One very butchered Ferrari California... saved!

Apollo_Auto · 06-19-09, 09:22

Hi everyone! Just when I think I've seen the worst from Maranello they top themselves again... I got a call from the service manager on Monday to come in and inspect a couple of Californias that had just arrived. He told me on the phone that his hair stood up when he saw this one... This one was in such horrible condition that the owner of the dealership called headquarters in Switzerland and said he's not accepting it. The pictures we sent them were bad enough, but they insisted on seeing it in person so they hopped on the first flight and arrived at about 11 am on Monday. It was a bit overcast outside so instead of waiting for the sun to peek through the clouds and subjecting them to the horror of seeing this poor car in the sun, I walked around and marked all the deep scratches with Post-Its. I ran out of Post-Its (not joking), but I think this was enough for them to get the big picture:

Message to polishing cowboy: FAIL... like EPIC FAIL. This is a solid BLACK car!!!

Now some people would look at this and think, "OK they're ugly, but they're just holograms." Not. This car was riddled with RIDS everywhere. Some caused by what I believe to have been cats fighting and chickens dancing on the finish, and the others caused by the guy who polished it. This car was obviously polished with a filthy wool pad at mach 1. Here's a sample of of the scratches I'm talking about.

Some nasty damage on the front bumper. When the heads of Ferrari came down to inspect the car with me, I explained everything to them, like what caused the damage, etc. and when they saw the bumper they were disgusted. They told me that if I can repair the damage on the front bumper I have the green light to repair the rest of the car. I forgot to get afters of it because as usual, I had a time constraint (the car is on its way to Switzerland tonight) but it came out quite nice... only faint traces of scratches that can't really be seen by a non-detailer's eye.

Apollo_Auto · 06-19-09, 09:23

You guys wanna see a good joke??

Oh yes, let me introduce you all to my lovely new assistant... Lady Scrubsalot, but we'll call her Anna for short

. Cute as a button, tough (she's a girl ninja, kunoichi

) and she works for free! I teach her English (French lessons wouldn't be bad either, but I'm a married man so she'll have to settle for English...

) and she helps me with the cars! This is Anna claying the driver's side of the car with some Optimum clay and Born Slippy.

My test area, the front passenger wing. At first I considered re-Ramboing the entire car with Flexcalibur and a wool pad in order to level things out, but then decided against it and went with a polishing pad and InstaCut #15, followed by a finishing pad and InstaCut #15. I thought this combo would be sufficient to finish things up, but this :censored: solid black (Nero) paint just wouldn't allow me to finish up with that combo so I had to finish with a finishing pad and InstaCut #30 at very slow speeds and during the process I was literally lifting the Makita to reduce contact with the paint... it was a very time consuming process. Here's a couple of pictures after the 3-stage process:

Trying to capture all the scratches on the hood

All cleared up

Rock chips on both sides of the doors from the 146 km test drive...

There were just too many scratches on this part of the car so I had to remove the Pininfarina badges with some Anal-B dental floss.

After

Apollo_Auto · 06-19-09, 09:24

Some more surprise damage on the front bumper

I didn't get and after picture of this but about 95% of it was removed.

Re-glued the badges

Some shots in the sun before LSP

Still some light scratches on the wing that I removed when I took it back inside.

Some afters with Migliore Primo as the LSP. I couldn't take it back outside for the afters because the mechanics had already started the PDI.

Apollo_Auto · 06-19-09, 09:25

The new owner's gift of Migliore Primo in the boot.

Here's a couple of walk-around videos after removing the LSP with the "crime light".

YouTube - Ferrari California inspection with LED lamp

At the end of this one I noticed some wax that didn't get removed

.

YouTube - Ferrari California inspection with LED 2

Thanks for reading and for all the Playboy subscribers, thanks for "reading"!

- Jesse

mburns813 · 06-19-09, 09:37

Wow, that is the worst one that I have ever seen, especially for $300k.

dirtdiggler · 06-19-09, 09:41

Great save..

this keeps me chuckling "I AM APOLLO AUTO FROM HUNGARY, NOT APOLLO DETAILING FROM CANADA! " LOL

Mark77 · 06-19-09, 09:49

Great improvement, and Anna is almost as sweet as the car is now

gofast908z · 06-19-09, 09:50

WOW! Great job again man. I'm glad to see the car got some high-up attention from the execs. Now they can actually see the horror these thing keep arriving in to you. I bet they were blown away by your work. Excellent job!

Aesop F1 · 06-19-09, 09:56

Saw this on DW, its sad that they release cars like that. Oh well more business for you, nice work sir!

TSC17 · 06-19-09, 10:04

Nice save there Jesse! It looks like they were doing some cross-training in the factory that day. The guy that normally crushes boxes was handed a rotary with a dirty wool pad. Then the guy with severe cataracs in both eyes got to do final inspections and stamps of approval that day as well...

mrclrider · 06-19-09, 10:38

I just couldn't stop saying OMG when looking at the before pictures. Excellent results, and I'm sure you made the dealership very happy..

Apollo_Auto · 06-19-09, 10:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by mburns813

Wow, that is the worst one that I have ever seen, especially for $300k.

Me too... it's the worst one I've done to date.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dirtdiggler

Great save..

this keeps me chuckling "I AM APOLLO AUTO FROM HUNGARY, NOT APOLLO DETAILING FROM CANADA! " LOL

Thanks Dirt! Yeah, I have to make sure people know that I tape cars before I polish them

!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mark77

Great improvement, and Anna is almost as sweet as the car is now

Thanks Mark! I think she needs a waxing, as well...

Quote:

Originally Posted by gofast908z

WOW! Great job again man. I'm glad to see the car got some high-up attention from the execs. Now they can actually see the horror these thing keep arriving in to you. I bet they were blown away by your work. Excellent job!

Thanks Jeff! Yeah, this one really pissed the owner off so I'm sure something will be done about this soon.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aesop F1

Saw this on DW, its sad that they release cars like that. Oh well more business for you, nice work sir!

That's right! Thanks mate!

Quote:

Originally Posted by TSC17

Nice save there Jesse! It looks like they were doing some cross-training in the factory that day. The guy that normally crushes boxes was handed a rotary with a dirty wool pad. Then the guy with severe cataracs in both eyes got to do final inspections and stamps of approval that day as well...

Cheers Todd! Actually I think it may have been the janitor and Mr. Magoo was the inspector

.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrclrider

I just couldn't stop saying OMG when looking at the before pictures. Excellent results, and I'm sure you made the dealership very happy..

Thanks Fergy! Yeah, the owner told me it looked "amazing" and gave me a pat on the back

.