had an amazing drive day on Sunday with the 95 GTS. Caught up with the NSW Ferrari Club members for a drive to visit Gosford Classic Car Museum, which is the largest collection of cars on display in the Southern Hemisphere (400+) including 24 Ferrari's. The Porsche and Ferrari club attended on the same day the car park was almost as impressive as the museum!

A highlight was catching up with Andy who I met on F Chat and lives 2.5 hours from me. It was great, after chatting so much about our cars to finally get them together. Andy's manual Berlinetta is an absolute stunner! 88000 kilometres on the clock (55k miles) and it is just amazingly presented. All the work I had done on mine Andy has done similar and then some (he does this for a living).

So good to meet like minded people who are as passionate as you are. Fairly confident these are two of the most loved and maintained F355's in Australia.

Here are some pics!
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I have told him this!!! He is very stubborn about it : ).. Next gathering I might just bring some goo remover and fishing line.

 

Headliner replacement completed. On my spare targa panel the headlining was a blue colour to suit the car it originally came from, being a giallo yellow exterior with nero leather and dark blue carpets.

It wasn't in the best shape as the foam was deteriorating and the colour looked off with my tan interior.

I found a store online that sells the original tan headlining, however the customer service was non existent and they didn't seem to want my business. The cost for original headlining once shipped from the USA to Australia was going to be quite offensive too, so I found a local source for alcantara and re-trimmed the two centre sections of the roof panel myself.

Quite happy with the results. It was a fraction of the cost of sourcing the original material and I got tackle another area of the car myself.

Not fussed with it being non original as my original black textured roof with tan headlining is pristine, so I will swap it out for the times when originality matters.
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Just the angle. They are contoured from from new.
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