This gorgeous Ferrari 328 GTS was recently purchased by one of my clients who brought the car in for a complete detail and paint correction. Although the car was in excellent condition, he felt that the paint could be improved upon. This metallic black paint is very rare and all original, so the utmost care was taken while polishing.
The car had some hard water spots and a pretty thick layer of dirt coating the exterior when it arrived as you can see below…
The wheels were in phenomenal condition, but needed a good cleaning to reveal their true beauty…
The first step was to perform an extensive cleaning of all the wheels, tires and wheel wells using a variety of different brushes. I chose to use a mild citrus degreaser, which really worked great and is totally safe for clearcoated and non-clearcoated wheels.
Once I completed the steps above, I gave the exterior a thorough rinse, paying special attention to all of the cracks & crevices where sand and dirt usually accumulate…
Once the vehicle was rinsed free of all loose dirt and contaminants, I soaked the car in foam using a Gilmour Foammaster II foam gun. I mixed a bit of degreaser in with the soap to help strip away any protection that may have been present. By allowing the foam to dwell on the surface for several minutes, it helps loosen any grime that is on the surface and reduce the chance of marring the paint when performing the wash.
All cracks, crevices and hard-to-reach areas were cleaned using a Swissvax brush…
The exterior was rinsed for a second time with lots of pressure to remove as much contamination as possible and washed by hand.
After washing the exterior, I gave it a thorough rinse, dried it with a microfiber drying towel and blew out all cracks & crevices with purged air to remove any excess water.
All door, hood and trunk jambs were wiped clean with a microfiber towel. A damp microfiber towel was used to wipe down the engine compartment because I did not want to risk getting the engine bay wet by hosing it down. Who knows what could go wrong on a car like this if it ever got wet, but I wasn’t willing to find out!
The engine compartment cleaned up nicely and looked like the day it left the factory!
Before moving on to any polishing, I decided to pay some special attention to the front cargo area where the spare tire is located. I removed the tire, cleaned up the area and wiped the wheel and tire clean with some quick detailer. I decided to apply some Opti-Seal to the wheel for kicks.
Much better!
Alright, now that all the little odds & end were done, it was time to get working on the most important thing, the paint! Prior to any polishing, I masked off all badges, trim, moldings and any other areas that could possibly be stained by whatever product I was using or harmed by the buffer.
Although the paint was already in great condition, it was my goal to remove as many imperfections as possible, while using the least aggressive approach to ensure that paint thickness wasn’t compromised. After testing out a few different product/pad combinations to see what worked the best, I decided to go with a 3-stage polishing treatment to get the results I was aiming for.
The pictures below show the condition of the paint after all of the prep work has been completed, prior to any polishing…
To remove the more serious defects, I chose Menzerna Super Intensive Polish paired with an orange foam pad via rotary polisher, really working the product until the abrasives were fully broken down. This greatly improved the overall appearance of the paint, but left a slight haze, which was to be expected. After this step was complete, the entire exterior was wiped clean using a damp microfiber towel to remove of any dust and polish residue that was on the surface and hiding in the cracks & crevices. Once the surface was clean, I wiped down the paint with 91% alcohol to remove any carrier oils left behind from the polish and all panels were carefully inspected under various light sources (halogen, xenon & fluorescent) to check for any defects I might have missed.
For a medium polish, I chose to use Menzerna Power Finish on an orange foam pad via Porter Cable PC7424XP. The Power Finish did a great job at removing the slight haze left behind from the Super Intensive Polish and made a noticeable difference in both gloss and reflectivity.
Yours truly polishing with Power Finish...
Before moving on to the final polishing stage, I gave it an exterior hand wash to remove any polishing residue that was present. For the final polishing step, I used Menzerna 85rd using a black LC pad, which really amped up the glow and darkened up the paint quite a bit. After the majority of polishing was complete, I went back and polished all of the hard-to-reach areas using 3 inch pad with and extension by rotary as seen below.
Now that all of the polishing was complete, it was time to choose an LSP (last step product). I decided to go with Blackfire Wet Diamond paint sealant because if its ease of use, outstanding looks and great durability. I applied the Wet Diamond very thin using a gold concours foam pad by machine and waited for it to haze before removing with a fresh microfiber towel. The Blackfire really enhanced the beauty of the paint and made the metallic flake “pop”. Next up was to pay attention to some of the little things, which can really make a difference in the overall appearance.
All tires were dressed with Optimum Opti-Bond tire dressing for a nice matte sheen.
The wheels received 2 coats of Rejex to protect against future brake dust and keep them looking great.
All rear window grills were cleaned and sealed with Optimum Opti-Seal.
All emblems and badges were cleaned with Q-tips and a horse-hair brush to remove any residual polishing residue which had accumulated in these areas.
I flipped on the headlights, cleaned the outer bezels with a damp microfiber and polished them with Zaino All-In-One
It truly was a gorgeous car in person. It's definitely one of the nicest ones in existence, which is probably why it won Platinum. I like it because it's different. I've never seen one in this color before.
I bought the brush from a local detail supply distributor. It is a toothbrush style, but has a wooden handle and horse-hair bristles. As long as your gentle, it will not scratch the paint. I'll see if I can find something comparable online somewhere...
Awesome Rick - simply awesome. Real stunning work and I love the rare metallic paint. Great work on those small things like the wheels and emblems - Hope the owner is still enjoying the outstanding work you've done!
