355 Major / Restoration of my 355!

I know there are plenty of threads on the DIY major / restorations, but I thought I would add to the database with my major restoration project on my (new to me) 1999 355 F1 Spider.

I bought this 355 a couple months ago knowing that it needed a major. Once the car was received, I realized it needed more than a major - the interior needed to be fixed (leather and sticky plastic), roof was not working, steering rack was leaking and the engine bay was filthy/grimy... I decided to do a full restore comprising of the following:

New Leather
De-sticky Plastic
Steering Rack Rebuild
Front Suspension Bush replacement
Fix Spider roof
Engine Major
Rear Suspension Bush replacement
Clutch

I will also probably end up:
Replacing gearbox / engine mounts
Shock Mounts

I will update this thread (hopefully on a weekly basis) over the next few months as I get various parts from vendors and installed. I probably won't be able to give more than a couple hours a night so a weekly update sounds about right...

So far, in the past 2 months, I have been able to:

New Dash Leather
Renew plastic interior
Fix spider roof - system was flushed/bled, forks aligned, fixed seat pots

This past week, I was finally able to pull the engine out... During the engine 'coming out' party, I found 2 seized AC hoses that would NOT budge... In addition, the previous (or prior) owner had installed a 360 F1 pump, and the hoses were routed such that the pump could NOT be removed without disconnecting the system - which lead me to believe that the engine has probably not been dropped in a while!

After engine removal, the state of the front of the engine can be seen in the pictures below... I still need to remove the crank pulley to check for leaks at the front engine seal, but for now the front shows 2 different leaks on initial examination (marked A (coolant leak) and B (oil leak) in the last picture below...

The underside of the car showed definite signs of coolant and oil leaking when I first bought it...
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Saving post #2 for future status updates

 

The cam tensioners show 2 different signs of wear:

1) the left tensioner is leaking grease and the hyd tensioner seems to be less than the 2.5mm gaping that a new one should have?
2) the right hyd tensioner shows a lot of gap

 

Great stuff. Will be following.

 

For the gearbox mounts, I used the challenge mounts. They're solid rubber (same as 550?) instead of having gaps in them. My thought is they'd last longer, especially the gearbox mounts that can get cooked by the cats (if you have them). When I bought my 355 the gearbox mounts were completely shot resulting in a clunk on deceleration.

 

And poor or no shifting in an F1

 

Engine and gearbox mounts can and should be heat shielded. Very easy DIY, especially with the engine out. A 355 can be made significantly more reliable with a little heat shielding (engine/trans mounts, AC compressor, alternator, CV boots).

 

Another option but like all things not cheap is when you replace your cats my new capristo cats have blankets this also helps the cats stay hot when passing California emissions


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I've got a whole new Inco Shielded Exhaust system coming in - headers, 200CEL Cats, Y pipe and Muffler all Inco-Shielded... Stay tuned

I do have a question about the starting the belt change, which I have posted in another thread:

355 - Timing Belt Question | FerrariChat

Any help is appreciated!!

Thanks

 

What is "Inco-Shielded"?

 

Inconel Shielding

 

I have not seen shielded cats just blankets
Post pics when you get them if you can

 

Here is a short update on the Interior that was fixed:

New Leather on both Seats
New Black Leather on Dash - the blue leather was not replaced as not enough of the correct color was available! Will probably get to it later on...
All Plastic Bits hydro-dipped in CF with a clear coat... I think it looks pretty cool. The only piece I am not yet sure about is the HVAC unit, since it needs to be able to show the light through the unit... This is what I have done for now, but I do not like it so I am thinking of how else to get the CF look with a factory light through it...

 

The engine works done so far:

All accessories removed from front of engine (Alternator, PS pump, Water Pump, AC Compressor)
Exhaust removed
Oil Tank Removed

The engine is filthy...


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After 1 day of cleaning the lower part of the 5-8 bank and left side of the gearbox...


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Also.. from another thread:

"As I am about to start my first major (355) on my own, I thought to collect some data from the braintrust to use as a handy guide later on... I will DEFINATELY read/use the WSM during the major, but I thought it might be fun to make a list of small details that are sometimes overlooked when doing a major service...

Please feel free to chime in with anything relevant, but I would actually like to know the following:

1) Which mating surfaces should include the use of a liquid gasket/silicon/sealant?
2) Which surface (if any) should NOT have any liquid gasket/silicon/sealant used?
3) Any bolts that require lubrication before being installed?
4) Any bolts that SHOULD be loctited when installed?"

Thanks!