Hello Brothers

Recently made the stupidest decision of my adult life and bought a '90 348ts. I've pretty much been grinning ear-to-ear since, even more so when I'm actually driving it!

I bought the car in Colorado Springs after test driving a couple of extremely bland Porsches and a less bland M3 convert. She was sitting there all lonely locked in the glass showroom. She needed me, I could feel it. Anyway after a surprisingly uneventful PPI, I was the intrepid owner of my first F-car!

I must say thanks already to the great members (now brothers!) of this site, who gave me the confidence that this is a car I could work on myself and fix most anything. My first car was an Alfa Spider, so the italian sports car blood already runs in me, but I really had no idea what I was getting into before reading up on all of the tutorials, maintenance info, and general wisdom here. I've already done some simple wrenching, and she's a joy to work on. She doesn't need an engine-out for a while, but the clutch will need some help soon. That's on my winter todo list, but its ok for now so I'm going to enjoy the rest of the good weather while I can.

The day I picked up the car I drove down to Colorado Springs about 1.5 hours from my house. The weather seemed fine, but it was the afternoon and things change quickly around here. After a quick lunch with my 12 yr old son, we went to the dealership and picked her up. I could see some clouds, but I took the roof off, stowed it and we set off back home. Not a mile later it started to rain lightly so I pulled into a gas station and put the roof back on.

One of the issues noticed in the PPI was a very loose drivers side roof latch, so I knew we might get wet. Remember I did own an Alfa, so I brought towels just in case. In another mile or so we turned onto the highway. Traffic was at a standstill. Then the sky opened up. We were barely moving so only a few drips came in at first, but then a bit more. Then the cats and dogs started falling. Whoever detailed the car used Rain-X, so that helped, but still it was crazy. We were getting pretty wet now and it looked like the storm was intensifying.

I was in the right lane now and I could see the next exit, it looked tight but I thought I could make it through the breakdown lane. In what I'm sure looked like a total a**hole move I pulled into the breakdown lane and passed everyone to the exit. Luckily there was a gas station canopy nearby for us to hide under. Just as we got a space under the canopy it started to hail. A**hole or not I felt pretty lucky. In 15 minutes the storm was over and the sun came out again. Such is life in Colorado!
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Thanks guys!

It has just over 38k miles now (about 900 more than when I picked it up ).

I have since fixed the latch, there is some play in the mechanism from wear, and the rubber pull downs were starting to split, so I did a little finagling and covered the pull downs with some shrink wrap to keep the rubber intact and give it some more thickness. I also did a liberal application of Gummi-Pflege on the seals. The front one has become somewhat distorted over time, making me think it was stored with the top latched down. Something I'll try to avoid.

The fixes seem to have done the trick. There's still a slight leak at the top of the window, but I'm not gonna sweat it too much.

Given the cost of those latches and 20-some years of wear, I highly recommend that folks with targas help it into place by pulling down on the roof while you are latching it. Far less stress on the latch that way.

As for the dealer, even though I got wet, I'm kinda glad they didn't try some half-assed fix. I'm happy to fix it and know the condition of the latches myself.

 

You know I do love the sense of adventure in these cars. It's weird, I rented a Ford Edge recently and it had really finicky HVAC controls that drove me nuts. Somehow I managed to get freezing air on my feet and oven hot air in my face at the same time.

The Ferrari's HVAC "system" is basically just as random, but it's somehow endearing to me. Being uncomfortable in a Ferrari is so much more tolerable since the experience is so much more engaging. I mean how comfortable is a wooden roller coaster? I just love those creaky things!

Driving the 348 is both entirely engaging and relaxing at the same time. And it's fun at any speed. So many cars these days barely feel like they're moving at 80 mph. I don't think I broke 40 mph in my initial test drive, and the tranny was barely warm by the end, and still I was sold

I know I'm preaching to the choir here...

 

Sweet! See you there!