Anyone know this car?

I like the feeling of reading you David. It is almost like I know this car even if I never saw it. I'm glad it found a new owner that sound like is going to take good care of it. BTW they say you should never operate the rear window with the top down. The rear window if need to be removed are real pain. Read Mike's(soucorp) thread about it. A good place to look for parts at affordable price is superformance.uk where I buy all my parts for my 308. They may have new swithches. The shipping is cheap and fast.

 

No switch at Superformance. But Ricambi is listed with or without lighting.

 

BTW David, leather tend to shrink by the heat that is why your cover does not fit anymore. Maybe you should use leatherique to soften it before stretching it. Sun may just make it worst. Just a tought.

 

I restore those switches and some other small electrical bits as a hobby. I charge a small fee if you want me to work on them. I don't put the decals back on the face, but it will work electrically perfect until they eventually corrode and die again.

Simply put, the switch is not designed to handle the inrush current of a motor start, even if it is a small DC motor. It should have been triggered to a relay, and that's what my front switches do, they just pull the relay and let it handle all the current. But, many people just have the switches replaced or repaired every 4-5 years.

Now that you've figured out what all the gadgets do, go drive it! As for the top, maybe you could put some saddle soap or other kind of conditioner on it rather than bake it in the sun? I would think some leather restorer and a bit of stretching would do more than a sun bath.

 

Just catching up on the last couple of pages - Dave, congratulations! It must be an amazing feeling. Yours is a beautiful Mondial, and one hell of an introduction to the Ferrari experience. The first Ferrari I ever drove was a Mondial (3.2 Cab), and I can still remember it vividly today. Keep us posted with each facet of your ownership!

 

You will get used to the pedals in time. When I first got mine I drove bare foot to avoid those problems. Now after 3 years and 16K miles I can wear large work boots and drive without problems. Getting in and out will get easier as well with time. The trick is to drive it constantly

 

Geez... do Italians have small feet or something? The space between the pedals is non-existent. I could barley get my foot on the dead pedal without pressing the clutch. I was wearing sneakers too. I will have to get special shoes to fit this car!! I'm sure Ferrari makes a beautiful pair.....for $1000!



DavidJ[/QUOTE]

Hi David, I also keep hitting the brake when applying the clutch so I bought a Puma shoes, Ferrari of course. Everything is good after that.

 

+1 on Puma. Try this place. Cheap http://www.tonynike.net/Puma-Low-Shoes-n342/
don't know if the're genuine ones but .....

 

Sometimes it is better to ask for foregiveness than permission!

Regards,
Jerry

 

(DavidJ)
Seems you caught Ferraritis...and got sick. LoL
The Mondial tends to have forwarded seats and it does take abit of maneuvering to get in, but you get use to it because sliding the seats back and forth everytime is a task.

About the top cover not fitting, just keep it in a warm place laid out and maybe use a hair dryer to warm it up so you can stretch it abit but careful not to burn the leather.
As far as the rear windows, it needs to be lubed but thats easier said than done. Make sure you put the rear windows down completely before dropping the top and leave it down. Never try to bring them up when top is down as the motor has to work 3x as hard to bring it up with the top arm assembly pinning the glass as it goes up. This is how the motors eventually stop working. IMO a serious design flaw.

Take your time to get use to the car, its prob a good idea to take her out only in daylight hours in case something goes wrong and you need a tow. These are words from experience as shortly after I got my car, the coolant expansion hose busted and smoked the whole back engine area, scared the crap out of me, thought it was on fire, so had it towed to the shop. About shoes, this is a hidden fact, the Ferrari pedals are so close! You will need to shop around for narrow flat shoes like these for best driving experience.
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I have size thirteen feet and the first time I drove my Mondial I was wearing casual slip ons and didn't have an issue with the footwell however the next time I drove the car I had my sneakers on and really felt it was tight but after shifting around for a bit I was very comfortable. I think it is something you will get used to and won't even think about it after awhile.

 

Local to you (northern Bergen County) 3.2 Cab owner here.

Once you get plates and out for driving a great car event to go to is the about bi-weekly, Cars and Coffee that recently moved from Chatham to Piscataway - look in the NY/NJ forum and you will see postings on it.
On service I use Steve at Arena Motors, who is now in a very cool facility, that happens to be in Newark, but also heard very good things about Vinny at Auto Elite, and if he knows the car that is probably your best bet.

My Boot cover was shrunk as well, I bought an aftermarket leather one from a vendor in Los Angeles that I found on Ebay, for less than $300. If I can dig up a link (it was 4 years ago) I'll post it.

Good Luck, and enjoy it!

 

Congratulations! Enjoy her in good health.

 

Congrats!

The suspension ecu is under a panel underneath the passenger foot well. You might start with cleaning the connectors. To see if the shock actuators work you can have someone turn the key and listen near the top of each shock to see if the drives cycle to find their center on power-up. Here is the catch from the Ferrari Manual...do not leave the key on for more than 30 seconds without starting and don't turn the key more than three times without starting or you can damage the suspension computer...go figure.

Our driver's seatbelt ecu failed also and when we opened it up a line in the circuit board was burned through...a simple wire jumper fixed it so it's worth checking out. They are located near the floor behind the center console and you get to them by unscrewing the carpeted side panels. (Be sure it is actually broken first, our light stays on anytime the pax seat is empty and often when occupied because we normally do not use the mice..if a pax attaches the seatbelt to the fixed anchor before you start the mouse will not run and the light stays on. The only way to test it is to leave the shoulder strap attached to the mouse)

You might want to watch my daughter's and my video below before buying a new boot cover. In the movie Scent of a Woman and also in many car magazines you can see the boot is not properly fitted...closing the top properly so the boot will go on is not intuitive at first....

http://youtu.be/Mq_vyfBeMfo

Have fun,

Dave

 

What he said..

Congrats!

 

I saw that too.

So my routine is to turn the key to "on", wait about 5 seconds for the shock light to go out (and allow the fuel pump to pressurize the system) and start the car. I then wait another 10-15 seconds for the ABS light to go out. Very easy.

Then it is time to go!!!


Regards,
Jerry