348 Plenum Removal

The previous owner of my 348GTS (tall Plenum) painted it red at some time. The paint is starting to flake off and, to rectify the situation, I really need to remove the plenum. (I'm undecided whether to repaint or go original metal, but that's not up for debate yet!)

Looking at the manuals, it looks like an "unbolt/remove/new gaskets/refit/bolt-up" job.

Are there any pitfalls waiting for me? Springs that go booiinngg in the night and get lost, linkages that will need resetting, studs that will shear off, air leaks that I'll never again be able to seal?

Any indicators most welcome!

Thanks

Drew

 

Yeah, looking at the diagrams, heart transplants look easy too - just cut and sew!

 

Very wise comments my fellow sages! Trying to get a 348 back together is a bit like herding cats sometimes.

I've come across a rather strange phenomenon too: lots of little fitments seem to be hand-fettled from the factory.

For example -

I removed the front lower trunk liner. To do this, you need to drill out the rivets holding the toolkit strap in place. I found the rivets had been punched through two holes which are NOT the pre-punched holes in the carpet.

The ashtray in the centre console screws down into two nylon inserts in a support bracket. Except that mine screws into two separate fettled holes alongside those nylon inserts.

In these cases and others, if I correct the fittings to Mr Ferrari's originals, the things don't align anymore.

I used to get stomach ache thinking the car has been a complete write-off at some time, but NOTHING else on the car seems to suggest that. No strange welding, no bodywork repairs (I had a bare-metal repaint done, so I know the bodywork under the paint!) and all of these little re-adjustments are done with Ferrari original screws and rivets etc., and not DIY store self-tappers. The car has also only had two previous owners and I can trace the history back to the original dealer who did all the servicing too. I spoke too them and they told me a few things about the car but confirmed it's not a dog of any sort.

Also, all of these little adjustments seem to have the same "patina" as everything else on the car indicating they were done when it was built.