Hi All thought i would post my 348 Project car. The car is a 1990 TB RHD and need some TLC. Here is some of the work i have done so far. Brakes As you can see they are very dirty 1st I put the brake callipers in a parts washer, this is a big dishwasher type thing using very hot water and chemicals. Then I have Vapour blasted them to bring them up like new. I them Removed the Stainless steel pads that the brake pads sit on as there was lots of dirt trapped behind there that was causing the pad to stick. I then removed all the pistons from the calliper to find them like new, so I applied some calliper grease to them and refitted them. I then painted them with 4 coats if Plasicoat red spray. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
Great work there mate. Looks like you will be keeping busy with that project. Well.........keeping busy posting up all the work you have done and posting pics also Just curious,did you put in a new seal kit in the caliper as well?
No i would have liked to but they don't sell them !!! had to re use the old ones but they are very good. Will post more photos i have done the rear wheel bearings, done all the bushes, i have stripped the dash and all the seats as i am having them recoverd in black leather. Bad news though i have found some bad corrosion to the Front LH inner wheel arch so i stripped the front of ready for the body shop Est cost £2000 $3500 and that is with me providing the panels parts.
Very good! Keep us posted when possible Bad news about the LH front. But,its a problem and it can be fixed
Next set of photos. I put the disc on and check the run out with a DTI and something was no right. The wheel bearing had some play in it so off with the upright, all was going fine until I came to undo lower bolt that passes though the lower wishbone there was no way it was going to move so I took the whole lot of (see photos) After removing the upright I undone the ring nut that holds the drive flange on and removed the drive flange it was then I found the problem the bearing is fine but the flange should be a press fit into the bearing and it just drops in. The area on the flange is worn down which is where the play comes from. I then pressed the outer bearing of the hub this was on very tight and took around 12 ton just to brake it free. I then turned my attention to the seized lower bolt, I heated it up tried to turn undo it with no luck. After 1 hour of trying not damage the bushes I just took the plunge and heated it up until the rubber bush was all melted away (Lots of black smoke). This gave me room to put a 9-inch angle grinder in there to cut the bolt on both sides, I then could remove the upright form the wish bone. I then worked out that the bolt was stuck in the Alloy of the upright and there was no way it was coming out easily. I tried under the press but with 4 ton of pressure on it, it did not move it took me 2 hrs and a lot f heat and more pressure to get it out. The plan is to change all the suspension bushes, powder coat the wishbones and the upright then fit new bearings seals and a drive flange. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
I had the same problem with my 308 a few years ago. I had bought all new suspension bushings and couldn't get the top wishbone bolt out to replace them. The problem was I couldn't get the wishbone off any other way because the mount was welded to the frame. After heating it up and torching up half the front end of the car, and a profane vocabulary like you've never heard, I got her out.
Looking at the pics you just posted up PJME,has your 348 been submerged in deep water? There is alot of surface rust there isnt it? Even inside the hub?
How about some pic's of the whole car, I want to see if I still win the award for having the biggest 348 project car, I have a 92 348. How many miles/kilo or on this car?
I changed the wheel bearings on my 348 last year. My flange had the same problem as yours did, getting cockeyed inside the bearing and wearing out. I hope you can find a good used flange, because they are retarded expensive from the dealer.
The car has done 78000 miles, and i would say most were in the wet!!. We have very salty wet roads here in the UK and i think some of the previous owners. The photos do make it look much worse than it is.
Ok been a while Since my last post been very busy with the so called Cheep 348!! What I thought was just some light corrosion turned out to but a bit worse, up on removing the inner wheel arc covers I found some very bad rot on the LH upper wheel arch, head light supports and upper door post (see photos). This must be where water and mud get trapped over the years and just festers away and the very very thin steel. Now if you look at the right hand side there is no rust nothing all is as it left the factory. The strange thing is where the floor meets around the inner arch on the right hand side had suffer real bad but on the left hand side (where the inner arch has gone) it is ok. I must stress the chassis is 100% no rot no rust and are all the sills and other body panels. As you can see by the photos I have stripped the car down removed all the front suspension, steering rack, anti roll bar etc. The car is now at a very good classic car restorer. They are going to fit the new panels I have brought, remove all the black paint from the body etch prime seam seal and rust proof the whole under side, then spray cavity wax in all the chassis so there should be no more problems. I can only think that some of the previous owners drove the car in all weathers and that is why I have this problem? But if you feel the weight of the new panels you can see why they rust, paper-thin that all I can say. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
I stripped my car complete and there is nowhere rust. Mine was driven 100.000km all year all day till now. So it can't be the material. Maybe they parked it for some month in a salt lake? The metal parts you replaced are not the strong ones the strong important metal parts for the stiffness have 2,5-3mm strenght. ____________________ Samy
The rest of the car is fine it is just these spots, it makes no sence why 1 one side is ok but the other is rusty ?? any way it will be fixed up good
Love those pic's did you see my undercarriage, I think I still might have you beat, I am sure my car is still a bigger pig I haven't decided to let mine live or die, anxious to see what you do with the hand cable hole repair.
I saw these one side effect on other cars too. But i don't have an good answere why. Maybe because of reasons during the build process of the car. Or maybe the position on the road .. to the middle of the street or to the outside that there is some side more effected by water and salt. And i noticed on yours that you don't have the black paint on the inner parts? Why? I tought all 348 , 355 have these faint black paint for rust protection all over the place? Also the fender support on the picture i bought one the last month for mine and it was also with the black faint paint ... under that faint black was the gray like yours is. ___________________________ Samy
I saw your phots this morning (it 1050 pm here now) and i thought i would post mine. My car was a running car i drove it 100 miles back from where i brought it, i thought it neede a new Retrim and a good going over boy how wrong was i ! I have a new hand brake cable and turned up a bush to be welded into the floor. The garage who is doing the body work will sort this out, cost wise they say around £2000 ($3500) to sort out just the welding and rust proofing. I hope to go and see them to take some photos of there work.
Keep the pics coming- I had a 71 Pontiac that didn't have that level of corrosion- what's the story here?
It rains a lot here and they use shed loads of salt on the roads in winter. If you use a car with marginal rustproofing and lots of mud traps all year round this type of corrosion can happen pretty fast. 15 years is plenty long enough IMO, especially if you never clean the crap out from the arches. Cars always rot worse on the LH side here as it's the wheel that takes the water/mud/salt splashes from the gutter.
Ok been busy again, I have had some new front shox made up for me.I sent one off as a sample to LEDA and after a few phone calls about spring rate and car weight they came up with these, they look well made and have 16 settings on the Damping. I have always used their suspension on all my cars, time will tell if what they perform like on a Ferrari. I have also had all the front wishbones powder coated and fitted new Bushes all round so this should sharpen up the handling. Also as you can see by the photos I have fitted some hill engineering chrome rings to my gauges, I think that they look more modern. I have had the dash/ centre console recovered in black leather with red stitching. I asked the guy for some leather so I could get the 348 logo embroidered into the glove box cover but he said let me have a go and if you dont like it I will recover it for you. So what do you think?? he has done it free hand and I think it looks a bit well crap !! Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
