Happy Bday to me; Ferrari 360 Challenge Stradale (and an S4) 56k, run!

[imported_Picus]

Hey guys; I went out to an appointment today not sure what kind of car I`d be detailing - the client was by referral so I just had a date/time and an address. When I pulled up I saw this beat up old Nissan Pathfinder; lucky that wasn`t the car I was doing. As we walked around to the garage I saw a Ferrari 360 Challenge Stradale, and my day was made!



Condition of the car was not great for only have 6,000 km. The paint had some fairly significant swirling and a few hard water spots, as well as a lot of road tar. The paint was very, very soft, annoyingly soft. It took me quite a while to find a combo that would be remove defects and finish down without a ton of haze. In the end after trying pretty much the entire a whole slew of opt, menzerna, and blackfire polishes on the PC and rotary I ended up doing the following.



Wash, Clay

Menzerna IP/RMG orange pad @ 1400 rpm

Menzerna FPII/orange pad via PC

Souveran



I know, I was surprised FPII on an orange was the secret. I tried a ton of combos and that`s the one that cleared up the IP haze and finished down perfect, :nixweiss



Second pic is after IP, but before FPII.



http://gtaindetail.com/fp/ferrstra1.jpg



http://gtaindetail.com/fp/ferrstra2.jpg

[Brian_Brice]

beautiful sled and great work! wish i was as skilled at photography as you. or maybe i just need a new camera :nixweiss

[imported_Picus]

Yesterday was fun too. An `05 S4, similar condition to the Ferrari. The owner has put over 40k miles on it in 14 months. He`s a doctor from Kentucky and was in town for a wedding and called me to detail the car (I was all confuded when he submitted an appointment request with a 606 area code :) ).



Process:



Wash, clay

Menzerna PG/yellow @1500

Menzerna PO106FF/white via PC

Werkstatt Prime Strong

Zaino Z2pro



http://gtaindetail.com/pics/s4081006/g.jpg



http://gtaindetail.com/pics/s4081006/h.jpg



http://gtaindetail.com/pics/s4081006/d.jpg



http://gtaindetail.com/pics/s4081006/c.jpg



http://gtaindetail.com/pics/s4081006/e.jpg



http://gtaindetail.com/pics/s4081006/i.jpg



Got a little arty just for fun. :)



http://gtaindetail.com/pics/s4081006/j.jpg



http://gtaindetail.com/pics/s4081006/k.jpg

[abrcrombe]

Beautiful work as always! And happy birthday!! Love both of those cars...

[imported_GregCavi]

Happy birthday!



OMG!! That ferrari is amazing! I Love that car soo much and you totally perfected it. It is my detailing dream to get my hands on one of those someday and maybe someday own my own lol. Your work is top notch in all of the details. Great job!



Greg

[jmsc]

@Picus:



1. was the Ferrari CS the softest paint you`ve ever seen?



2. curious if you tried FP II + White pad to remove the IP haze?



3. was the Audi the hardest paint you`ve ever seen?



2 beautiful jobs!

[budman3]

Happy B-Day Picus... It`s my birthday too!!! Oh ya great details too!!

[Scottwax]

You certainly do some top notch work! The Ferrari`s paint looks a mile deep and you got the Audi swirl free! :bow

[2000firebird]

what a great bday present happy bday!! amazing cars, if i could have my way, id have the ferrari for the weekends and that s4 for daily driving =) perfect combo.

[Bigpoppa3346]

Happy B-day! The Ferrari looks sick and the S4 is uber-glossy. Fantastic work!

[klnyc]

Happy bday!

wow that 360 looks jaw dropping. The s4 its also looks awesome aswell :2thumbs:

[DSVWGLI]

Nice rides. I love 360`s. Fantastic job on both cars you lucky b#*@#*d. Did you give a finishing pad a try on the 360. I find it`s the only pad that works for me to finish mar free with soft paint(LC grey pad).

[imported_Picus]

@Picus:



1. was the Ferrari CS the softest paint you`ve ever seen?



2. curious if you tried FP II + White pad to remove the IP haze?



3. was the Audi the hardest paint you`ve ever seen?



2 beautiful jobs!



Heya. The Ferrari was not the softest paint I`ve ever seen; that honor goes to a terrible repaint of a 90`s BMW 323i. I`d say the Ferrari was a touch harder than most Infiniti paint. I did try FPII on a white; actually that was the very first thing I tried (that`s pretty much my "go-to" combo), and it left some of the hazing from IP. I then tried OP on a white and got the same thing. I then tried my stand-by for soft paints, FPII ona grey pad and it didn`t do anything to the haze IP had left. I then tried OC on an orange and it added more hazing. I then tried FPII on the orange and finally got it to work. I was a bit frustrated after the first panel, but once I found what worked I was golden.



I`m not sure if the Audi was the hardest I`ve seen, I am going to say no. I`ve worked on some original 60`s and 70`s paint that was harder. In terms of modern clear coats yes, the Audi is definitely one of, if not the hardest in my experience. And thanks!

[imported_Picus]

You certainly do some top notch work! The Ferrari`s paint looks a mile deep and you got the Audi swirl free! :bow



I wish I could have captured the swirls on the Audi; they were interesting. Not a lot of them like you normally see (you know, tight concentric rings), more like wider spaced deeper marring, I guess that goes with the hardness of the paint. The only "before" that really came out at all was this one:



http://gtaindetail.com/pics/s4081006/a.jpg



And of course the after:



http://gtaindetail.com/pics/s4081006/b.jpg



It was mostly in good shape; just looked like bad dealer washes.




Nice rides. I love 360`s. Fantastic job on both cars you lucky b#*@#*d. Did you give a finishing pad a try on the 360. I find it`s the only pad that works for me to finish mar free with soft paint(LC grey pad).



I did. I normally go right for that on soft paint too; after all my experience with black G35`s I know to try FPII or 106FF on a grey pad, slow speed, slow passes, no pressure - the issue here was unlike Infiniti paint it wasn`t removing the haze from IP. Cheers.

[odonnellb]

great job on the ferrari dude... looks great. But i must say i LOVE that s4, what a car. I drove one a few weeks ago, man what a crisp car. What did you use on the chrome on the s4?...Awesome work...