Pulling Dash in a 360; bringing back my daily driver to new!

I finally started in on bringing my 360 daily driver back to an as-new state. As you can see in this thread:

The car has taken some wear and tear over the past year being used as a daily driver. I am now in the process of fixing it all to even a better state than it was when I got it. Here’s a list of things that will get done (hopefully) over the next 3 weeks or so:

1. Recover the dash with new leather from shrinkage damage

2. Repaint the front spoiler and fix a few rock chips on the fenders and one on the hood

3. Replace the windshield pillar trim pieces that were worn down from black to the underlying aluminum

4. Have Robbie fix the window switches, climate controls, both window handles and the right door pull removing the rubberized coating that has started to come off in spots. Mostly this is on the driver’s door handle and driver’s side mirror switch, but I’m also doing the right door and the climate control box to make it all match.

5. Repaint (and REPLACE now, more on that later) the air filter covers and box

6. Repaint the engine compartment side cover panels

7. Roll the front fenders (keep hitting the driver’s front tire on the lip)

8. Repaint the aluminum interior door trim pieces and the center console as they have developed numerous chips and scratches. Many were there when I bought the car.

For most of this work (especially removal and replacement of the dashboard) it takes a factory workshop manual. It is a very easy to follow and read manual with great pictures showing in a step-by-step fashion how to do something. Even an idiot like me can follow it! It was only lacking in one section regarding a step in the dash removal which I will list the procedure left out below.

First I got to work on the doors; a very easy, fast job to remove the lower aluminum panels and then remove the interior handles.
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Next I attacked removal of the dash. Despite how daunting a job this sounds, it was actually one of the easier jobs I’ve done on a car. Again, I’ll stress that if you do this obtain and use a workshop manual. The first step is to cut power to the car with the batter kill switch in the bonnet.

Next, remove the lower section of the dash and the radio panel. Not going to list all the steps here, but just follow the instructions in the manual and it’s out in about 10 minutes
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Next, remove the steering wheel airbag. This is held in place by two screws on each side of the steering wheel that are covered by two little plugs. The airbag then just slides out forward and you can disconnect the central wire. This just snaps off.
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Next Remove the wheel and the steering column surround.
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Next, remove the instrument cluster. There’s a great description of the procedure here by Bill (Brokenarrow):

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=176480


Next is the passenger’s side airbag
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The next step is tackling the upper dash. Fairly straightforward following the directions, but they leave a few things out. First is to remove the side air vents near each door. The trick is to use a small screwdriver and pop them out from the base. If you pry just the front off, the ring comes loose and the gear mechanism that works the flapper-valve inside the vent comes apart. Then you have to put it all back together. Ask me how I know.

From there just follow the manual until the final two steps. It states to remove the three bolts attaching the dash to the air flow duct. Ha! Well, I found them and it takes a bit of contorting yourself to get at them, but if I can reach them being a not-so-thin 6’7”, I’m betting anyone can. Here are the three bolts in question as looking at them from under the dash, straight up. Also, here’s a pic of yours truly assuming the position.
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Now here’s for the tricky part! The manual then states to remove the windscreen trim pillar upholstery. When you go to that section of the manual, it just states ‘procedure in development’ well great! It took me a bit but here what you have to do. First remove the dome light (on a spider) and the two sun visors. The trim piece under these then drops out.

Then you can remove the two side pillar covers by unscrewing the top retaining screw as shown, and then loosening, removing the retaining screw from the side of the pillar. This is covered by the door trim molding. You can easily get to this one by just peeling the door molding back.
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So here's the car with the dash removed, as well as sitting on the dining room table (A place all wives LOVE to have car parts stored! ready to be delivered to the upholstery shop tomorrow.
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I also stripped out the air filter box and the engine side panel covers. It took me a bit to figure out that the large side cover panels are held in place at the front by TWO Allen screws, the forward most hidden my the folding top cover. You have to partially open the cover to gain access to this screw. No need to remove it all the way; the panel slides out from under it once it’s loose.

Of note is that I DID find the cause of this knocking/rattling sound I have been hearing for a while. The air filter base bracket on the passenger’s side had broken clean through! Obviously, I’m looking for a new box.

Tomorrow I plan on removing the central tunnel console, the front bumper and the headlight assemblies, as even though there are just a few rock chips north of the bumper, the entire hood and fenders will have to be re-cleared once they are repaired for it to look perfect.
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Thanks for that tip! I can very easly see that happeneing to me.

 

Total time to do this, believe it or not is right under 2 hours. And that is only because I had to figure out the windshield surround removal process and drill a screw out that wouldn't budge and stripped. Now I think I could do it all in under an hour.

 

I agree. You should see what I did with my 328 this will REALLY scare him! :

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=174763

 

It's an ejector seat; you car didn't come with one?

Seriously, I've always thought it was just a dummy switch, but after pulling it, I can't figure out what the wires going to it do. It doesn't do a thing when you hit the switch while the car is powered. I'll have to look into this further now when it's all back together. Now it's off to the garage to get back to taking things off the car.