Todd@RUPES
Just a regular guy
I recently had the chance to dust off some old polishing skills and play with some cool products on a very cool car: 1955 Ferrari 250 Europa in dark blue!
With coachwork handled by both Pininfarina and Vignale, and with only 21 produced in total, this prancing horse is rare and beautiful.
This particular Ferrari was in extremely good condition with exceptionally flat paint, amazing gaps (how consistent the gaps of the body lines are), and exceptional build quality. The paint, which proved to be extremely soft, had a fair amount of surface scratching. My job wasn't to restore a well-worn Ferrari, but rather carefully enhance an already great car - taking good to excellent can be just as challenging as taking poor to good.
I started by unpacking my bags, which just-so-happened to contain at least every Rupes BigFoot Polisher made, every polish and several bags of pads. Also along was my usual blend of Blackfire, 1Z, Ultima and more. I even snagged a Pinnacle Black Label Hide Soft Leather Care kit to treat this Ferrari with. And finally, two coats of BLACKFIRE BlackICE to ice the cake.
I started by giving the Ferrari a very thorough rinseless bath. I used BLACKFIRE Wet Diamond Rinseless Wash and a .Gold Plush Microfiber Towel. Drying duties were easily handled by an Ultimate Guzzler.
To clean the beautiful and valuable (read:don't screw this up) Borani Spoke Wheels, I relied on the safe cleaning power of 1Z Colour Tec Wheel Cleaner.
Since I was using a rinseless wash, I used a Montana Boar's Hair Wheel Brush to agitate and rinse away the cleaning solution. Finally I blew the wheel dry with a MetroVac Master Blaster and toweled any remaining spots.
The exceptionally clean exterior was ready to prep for polishing. Any areas that had exposed weather stripping or rubber seals was carefully masked with 3M Painter's Tape. The paint was not clayed as their was no palpable contamination when using the baggy test.
Is to remove emblems came off for detailing.
Rupes' soon-to-be released Inspection Pen. I won't bore with the details yet, but it uses an optically color light color to show swirl marks clearly on red and other bright colors. I wanted to see how it did on blue.
The pen lit up many more defects than the camera captured. The paint had a fair amount of light scratching, with some considerable (and frequent RIDS- Random Isolated Deeper Scratches). As I would learn later (through doing a test spot), the paint was incredibly soft which meant that some of the RIDS were super deep into the clear coat.
Every paint presents a unique riddle to solve. This paint combined extremely deep rids with an almost unbearably-soft clear coat. This finish would scratch if you used too much pressure and a soft microfiber towel!
In order to dial in your process (and technique), it is important to do a test spot. Start with the least aggressive approach and dial up the aggressiveness until you find the product that delivers the results you want in terms of correction.
Rupes makes its very easy with their color-coded system.
Eventually I went with the coarse Rupes "Blue" Zephir Gel Compound and either the "Blue" Microfiber or Foam Pads to knock out the deeper rids. Even at this point, some were too deep.
The coarse combination left very little haze in the paint, but given how soft it was, I felt safer going to a three step system to make sure any haze was removed before the finishing step. I used the Rupes "Yellow" Keramic Gel Polish to wipe out any haze marks.
Finally, I jeweled the paint with the Rupes "White" Diamond Ultra Fine Gel Polish.
I had secured some Rupes "Swag" at SEMA this year, including an apron and a hat (not to mention the polo shirt), I figured I would dress the part.
I polished all of the large sections with the Rupes "21" BigFoot. I used the 180mm coarse blue pads. I even switched to a 5 inch (125 mm) backing plate and tried the blue coarse microfiber pads out (as in the picture below) with the 21.
The paint looks amazingly glossy after compounding, even with a slight haze.
For "surgical" compounding and polishing tight, hard-to-reach areas I have to give some love to the Mini BigFoot. I love this tool!
Armed with 100 mm (4 inch) microfiber pad, this little machine tore through defects with same ferocity as it's legendary big brother.
Even the thin strip in between the windshield and hood gap, proved no match for the Mini Bigfoot.
After compounding every possible section of paint, I switched gears and when with a BigFoot Duetto with the 150 mm Yellow Pad and Keramik Gloss Polish.
It was getting late in the day when I started final polishing. I stuck with the Duetto and switched to the Diamond Fine Gel and white 150mm polishing pad. I was able to finish all the larger panels by nearly midnight, so it was time to call it a night.
Early the next day, I started by finishing up polishing, using the BigFoot Mini and the same finishing combination above. (Note the stylish change in wardrobe).
With polishing chores complete, it was time to give the Ferrari another careful wash. Again I was limited to a rinseless wash. I started with BLACKFIRE Wet Diamond Rinseless Wash, this time going with a softer Miracle Towel to help buffer the soft paint from scratching.
By soaking the paint with water, then using the power of the Master Blaster, I was able to quickly and effectively evacuate all of the polishing dust from the tightest areas.
I used the same washing solution of Wet Diamond Rinseless Wash to clean the interior and exterior glass. Here I am playing contortionist.
Detailing, means well, detailing. Every area of the car, from the jambs, shuts and nooks & crannies received my full attention.
The interior was "blown out" with the Master Blaster and carefully vacuumed with a Metro Vac N' Blow. The dash (and door shuts) were wiped with Wet Diamond Rinseless Wash, and treated to a coat of BLACKFIRE Total Polish & Seal.
