Carbon Fiber Door Handles

I know several of you guys have opted for the full carbon fiber interior for your 458. I know I did and at the time I got every carbon fiber option that the factory offered. For my MY2011 there was no option for interior carbon fiber door handles, I am not sure whether they can be ordered for th MY 2012.

And for those of you that ordered your car with the carbon fiber door panels, there is one thing that really just doesn't look right and its the grey metal interior door handles. They really stand out on the door and just don't fit with the rest of the carbon fiber look. I came across the MAcarbon carbon fiber door handles here on Ferrarichat. So for me the door handles were what I was looking for to finish off my interior.

After seeing and researching the MAcarbon carbon fiber door handles, I decided to get a set and try to install them myself. The nice thing is it takes only a few minutes to switch out the old door handles for the carbon fiber door handles. The instructions though not perfect are pretty good. If you take your time and work through the instructions, you can have new door handles in much less than an hour and the look really finishes off the interior, IMO.
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Tools, well there is the rub. Mostly simple tools which are listed with the instructions that are inclubed from MAcarbon. For the passenger door grab handle you can pry the leather off with your fingers. Then there are two 4 or 5 mm allens that come off and you have to switch the two locater screws to the carbon fiber handle from MAcarbon. Really simple and easy.

For the door handles, they are held in place by a single phillips screw that is torqued at the factory. I used a impact screw driver with a snug fit phillips head. I just placed it in to the screw and tapped it 2 or 3 times with a hammer. The impact driver loosened the screw and then I used a standard phillips head screw driver to take it the rest of the way out. You have to twist the door lever cable out of its connection hole, you will see what I mean when you get to that point, but from there it is easy. Replace locator screw to the carbon handle, take the door sensor off by pry it off the handle and put it on the carbon handle, then re-assemble. It literally takes 15 minutes for the first one and maybe 10 for the second one. The only tricky part is getting the door release cable in and out of the friction hole and then when you slide it back in to the door, you may want to put a piece of tape on the cable so it doesn't slip out of its slot. Again you'll know what I mean when you see it. We had one cable drop out when I put the handle back in the door. I just undid the screw and reset it and no issues since.

If my memory serves me you can download the instructions complete with pictures from the MAcarbon website.

 

Nice catch. That is called a soft-tie. I use them when I tie-down my vintage bikes when I trailer them.

It is a piece of faux fur with velcro so you can wrap ;it around the seat belt and then slide it up and down over the metal seat belt that rattles against the carbon fiber racing seats.

Most people don't notice it, but my wife was the last one to ride in the car this week and she probably did not slide it back down over the seat belt clip

 

You know at first glance I thought the same thing, but actually it is $995 plus the core charge of $800. Then when you switch them out you send back the grey metal door handles and MAcarbon gives you back the $800.

The same is true for the passenger door grab handle, whatever it is, plus the core charge. It still seemed reasonable to me, and they look fantastic.

 

Oh and Bob, MAcarbon gets these from Europe and the pattern is the same as the factory pattern. I know you can't say it is a perfect match but on mine it is a perfect match.

If you want I can take some closeups but, I am pretty anal about that stuff and I honestly thought it was the same as the factory CF.

 

The factory option for the door panels in carbon fiber was a bit weird at the time, back last year. I believe I had to combine two options that shared the center console. Then the factory breaks the door panels out separately and it was about 4K as near as I could tell. That may have included the door sills.

Anyway, it was confusing to me, but the good news is that they got it right and I am sure they charged me enough to make it worth their while

 

Nobody asked about the black leather storage unit between the seats with two insulated drink holders

 

Found it at Walmart 13 years ago, the leather matches the black Ferrari leather almost perfectly. It carries about 25 CDs and you can put two drinks in the front drink holders which are insulated. Just amazing that it fits pefectly between the seats