Yellow Tachometer the Hard Way

As many of you know, Daniel at Ricambi and I tried to adapt their yellow 360 tachometer overlay to my 575M without success. A few days ago, Henry gave me a heads-up there was a 575 SA instrument cluster on E-Bay with a yellow tach face. So I bought it. Amazingly enough, it even had carbon fiber trim, which looks very attractive. Hope the bloody thing works.

It appears if you wait long enough, just about anything you want for your Ferrari will show up on E-Bay. So here it is and I will post some photos after installation. I now have an SA HGTC exhaust and an SA instrument panel with yellow tach, neither of which cost very much. Just need to find some inexpensive CCM brakes to go with my FHP 575M and I will be set. Maybe.

Taz
Terry Phillips
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Thanks, guys. There was a set of Challenge Stradale CCM brakes on sale on E-Bay for quite a while for $12,500 OBO, but well beyond my budget. Especially since the calipers were black. Red or yellow, would have been tempted, but not very, still too expensive.

fou- An original carbon fiber, yellow tach SA instrument set from Ferrari probably approaches $10K. This one is like manna from heaven. Especially with the carbon fiber. If it works.

All TPMS sensors in hand. Was considering new NF2s, but gave up. Will be fitted on the stock wheels soon. Progress report as soon as fitted.

Looking at getting my stock rear wheels, which I really like, widened by 1-1.5 inches. May be a great solution. More research required.

Taz
Terry Phillips

 

fou- I thought that since I now have a carbon fiber instrument panel, I would look at perhaps picking up a couple of pieces of carbon fiber trim to go with it from Ricambi. Prices varied from ~$1.4K to ~$9K for individual pieces. The sills were $1.4K each. You could indeed buy a really excellent 550 or even a 575M for the price of adding factory carbon fiber trim to a 550/575M. So for all of you out there who have carbon fiber trim or a 575 HGTC, do not worry about someone upgrading their car to match yours. You did good.

Taz
Terry Phillips

 

fou- As long as my friends keep helping, you are right. The flashlight I gave Henry has turned out to be a really good investement. $9000 or so worth. Not bad for an $89 flashlight. Now I need a $2500 set of NF2s or factory modulars. Secret ballot on that one.

Taz
Terry Phillips

 

Barry- Thanks. We shall see if it works. Now there will be all kinds of paperwork on changing the odometer. Imagine this one has less mileage on it than the 16K my 575M has, but do not know for sure. The carbon fiber is really nicely done, though. Know where there is a wrecked 575M with carbon fiber trim. Hope they have a sense of humor. The most reasonable piece of factory new carbon fiber trim I found was the center console. Here it is:

66835500 [66835500 TUNNEL CONSOLE -Carbon -Op…] $2,798.90 each

I think not.

Taz
Terry Phillips

 

Wade- Yes, they are identical except the SA was available with red or yellow tach face.

James- Daniel and I tried it, but unfortunately it does not look like it is possible. The next best thing is to send your instrument panel to Novitec in Germany and they can rebuild the panel with a red or yellow tach face. Cost ~$1500. My speedometer restoration shop here was unwilling to try and remove the tach needle. The were afraid they would destroy the needle and tachometer. The needles on all the 575 gauges are actually two thin layers only contacting at the needle point. Have to get your nose really close to see that.

As you can see here, the other difference is the 575M has white needles and the SA with either yellow or dark red tachometer face has light red needles.

Taz
Terry Phillips
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Must have been a good deal on the instrument panel because someone through E-Bay offered me double what I paid for it this morning. I turned him down, but hopefully can sell him my stock one.

Lee- Thanks, I will try and have it reprogrammed to matching mileage. My HGTC exhaust at $399 and this panel at $900 were really great bargains. If I see an SA roof panel, I will let you know.

Taz
Terry Phillips

 

James- Here is the Novitec red tach. Our sponsor Exotica can have it done for you, but they have to ship it to Germany. $1490 plus $500-800 to R&R the panel plus shipping.

Notice no horse on the tach face either. I was going to bond a small silver horse from an extra cut key I picked up with an alarm remote, if Daniel's overlay had worked. I picked up one from a CS gas door, too, but it proved to be a little large. No need now.

Taz
Terry Phillips
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Today I found out why the 575 SA instrument panel I picked up had been removed from the donor Superamerica. I Fed-Exed the panel to F.A.I. yesterday because they have the capability to repair these units, repair the strip lighting, and replace the chip that contains the odometer mileage and most of the functionality of the instruments.

Will White of F.A.I. gave me a call this morning and told me Rod Drew had checked out the unit and the strip lighting had failed, but was already repaired and the new chip matching my 575M's mileage was already installed. The cluster had originally undoubtedly come from a Ferrari dealer who just replaced the entire unit with a new one, rather than attempt a repair, and probably charged the customer $5-10K. In contrast, my cluster will be Fed-Exed back to me tomorrow at a cost way below $1000. That is what I call service and expertise.

If you have problems with your digital instrument cluster, and failure of the strip lighting is one of the main failure modes, they are the only shop of which I am aware that can restore your cluster to full capability. Here are their details if you missed them earlier. I highly recommend them. Many thanks to the fchatters who steered me in their direction.

F.A.I.
935 Sunset Dr # A
Costa Mesa, CA 92627
(949) 631-6373
Will White

Rod Drew
[email protected]
http://www.ferrarioc.com/

Taz
Terry Phillips

 

Henry- The 360, 575M, 430 and possibly earlier and later Ferraris have the instrument panels illuminated with a flexible strip light on the rear of the instrument cluster. If this strip breaks, usually at one of the 90 deg bends, no instrument lighting. Not like the little replaceable bulbs from the good old days. Replacement clusters are extremely expensive, so F.A.I. is a real godsend.

Taz
Terry Phillips

 

Since my last post, I have learned a bunch about digital instrument panels. I bought the panel from Ontime Design in Virginia, a first rate outfit with whom to deal. They told me if the instrument panel did not work, send it back for a refund. When I found it did not work, but cost about $200 to repair, they were real gentlemen and sent me the $200, no problem. Do not see that too often.

The experts on digital panels for the 360, 575M, 575 SA, f430, and F50 are Franchorchamps America, Inc and Rod Drew and Will White, as mentioned earlier. Rod is the technical expert and he discovered there was nothing wrong with the lighting on the 575 SA instrument panel. There had, instead, actually been a circuit board fire caused by the factory incorrectly assembling the panel. Rod also discovered the 360 and 575M use the same logic chip, a 2K version, while the 575 SA and f430 use an 8K chip with all kinds of additional information on it, like serial and assembly numbers and some maintenance history. Rod also found the 360 circuit board would not work on a 575M/SA because it had no provisions for the TPMS system on the 575M/SA. He fixed my 575 SA panel after learning this and has the ability to program the odometer settings on the chip to match my actual mileage, which he did. I now have the little beauty in my hands.

So if you have a digital instrument panel problem, FAI are the folks to call and can fix most problems. $500-$600 is way better than $XK for a new instrument panel.

My dash is being recovered as we speak. As soon as it arrives and the car is reassembled, I will take some photos of the installation.

Taz
Terry Phillips

 

David- As you undoubtedly surmised, considering the winky face, Rod is completely unwilling to do that. Needed a photo of my 575M panel to match the readings.

Taz
Terry Phillips