Ferrari F430 feat. RBJE

A

Apollo_Auto

New member
Hi everyone! This is an F430 that is going up for sale, so the owner wanted to spruce it up a bit. It's a 2006 with very few miles on it, but for the miles it's gone, it was in pretty bad shape... actually almost as bad as the new Scuderia I did a couple of weeks ago... go figure. Anayway, the entire front of the car (bumpers, hood, etc.) was riddled with bug gut damage, a few rock chips and some RIDS. I didn't get very good pics of the RIDS (the light was strange when I took the first pics), but believe me, they were there. Also, the entire car had the sure signs of "hand washes" that use brushes and dirty sponges; tons of scratches going every which way but loose. This was the typical finish on a not so typical car here in Hungary. Here's some before pictures of the damage (what I could pick up on camera at least). Oh and please ignore the dirty wheels and wheel wells... the dealership thought they were doing me a favor by having the car washed by the sponge monkeys at the BMW dealer next door before I arrived. I told the service manager, "You shouldn't have... really :)." I explained to him why and he said he'd do his best to let me wash it next time, but it's one of those "wash it now or never" things most of the time so I guess I'll just have to adapt and over come as I did with this one.



The entire amount of bugs didn't show up well on a single shot so here's some close ups.



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I love my spotlight :)



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I sprayed this part with some APC and let it dwell for a bit before trying to remove the gunk in the lettering. I used about 8 Q-Tips to remove it, twisting as I went along to make sure I wasn't grinding the dirt in.



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Needed to be cleaned...



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After cleaning the lettering with APC I used the least abrasive polish I had, Auto Magic BC2 (about the only thing it's good for these days) and some clean Q-Tips as my makeshift polishing pad to brighten up the beveled area.



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The results...



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Some overspray on the front bumper, on both sides.



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The lower half of this car was very bad... Thank God I had a lift to take care of those spots. I know, I know I'm spoiled :)



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Here's my poor attempt at a 50/50. This is after about 4 passes with a Riwax cutting pad and InstaFinish #15. This left me with almost 0 marring. This picture reminds me a bit of Close Encounters...



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Sneak peek



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All taped up... I also taped some places that I thought may be subject to damage...



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So on to the polishing.



Since I didn't get the chance to wash the car myself I did a thorough walk around and well, the car was still filthy (in my eyes anyway). Therefore I had to QD the entire car with OQD before claying. After the QD dirty ho bath I stuck with OQD as a lube for claying. The car was relatively contaminant-free other than the overspray. After claying a couple of panels I felt the clay starting to become tacky, like as if I was using a soap and water mix to clay with, so I switched to my ONR/water mix after tossing that piece of clay. It was new :-/.



For the polishing I decided to use a method I've been using for the past few weeks. I like to refer to this method as "The Sniper Drive-by Method" as it's much more civilized and targets the enemies (RIDS) specifically. I think it's much safer for the paint than the usual "Rambo kill 'em all, let God sort 'em out" method of leveling everything and then starting from there. Basically what I do is find a good pad/polish combination that has enough cut to take out swirls and small scratches and I start with that. For this car, as I said above, InstaFinish 15 and a cutting pad worked very well on this ceramic finish. I spread out the polish at 600 with only the weight of the Maki and then with about 25-30 lbs. Of pressure went about 3-4 more passes. By then, all of the swirls and smaller scratches were cleared leaving me with a clearer view (but still a bit hazy from the polish) of where Charlie was.



After the initial passes I still had a bit of cut left in the diminishing polish (InstaFinish 15 has about a 3 out of 5 cut), which was about 1/2 of what it originally was. Then with the edge of the pad, using a sort of "waving" motion (like as if I was revving the throttle of a motorcycle) with my wrist, I focused on the deep scratches giving about 4-5 quick waves then leveling the pad back out to clear up the marring. After the polish had diminished, I added a pea-sized drop to the outer edge of the pad and started on the next scratch using the same technique. I had to change pads after about each panel because they became a bit saturated doing this. There were also some places where I used an 80mm wool pad and IF 15 though, as the scratches were really deep. I did a lot of pad changing using this method because really every panel is accessed one at a time. Sometimes I even changed pad and polish combos but the first combo I had was the only thing that would cut this paint without cutting it too much. There was also a lot of wear on the outer edges of my pads after this, but I guess that’s the price of saving paint. Does anyone else polish like this?



