It is amazing that most of the brand new Ferraris we work on are in such terrible condition. Part of the reason, I suppose, is that every new Ferrari is “tested” at the famous Fiorano Race track out side the factory in Maranello Italy. From my understanding they are ran pretty hard and probably get a little beat up. None the less, most of the new Ferraris that I work on are in much worse shape (or as bad as) the cars sitting on the lot at a Kia dealer.
Tom, the owner, took delivery of this car a month ago yesterday and immediately contacted to schedule an appointment to make his new baby perfect. In the mean time he had a custom exhaust made by Capristo (which sounds unbelievable by the way) and a Novitec rear wing installed.
Since most of the click and brag’s I write are thrown together and mostly consist of the process and pictures, I decided to do this one a little different and hopefully make it more educational. For a lot of you guys it will be redundant but hopefully it may answer some questions for some of you.
To me one of the most important aspects of proper detailing is in the inspection of the car. Akin to a doctor who must run tests before making a diagnosis, a high level detailer must thoroughly inspect the condition of the vehicle and the owners’ needs and expectations. Then we can customize our process to exceed their expectations and provide outstanding service.
When I first arrived, the Ferrari was under a cover after being washed by the owner the week previous. It was very clean and only needed a wipe down with a quick detailer to ensure the surface was completely clean. Use judgment and if you are unsure, wash the vehicle completely. However the tires where a little “greasy” and still had the original chalk markings from the factory.
Ceramic brakes come standard on the ’08 Ferrari’s and the 360 Challenge Stradale (previously an option on the F430) and greatly reduce brake dusting. These brakes require special care, however. From my understanding, any silicon that contacts the rotors themselves (certain cleaners and dressings) will be absorbed by the rotors (like water on a sponge) and will ruin the rotors and pads. I believe the cost for replacement per rotor is around $2000 US.
I used P21s Wheel Gel (after contacting a P21s rep) to thoroughly clean the rims by spraying them with the gel and agitating the solution with a combination of the EZ Detail Brush and Swissvax’s wheel brush. A q-tip was used to agitate the solution in tight areas, such as those around the lug nuts and tight corners. After being allowed to dwell for 45 seconds to a minute, I washed with pressure until the water running out of the rim was completely clean. It is also advisable to use latex gloves (or a comparable alternative if you have latex sensitivity), which allows you to reach into the rim when you are cleaning and make sure the wheel cleaner solution has been applied behind the rims and agitated.
I also use my gloved hand when rinsing to redirect the water stream into tight areas such as behind the rims. After cleaning the rims, I used a
Meguiar’s Gold Glass Tire Brush in conjunction with Emmin Fabrik Tire cleaner to remove the dealer installed slime that was on the tires as well as the factory chalk marks. Simply spray on and scrub with a brush until the tire is clean then rinse thoroughly away. Make sure to re rinse the well as well to prevent any cleaner from drying on the surface of the wheel. Because the owner of this car is very capable of washing the car himself, I did not feel nor find and dirt, grit, or
grime in the wheel arches. However if there was, I prefer to wash the wells first, so that you are not rinsing dirt on to the clean tires.
After wiping the paint and exterior surfaces with Zaino Z6 I was ready to begin my inspection. I glove my hand with latex and use a little quick detailer spray and rub lightly over the paint’s surface using my finger tips, feeling for light bumps that would constitute bonded contaminants embedded onto the paint. Inspecting the surface of the F430 by feel, I did not find any obvious contamination. Given that I like to buff on a clean, bare paint and never like to take chances I always prep the paint by claying. Given the paint felt contaminant free, I used the mild Zaino Z18 clay using ONR mixed with distilled water as a lubricant to prevent the clay from marring the paint.
Given that clay is an abrasive medium that is used to sheer off contaminants, it comes in different grades or “grits.” More aggressive clay will remove the more contaminates and clean the paint quicker then a clay with less “cut”, it can also mar the paint. Always use the least aggressive method that will provide the cleaning you require and use plenty of lubrication. Clay a small section at a time until the surface looks clean and feels very smooth, then wipe the dry with a micro fiber towel and re inspect. If it looks and feels good, move to the next section.
After claying each painted section, including jambs and the painted lips that role into the wheel arches, and windows thoroughly I moved on to thorough pre inspection of the paint’s condition. I had noticed a slight appearance of holograms and more swirl marks as I was claying that led me to believe this car might have a filler based glaze on it as part of the dealer “prep”. Even Ferrari dealerships employ less then ideal detailers, however ever the particular dealership (Shelton Ferrari) supposedly uses the best.
Most clay manufacturers claim that claying the car makes slick and smooth. Bare paint should be smooth, but it is a product that is left behind that gives the slick feel. Since most of us clay with a quick detailer (many of which add slickness to the paint) it only makes sense as to which products add the slickness to the paint and can also act to hide or mask defects. Also, some abrasive polishes act funny when mixed with certain silicones, it is always a good idea to wipe the car down with a high level of alcohol or solvent based prep prior to polishing and in between each step to avoid cross contamination and give a truer appearance to the condition of the paint.