With coachwork handled by both Pininfarina and Vignale, and with only 21 produced in total, this prancing horse is rare and beautiful.
This particular Ferrari was in extremely good condition with exceptionally flat paint, amazing gaps (how consistent the gaps of the body lines are), and exceptional build quality. The paint, which proved to be extremely soft, had a fair amount of surface scratching. My job wasn't to restore a well-worn Ferrari, but rather carefully enhance an already great car - taking good to excellent can be just as challenging as taking poor to good.
I started by unpacking my bags, which just-so-happened to contain at least every Rupes BigFoot Polisher made, every polish and several bags of pads. Also along was my usual blend of Blackfire, 1Z, Ultima and more. I even snagged a Pinnacle Black Label Hide Soft Leather Care kit to treat this Ferrari with. And finally, two coats of BLACKFIRE BlackICE to ice the cake.
I started by giving the Ferrari a very thorough rinseless bath. I used BLACKFIRE Wet Diamond Rinseless Wash and a .Gold Plush Microfiber Towel. Drying duties were easily handled by an Ultimate Guzzler.
To clean the beautiful and valuable (read:don't screw this up) Borani Spoke Wheels, I relied on the safe cleaning power of 1Z Colour Tec Wheel Cleaner.
Since I was using a rinseless wash, I used a Montana Boar's Hair Wheel Brush to agitate and rinse away the cleaning solution. Finally I blew the wheel dry with a MetroVac Master Blaster and toweled any remaining spots.
The exceptionally clean exterior was ready to prep for polishing. Any areas that had exposed weather stripping or rubber seals was carefully masked with 3M Painter's Tape. The paint was not clayed as their was no palpable contamination when using the baggy test.
Is to remove emblems came off for detailing.
Rupes' soon-to-be released Inspection Pen. I won't bore with the details yet, but it uses an optically color light color to show swirl marks clearly on red and other bright colors. I wanted to see how it did on blue.
The pen lit up many more defects than the camera captured. The paint had a fair amount of light scratching, with some considerable (and frequent RIDS- Random Isolated Deeper Scratches). As I would learn later (through doing a test spot), the paint was incredibly soft which meant that some of the RIDS were super deep into the clear coat.
Every paint presents a unique riddle to solve. This paint combined extremely deep rids with an almost unbearably-soft clear coat. This finish would scratch if you used too much pressure and a soft microfiber towel!
In order to dial in your process (and technique), it is important to do a test spot. Start with the least aggressive approach and dial up the aggressiveness until you find the product that delivers the results you want in terms of correction.
Rupes makes its very easy with their color-coded system.
Eventually I went with the coarse Rupes "Blue" Zephir Gel Compound and either the "Blue" Microfiber or Foam Pads to knock out the deeper rids. Even at this point, some were too deep.
The coarse combination left very little haze in the paint, but given how soft it was, I felt safer going to a three step system to make sure any haze was removed before the finishing step. I used the Rupes "Yellow" Keramic Gel Polish to wipe out any haze marks.
Finally, I jeweled the paint with the Rupes "White" Diamond Ultra Fine Gel Polish.
I had secured some Rupes "Swag" at SEMA this year, including an apron and a hat (not to mention the polo shirt), I figured I would dress the part.
I polished all of the large sections with the Rupes "21" BigFoot. I used the 180mm coarse blue pads. I even switched to a 5 inch (125 mm) backing plate and tried the blue coarse microfiber pads out (as in the picture below) with the 21.
The paint looks amazingly glossy after compounding, even with a slight haze.
For "surgical" compounding and polishing tight, hard-to-reach areas I have to give some love to the Mini BigFoot. I love this tool!
Armed with 100 mm (4 inch) microfiber pad, this little machine tore through defects with same ferocity as it's legendary big brother.
Even the thin strip in between the windshield and hood gap, proved no match for the Mini Bigfoot.
After compounding every possible section of paint, I switched gears and when with a BigFoot Duetto with the 150 mm Yellow Pad and Keramik Gloss Polish.
It was getting late in the day when I started final polishing. I stuck with the Duetto and switched to the Diamond Fine Gel and white 150mm polishing pad. I was able to finish all the larger panels by nearly midnight, so it was time to call it a night.
Early the next day, I started by finishing up polishing, using the BigFoot Mini and the same finishing combination above. (Note the stylish change in wardrobe).
With polishing chores complete, it was time to give the Ferrari another careful wash. Again I was limited to a rinseless wash. I started with BLACKFIRE Wet Diamond Rinseless Wash, this time going with a softer Miracle Towel to help buffer the soft paint from scratching.
By soaking the paint with water, then using the power of the Master Blaster, I was able to quickly and effectively evacuate all of the polishing dust from the tightest areas.
I used the same washing solution of Wet Diamond Rinseless Wash to clean the interior and exterior glass. Here I am playing contortionist.
Detailing, means well, detailing. Every area of the car, from the jambs, shuts and nooks & crannies received my full attention.
The interior was "blown out" with the Master Blaster and carefully vacuumed with a Metro Vac N' Blow. The dash (and door shuts) were wiped with Wet Diamond Rinseless Wash, and treated to a coat of BLACKFIRE Total Polish & Seal.