As I've said, I used some 80mm polishing pads for the tight areas and for the deep scratches. When using the 80mm foam pads, I noticed that I was leveling the scratches, but at the same time inducing new ones. I thought that the pads were faulty at first so I sprayed them with APC and rinsed them with hot water immediately. This actually softened them up a bit, but they were still causing deep scratches. So I took a lunch break and went to have my favorite szechuan chicken, and pondered... I then realized that the scratches were being caused by the abrasives not being evenly spread. Basically they, the abrasives, were clumping together forming a larger abrasive (like a piece of sand if you will) and causing RIDS. Also, I realized that the smaller pad meant more power/cut. By that I mean that a smaller point of contact can inflict more pain...just like in Ninjutsu. Now, using a smaller pad means that I'm causing more damage, therefore, to reduce the damage I need to reduce the cut so I stepped down to a lower cut polish and achieved the same results. BUT, I also changed the way I applied the polish. Instead of just blotting a couple drops of polish on the pad, I lightly saturated the entire pad with polish and then rubbed it into the pad with my fingers in order to give it a more consistent cut. I think people have referred to this as the KB method, but the difference is that I don’t add more polish to it after saturating it. After I did this, the RIDS disappeared and the cut was even !



I'll be honest and say that I've never used a PTG to date. I plan on buying one soon as my family's economic situation gets better, but until then I'll have to rely on instinct as I have done thus far. I know it's risky, but what can I do? Taking that into consideration, I don't know how much paint I removed, but I'm sure it was minimal, judging by the depth of the scratches and I also calculated the fact that the car has already been polished at least once by Ferrari. This is another reason why I decided not to "Rambo" the whole car.



OK so here's some shots after the cutting pad and IF #15, then finished with a finishing pad and IF #15 with some jeweling. Also I'd like to add that all of the polishing was done at 900 RPM, with 25-30 lbs. pressure, then I let up on the pressure to about the weight of the Maki :).
 
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I had to prop the door open to get to the concave areas so I propped a piece of wood guarded by a crappy MF on the door. I propped it in such a way that if it fell, it would only land on my big toe :).



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After 2 passes



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Lubed up with Rubbish Boy's Juiced Edition



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OK so enough of my blabbing, here's the goods :)!



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A happy customer's first look at his new car :)



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Thanks again for reading and please comment, whether good or bad!



- Jesse
 
Thanks for the great post.....great job! What spotlight are you using....nevermind.....found it on another post!
 
geez the car is ugly, what were you thinking on this detail! poor craftsmanship!!

lol im just kidding i had say something im so jealous of all these nice cars your doing!!! jesse very nice job again!!!! i like the door prop!!!!! that is one red slick and wet car, great job bro!!!!!
 
Jesse,



It turned out great! With all the work you did for me on my Logo stuff I bet you were busy. To everyone that cares Jesse did some outstanding work on my logo.

<-------- see this is it. The entire logo I'll post up soon.



Cheers,

GREG
 
I like your approach on the polishing. It makes a lot of sense, we all know it's best to go least aggressive, and instead of going full tilt with a heavy cut polish, but this to me just changed my thinking a bit.
 
Greg Nichols said:
Jesse,



It turned out great! With all the work you did for me on my Logo stuff I bet you were busy. To everyone that cares Jesse did some outstanding work on my logo.

<-------- see this is it. The entire logo I'll post up soon.



Cheers,

GREG
Click to expand...



Thanks Greg, I'm glad you like it! Yeah, I had a busy week :)
 
bufferbarry said:
geez the car is ugly, what were you thinking on this detail! poor craftsmanship!!

lol im just kidding i had say something im so jealous of all these nice cars your doing!!! jesse very nice job again!!!! i like the door prop!!!!! that is one red slick and wet car, great job bro!!!!!
Click to expand...



Thanks Barry! Yeah, I know it's an eyesore that car... I had a hard time holding down my lunch when I was detailing it :D
 
Wait one second...... I thought Ferrari's were pampered and only need some light polishing?.



Great job btw, just the correction that was acheived will make a big difference in the price that owner will recieve on the sale, also I have noticed that being in europe your english is outstanding!! unless you are a ex-pat of the usa, because I know if I moved to Hungary my grasp of that language would be terrible.
 
Auto Concierge said:
Wait one second...... I thought Ferrari's were pampered and only need some light polishing?.



Great job btw, just the correction that was acheived will make a big difference in the price that owner will recieve on the sale, also I have noticed that being in europe your english is outstanding!! unless you are a ex-pat of the usa, because I know if I moved to Hungary my grasp of that language would be terrible.
Click to expand...



Thanks Bob! Well unless the exotics come to me, they get washed and treated the same as a Focus... people here just don't know that there's a difference between a car wash monkey and a professional detailer... yet :). I'm changing that one car at a time! The latter is correct... made in the USA here! I moved to Hungary almost 8 years ago and have never looked back to the States. I thought I'd never pick up the language either, because everyone kept telling me that it's the 3rd most difficult language in the world, but I speak it fluently now. Maybe I have a knack for languages or something, but I didn't think it was that difficult to learn.
 
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