Air vent trim removal help

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/360-430/463922-passenger-side-vent-near-windshield-pulled-up.html

11 Threads down

 

Just in case it's not clear in the other threads.

The upper dash MUST be removed to install #14, which is held in place by spring steel clips that slide over the posts from the underside of the upper dash. What kind of clips? Picture a small rectangular piece of flat steel with a hole in the center, through which passes one of the plastic posts.

You can work around the clips if you can't find replacements. For instance, a spacer, washer, screw combination would work. I'm sure there are others. It's not complicated, but the upper dash must first come out.

For someone who has done it before (like me), it's about 1.5 careful hours out and another 1.5 careful hours in. For the inexperienced, it could take much longer, some damage may be done, and much frustration will almost certainly be had. Book time is probably 6 hours. I paid for it once, but can't remember. What I do remember is that the tech did an unbelievable poor job refitting the dash (which is how I gained my experience).

If you want to take on the challenge, there are very helpful instructions on this forum. In that event, you might want to take care of other preventative maintenance, like replacing or refinishing the side window defroster vents, which are or will become 'sticky'. By the way, it would be my recommendation that you refinish your new part (#14) before installation, since that new part is also destined to be sticky in the future.

 

the reason why the defroster vents get dislodged or loose, is the dash leather itself shrinks.
when that happens it causes the leather where is is formed to the dash to pull loose by defroster vents ,,or become taunt ....then the vents come disconnected (broken) the correct way to repair it is to have dash recovered (the leather) and then replace vents with new ones.

the time mentioned above seems very low low to me. the flat rate that ferrari uses is a much higher number ( to R@R dash) and thats what it takes to replace vents.

my two cents

 

We can handle any of those "sticky" issues

 

Sorry guys. My experience is with a 360, not a 430. I imagine the same clips were used, but I don't know whether it's easier or harder. As far as the 360 goes, anyone with any experience (working on cars--not necessarily Ferraris) can easily beat the book time. I suspect the same is true for the 430. For some, it won't be difficult. For others, it will be impossible.