THE PUZZLE

Now it was the turn of the inside, Jack was devoted to dismantling also clasified and took note of each part he was taking, it is a real macropuzzle. It is a very minute job that made slower the dismantling, but Jack found it very necessary not to lose a staple and make easier the final assembly. In this process it was essential to have all documentation gathering all little parts of the car.

Jack told me he got so touched when dismantling some emblematic parts of Ferrari, the ball of the gearshift, the typical rack gears, and of course, the "Prancing Horse" of the rear of the car grill. There's an individual picture of each part.

Purchased parts are not in these photos because I’ll show you when Jack receives them.
Jack always liked race-cars and now he had the great opportunity to amend the F355 of his dreams to quit as the F355 Challenge, for that reason Jack also dismantled carpets and all soundproofed to leave the floor bare to weld securing the lugs which engage the hooks of the harness racing.
This work is carried out fully reversible to leave the car with original seats and safety belts or backets and harnesses. This way one day could go for a gentle drive and another day drive much more racing.

NEW ORDER

After another search throughout internet Jack has found and bought the rear-mirrors, always secondhand. He ordered to Eurospares with the help of Fran. As always here are the photos.

Its conservation status is correct, they are nothing special, the only thing is that very few have been made, no other Ferrari model use them. Taking into account that the F355 all versions have been made nearly 12,000 units, so the smaller series production units the more expensive parts are. The price of each mirror if new would cost around 900 €.

WHAT A RANGE OF SCREWS

Jack continued with the process of dismantling: back roof rack, the rear lights, exhaust heatproof fabric and seats. Some parts are perfectly out but others need previous takedowns of other parts before that normally should not be removed, there are a variety of nuts, bolts and washers, perhaps too many. Hereunder you’ll find the pictures so you can see how the car is dismantling.

Some people asked Jack how is the trunk of this car? He always replied that it was ideal to go shopping with wifes because it was so small that barely fit two bags with 1 dress each, ji, ji, ji,ji, ji,(laughs) this way they would not spend much on clothes. Obviously the concept was clear! not the magnitude. So we've got some pictures of the trunk and put inside an A4 sheets folder, as a reference, the battery place, this way everyone can get an idea of its capacity. By the way, for those who do not see it clearly, trunk is on the front and there is no spare wheel, originally it is equipped with a puncture aerosol
as the one in the Peugeot 206 CC.

VIGO MOTOR SHOW

This week Jack and I went to visit Vigo Motor Show, the photos uploaded are the best I saw because of new cars only caught my attention, and not visually, the more than 500CV BMW M5 (120,000 €)


Jack thinks cars are not made as they used to. The BMW M5 was started to catch attention punching it, then Jack told me the smoke didn’t smell of gasoline butof gas heater, just hot air. Jack says that the authorities that protect the environment will be very happy but he still prefers to burn some fuel. It is a typical human contradiction because obviously Jack wants to protect the environment.

Electronics also seems excessive, some is good but he says they should follow the example of the Japanese and make cars more simplified and eventually with less breakdowns. "In Europe you get a sofa-like seat, massaging and armrest, going so comfortable that you fall asleep and then they invent the alert detector rail or drowsiness. For professionals in the steering wheel is nice but I think most people only use them to show off with a neighbor or friends when you buy the car, because 70% of the owners two months later no longer use even half of the equipment of the car." But I think if Builders provide them is because it is demanded.

INTERIOR

The week after Jack took some parts of fiberglass to repair to a nearby workshop, more over he kept on dismantling and clasifying parts at the rythm his daily tasks allowed him. The truth is that everything is of high quality, almost all nuts are self-braking, bears fixing screws in the threads, all screws have a surface treatment such dichromate, is no h int of rust, even in the plate that was hit and lost his painting 10 months ago, the steel plate is Zincrox type, electrolytic zinc applied on one side of the sheet of multiple layers of chromium and chromium oxide.

This Ferrari went through treatments such as phosphating and electrocoating body as any modern car, but on the outside although it has several protective coatings on the final color is monolayer, ie not as the current large series cars carrying a layer of lacquer that provides color and finally a varnish, but the last layer is the spot color with natural shine. Inside all layers are painted in black. I should point out that modern Ferrari have a final ceramic varnish that can keep with scratches but it is not the latest hit in paint that heals (Scracht Guard Coat ") Nissan's patented and it’s already sold in the Infiniti EX37


Talking about disassembling you can see screws are not hidden, it is true that this is lost in quality and refinement in appearance but in return the parts can be removed without forcing them.

LEFT SID CAR DISMANTLING.

Jack was very anxious to dismantle the left side of the car to begin the repair with the aid of the parts he had bought the week before. Then began the task to lay bare the body with the clear view of the damage, took special care not to damage or break any parts he removed all the screws, staples, and small parts, classified them not to lose and to assemble in the right place a long time afterwards. This was very important because breaking something or lose it would cost extra money in the best of cases, because it could be that they wouldn’t be for sale.

THANK YOU, THANK YOU.

After being properly informed about the purchase conditions for two second-hand parts found in site www.eurospares.co.uk Jack decided to buy them, of course first had to advance the money and then wait patiently for the arrival of the goods to his house, although he just waited three days it seemed to him an eternity.

Jack was very surprised because in one way or another many people gave him valuable information in order to obtain documents and pieces all over the Internet, so he always tells me that without this support and without the so powerful tool "internet" he could not make his dream come true, so much that he’ll feel eternally grateful.

