Skip to main content

Ferrari 360 and 430 Spider Convertible Top Replacement


Author: Joseph Pavich

With so many 360's and F430's coming of age and showing signs of wear due to time, we're all likely noticing some effects of a fading or failing convertible top. The cost of a replacement with OEM parts can be incredibly high considering the tops are only provided with some expensive frame components included and partially installed.

However, for the careful and meticulous DIY'ers among us, replacing the convertible top along with headliner can be done using an aftermarket top of equal or sometimes better quality.

This write up will hopefully help those that are attempting to install a new convertible top on a 360 or F430 for the first time. While I have installed various convertible tops before, this was my first F430. As such, the writeup represents what I've managed to learn during the procedure from a single attempt while having some background knowledge of the process in general.

I hope it proves itself as a useful tool to others attempting this for the first time.

Please follow this link to my PDF.

Ferrari 360/F430 Aftermarket Convertible Top Installation

Link to the original thread on Ferrari Chat.

https://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/threads/how-to-replace-your-convertible-top.672661/

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

My Pursuit of a Ferrari

Why Ferrari? Ferrari. What's the first thing that pops into your head when you hear that word? Ferrari as a brand is among the most recognized in the world. Everyone has heard of Ferrari, right? My first encounter with the Ferrari brand goes back to college. The owner of the apartment building I lived in when I attended the University of Miami had a Dino of some sort. I don't know exactly what model. I recall a sloped nose and shark like gills in the hood. It sounded way cooler than the noise that came out of my '71 Opel Manta. He also had a Donzi or maybe two. It seemed like he used the apartment building to house his numerous beautiful women "friends". Fast forward forty years and now I'm buying a Ferrari. At first, I didn't really know I wanted a Ferrari. I wanted a really nice, prestigious, fast, exciting car that I'd keep until they pried the keys out of my cold, dead hands. I really like the Mercedes cars, have two, and thought a good choic...

Bosch Throttle Body (Holder) Woes

My 360 started going into limp mode a while back. It was subtle at first, with it starting to lose power after 4,000 RPM's and then less subtle when it would barely go above idle. Limp mode protects the car when some vital part has malfunctioned. I know a master Ferrari tech that is nice enough to answer questions for me about the car. He lives more than five hundred miles away and it's like telemedicine.  The codes indicated a problem in the drive-by-wire circuit, likely culprit: One or more TB's or the accelerator potentiometer (AP), which is the foot pedal sensor.  I had a good code reader that could monitor the AP voltages (2) and they appeared to be within specification. That left the TB's, one or both. After a long discussion with the tech, his answer was to replace the throttle bodies (TB). The Ferrari 360 has two TB's. One for each bank of four cylinders. To the Ferrari mentality, replacement could only be with two new TB's: "Ferrari likes replacing...

Ferrari 360 Heat Exchanger Failure Analysis

I've been examining a failed heat exchanger sent in by a fellow Ferrari 360 owner and it appears that the problematic side is from the oil and not the coolant, at least in this case. Three leaks were detected by running water from a hose through the oil side. I used a set of banjo bolts (M16x1.5) purchased on Amazon for $13 to connect to the oil side. In addition, the HE oil side appeared to be literally packed with debris. I haven't analyzed it yet but it appears to be more than just oil mixes with coolant. I removed one of the tubes that had a leak by using a tapered reamer on a drill press. The tapered reamer would be self-centering so I wouldn't have to be concerned with being slightly off center, which would be an issue with straight bit. The stops were set at a very conservative place and when I reached the stop, progress was checked and if no sign of cut through, lower the stop a bit and repeat. Once cut through was detected, and that was pretty easy to see, the HE w...