360 spider capote flap

Assuming that the Capote Flap is the plastic cover the covers up the convertible top, my advise would be to make sure the convertible top motor and fluid reservoir are full and in good working order. It should take about 13 seconds for your top to go all the way up or down. Here is the link you want.

http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=140091

 

Time for a beer & a "its only money" attitude... that flap is crazy money..
Check with this place also in the USA - second hand salvaged parts
phone (916) 638-5111

[email protected]

they usually have that part as I have seen it advertised before..

 

Can you not glue the chunk that broke off back on, bit of filler, pit of paint, job done...

 

I've seen that happen.
Top will need to come off for repainting.

 

I know this is an ancient thread ... but my RHS capote flap (on the 360 spider) was not closing up properly.

The reason was a broken plastic part that helps guiding the capote flap into position. It probably broke before I got the car from some brutal manhandling by one of the mechanics? who knows. Anyhow the whole flap is plastic (styrene) I think.

The plastic part was broken off from the metal rod that slides in a guide rail, so that the flap closes properly and aligns neatly with the rest of the top.

Below I have a few pictures that show the mechanism, the RHS flap is perfect, the LHS driver side is the broken one.

I also have a picture below of a (broken) capote flap I saw on Ebay

 

As you can see from the picture above (of the good one, on the RHS) the plastic arm on the capote is attached via a screw to that round cylindrical metal bolt that slides into the rail on the side, thus ensuring proper alignment of the capote flap.

On mine the end piece of the plastic capote arm lever was partly broken, but with that screw still in.

It seems a pretty flimsy setup, so I would not be surprised if a few had broken on 360's ...

Of course one can order a new one for $850 and then go through the agony of replacing the old, broken one.

 

Because the damage on mine was minimal (broken tip of plastic capote flap arm) I was able to fix it without too much work.

Hopefully this might be helpful to others that might run into a similar problem ...

The key realization is that all it needs is that metal cylinder reattached to the plastic capote arm. No it does not need to rotate, it's fixed.

So I used Hysol (a slow cure, non-dripping epoxy similar to JBWeld) to solidly re-attach the plastic capote arm to the metal cylinder.

I also made use the flap was aligned right as the Hysol was setting, I used the good RHS capote flap as a guide.
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Well luckily for me the whole thing worked perfectly ! I tested it this morning and now it works flawlessly.

Note that I added quite a bit of grease as well, to reduce rubbing and stress.

Success, and $850 + saved
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Let me know your experiences !

I would think that a product like Hysol would be very useful in repairing (re-manufacturing) all sorts of little broken pieces on parts like these.

 

Mine last Saturday in SC CA,

.
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Herb how difficult was it to remove that flap and re-install?
I have to do mine asap. It has 2 visible cracks from the outside. I want to repair it before it gets worse.
Any suggestion such as roof position will help me to get started.
Please and thanks

 

Hi Hessank,

It was all pretty easy, but if you read closely I did NOT remove the flap. It was still hanging in there by the two bottom (plastic) hinges.

Removing the capote flap entirely might have been a real pain, I wanted to avoid that since on mine only the top part was broken (but all the pieces were there).

Also, it seems the capote flap is made of some sort of plastic (styrene I would guess) so it could even get brittle when you try to remove it.

If you have all the parts, I would try to align everything properly and glue it back (after a perfect clean of mating surfaces) with Hysol or JB-Weld. Held in place by masking tape and foam blocks, using the other side as a guide on what has to align with what at how many mm's.

Keep in mind (and I am perhaps stating the obvious) that Hysol or JB-Weld are thick and take like 24 hrs to cure, which means you will have all the time to align parts.

Perhaps you might want to post some good quality pictures so we can see what you have ?

Hope this helps, HWH

 

Thank you Herb. PM sent

 

"Thank you Herb but what position of the top allowed you access to the back of the flap? Top opening midway or closing etc. That's what I'm trying to determine so as not to put anymore stress on the flap before repairing it. I have to repair whatever hinge broke as well as put a layer of fibreglass to strengthen the cracked areas. Please and thanks Fred"

Good question, I am not sure ... Since I believe the flap closes completely when the capote is fully up (?) or down , it must have been half way ?

I did all the repair/glue work when the capote flap was fully retracted, that is the best position for having full access to the interior mechanism. Maybe that was halfway closed?

 

I remember when I did mine, I had to move the top into various positions to get whole flap out of the car. Just make sure to connect a battery tender as the top uses up quite a bit of power and its easy to drain the battery. Speaking of which the If anyone needs a RH (passenger in US), I have one with a small crack that can be refinished (please PM me).

 

What he says ... I actually moved the capote around to find the sweet spot with the engine idling, so as to get max power on the capote actuators and avert any battery drain.

 

Thank you Sammy and Herbert. Yes, I did that and got full access. I found one of the guides had become dislodged from it's track causing the wobble. However, none of the 3 contact points were broken but because I had so much access to the backside I used JB Weld and beefed up all the areas atthe back.

I also found a paint company that is making my color code in a spray and that will allow me to touch up the scratch on the outside

 

Safety wire your "speedo cable" where it meets the motor. If it slips out it will get out of sync and get crushed.
Ask me how I know.

 

Off topic Dave but you DO have my interest. If you have a picture please share since I don't know where the speedo cable is attached.
I thought it was electric and had wires running from like a pulse generator thingy to the Speedometer.
Hell, my 1989 Porsche is like this (no cable)

 

The capote flaps are powered by an electric motor that spins a cable that connects to the flaps. The cable is like an old fashioned speedo cable, but obviously, no speedo cable in modern cars.

 

This happened to me back in 2014. I tried to look into my picture archives but I don't have anything specifically on the "speedo" cable/motor drive. Its centrally located under the hard tonneau and the cables exit each end of the drive motor housing. The work was done by Andy Greene in Savannah. He fixed it and it's been 100% ever since. Here was the damage done when one of the cables backed out and got out of sync. Image Unavailable, Please Login