360 Spider - Maintenance and The Roof Cassette

Evening all,
I’m looking at getting a 360 so I can get back into some garage therapy. Enjoy working on my cars, have a lift etc.

I’ve looked at several cars, and am now aware that cars 2001 and before don’t have any access panels below the the roof cassette.

is this a show stopper. I’ve seen the threads where holes have been cut, but I’m not sure I could bring myself to do that.

Question is, do the newer trays have access to everything, ie fuel pump, roll over valves, or does the tray still need to come out to access everything. Can the newer design tray be obtained and fitted to the older cars?

Should this be a show stopper to a purchase. I like spending time fettling, but not needless time through bad design.

Thanks

 

If that is a stopper for you, you might consider another make.

It is the way of life with Ferrari's

Unfortunately not all spiders have access to the fuel pumps and rollover valves w/o removing the entire top assembly.

If you have mechanical abilities you can remove the top assembly yourself to gain access, replace what's needed , and then drop the assembly back down

plenty of us have done it.

Not an impossible task if you are mechanically inclined, and there is plenty of info on this site to assist your efforts

 

From what I understand, the fuel pumps are accessible but the rollover valves are not. If the car is well taken care of and it's regularly had less than a full tank, then it's likely you won't need to change the rollover valves. I'm just guessing here about the car, the way it's designed is pretty simple. It's very likely that if the capote had to be lifted, it wouldn't be a lot or there could be another way of skinning the cat.

I'd put this concern on the low end of things. The 1999 has less in regard to emissions, like no header cats or air rails but it suffers from some issues with the frame cracking (fixed in a campaign I believe) and if an F1, the first year of that system.

When I was looking for my car, I had a couple of hard stops: Had to be 2001 with the cutouts (later 2001's), US spec. I ended up with a 2001 with the cutouts. So far, haven't had to use them.

Good luck!

 

earlier 2001's have no cutouts unfortunately!

And no access to anything in absence of removing top assembly, John.

I can say from experience

Don't know when the access panels were provided.

I unfortunately don't have them.

 

It was a mistake which tbf Ferrari realised early on and rectified on all Spiders from mid-late 2001. So although only a small run of cars were affected (relatively speaking); I’m gonna say stick to MY- 09.01 onwards to be safe. AFAIK, the cutouts/access panels cannot be retrofitted to early cars either.

And @GCarlo above is correct; the roof cassette needs to be removed to gain access for big services like cambelts etc. Not exactly Ferrari’s greatest moment.

 

I don't see how those hatches could be retrofitted which is unfortunate

don't need to remove top assembly for cam belts though fortunately

 

Ah, I stand corrected then. I was just relaying what I was told, back when I was looking at 360s. The trouble here is; what if you come across your perfect spec Spider, but it’s a pre-2001 car! Arghh the dilemma!!

 

it's not really a major dilemma.

You should not need to get to fuel pumps and rollover valves very often.

So once done they should last a while

 

Ok that’s reassuring.

Just making sure I’m going into this with the necessary knowledge, limit the surprises.

Have an R8 V10 at the moment and am looking forward to get back into something I can fettle over winter.

 

the surprises are always there but taking off top assembly is pretty straight forward

 

Fair enough.. I think when I read book times of 7 hours to remove and replace the cassette, it took me by surprise

 

when a shop is getting $180 - $220 per hour that's good for them.

When one does it on his own it considerably less time

 

And... at considerably less cost too!

If you're a DIY person, then you'll probably love the 360. There's lots of information about the car in the public domain and many videos depicting repairs and maintenance. The car itself is fairly simple with a minimum of plastic fasteners and made to be taken apart and put back together again.

 

Boy is that true, John!

Yes great car and still very analog.

When you get to turbo models the whole game changes

 

I just went 19 years/28K mi. before my first fuel pump replacement. Newer ones I believe are made of a better plastic so the fuel line nipple is less susceptible to vibrational cracking.

 

430 pumps are best to use

 

Thanks for everyone’s input, based on this I’ve taken the plunge. 2001 spider in Rosso/crema.

Its going to be a bit of a project car as I did a deal to take it as is from the vendor, and it needs some tlc.

Looking forward to getting it apart!

 

post some pictures when able

 

Will do. Have posted another thread already on a couple of bits I know I’ll need to tackle.

Slightly nervous coming from an R8 v10 as it was so well engineered, but that just didn’t leave enough to fettle.

 

R8 is a very different car

you will feel more connected to the road in the 360

much nicer feel

 

Hi guys, first post here so introducing myself, Guillaume, 46 years old, just bought my first Ferrari and is a 360 Spider from 2001 without the cut-outs :-(

I was looking at replacing the existing tray with a new version as can be found relatively cheap (and would allow fuel pump, clutch maintenance etc much easier), but was wondering whether:
- will the new tray fit the roof assembly? (I would be surprised it would not since I would doubt Ferrari would have bothered changing the design except cutting holes wherever needed to gain access to fuel pumps and to frame bolts)
- Although the full roof assembly allegedly needs to be removed to get access to the fuel pumps, looking at how the tray is placed, it looks like one could lift all panels of the roof, and while rear part is removed, unscrew the screws of the tray, disconnect the 4 pipes to evacuate the water, and remove the tray => Am I dreaming and is it much more complicated than that?