Door handles

I believe the handles are platic molded over a possible metal core. Not 100% sure. The spline is a metal insert for sure. The handles have the typical soft touch coating that gets sticky. We refinish these often.

 

I bought these when my handles went to gooo:

https://www.macarbon.com/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=204&vmcchk=1&Itemid=204&redirected=1&Itemid=204

 

Those handles look great, although I have concerns with this statement:

"We use brand new Ferrari door handles and laminate the top with carbon."

So they are laminating the new Ferrari handles (with the ready-to-get-sticky-at-anytime-and-already-might-be-sticky soft touch material) with CF? Who is to say that the handle turns sticky and the CF overlay comes off with the goo?

 

I believe MA Carbon removes the sticky coating prior to doing the other work

 

That seems logical - I couldn't imagine replacing the door handles with those and then have the CF come off in my hand a couple of years down the road.

 

I have had the MA carbon handles on my 1995 348 spider for 3+ years, no issues what-so-ever. They look great & the same as the day I got them.

 

I don't believe they are aluminum. My recollection is that they are way heavier than ali.

IIRC they seemed to be primed, painted, and then coated with the soft touch coating that gets gummy. They respond extremely well to abrasive blasting and powder coating.

As an aside, I recently had to strip the soft touch coating off of one of my old computer mouses because it was getting gummy, and a couple of my remote controls are headed that way. As much as I like the finish, it doesn't seem like it holds up well in the long term even when kept indoors. Hopefully the powder coat and paint I used when refinishing my interior components will hold up longer. So far so good.

 

Mike - 348 door handles are totally different than 348. I believe 348 are cast steel

 

Dave, Yes the original ones were cast steel (black). When you purchase the set from MA Carbon you send back your old ones, or pay an extra core charge. They strip them & then do an Autoclave(sp?) carbon fiber that is perfect (absolutely zero defects or distorsions visible).

 

I'm guessing you mean that 355 door handles are different from 348 door handles, although with Ferrari it's entirely possible that some 348 handles are different than others.

Cast steel for the 348 sounds right to me (I'm assuming the OP was asking about his 348). I was quite surprised at the weight when I removed them. But considering the way they're affixed, steel is a better choice than aluminum alloy.

If there's any weight difference between the two models a good bit of it is probably in the door handles.

 

Ops - yes Mike, I meant 348/355

 

I would have thought it would be easy enough to check if the handles are steel or Aluminium underneath by using a magnet.

 

The 348 door handles are metal, the 355 door handles are hard plastic. Cut one in half and you will see. lol

 

Yes, prepreg carbon fiber is pretty awesome. I've been practicing with it lately. I plan to start making some parts and doing overlays. It's what they use on all the super car carbon tubs. You keep it in the freezer because it will start setting up at room temp after a while. You can cut it and lay it after you thaw it out and the weaver stays tight. It's almost hard to mess it up. Then cooking it makes the resin set up.