This long, Spring Bank Holiday weekend I was able to finally get started on making some of the modifications I mentioned in my last post: the Challenge-style grill and front radiator intake covers. All of the parts arrived a week or so ago (care of Eurospares) but this was the first available weekend I had to start the work. I wasn’t quite able to get everything done, but the car now has a Challenge-style rear grill, as well as a properly connected battery conditioner cable, and black carbon Scuderia shields by the front wheel arches (with matching carbon ornament on the front luggage compartment).

I started with the easy tasks, before breakfast no less: the battery tender cable and then the shields. The cable was easy enough to fit, following the guide by Aldous Voice (with most of the DIY I undertake I follow his guides). In fact, with fitting the cable, most of the time was spent enlarging the hole at the end of the cables +12V wire was it wouldn’t fit over the bolt. Once everything was in place I was able to connect the conditioner and get the battery back to 100%.

Next up were the Scuderia shields, which involved a little bit of guess work and luck. I was able to find many different guides, all with different measurements for where to position the shields on the body. I eventually settled on one the used the crease on the wheel arch to position the bottom of the shield and then said it needed to be 72mm from the edge of the panel by the door. By temporarily holding them in place with some masking tape, I was able to confirm that the positioning looked okay—not too high or low and not too far forward or rearward. Rinse and repeat for the other side. The front ornament took a little more work as it stubbornly refused to budge, after unscrewing the nut holding it on, but with a bit of brute force it came away and was replaced with a 3D cavallino rampante on black carbon. It may not be original but it both stands out and matches the side shields in appearance.

After a quick coffee it was time to start on the rear grill. (Again following a guide by Aldous Voice.) As mentioned in the guide, the hardest part was getting to the nuts and bolts at the far edges of the grill; not visible and relying on feel to unscrew them, making sure not to drop anything to the floor. Securing the chrome horse to the Challenge grill was also a hassle, with the bolts on the horse and the holes in the grill not being quite as perfectly matched as the could have been. Brute force to the rescue once more, and everything was peachy—time to fit the new grill.

With this all complete we realised that to change the front air intake grills, a low-profile jack was necessary, so we downed tools and headed out to purchase one. It’s possible that we could have continued working during late afternoon and in to the evening but the decision was made to break for some BBQ’d burgers and a beer (or two). There also isn’t quite the rush to fix-up the front as it’s not as noticeable as the rear; I suspect most people aren’t going to be that clued-in anyway. And I needed to catch up on the Formula 1 qualifying from Monaco. So stay tuned for part two, but until then, here are a few photographs of how the work has progressed so far:

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By Ashley

Life-long Ferrari fan, and eventual Ferrari owner. It has long been a dream of mine to own a Ferrari, and in the summer of 2014—shortly before I turned 30—I was lucky enough to be in a position to buy my first: a 2001, 360 Modena in rosso corsa with tan interior. Following an horrific accident in 2017, I had to work hard to get back into a Ferrari, this time opting for giallo Modena with black. This blog is where I aim to share my experiences along my Ferrari journey.