430 GogglesPisano's F430 Ownership Journey

Thanks for the pic, Jon. I think you're right. Fortunately, there's a large enough gap for me to see inside.

Oh, and in case anybody was wondering, I installed the scrape armor with rivnuts that were outlined in one of the install threads. Apparently those are strong enough to rip the bumper off

For some good news, Scrape armor gave me a sizeable discount for a replacement set.

Currently shopping the KW setup for the front height adjustment. I'll keep everyone posted.

 

Looking in through the side, I can confirm that mount was ripped off. Thinking a panel bond epoxy might be the best solution, no?

 

Remembered I had a camera facing the driveway. I wasn’t looking at the footage to hear the awful pop of the bumper though (makes me cringe every time I hear it). I was actually checking the footage because I was doing a horn upgrade on the R1S and was using the flashlight from the door. The day after, I couldn’t find the flashlight anywhere. I was convinced I buried it in the frunk somewhere while I had the panels out. Then I remembered, I placed it on the rear vent on the F430. I quickly checked the camera footage to confirm. Yup, that little silver thing on the vents is the flashlight. It must have flew off somewhere on the way to work. Fortunately it didn’t do any damage, but the darn thing is close to $200. So that, and a damaged bumper. Not a great Monday.

 

It’s not all bad though, I get to do some “while I’m in there work.” The radiators had been chipped and losing the black paint slowly. Plus, The bumper basically had only two tabs holding it on. Confirmed the passenger side mount was ripped off. Fortunately, it was a clean break that allowed me to place it back exactly. The splitter was starting to split, the grey trim had tons of rock chips, and some screws/bolts were getting rusty.

Did a quick respray on the radiators and had a chance to clean the funnels. The bumper was going to be a bigger job though. Here’s the crappy thing…my car had been resprayed before (I knew that when I bought it) and it was well documented as a chip repair since it didn’t have PPF originally. The Ferrari dealer that serviced the car since new took care of the work. Aside from what you see on the outside, there was very little care taken on the back side. I realize it’s the back of the bumper and you never see it, but it had nice signatures from the original builders, dates, etc. They were taped over during the spray but it was very sloppy and you can tell they only did that after they saw overspray was going around to the back. They should have taken the time to tape off the entire back.

Anyway, that aside, I got onto rebuilding two full tabs and closing out the tabs on the edges. The bumper support was slightly pulled away from the passenger side as well so I used seam sealer to bond it all back along with the broken mount. The tabs were done with fiberglass, then it was all leveled off with filler. The front vent trim was sanded, chips were filled and I had a chance to do a. Primer coat that I’m going to sand down. Overall, I’m happy with the progress. Also, super impressed with the rivnuts I used on the scrape armor. You can see the force from the deformed side and not a single rivnut was torn or damaged. Thinking I might use those in the newly formed tabs instead of the speed clips.


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I still have to do a wet sand on the primer, then I can lay down the color coat. Had some custom spray cans mixed up that I’ll use for the final finish. Trying to keep the red paint in areas I won’t see since I’m not great with a gloss clear. The satin grey will be a breeze though
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Well, it stopped raining long enough to get some warmer temps and sunshine today. Managed to knock out the vent trim and the lower end of the bumper. Started off by wet sanding everything and wiping it all down, then base, then a satin clear. Missed a couple of chips unfortunately while filling, but they’re hardly noticeable. Touched up some chips in the red while I was at it, but still need to get the inside of the bumper a bit. Very happy overall. Not quite a “pro” job, but you can’t ask for more coming out of a can. Either way, it looks 100 times better than all the chips that were there before. Going to have the body re-wrapped in PPF once I’m done and I’ll have a layer of matte PPF put over the vents so I don’t have to worry about chips anymore.
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Going to have the stealth PPF put over the matte area and have the rest of it redone as well. I took a few bigger chunks out of the current PPF so I could address some chips that found their way through. Plus, whoever did the previous PPF job wasn't that good.

 

I got it from a local automotive paint shop. Did the same for the model I’m working on as well

lots of these local paint shops can mix small batches for you and also mix spray cans. They also sell a two part clear so you get a professional clear out of a can as well.


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I wish. I'm as impatient as it gets with stuff like this. I like taking my time on certain things like cleaning and planning, but anything that involves sanding and dust just has me rushing through it. In reality, this is a good 6ft job. The paint laid down nicely and that's of good quality, but I didn't catch all the small pin holes from the rock chips, plus I was painting outside so a spec of dust or two fell on the paint. Some gnat or small fly flew directly into my spray stream as I was doing the red and I had to pick him out. Fortunately, that area will be covered up by Scrape Armor. My main goal was just to spiff it up though as the original was pretty beat up from rocks as you can see from the pictures above and I feel I've done well in that regard. Fortunately, I don't have to pay myself for my work or I'd have me go back and do it again

Here's a closeup of the grey areas.


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Finally got the last piece of the puzzle for the interior CF. Went with a company out of Germany called Auto VM Composites. They were the only ones I could find that had the smaller insert console like I had. They only advertised the cigarette lighter version, but I asked if they could make one with a button sized opening for my Bose top down button. Took a bit longer than quoted, but about 6 weeks later, I finally have it. Quality seems pretty good. The CF pattern is not 100% even but pretty close. The clear also could have been leveled off a bit better since you can see some waviness to it. however, the details are really nice and it seems like a pretty intricate piece, especially the ashtray. The only downside is the ashtray doesn’t have a spring assist to open and close so it only relies on friction. I don’t use it anyway, so it doesn’t really bother me. Everything fit well and installed easy.


Also, bumper is back on (don’t have pics yet). Getting it PPF’d Tuesday. Super disappointed in the paint work that was underneath that was done by a Ferrari dealership. You can see all the old chip marks and other defects under the base and clear. The clear bra ended up masking most of those so I never noticed it during my ownership.
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Bumper freshly polished and PPF’d with the appropriate matte in the grey areas. Can’t even tell the matte stuff is there, the surface finish really is amazing. Makes up for my rattle can paintwork

The rest of the film did a fantastic job covering up my rock chip repair. Immediately dropped it off at my suspension shop for the front lift install.

Forgot to take pictures, but I used Rivnuts in all of the bumper attachment points so I don't have to deal with those lousy speed nuts and also upgraded all of the M6 bolts to stainless. I'll be doing the same with the rear at a later date.
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Guess, what? Chromo Grigio Corsa Mettallic IS NOT a factory match. I don’t know why it took so long for me to figure this out. You know how much stuff I’ve painted already? It wasn’t until I installed the rear diffuser that it stood out, the front is not as noticeable as you don’t have the rear vents and inner metal pieces next to it.

Anyway, now that that PSA is out of the way, look at what I’ve been up to…

First, huge shoutout to Dave from StickyRX for the custom job on this. I don’t use my Bose button, so I had Dave take an extra round button he had and etch the front end lift image from the 458 on it. Since it’s the same style, it slotted right in. Made a nice harness, plugged it in to factory illumination and the switch portion to the front end lift and now it looks right at home. Actually, it looks too clean next to my old buttons. :-/ I’ll have to get the rest done now

Also, found a beat up CF rear diffuser with heat damage and scrapes on it. It had pockets that were delaminated as well so it wasn’t suitable to fix as CF. I patched and filled it and painted it out to match (what I thought) was the original color, but left the fins carbon. It looks great, but it’s too light silver, so I’m going to put the fins back on my stock one until I can get a proper paint match. But, for now it looks OK. The weight difference is insane.


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