1996 Ferrari 355 Berlinetta (34 Pics)

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01bluecls

New member
The car is a 1996 Ferrari 355 Berlinetta. Owner recently purchased it and wanted it detailed. Previous owner didn’t appear to take very good care of it as it was pretty swirled and the marring was a little deep. The paint is single stage and was actually a little bit of a pain to work with. This is not the typical Ferrari bright red, but instead, a deeper slight maroon red.



Time Spent: About 10 hours



Process:

Wash and clay

EC with Orange Cut @ 1800 rpms

Menz SIP with White Polish Pad @ 1800rpms

Menz 106FF with Blue Finesse Pad @ 1500rpms

Re-washed

Zymol Ital

Tires Dressed with Z16



I also did some light interior work and cleaned the engine bay but was pressed for time and didn’t take those pics.



Pics!



Hood Before:

355hoodb4.jpg




Hood After (Those dots are sand pitting/road rash):

355hoodafter.jpg




Driver Fender Before:

355driverfenderb4.jpg




Driver Fender After:

355driverfenderafter.jpg




Driver Door Before:

355driverdoorb4.jpg




Driver Door After:

355driverdoorafter.jpg




Comparison of Driver Door Polished and Quarter Panel Untouched:

355drdoorvsdrqtr.jpg




Driver Quarter Panel Before:

355driverqtrb4.jpg




Driver Quarter Panel After:

355driverqtrafter.jpg




Top of Driver Quarter Panel Before:

355driverqtrtopb4.jpg




Top of Driver Quarter Panel After:

355driverqtrtopafter.jpg




Driver Quarter Panel Before:

355qtrgasb4.jpg




Driver Quarter Panel After:

355qtrgasafter.jpg




Passenger Fender Before:

355passfndrb4.jpg




Passenger Fender After:

355passfndrafter.jpg




Some Random After Shots:

355randomafter1.jpg




355randomafter2.jpg




355randomafter3.jpg
 
After Pics (Sun was pretty much down at this point)



The following pics were taken at 18mm Zoom (wide angle):

355closedrfront.jpg




355qtrreflections.jpg




355reartrunklid.jpg




355rearshotdr.jpg




355rear.jpg




355fronttop.jpg








The Following pics were taken farther away zoomed at 55mm:



355awaypassfrnt.jpg




355frntpassaway.jpg




355frdraway.jpg




355awayfrdr.jpg




355drsideaway.jpg








Questions/Comments Welcomed As Always! :)
 
beautifully stunning work chris, is ferrari clear pretty hard? never had the pleasure? that thing looks to be on fire. also is your finisse pad hook n loop? how's it hold up @ 1500 rpm's? i have lc's and wolfgangs and they both seem to want to rip from thier velcrow @1200 rpm's.
 
VaSuperShine said:
beautifully stunning work chris, is ferrari clear pretty hard? never had the pleasure? that thing looks to be on fire. also is your finisse pad hook n loop? how's it hold up @ 1500 rpm's? i have lc's and wolfgangs and they both seem to want to rip from thier velcrow @1200 rpm's.
Click to expand...



Weird... I have been using LC/Wolfgang pads (6.5 inch) with never having a problem with the velcro seperating. This particular car was a single stage. In general Ferrari's paint is relatively soft. The problem with soft paint it is more prone to heavier marring then other paint and harder to finish down finely. People always make the assumption that soft clear/paint is easy to correct but that only goes for metallic paints that have light marring. Most cases due to the soft paint, marring tends to be deeper (then compared to hard paint) which makes it a little more difficult to buff out. The blue finesse pad I use are velcro backing.
 
rydawg said:
Superb correction work and superb pictures! Your pictures came out super clear and vibrant.
Click to expand...



Still working at the whole DSLR thing. Its funny though, when using auto focus for halogen shots, the auto focus wants to focus on the light source. If this makes any sense, the camera thinks the light are "behind" the paint, so it focuses on that. I try to do manual focus and bring the actual defects into focus. That's why some of my past pictures the reflection of the halogens looks blurry. I basically have to manually focus the camera on the paint instead of the lights.



yep, Im clear as mud lol
 
01bluecls said:
Still working at the whole DSLR thing. Its funny though, when using auto focus for halogen shots, the auto focus wants to focus on the light source. If this makes any sense, the camera thinks the light are "behind" the paint, so it focuses on that. I try to do manual focus and bring the actual defects into focus. That's why some of my past pictures the reflection of the halogens looks blurry. I basically have to manually focus the camera on the paint instead of the lights.



yep, Im clear as mud lol
Click to expand...

