Aftermarket Carbon Fiber tips and tricks I learned

When I originally bought my 430 my intention was to keep it stock other than exhaust, so I tried to find one configured exactly how I liked it.

This didn’t last long as I needed a cup holder for my coffee addiction and I did have to swap out the Fabspeed Supersport Raceline exhaust for something with valves to make my neighbors and my wife happy.

During a minor repair to my steering wheel leather from a fingernail, the repair guy suggested he could color the embossed horses on my seats red to match the stitching. He showed me photos of some examples he had done on other cars and I was sold….

So what was next…

My driveway is on a hill, and one day walking up and looking at the rear underside of the car it seemed to me it really needed a matching rear diffuser to match the OEM carbon fiber challenge grill. So an hour drive to Fabspeed in Pennsylvania and I had one in the back of my wife’s SUV.

My son and I went to install the diffuser and noticed my Fabspeed exhaust brackets combined with my Kline exhaust were hitting the rear diffuser. So I removed the diffuser, had the bracket cut

https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/what-is-the-torque-value-for-the-bolts-on-crash-plate-at-the-back-of-the-gearbox.640054/#post-147840086

Trick for the diffuser (including OEM) is to line up the two side bracket holes first which go into the flexi/bendable arms in the rear quarters. If you're lucky with the aftermarket one you can use a screwdriver with the other holes to force the other holes to line up. I couldn’t on the drivers side, so simply removed the wheel and fender liner after aligning the holes up and then pushed the side brackets to line up while my son inserted the last screw. All is perfect now.

OK, this began my aftermarket exterior carbon journey. Next up the rear engine cover louvers. This time I went with Exotic Car Gear also in PA. I called Dave up and made arrangements to pickup the louvers at their offices.

Before I went to install them on the car, I purchased some Gyeon ceramic coating on Amazon since my car was already coated and wanted the new louvers to be done. My OCD noticed some issues with glue or something on the louvers and swapped them out at Exotic Car Gear for a new set. No biggie and customer support was great with Exotic Car Gear. Had a few other minor issues that they helped me with and to be honest their customer support is the best I have experienced with any aftermarket car parts supplier.

So now for my tips on aftermarket louvers. Do not use the bolts that come with the louvers. After a bunch of google searches I noticed all the aftermarket louvers are the same, they use a larger bolt than factory. This is an issue for fit and finish as you will have a much harder time aligning everything to be perfect ("OCD safe” is how I refer to it) without using the smaller OEM size bolts. So I purchased 8mm to 6mm thread reducers and some permanent loctite.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09FFCLJLG

This made the installation quick and easy as I had enough play in the holes with the OEM size bolts to align everything perfectly. Now I also didn’t initially use OEM 6mm bolts and washers because the OEM bolts have some thread locker already on them and I wanted to see how the smaller bolts worked out and they have been fine. Haven’t switched them back to a new set of OEM bolts that I purchased, but will at some point this summer to make it a semi-permanent install like factory.

Finally onto the engine panels…

After cleaning my engine using Griots engine cleaner, I noticed a paint bubble on my factory drivers side engine panel. Pushing on the bubble, the paint cracked off. I removed the panel and brought it to my local body shop to have them refinish it. About $200 later and the paint was fixed. Then I noticed another spot on the passenger side, I removed that and had it refinished. So now $400 in and I decided to order a set of carbon fiber engine panels from Dave at Exotic Car Gear. They were out of stock, I put a deposit down and about a month later I got a phone call they were in stock. Excitedly I hopped into the SUV and drove out to pick up the panels.

To make the job easier to install/remove, I ordered this mini-socket set from Amazon and wow it really helped in removing and reinstalling the panels.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MVNQ2KZ

The weather sucked for about two weeks so I didn’t get anything done. Finally we had a nice day here in NJ and at about 10:00 I grabbed my 14 year old son to help install the panels. We cut a spare broom handle to size and made sure it was smooth with some sand paper so that we could remove the two rear hatch shocks. I was able to put one side of the panel into the top of the hatch indents and the other I get a small groove into the broom handle so it would fit into the bow shaped exhaust bracket. I used a plastic clamp to make sure it won’t slide as well. To remove the actual shocks I used a small snake tongue looking lever from a soldering tool kit. It’s perfect for the job since its curved a bit to get into the clasp without any scratching of the plastic on the shock.

1st problem, I dropped a few screws and washers in the removal of the panels. Really my own carelessness. Lesson learned do not play music that you want to sing along with while working on your car which has panels so that a dropped screw or washer doesn’t simply fall to the bottom.