Hereunder I leave the photos of the two leftside parts bought in the luxury junkyard of England.

FIRST SHOPPING IN FERRARI.

Jack was awaiting news of the parts purchased in the United Kingdom and meanwhile he booked the battery holder in the Ferrari dealership, it was not very expensive it cost about 60 €. Getting parts is really difficult, but Jack insists and insists and donot give up.

UNITED KINGDOM PARADISE OF SPORTCARS

All car lovers know that the UK is a haven of luxurious and exclusive cars. Jack was told that in UK there was a dismantling-house for Ferrari Maserati, Lamborghini, Jaguar, Aston Martin ... and also had an extraordinary website. This site is www.eurospares.co.uk.

Jack got in touch with them and later on he bought the door spoiler and the heel, both parts are of fiber on left side. Despite selling in Pounds the final cost was less than bringing them from USA, especially high-volume parts.

Jack has got good friends, Fran is one of his fellowmates that speaks perfect English and helped him to buy these parts as it was necessary to do so by telephone. He will be eternally grateful.

AND WHAT ABOUT THE INSURANCE?

In a week with not much activity on purchasing parts management, Jack was devoted to research on car insurance to value how much could cost a conventional insurance. Among 7 insurance companies 5 didn’t secured the car, the other two offered a price of about € 900 to a third party theft and fire covered getting a locking device installed, the price seemed reasonable. It's a pity that in Spain there is not the possibility to ensure the car just for use, that is, pay only when the car is on the road and not when it is in the garage.

THE PERSEVERANCE

Jack after visiting numerous sites where car parts were sold he found on a U.S. site the bottom left door panel, he focused on it but the price was such high that almost deserved to buy it in the Ferrari dealer. Below I leave these websites.

Mirrors were some of the pieces Jack needed but there were not anywhere, the only ones that appeared were always very damaged.

YES NOW, YES NOW, TIRIRI, TORORO, TURURU, TURRUNRRUN, BRUUUUUUNNNN,

Over February 2008 and after a thorough study, to prove ownership of the Ferrari and with the help of skilled professionals Jack was able to reconstruct the anti-theft system. Jack says that the first words of his daughters were "hello" and "mama" and ones of his adopted son "bbbbbbbbbbbbrrrrrruuuuuuuuuunnnn." Jack admits that when Ferrari began to speak he was relieved, here I show the video of the start up ... ... ..






Jack, despite the logistical difficulties still tried to manage the purchase of spare parts in the USA, sent many mails to many pages but until late February still had nothing materialized

MORE PARTS.

Finally in the third week of January Jack ended some efforts being undertaken to buy the bumpers, thanks to Internet he found in Jerez de la Frontera a person who sold the bumpers of the F355 Challenge, his first intention was to rent a van and take to the 1.100Km road trip but thanks to an acquaintance of a transport company and the willingness of the seller to make a good pack decided not to go. Enrique from Jerez made a sleek package with two bumpers in a single package with bubble wrap very protected and Manuel by Seur was provided with the logistics in an altruistic way and this is not a joke because even though bumpers are fiber and the total weight was less than 30 kg the problem was that the dimensions of the package (2000x900x500mm) made the transport rates were about 300 €. Underneath you can see the unpackaging.

On the other hand Mito and Ledo, friends of Jack, gave the address (which they were given) of a company website, although it did not have the parts needed, it does have a very interesting documentation. The full service manual car, he rushed to buy it because it was the best way to rebuild the car accurately, they could also have drawings to indicate the parts he need to buy to the sellers.

WHAT A RIP-OFF !!

Jack got informed in two concessionaires on how could he enable the antitheft system and both said he should install a whole new anti-theft system, also for obvious reasons of security should bring the car to a dealer to manage from there to solicit Ferrari Italy of a new system. Although Jack was very "fucked" understood that this procedure is quite logical because we were talking about the security of a unique vehicle.

Eventually the new anti-theft system was coming out € 2000 excluding VAT and installation (3600 € all included), this news turned out to be a championship blow to the morale of Jack and so he went blank that week, he did nothing. But after seeing Ferrari’s dealer showcase and imagine his going down the street he recovered and returned to the workshop next week. VISUALIZING IS THE SECRET OF MY MOTIVATION

SANTA IS COMING!!!

At the end of December 2007 Jack started the paperwork that would legalize the circulation of Spanish-registered car and its new and excited owner. Obviously this was not free and must pay to the Spanish state administration about 1200€.

In early January 2008 Jack received his particular gift from Santa Claus, it was his first adquisition but not the most important, because they were not very necessary to begin repairing the plate, he bought the four rear lights at a price of 80 € each . But Jack was still looking for bumpers because they were quite necessary to begin repairing the plate. Jack had so many Internet addresses needed to organize. The trouble is that they were all U.S. and hardly respond him, what did, had exorbitant prices because he must add a lot of taxes.

For example if the spoiler of the door with a small bump that needs to be repaired costs € 1000 in USA, then we must add the transport (€ 300), then you should pay VAT (16% of 1300 = 208 €) after fees are paid (4% of 1508 = 60 €) and finally the repairing here about 70 €, so € 1000 piece in USA comes here for 1000 +300 +208 +60 +70 = € 1,638 which is more expensive than the price at the dealership.