Hi everyone!
I'm glad to share this unique car with you all. This detail was done in May of 2009 to prepare for it display at a Ferrari Club of North America special interest meet.
This Thema is owned by a gentleman who has a soft spot for older cars that are hard to find, with this particular vehicle being no exception. As far as the owner is aware of, there are only 2 in Canada, and 1 in the USA. Bearing that in mind, I was truly honoured to have the opportunity to work on a car of such rarity.
Prior to writing this thread, I asked the owner to prepare a brief history on the car, and he replied with a detailed response which can be found by
CLICKING HERE. <----- PDF File.
Some excerpts from the write up on the history:
1988 Lancia Thema 8.32 (?Lancia by Ferrari?)
The car was a one owner car when I purchased it, having been originally purchased September 12 1988 by an Italian gentleman of 79 years of age (registered as a 1989 but was actually one of the last 1988 Series 1 non-cat non- O2 sensor cars with the first of the series 2 front fascias)?the impeccable condition of the car indicates the care expected from such an owner. It was purchased from his estate in 2006 and imported into Canada by ?Autoforum? of Woodbridge where I completed the purchase of the car in the spring of 2008. The car has 70,000 original miles.
The car is the ultimate ?sleeper?, with the only signs of her credentials being the yellow ?8.32? badge (8 cylinder, 32 valve Ferrari ?Quattrovalvole? engine) on the grill and the retracting wing that folds neatly into the trunk (functionally creates 40 pounds of down force at high speed). Specified with a 0- 60 mph time of 6.8 seconds (before performance enhancements).
The interior by Poltona Frau is in absolutely immaculate new car condition. Wonderful hand stitched leather dash, Veglia gauges, hand stitched steering wheel and gear shift knob, gorgeous Alcantara seating and headliner, real wood accents on door caps and dash, and wool carpets that are as good as the day the car was made.. The car has absolutely no rust and the paint is of high quality. Hand painted factory pin striping adorns the car. The car wears the original Italian ?Speedline? Ferrari-inspired 5 star wheels with ?Lancia? centre caps. The car has the original ?Lancia? tool kit.
After the owner had some minor dents fixed, he dropped the car off to me and I got started. The goal of this detail was to remove swirling and bring out the beautiful colour of the paint while keeping it protected before its concourse detail. I did not take many before and after pictures because of time constrains.
Unfortunately the car was driven through a construction zone on the way so it gathered some dirt on the lower half the vehicle.
The condition of the paint was fair considering the age of the vehicle. Not many RIDS, but swirling and a couple of fine scratches.
In the sun:
Wash & Decontamination
To begin, CWG was prepared in a foam gun at high concentration to remove the M26 that was protecting the paint. 3 applications were required before the wax showed signs of weakening.
Following the foam pre-rinse, the vehicle was carefully hand-washed with CWG using the 2BM and dried with equal care using WW MF towels. The paint had a quite a bit of contamination and I suspect this vehicle was never clayed. Here is a shot of Riccardo Yellow and ONR Clay Lubricant after 1/8th of the hood.
Following the clay bar treatment, I wiped down the paint with isopropyl alcohol to remove the polymers left in ONR.
Paint Correction
The goal of this detail was not to achieve 100% correction, but to remove most swirling, and bring out the colour of this beautiful red.
The horizontal panels of the vehicle showed a low amount of swirling, but sported a lot of fine nicks. The pictures below show a close up shot of the hood under halogens:
My first choice was to use SIP on a white pad at high RPM, gradually bringing it down in speed. I chose this because the delicacy of this paint. After 2 sets, I was left with this:
Happy with the results, I proceeded to polish the rest of the car in the same way, and jeweled the paint with PO106FF on a black pad.
A couple more correction pictures after SIP:
The reflections were beautiful!
With the paint correction completed, I prepared the vehicle for LSP by performing a foam gun wash with CWG, followed by blot drying with WW MFs.
LSP and Finishing Touches:
For LSP, I chose Victoria's Red Concours Wax, carefully applied by hand. Opti-Seal was applied to the rims and tires sealed with Opti-Bond undiluted. While I left the wax to adhere properly, I performed a few finishing touches to this beautiful machine.
Exhaust muffler was polished with #0000 Steel Wool and P21S Finish Restorer, followed again by P21S Finish Restorer with a microfiber towel. Here is a half & half shot:
Finally, the powerplant of this vehicle, that makes it worthy of sporting "Lancia by Ferrari" on the windshield - the engine.
The owner keeps this area of the bay extremely clean, so it only needed a wipedown with ONR and an MF towel. The raised lettering was hand polished with foam swabs and P21S Finish Restorer. Rubber hoses and plastic panels were dressed.
Finals:
And a send off picture till the next time I get to work on this car...
Thank you to the owner for this opportunity and thank you all for looking!
Kaval
)
better next time.
ancing Dot: The color looks likes Rosso Rubino, or something very close. A friend has a 599 in that color and it looks awesome.