Here is where a cheap extending magnet from Autozone and a really cheap endoscope helped. I taped the magnet arm to the endoscope and was easily able to pickup almost all the dropped items, I’ll get the last two washers at my next service if they don’t fall out somewhere along the way. The endoscope I got on special from Amazon. All of this Amazon stuff isn’t an endorsement or advertisement for Amazon, but sometimes it’s the easiest way to get items.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MV6X4M4

After retrieving the dropped screws and washers, I was able to install the rear carbon panel and then moved onto the drivers side main panel. This is where I learned a lot. After playing around trying to get it to fit, this is what I learned….

Use blue painters tape on the painted area of the rear so that you don’t scratch any paint.

If something doesn’t fit, don’t force it. I did scratch part of the carbon fiber on the front bracket for the support bar in the engine compartment. Lucky for me, I have a 1” micro polisher, so some quick wet-sanding and polishing to have it look like new.

This also gave me my 1st epiphany when I was looking at the panel I took off;

The two lower posts for the longer 50mm screws looked “off". I grabbed a small screwdriver that would sit flush with the outside of the panel holes and measured the original “depth”, marked it on the screwdriver shaft with a sharpie and proceeded to check the two posts on the new panels. They were both off the OEM panel length by over an inch. I quickly googled pictures of every other brand I could find and they were the same, the two posts were really long. Great my car is a 2009, so maybe that could be the issue. I even found a picture of the posts on an OEM factory panel from a Scuderia and it looked like my OEM panel, so maybe the theory that something changed on 2008/2009 cars over the earlier ones. Either way I knew the solution. A Dremel. Rule of thumb, never Dremel your Ferrari to make something fit, but with aftermarket stuff you might need some Dremel “adjustment” on the part (not the car) for a perfect fit and finish.

So using the measurement marks on the screwdriver as a guide, I proceeded to cut, sand and finally file the two shafts to match their original panel shaft depths. I also noticed the water drain post looked very long compared to the original, so looked at that OEM Scuderia panel picture and noticed it was the same as my aftermarket ones, so I measured mine from the outside and it matched where the water would be draining out on my OEM panel. It seems the way mold (mould if your English) is created for the fiberglass panels vs the carbon fiber their overall length is the same but the fiberglass one is thicker and appears stubby because of that making the drain shaft look shorter.

Well my newly “modified” carbon fiber panel fit perfectly, just like factory since I made sure the two bottom posts on each panel were the exact same length as far as the screws were concerned. I moved the panel into place, and using a screwdriver to line up the rear most top bolt and a small but long thin screwdriver through the screw hole adjusted the two 50mm screw bracket nuts (they have a sliding nut) so that the 50mm screw with wavy and large washers grabbed into the nut just enough to make sure it doesn’t come out but still allow the panel to slide a little. This allowed me to line up top perfectly and install the other screws/bolts with washers.

I went back and performed the same “adjustment” cuts, sanding and filing on the other side measuring against it’s OEM panel using the screwdriver and installed that panel. Then I finished with the two rear panels and waited for my new emissions decal/sticker to show up to complete the conversion to a carbon fiber engine bay. Word of note: the top front 30mm screws on the rear panels have smaller black washers so they don’t dig into a protrusion on the panel. I noticed this because my OEM panels actually had a groove from the wrong side washer from this and I replaced the washers with the correct smaller ones I bought at the dealer.

Learned rule of thumb from everything in this post… Ferrari cars, at least up to and including the 430, are still mostly hand built and everything needs adjustment to fit like OEM. A quick look around the car shows that the factory used washers as spacers and “bendable” brackets all over the place to keep things aligned.


Here is the final result…
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I still have my factory MK II manifolds which have the built in heat shields.

Most of the heat is on the front side of the carbon panels so I’m curious why heat reflecting foil would help?


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Wouldn't a good coat of heat resistant clear coat or Eastwood 2k Clear help prevent this? I didn't spray my panels, but I guess I could do that when the weather is better.

 

Hijack away I don’t mind.


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Are the factory panels even clear coated with paint? Or is it just the clear epoxy? When I did have to wet sand a light scratch out of something factory carbon on my car it smelled more like epoxy than paint.

I also expect many OEM panels were refinished under warranty so we need some datapoints from original owners who didn’t have their panels done under warranty.

Maybe a lack of clear coating at the factory is why the OEM panels yellow, they don’t have any real heat protective clear.




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