Hi all, I am new here, just brought my first Ferrari 93 348tb in my life 2 months ago. I drove it the way as it is supposed to be driven. Took it out for a spin twice a week, crusing in relative high speed and rev the engine gentlely. However, the perfect paint in the front was a disaster afterward. Stone chips everywhere. They are very noticeable as my car is in Black color. How you guys prevent such damage and is it worth keeping the front part repaint every 3 months or so? Anyway, nice to meet you Ferrari guys here. Cheers
The front spolier is GRP and paint just flies off it. the only thing you can do is to apply armourguard of 3M to stop the damage
Unless you apply 3M/Stoneguard clear plastic material right after a repaint, you're going to get rock chips. Many of us use Langka, which wonderfully smoothes out the blobs left by touch-up paint you'd use to fill rock chips. If you use the link below to get to their site and eventually make a purchase, they make a donation to the Ferrari club. http://coldfusion.affiliateshop.com/AIDLink.cfm?AID=030303&BID=2094
Besides these 2 suggestions, you want to think about a color coded nose bra by Speed Lingerie which will match the color of the car. It is a nice fit and will cost around $450 or so. I have had 2 and keep it on all the time unless the car gets wet. I have seen the 3M StoneGuard and it looks good. Depending on the color of the car you may notice an orange peel look.
as i understand it, stoneguard does not prevent major rock chips - all it does is prevent the paint from flaking off. so unless you plan to keep the film on there forever (which maybe that is the intent of most folks, i dunno), as soon as you pull it, off comes the paint. i would just learn to accept it. repainting of the front bumper is expected and will not hurt resale, etc. before you sell it, just have it repainted then. congrats on the 348!! enjoy!
That is NOT my understanding. The film takes the impact rather than the paint. I don't see any signs of cracking or distress under the film. However, I must admit that I have not pulled the film off to see if any paint chips become apparent then. I'd definitely do Stongard before I'd do any sort of opaque bra. My Stradale will be getting Stongard as soon as it arrives! Brian
Careful, taking your Ferrari for a spin a couple of times a week could add up to a good couple of hundred miles per year. Which is right up there with a few stone chips on the spoiler. Although not quite as bad as getting a Ferrari wet, boy that would be a sin.
You just learn to live with it, and get it repainted every other year, or when you can't stand it any longer. Later, you will also find that the nose gets ground away slowly as you traverse all sorts of road impediments like shallow grades, gentle transitions from one road to another, and minor speed bumps. Get these repaired and repainted when you do the whole front.
my info is from the ferrari dealer body shop manager. he's pulled a few off in his days. i agree, from a common sense perspective, that it would protect against small collisions, ie, sand, low speed rocks, but cruising behind another car at 100-something mph (which is when most of the damage occurs, in my case at least)... i doubt it. it is just film, not plexiglass. just what i've heard, fwiw...
Negative, I have the 3m film on my 355 and in 1 year I have not recived one rock chip. I beleive the story you probably heard was that when you take the film off there will be indentations (dimples), however the paint would still be intact.
that's what i'm saying, the stones will cause damage thru the film. it just won't look like it b/c the film is still intact "holding" the paint in place (i'm not saying the stone will rip thru the film) but the "indentions" are causing damage to the paint and that part of the paint will come off with the film. again, that is what the body shop is telling me. i personally don't know one way or the other...
just repaint. I've tried everything. Repainting is not very expensive, and if done by a very good shop, that knows Ferraris, it will be done better than new. Come to terms with this as a cost of ownership, then its not so bad. There is no way you can enjoy driving your car without chips, so drive it and fix it. And no it will not hurt your cars value, or be worth any less if it is done fixed.
Man I have chips on my black 308, so what? I'm too busy enjoying driving her.Enjoy yours, and repaint later if it really bothers you.
Stone chips? Wear the damage proudly! Alright, I do touch them up, but jeesh, it ain't the end of the world... Mitch has it right, when it gets bad enough, have the front repainted....you should be able to have the entire front repainted, from the front of each door, for about $2k...then consider StonGard. If the paint fractures under the StonGard, it will lift if right off, when you remove the film. Heard this from a guy who had some removed...Not a huge deal, consider all the "saves" you get from the lesser impacts....I have StonGard on my BMW, but not on my 87 328GTS, as it already has plenty of chips, and is not work protecting at this point...maybe after I have the front resprayed. If it really bothers you, just do what half the people on this list do, quit driving your car. Ah, the shame of it all!