You are getting great at it. I want to take the DSLR plunge, but do not have the time to fiddle with a new cam lately. Plus I can't justify spending that much on a cam yet, considering I am not a picture person, but in do time. I love new toys. I am actually looking in video cams, so I can do videos. I might just pick up a cheap point and shoot cam too.



I always have the hardest time taking halogen pics too. All my pics come out blurred badly. Taking quality pics is an art.



Keep up the great work:2thumbs:
 
Man nice detailing skills as well as photography ones! I'm not sure if it was the paint or the lens or my screen but in the first couple pictures I noticed some spots that seemed to be in the same spot in a couple pictures? Maybe your lens is dirty? I'm sure you know more about cameras than I do, that Ferrari looks incredible in your outdoor pictures! Did you redress the tires after rolling it outside?
 
Amazing work. I absolutely love red.

There's a guy around here with a yellow 355 he just picked up this summer and I've been trying to get him into the shop for the past month. It's my goal to have a Ferrari done before the end of the summer. :)
 
Great work, man I love reading your threads and shamelessly have been copying your style (at least a little bit). The 355 is one of my favorite Ferrari's and I haven't had a chance to polish one out yet but I have been around a few and they looked rough.



Have you had any problems (sorry to go off topic) with SIP/106ff on the Ferrari clears (I know you mentioned the F355 was single stage)? I polished several 360's and one f430 last weekend and could not get either polish to work, it would bind up the pad (I figure from the sharp abrasives digging into the paint) and really heat the panels as well as bog down the Hitachi! I had to switch to the old school Menzernas (IP/FPii) to get smooth correction.



Anyways great work man, your posts rock, I look forward to them :D
 
Chris: Love the documentation, process, and execution. The Ferrari looks perfect (minus those pits :)).



I'm with you with the DSLR. I've just of recent (6 months of ownership) started to take some nice shots of cars with the DSLR. It takes some playing.
 
Wow great turn around my man.

Are you using the stock 18-55mm lens? What are the shutter speed and F/stop you setting on most of your shots?
 
Very nice work on the car.



The only suggestion I have for you is in your picture post processing. When you put those frames on your pictures you suceeded at cutting the edges of the car off on a few of the pictures that are otherwise very nice. Since the car is your focus point cutting the edges off is a huge no-no. A slightly looser crop or taking one step back when taking the picture would seriously help.
 
93AccordLXwhite - Some of the spots are pitting in the paint. Im pretty sure the lens wasnt contaminated. I figure if it was all the pics would have the same dots since I never cleaned the lens during the detail yesterday. I dressed the tires literally right before the pics. Depending on the tires, I redress after rolling the car out if the original area touching the ground wasnt able to get sufficient dressing.



TH0001 - :nixweiss I have never had any issues with the cermi line. I use them exclusively now and have used the others (IP/FPII) as well on Ferrari paint. Im not sure what issues you may be having with them... Could be a lot of factors such as humidity and temperatures. Thanks for the comments. I saw the recent 360 you did and the write up. I have my pic taking process copyrighted, that will be 1 Million dollars please! :) I have been posting my pics the way I do, because I feel its the best way to show representation of work done. Varying the lighting and too many different angles in "before/after" shots leave too many questions of work on the table.



klnyc - Its the stock kit lens. I left the F/stop at 5.6 the entire time. I varied shutter depending on lighting conditions. The halogen shots for the most part ranged from 10 - 125, the outside shots (remember I had dim lighting) was around 150-200 I believe but not totally sure. Inside shots were taken with manual focus for the most part and all the outside shots were auto focus.



corvettecrazy - I understand I was pressed for time taking the pics, as I had a little bit of interior work to still complete. I usually do not use frames much when posting pics on here but I tought I would just slap on there quickly last night as I posted them. I understand the composure of the shots were a little "off" but time was an issue. Thanks for the tip though.



Everyone else - Thanks for your comments. I have been busy lately with other things and havent posted much on here and havent done very many details at all. I have 4-5 more this week through Sunday, all of which I will be documenting as well.
 
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