360 Another new rule-breaking 360 owner

I was inspired by fellow Fchatter S F and his thread here to tell the story of my 360 buying experience - https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/new-360-owner-i-broke-all-of-the-rules.625186/

What we have here is a new 360 owner that also broke basically every rule while buying his first Ferrari. Among them:

• Bought the car sight-unseen
• No PPI performed
• Service history available only from the most recent owner (5 years)
• Booked a one-way ticket and drove it 2000 miles home in a pandemic
• Parked outside and overnight
• Drove in the pouring rain (gasp)
• Ate food in the car (GASP)

I am a long-time car enthusiast and mostly an American muscle kind of guy - varioius V8/V10, manual, RWD cars from Ford/Chevy/Dodge is what's in my garage. But I know I wanted to scratch the Ferrari itch at least once, the 360 was the car that was cool when I was younger, and while it may not have been a "deal" per se, I feel I paid a fair market price for an extremely well sorted car in the exact spec I wanted. It coincidentally comes from a fellow FChat member and his tact and attitude made me feel relatively at ease flying across the country to drive a car I knew nothing about all the way home from Missouri to Arizona.

What I ended up with was a Giallo Modena 2004 360 Spider with 6-speed manual, 23k miles, with power Daytona seats, contrast stitching, factory front and rear Challenge grilles, factory Hi-Fi audio, Tubi-style exhaust and F430 wheels on brand new Michelin Pilot Sport 4S rubber. Major service with belt change and Hill Engineering tensioners was completed the month before I purchased along with new Technistrada CCUs,

Laying eyes on her for the first time - the seller was gracious enough to lend me his garage space and indulged in a few drinks with me as we prepped the car for its 2000 mile journey.

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First modification - because a fire extinguisher is much faster than a first responder when in the middle of nowhere.

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Brought a pack of Xpel TracWrap along (6") and wrapped the whole front of the car (sans headlights) to minimize rock damage. The front bumper is due for a repaint anyways, but no sense in risking the hood or fenders. The installation is not perfect but is meant to be functional, not beautiful.

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Shakedown run with the seller to a nearby winery through some great country roads

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All packed up and ready to go. Who says supercars aren't practical?

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Set out at 5 AM in freezing temps on Day 1 of driving which would be a 13.5 hour, 950 mile haul from St. Louis, MO through Arkansas and into Austin, TX.

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Daybreak

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Milestone #1 - Arkansas

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Proof positive I'm in Arkansas - copious Wal-Mart trucks on the road and the occasional distribution center

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Officially put the chicken sandwich wars to rest - for those of you fortunate to be in the midwest, Zaxby's is the superior fried chicken sandwich (dethroning Popeye's for me).

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I am not used to so much greenery

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Google Maps diverted me to a side road to avoid traffic on the freeway...took advantage of the opportunity to get a photo with the local flora and fauna

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Milestone #2 - Texas

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One of two heavy rainstorms that caught up with me in Austin/San Antonio...the Spider is less than watertight, as I learned.

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Outdoor (but private and secured) parking at an AirBnB in San Antonio...on (GASP) dirt (which in my defense, I was not aware of until I got there)

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The neighborhood cat decided to check out the car overnight

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Obligatory fuel stop photo in Ft. Stockton...believe it or not, I averaged 18-19 MPG at an average speed of 80 MPH the whole way home

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In case there was any doubt I was in west Texas....absolutely nothing but flatness as far as the eye can see

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Milestone #3 - New Mexico

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Overnight pit stop at a friend's house in Las Cruces, he insisted on a quick (and much needed) bath

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Milestone #4 - Arizona (home stretch)

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And home. First order of business - remove the clear bra, which was as satisfying to do as removing the plastic screen protector from a new phone

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I couldn't resist not modifying the car in some way as quickly as possible...so I chose something quick and easy on the first day, an interior dome/clock LED light conversion. You can actually read the clock now!

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And that concludes my first journey in my new to me Ferrari 360. By the numbers...