After wiping the paint down with Wruths’ Prep-Solve, I was amazed to see the immediate appearance of hologramming and swirl marks that appeared as the polymers from ONR and water glaze was left after claying where removed.
Here are some pictures I shot when I first met Tom in the morning and the Ferrari was outside. It had light swirls (which where obviously deeper, since they had not been filled and turned out be RIDS) but over all was pretty good and seemed to me to be much better then most new Ferrari’s that I detail.
However, after the solvent wipe down, here is a picture of the hood using my HID inspection light (which does a great job showing buffer trails). A good paint inspection requires looking at every angle under different lighting conditions. A high powered halogen light does a very good job of showing swirl marks (although as stated by Scott, Ferrari’s Rosso Corsa color and similar hues a difficult to pick up under halogens and even harder to photograph) and deeper defects in the paint while a hand held HID light is very beneficial for spotting holograms and lighter defects, as well as showing texture changes in the paint itself (such as blend marks).
Here is the obvious hologramming in the paint that HID light highlights.
After a getting a good feel of the defects in the paint’s surface, I measured the paint in consistent areas around the Ferrari and made a note of these measurements. This will allow me to actually gauge and measure the rate and amount of paint removed to make sure that we are not removing excessive clear coat that can prevent the car from being polished again and destroy the U.V. protection of the paint. The paint readings ranged from 4.9 mils (low) to a high of 8.2 mils. This variance in the depth is common on Ferrari’s and none of the measurements led to believe that any area’s had been repainted, which is also not uncommon on cars of this nature. Most area’s where in the 5 to 6 mil range with over all average being 5.4 mils.
It is always wise to tape up any areas of the vehicle that may come into the contact with polishing pad to prevent damage to the car. I prefer 3M’s blue tape.
Generally Brian and I carry between 20 to 30 different polishes to cover any spectrum of problems we may encounter. Being that I was working alone this day, I had 20 polishes and various glazes at my disposable. Given my experience with the particular paint and I reasoned that
Menzerna PO83 with a
Lake Country CCS Green German Foam pad would remove all of the light marring and hologramming from the paint’s surface if used properly with a high speed polisher.
I prefer to draw a bead of polish on the paint and pick the polish into the pad with the machine running. The technique to do with is pretty simple and was shown to me by Mike Phillips of Meguiar’s several years ago. If you hold the rotary straight ahead, mark the pad like a clock, with the 12 o’clock position at the top. To pick up the bead of product with out splatter, slightly tilt the edge of the pad off the paint and it up with the machine on at a about 10:30, and run the pad on a slight angle over the bead until the center of the pad runs over the bead. This will draw the product in a swirl pattern over the rotating pad ensuring a nice even coverage of fresh product on the paint’s surface.
Pick up the bead completely, then flatten the pad out and spread the polish at low RPM before picking up RPM and settling into your rhythm. In my experience with PO83, I have found that it likes to be spread lightly over the working area before being worked over the paint at around 1500 RPM until it starts to clear. I will bump the RPM to about 1700 RPM for a few quick passes at this point, then start step reducing the RPM with each pass over the section until I get down to 1000 RPM or so.
After my initial application of PO83 on a section of the hood, I inspected the paint again using halogen and HID lighting. As you can see in the picture, while any light swirl marks and holograms where removed, there where definite deeper scratches and RIDS remaining.
To deal with defects this deep it is always good to have a PTG (Paint Thickness Gauge) so you can accurately and safely remove as many defects as possible. I knew I was going to have to get aggressive with the paint in the form of a polishing compound and a more aggressive pad.
I choose 3M’s Perfect-It 3000 Extra Cut Compound for the work and applied it on a Lake Country Foamed Wool Pad. Compounding is a little different then polishing in that the application can be made with more RPM and will generally take less time to finish out.
Several passes where required on most sections to ensure complete removal of the defects, but careful paint measuring ensured the that I never exceeded .1 mil removal, even on the worst sections.
However, polishing with an aggressive compound and wool pad will leave a haze in the paint, similar to the hologram haze that was on the paint to begin with (which is unfortunate that they polished the paint and did not have the courtesy to remove any defects). Compounding the paint can take several hours or longer depending on the depth of the defects, but in my opinion, its is the most important step. Take your time, measure the paint frequently, and remove as much as or all if you can. Any deeper marks visible through the haze will not come out on the subsequent steps and will stick out like sore thumbs if not done properly. Also, I find the new 3.5 inch Lake Country Wool pads very handy for compounding in tighter areas.
I again returned to Menzerna PO83 and a Lake Country German Foam pad for polishing the paint and restoring gloss by removing the holograms and haze from the compounding.
Haze after compounding…
Paint after polishing…
Care was taken to polish all the paint that the pad could safely cover.
In areas that where of a tighter fit or unreachable, it can be necessary to use a smaller pad. Remember that touching the edge of a bigger pad over an area will sometimes not produce the cut required to remove defects completely because the backing plate is not exerting the pressure necessary to really work the polish and break it down completely. I recently saw an Autopian detailed car that looked great on about 95 percent of the car but on all the tight edges and small areas still had some visible marring. If you cannot safely run the middle half of the pad over the paint, it might be better to switch to a smaller pad.
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