Apollo_Auto
New member
Hi all! So some of you may remember Ferrari 599 that I did recently the http://www.autopia.org/forum/pro-de...91-ferrari-599-gtb-desert-storm-disaster.html... this is his wife's car... She takes her daughters to equestrian school several times a week and of course they usually pick up some friends along the way. Truck full of equestrians with dirty boots and butts combined with the muddy roads leading to the ranch... that makes for a pretty nasty looking ride. To make things even worse, this car has been washed almost exclusively in automatic car washes... It's 2 years old and has more 90k on it already! Here's the goods >>
So here's one of the wheels... They've not had a proper cleaning... ever. Automatic car washes won't do the trick, as we all know.
2 years worth of burned in, caked on brake dust... yummy.
Those of you familiar with BMW's know that the brakes dust extremely bad so if not cleaned regularly they look like this >>
Some "remnants" of the muddy, ranch roads...
I didn't waste time taking 100 pictures of the scratches on this car because well, the entire car looked like this. One good thing about automatic car washes is that they do keep us in business!
The car was foamed, rinsed and washed with Wolf's White Satin shampoo, then clayed with WC-1L Pink Slip clay lube and Wolf's elastic detailing clay... I didn't take any pics of the calying process, but you can imagine what it looked like after 2 years and no proper washings...
Exotic bug collection
Some pictures of the paint that was on the car on the passenger side.
Claying wouldn't remove this so what I do in this situation is "pick off" the head of the paint (works with hardened sap also) with a thin piece of metal like this (a paper clip will also work) and once the "head" is off, the rest of it comes off fairly easy. You've got to have a steady hand for this because you can scratch the paint very quickly. All you have to do is go back and forth very slowly, while keeping the tool at the same level. It will usually "snap" off in one piece.
One spot of paint removed
So I started with the wheels, as usual, but I knew that these were going to take a looooooong time to get clean so all throughout the 2-day detail I periodically sprayed the wheels with Wolf's WF-1P wheel cleaner, let it dry, rinsed and then applied again. I think each wheel took about 10+ applications to get all the brake dust dissolved but you'll see later that it was well worth it.
Nice and thick so it stays on the wheel, not the ground.
The engine was cleaned with Wolf's WT-2N APC at a 1:4 mixture and various brushes were used to loosen up the gunk.
After about 45 minutes of scrubbing and wiping, the engine was dressed with Wolf's WO-1N tire and trim dressing.
All hoses, wires, etc. were hand-dressed
Remember the manky wheels?
After 2 rounds of WF-1N and 0 agitation
During the day the owner requested that I wash the Fiorano, as it had a serious collection of bugs on it already. His 10 year old daughter was eager to help, so I let her loose with the foam cannon. The car was foamed with Wolf's Active Snow Foam... no it's not pH neutral. It actually has cleaning agents in it that break down road grime so you actually clean something in the pre-wash stage (and no it won't remove the LSP unless there's abrasion involved) rather than spraying suds on it and rinsing it.
Foaming a car with pH neutral snow foam is about like washing your hands by putting soap on it and rinsing it off without rubbing your hands together... just doesn't work like that.
COMING SOON... AMG nice and scratchy flavored.
When left to dry completely, Wolf's WF-1P will form a hard shell on the wheel. Once it does that, it can be blasted off with a PW and the gel shell acts almost like a piece of tape, "ripping" off the loosened contaminants. Here's what it looks like when it dries >>
Blasted with a PW. You can still see some of the gel on the rim here...
On to the interior... :yikes:
So here's one of the wheels... They've not had a proper cleaning... ever. Automatic car washes won't do the trick, as we all know.
2 years worth of burned in, caked on brake dust... yummy.
Those of you familiar with BMW's know that the brakes dust extremely bad so if not cleaned regularly they look like this >>
Some "remnants" of the muddy, ranch roads...
I didn't waste time taking 100 pictures of the scratches on this car because well, the entire car looked like this. One good thing about automatic car washes is that they do keep us in business!
The car was foamed, rinsed and washed with Wolf's White Satin shampoo, then clayed with WC-1L Pink Slip clay lube and Wolf's elastic detailing clay... I didn't take any pics of the calying process, but you can imagine what it looked like after 2 years and no proper washings...
Exotic bug collection
Some pictures of the paint that was on the car on the passenger side.
Claying wouldn't remove this so what I do in this situation is "pick off" the head of the paint (works with hardened sap also) with a thin piece of metal like this (a paper clip will also work) and once the "head" is off, the rest of it comes off fairly easy. You've got to have a steady hand for this because you can scratch the paint very quickly. All you have to do is go back and forth very slowly, while keeping the tool at the same level. It will usually "snap" off in one piece.
One spot of paint removed
So I started with the wheels, as usual, but I knew that these were going to take a looooooong time to get clean so all throughout the 2-day detail I periodically sprayed the wheels with Wolf's WF-1P wheel cleaner, let it dry, rinsed and then applied again. I think each wheel took about 10+ applications to get all the brake dust dissolved but you'll see later that it was well worth it.
Nice and thick so it stays on the wheel, not the ground.
The engine was cleaned with Wolf's WT-2N APC at a 1:4 mixture and various brushes were used to loosen up the gunk.
After about 45 minutes of scrubbing and wiping, the engine was dressed with Wolf's WO-1N tire and trim dressing.
All hoses, wires, etc. were hand-dressed
Remember the manky wheels?
After 2 rounds of WF-1N and 0 agitation
During the day the owner requested that I wash the Fiorano, as it had a serious collection of bugs on it already. His 10 year old daughter was eager to help, so I let her loose with the foam cannon. The car was foamed with Wolf's Active Snow Foam... no it's not pH neutral. It actually has cleaning agents in it that break down road grime so you actually clean something in the pre-wash stage (and no it won't remove the LSP unless there's abrasion involved) rather than spraying suds on it and rinsing it.
Foaming a car with pH neutral snow foam is about like washing your hands by putting soap on it and rinsing it off without rubbing your hands together... just doesn't work like that.
COMING SOON... AMG nice and scratchy flavored
.
When left to dry completely, Wolf's WF-1P will form a hard shell on the wheel. Once it does that, it can be blasted off with a PW and the gel shell acts almost like a piece of tape, "ripping" off the loosened contaminants. Here's what it looks like when it dries >>
Blasted with a PW. You can still see some of the gel on the rim here...
On to the interior... :yikes:
.