Miles Driven: 2,083
Fuel Cost: $382.02
Gallons of Fuel Consumed: 115.918
# Fuel Stops: 8
# of Times Stopped at Gas Stations for Photo/Story of Car: 3
States Traveled: 4
Days Traveled: 3
# of Check Engine Lights: 1 (slow down light came on briefly after an 8 hour, 700 mile leg at 90 mph in 90 deg ambient temps and has not been seen again)
# of Mechanical Problems: 0

I have lurked here on FChat for years learning about the 360 and its various idiosyncrasies - I am a long-time DIYer and hope to do all my own work based on what I learn here and contribute back to the community here whenever possible.

Looking forward to the rest of the ownership experience and learning from you all!

 

The TracWrap help up great! There was only one visible area of damage to it after 2000 miles, and I physically saw the chunk or asphalt or rock or whatever it was come up and heard it hit the fender hard at about 85 mph, so the fact that it only made a minor, buffable mark on the fender is a testament to how well it does. Unlike a lot of the temporary PPF solutions, TracWrap is about 8 mils thick...many of the rest are half the thickness.

Here's what the impact area looked like:

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It is quite tacky - in fact, upon removal, it took off some of the spots of paint on the front bumper that had been previously touched up. I had zero problems with any of the factory paint, and 99% of the time I would expect it to simply come off (I recommend a little bit of heat to soften it, even just leaving it out in the sun for a bit), do note that if you have weak areas in your paint or touch up spots, they may not survive removal, but I would expect this to be true of any quality film.

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One thing on install - and the reason why my install looked sloppier than it needed to - is that unbeknownst to me at the time, there's a top film layer you need to remove during install. I had a difficult time getting around the curves on the fenders and bumpers because this top film wasn't allowing the adhesive, protective film to lay flat.

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Lastly, here's a before and after shot post-removal, with no additional cleaning done:

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Bear Down!

 

I have three red cars...I just can't do another one, even if it would have been soooo much eaiser to find a Rosso Corsa example. I much prefer odd colors, and yellow is by and far my favorite of them all.

 

For the clock, I used the pictured bulb, which is a 74 series bulb. Previous threads on here refer to having to modify the socket housing to fit an LED bulb...LEDs have shrunk in form factor since then, and this simply plugged in with no modification needed.

https://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/miniature-and-subminiature-bulbs/74-led-bulb-3-smd-led-miniature-wedge-retrofit-car/228/1071/

For the dome light and glove box lights, you just need a 194 style bulb:

https://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/courtesy-light-bulb/194-led-bulb-5-smd-led-tower-miniature-wedge-retrofit-car/206/919/

I used "Cool White" color for both, and is my preferred choice for interior lighting.

 

I'm going to try and show an uncharacteristic amount of restraint on this one...I have too many automotive desires, and not enough time (or money for that matter) to scratch every itch if I chase mods on every single one. So I'll keep it to maintenance/cosmetic mods for the most part on this one. The short term plan:

• Pull the dash to replace the broken dash vents and address the waviness in the upper dash and airbag cover. Sshout out to @rizzo308 as I'll be using his billet aluminum dash vents for the repair.
• DIY annual service - I have history on all fluid changes except coolant, thankfully it is clean and clear with no signs of impending heat exchanger failure, and I would like to keep it that way.
• Full LED conversion (front/rear sidemarkers, turn signals, reverse lights) because I do this with every vehicle I own, equally for heat management and aesthetic reasons
• Respray of front bumper and full PPF on frontend and rockers
• High flow catalytic converters. On basically every high performance vehicle I've owned, factory cats are responsible for more problems than they're worth, so I look at this as preventative maintenance by reducing engine bay heat while remaining emissions-legal.

That's really and honestly all I want to do with it. Go-fast mods are too rich for me for the power gains you get in return, so I wish to simply address common 360 issues, sort the car out entirely and make it as reliable as possible so that I'm never in a position where I can't just hop in and drive/enjoy it.