Bella Firma (bÃlla fēr-ma)- ITAL. Beautiful Signature

1)A signature of intense beauty

2)To work with such resolve that the end result is an object of pride

3)The pinnacle of signature look of Bella Macchina; the pinnacle of perfection.



The Boxer Berlinetta was a series of road cars built by Ferrari from 1973 until mid 1984. The “BB†series of cars was a major step forward for Enzo Ferrari, who was originally opposed to the idea of a mid engine road car. Competition from Lamborghini’s mid-engined Miura and a lot of convincing from his engineer’s pushed this model into production.



The first series of cars where named the 365 GT4 BB and featured a 4.4L Flat 12. Over the production run from 1973-1976 only 387 GT4 BBs where built. We are fortunate to have detailed one for the world famous Cavallino Classic: Concours De Elegance in which it won Silver placing with minimal paint polishing and a light clean up. The second series of cars debuted in 1977 with the engine pushed to 5.0L and name reflecting the increased displacement: 512 BB. The styling was altered with new front and rear fascias as well as the reduction in the number of tail lights, from six to four.



The final series debuted in 1981 with the advent of fuel injection dubbed the 512BBi. We also had the distinction of detailing two of these cars for the Cavallino Classic: Concours De Elegance, both placing.



This particular model is a 1979 BB in Rosso Corsa red with a 5.0L F12 producing an extremely high (for the time) 340 horsepower @ 6200 rpm and 333 ft. lbs. of torque at 4800 rpm. For contrast a base model Corvette struggled on with 190 horsepower and Ford’s Mustang had a top engine choice of 140 horsepower. The F12 also features dry sump oiling and a five speed transaxle. The interior keeps with Ferrari tradition in surrounding the driver and (lucky) passenger with the finest hand stitched hides at every stop, with out ever losing it is purpose as a driver’s car first and foremost.



Consisting of over 100 separate steps and designed to prepare cars for concours events, our Bella Firma package is a 50 hour plus detail executed to be the finest detailing service in the world. The following write up is designed to be a pictorial account of nostro orgoglio, our pride†La Bella Firma: The Beautiful Signature by Bella Macchina.



Here is the lucky recipient, a 1979 Ferrari 512BB. These cars where never intended for the American market and thus where grey market and unique. Only 192 Ferrari 512s where built and I am unsure how many where federalized in ’79.



There was lot of dirt and grime in the seams and jambs of the vehicle.







The Ferrari opposed 12 cylinder was also in rough shape, never having been detailed in almost 30 years.







Also the wheels had strange substance, later to be confirmed as brake dust.







Before polishing the paint or getting into the meat and bones of the detail, it is important to take your time and carefully wash and cleanse every area of the exterior of the vehicle that dirty could be hiding. We generally start out Lavaggio a Mano premium hand wash by thoroughly cleaning the smaller, more concentrated areas first.





All of detailing lays in the prep work. It is important to thoroughly clean the tire before applying any dressing to ensure it looks its best and lays on the rubber correctly (to lengthen durability as well as prevent sling). Brian uses a Meguiars’ Tire Brush to scrub the tires with Optimum’s Power Clean.







Here Brian works to thoroughly agitate P21s Wheel Gel in every crevice of the wheel. Using a wet Swissvax Wheel brush ensures a slight lather which seams to increase the cleaning power of the gel. An EZ Detail Brush and various short hair flexible brushes allow for cleaning behind the spokes and around the brake calipers.







Working the gel into a latherâ€







After rinsing the wheels and tires, we cleaned the wheel wells. (In general we are working at different steps so as we circle from tire to tire we overlap. If you are working by your self it would make sense to do the wheel wheels first, so you are not rinsing the dirt from the arches over your clean tire.). A 7/1/2 mix of de-ionized water/Optimum Power Clean/Meguiars’ APC is sprayed and agitated with a various short bristle brushes.











The lower rocker panels where lightly misted with super diluted Meguiars’ Safety Degreaser (50:1) to loosen any and all grime.







After jetting the surface with de-ionized water, we washed with Zaino Z7 soap using the two bucket method.







Certain trim was removed, such as the license plate and license plate frame.







Numerous vents and tight areas where agitated with a natural boar’s hair brushâ€







A natural sheep skin mitt was used as the wash medium, with special care used to make all areas of the car where completely clean and free of grit and dirt.







After the majority of the car using a high speed leaf blower, we elected to ensure the 30 year old paint was deep cleaned by using Finish Kare’s Decontamination System. It is a three stage cleansing system designed to remove all fall out and contamination from the pours of the paint. The process starts by working Stage One: #1119 Soil/Coating Remover into the paint for five minutes then rinsing clean, followed by Stage Two: # 883 Steel Iron Rust Remover for an additional five minutes, finally rinsed clean with #118 PH Neutralizer. This system was followed with Sonus Gray Clay using Blue Magic Clay Lube (which did not pick up any contamination but did remove some light over spray from the lower driver side panel).



Now that we had the vehicle and the pours of the paint clean it was time for a very thorough inspection of the paint work and other surfaces. Keeping in mind that this Ferrari is 30 years old and the current owner has owned it for only a year, it is very important to look over everything, trying to decode the past and look for areas of concern. It is up to us to find the history of the paint job so we can take the Ferrari to its fullest potential.



In this pic it is very clean that this area had been color sanded or repainted. The headlight cover had powder runs (as well as weather stripping which had pink power staining) from obvious color sanding which paint measuring revealed to be a repainted area on the passenger side front fender.















The paint’s surface was inspected using a variety of lighting conditions including natural, halogen, and high density. 30 years of use was very evident in the large amount of various defects. Then entire surface was heavily swirled, but these lighter defects where the least of our problems. Large amounts of scratches in various depths ran across the paint, resembling the interstate system across our map. Clearly the last several decades had not been to kind to the surface of this beautiful machine.



Through the clouds some deeper circular marring could be found.







Even when viewed through tree cover, millions of microscopic scratches could be seen arching across the surface.







Using a hand held HID light revealed the deeper defects, each piece of marring represents a rather deep scratch and this Ferrari was covered in them.