430 GogglesPisano's F430 Ownership Journey

A while back, I managed to snag some OEM interior CF parts from Freddan. Planning on swapping over slowly as time permits on the weekends but had a chance to jazz it up a bit. When I got the parts, there were surface imperfections from being out in the sun or age or whatever plagues these things. I decided to wet sand the parts down and polish them back up. Man, what a difference. I was able to sand out all of the imperfections and it polished up nicely with a three stage system and my little ryobi dremel tool. Went through hell to figure out the best combo though. First with my mini polisher that was still to big for the small curves, then a large buffer which almost destroyed the parts, then by hand which didn’t get the sanding out enough, to finally the magic combo with a small felt wheel and some wet compounds.

I had a spare aluminum dash panel I ended up doing a brushed finish on to throw on at the end. I feel like the CF panel is a bit too much so this finished it off a bit nicer I think.
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Finally had time to install my CF goodies over the weekend. Still waiting on the console part, but ran short of time anyway. This is where I'm sort of breaking off from OEM specs so apologies in advance for anyone that doesn't sanction modifications.

Install was straight forward my switches fit especially tight and one of the vents. Had to do some filing down in areas so they would snap in properly. Took the time to separate out the inner ring from the vents and get rid of the silver (as is my quest throughout) and paint some parts satin black. This was quite an adventure in disassembly. I did the same for the HVAC dials. It's clear these parts were not meant to be disassembled. I was impressed to learn the knobs are aluminum and not plastic. I was originally surprised about my factory dash parts being aluminum as well. I feel like this should have been showcased more instead of just painting them.

My window button surrounds were scratched slightly. I thought this was going to be an easy clean off with alcohol as the rest of the stick parts. Unfortunately, these have a particularly thick layer of rubberized coating on them that DOES NOT come off with the traditional means. Since I had already messed them up, decided on a sand down, followed by wet sand, then polish to make them gloss black. Matches my stereo now.

Oh, I also found some shoddy work while I was in there. My window switches were replaced previously at a dealership as part of some sticky button fixes. They used the wrong screws in some parts and left other parts loose or not tightened all the way. And by wrong, I don't mean they didn't use the same screw that was there. I mean they used coarse thread screws where machine screws go on one side and a fastener that was too long on the other. Both had torque paint marks so I can only assume the areas they came from have the wrong screws too. The CF parts used different hardware so I was able to correct everything.
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Nope, you are correct. Maybe they weren't a fan of carbon? I mean, I'm not a huge fan, but I like it over the silver.

 

Also, what's really weird is that my gauge hood is vinyl, not leather. Not sure if was repaired at one point from shrinking. Plus, the stitching colors on the dash are blue and black.

 

not unwelcome at all. It’s my assumption that someone repaired it a while ago otherwise I don’t know why Ferrari would have put this one solitary piece in vinyl instead of leather.
Doesn’t matter though, it’s all getting redone when I do my dash out project.

 

they’re OEM parts. I don’t think they have any additional coating besides the clear coat but that’s just my assumption. You bringing that up though makes me think I should probably get one of those wipe on I’ve protectors they make for headlights after you polish them.

 

That article is a good read. I think the focus is more on exterior cf as that is exposed to the elements more so than an interior part but with a spider, mine are definitely bombarded by UV.
I wonder if this product would be a good solution.

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Well, I did a dumb this morning. I have these aluminum plates on my driveway to bridge the drainage dip that runs down the street. I usually back out and sometimes lightly scuff. I did the same this morning but caught one of the bolts that hold the plates down on the back of the scrap armor. I guess I did a good job installing that because it ripped the passenger side of the bumper out and down. I didn't even realize until I got to work. I thought I only messed up the center splitter which was detached slightly. Work mate came in and asked "what happened to your Farrari?!" I immediately knew I had missed something as I only walked around from the driver's side. Sure enough, the entire passenger side was pulled down. I tried pulling it back up but it's clear some brackets have been bent.

Now I have to make time to take the bumper off and figure out what's going on. Days like these I envy you guys with a five car garage.
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It was on my short list but I think it just got moved to the front. I need to find one that works with the factory dampening control. The only "kit" is the KW system and they require deactivation of the stock dampening for some reason. They were not able to answer why when I emailed them, only referring me to Novitec who apparently designed the system. Zero response from Novitec.

Wondering why I can't just add on the raising pucks on the stock setup and piece meal my own compressor, etc ala this kit: https://iliftsystems.com/product/universal-ilift-suspension-lift-system/

Admittedly, I'm not a suspension expert so this could be as silly question.

 

Hope so too. Definitely hear some crunching when I lift on the bumper so some fiberglass was compromised somewhere. Fortunately, I got my blackbelt in fiberglass while restore a 70's camper for the past three years Anything metal, I'm pretty good at bending straight with a hammer.

 

Yes. I like to enjoy it at least once a week.