David Fermani
Forza Auto Salon
I was pretty excited to have the opportunity to be flown 1300 miles away to Michigan to prep an old client?s brand new 2009 Corvette ZR-1 in Cyber Gray. I stressed to him to not let the dealer lay 1 finger on this monster and we all agreed that it would be in the car?s best interest to have it tailored right to his home as soon as it landed at Jack Cauley Chevrolet/Ferrari in W. Bloomfield, MI.
The only thing the dealer was allowed to do was install the miscellaneous trim needed and the check the required fluids to insure the mechanical aspects were sufficient for delivery.
This vehicle was special ordered by my client and he was lucky enough to be able to purchase this unit at sticker price ($116,845). Many cars are still being offered for sale $50,000 above sticker!!
This was the last ZR-1 batch produced before plant year end shut-down (12-23-08) which meant that it never had the opportunity to sit outside at the plant; i.e. collecting contaminants on the exterior. It went from the assembly line to the Allied Systems enclosed trailer to the dealership.
From there it was immediately brought inside their Prep Department and then tailored to my client?s home in Brighton, MI.
His home is actually within walking distance from the General Motors Proving Grounds where this and many other vehicles are tested by GM Engineers daily. At times you can hear super cars like this make their top speed attempts on their long straight away adjacent to my client?s home. It?s also adjacent to the Wixom Performance Build Center where the ZR-1 engines are assembled.
Unfortunately the day before I arrived, the Metro Detroit area was blasted by a foot of snow! Perfect day for detailing huh? The owner had to plow the snow from his long driveway so we could drive back to the garage to do our work.
This vehicle sat in the owner?s garage collecting dust until I was able to fly out on January 23 to fully prep it.
After taking in the beauty of this beast, the work began. Even though the owner?s garage was fully heated, it was virtually impossible to use any heavy form of water without flooding it. This meant that all rinsing had to be done outside. As soon as I 1st rinsed the thick dust film from the exterior & the water immediately froze on the ground underneath the car.
I knew I would be faced with a few hurdles due to needing to wash this car multiple times, so I decided to 1st wash it as far away from the garage and each time I inched 1 space closer to the garage door. I began to wash everything down with a healthy dose of Dawn detergent combined with a brand new HD Grout Sponge.
I then cleaned the wheels/tires and wheel wells with various mediums.
Back outside for a final rinse and then to a full clay process with Zaino clay and Z7 diluted as my lube.
Unsurprisingly, because this vehicle hasn?t been exposed to environmental elements yet, no contaminants were picked up by the clay.
After drying, I then used Compressed air to blow out all the water from cracks and crevices to mitigate dilution of polish if contact happened to occur.
I then taped off all the necessary trim to avoid any potential for problems.
GM recommends not applying or using any polishing or buffing equipment on the clear polycarbonate panel as this could damage its UV coating.
Under halogens, it was pretty obvious that the Zaino clay marred the finish pretty bad. A surprising indication of how soft the clear is on this particular finish.
There were also several isolated, minor scratches/defects that needed correcting prior to the overall polishing processes.
I used Meg?s 105 via LC orange spot buff pads. I then worked out and leveled all the clay micro-marring with Menzerna SIP via LC German Green. This produced a perfect mix of correction and preliminary gloss.
Before:
After:
The only thing the dealer was allowed to do was install the miscellaneous trim needed and the check the required fluids to insure the mechanical aspects were sufficient for delivery.
This vehicle was special ordered by my client and he was lucky enough to be able to purchase this unit at sticker price ($116,845). Many cars are still being offered for sale $50,000 above sticker!!
This was the last ZR-1 batch produced before plant year end shut-down (12-23-08) which meant that it never had the opportunity to sit outside at the plant; i.e. collecting contaminants on the exterior. It went from the assembly line to the Allied Systems enclosed trailer to the dealership.
From there it was immediately brought inside their Prep Department and then tailored to my client?s home in Brighton, MI.
His home is actually within walking distance from the General Motors Proving Grounds where this and many other vehicles are tested by GM Engineers daily. At times you can hear super cars like this make their top speed attempts on their long straight away adjacent to my client?s home. It?s also adjacent to the Wixom Performance Build Center where the ZR-1 engines are assembled.
Unfortunately the day before I arrived, the Metro Detroit area was blasted by a foot of snow! Perfect day for detailing huh? The owner had to plow the snow from his long driveway so we could drive back to the garage to do our work.
This vehicle sat in the owner?s garage collecting dust until I was able to fly out on January 23 to fully prep it.
After taking in the beauty of this beast, the work began. Even though the owner?s garage was fully heated, it was virtually impossible to use any heavy form of water without flooding it. This meant that all rinsing had to be done outside. As soon as I 1st rinsed the thick dust film from the exterior & the water immediately froze on the ground underneath the car.
I knew I would be faced with a few hurdles due to needing to wash this car multiple times, so I decided to 1st wash it as far away from the garage and each time I inched 1 space closer to the garage door. I began to wash everything down with a healthy dose of Dawn detergent combined with a brand new HD Grout Sponge.
I then cleaned the wheels/tires and wheel wells with various mediums.
Back outside for a final rinse and then to a full clay process with Zaino clay and Z7 diluted as my lube.
Unsurprisingly, because this vehicle hasn?t been exposed to environmental elements yet, no contaminants were picked up by the clay.
After drying, I then used Compressed air to blow out all the water from cracks and crevices to mitigate dilution of polish if contact happened to occur.
I then taped off all the necessary trim to avoid any potential for problems.
GM recommends not applying or using any polishing or buffing equipment on the clear polycarbonate panel as this could damage its UV coating.
Under halogens, it was pretty obvious that the Zaino clay marred the finish pretty bad. A surprising indication of how soft the clear is on this particular finish.
There were also several isolated, minor scratches/defects that needed correcting prior to the overall polishing processes.
I used Meg?s 105 via LC orange spot buff pads. I then worked out and leveled all the clay micro-marring with Menzerna SIP via LC German Green. This produced a perfect mix of correction and preliminary gloss.
Before:
After:
