Roof Latch Strap

The first time I took off the top, I realized that the leather pull strap on the latch on one side was missing.  Upon closer inspection, I could see that the leather had torn near the button that holds it to the latch.  Here you can see the good one and the torn strap.

After a little thought, I decided that a piece of leather belt would work the best to replace the strap.  The strap was actually two pieces of leather, glued and sewed together.  So I looked for a belt of the same construction, about the right width and black on both sides.  The second trip to the local thrift store was successful with almost a perfect match.  The first belt I bought was black on one side and brown on the other.  I figured I could take it apart and use two pieces of the black, but the edges of the black were skived so the strap wouldn't look right.  So the cost for the strap ended up about $7.50, one of the cheaper parts for a Ferrari.  BTW, you can get the whole latch with a strap from Ferrari UK, but the price is  £91.25 or about 150 dollars.  Here you can see the good latch and the leather piece that I've made to match.

The other item in the picture is the Accu-Cut tool from Sears.  It's great for cutting leather and rubber.  Just to the right of the new strap, you can see a thin piece (<1/32") of leather that I trimmed off the angled cut.  I don't know of another tool that will make a cut like that.

The next things to do were to punch holes for the snap fitting, sew all around and use the snap head as a rivet to attach the strap to the latch.  As my wife wasn't willing to let me use her sewing machine, I used a jeweler's screwdriver as an awl to make holes for the thread.  Then I hand stitched around the edges to give it the same finished look.

The last thing was to use some black paint on the snap head.  The other side had the black worn off, so I touched it up too.  Here's the completed project, all ready to latch the roof on.