Bella Macchina Detailing: Ferrari 328 GTS

[Todd@belladetailing]

This Ferrari is very special to its owner, it realizes a life long dream of owning THE FERRARI of his dreams. And for good reason, as the 328 features one of the most distinctive designed silhouette's of all time. Plain and simple, the 328 is a timeless design that looks great from every angle, and despite the decades that passed since the famous marquee launched this famous design (33 years old, the original 308 debuted in 1975!!!) this look still hasn't aged. It has transitioned flawlessly from modern to classic with out ever looking old.

I was honored for the opportunity to perform my 'La Bella Firma' or 'The Beautiful Signature' package on this particular car. I am very lucky in working on some of the finest automobiles every produced, but its not every day you get to work on a dream.

The temperature had dropped below freezing when this Ferrari was delivered to my house, so it was strange to actually detail in a sweater and wear shoes (being from Florida I am used to shorts and flip flops) and see my breath. All in all I worked on this car for five days (the final day consisted of applying a final coat of wax and double checking) and logged just under 60 hours into this Ferrari.

When doing this style of detail I generally block off a single day for throughly cleaning and decontaminating every surface, focusing on deep cleaning all porous and non porous surfaces such as the paint, glass, plastics, trim, rubber, leather, etc, etc...

Day One
Overview

-Pre-rinse with Karcher 1800 psi filtered with de-ionized water

-Clean wheels, tires, and wheel arches one at a time using Menzerna 7.5 Wheel Gel, Eimann Fabrik Tire Cleaner, and Eimann Fabrik Hi-Intensity Cleaner using an EZ-Detail Brush, a Swissvax Wheel Brush, Meguiars' Gold Glass Tire Brush, a grout sponge, and q-tips.

-Wash front trunk and hood, trunk, and door shuts using a combination of Eimann Fabrik Auto Spa car soap and Eimann Fabrik Hi-Intensity Cleaner, agitated with various sponges, as well as a Swissvax Wheel Brush and Meguiars' Slide Lock Brush, then rinse clean

-Wash body and exterior using the two bucket method (with grit-guards ™ ) using a Lake Country Red Foam cross cut mitt and Eimann Fabrik Auto Spa car soap then rinse clean with Karcher 1800 psi filtered with de-ionized water.

-Clay the paint using Blackfire Polyclay II, using the supplied Blackfire Clay Lube while vehicle is still wet. The lower panels where particularly contaminated, in which case I substituted Clay Magic Red Medium clay for a more aggressive cut.

-Dry vehicle with a Black Baron Air blower and two Big Blue Microfiber Waffle Weaves

-Wipe paint and glass with a 70/30 mix of 91% Isopropyl Alcohol

-Clean and remove oxidation from black trim such as the window vents and rear engine covers using Klasse AIO-Clay wheels with Clay Magic Red Medium Clay with Meguiars' Last Touch 1:1 for lube

-Polish wheels by hand using M105 and a Lake Country Orange Foam finger pad, then finish by hand using M205 and aLake Country Green Foam finger pad.

-Clean wheels (including spare) with Klasse AIO.

-Clean interior glass with Eimann Fabrik Clear Vision II, then pre-seal with Klasse AIO

-Polish front windshield using Lake Country Felt Cutting pads and Lake Country Yellow Glass Pad using FlexLK603BBV rotary polisher with Lake Country Glass Polish, removing wiper tracks and very light pitting

-Polish interior trunk plastic with Klasse AIO on a Lake Country Orange CCS pad using a Meguiars' G100 (Porter Cable 7242)

-Treat wheels, interior glass, plastic, trim, and front engine cover with Klasse Sealant Glaze

-Blow out interior cracks and crevices using MetroVac Vac'n'Blow on blow mode with a venturi attachment.

-Vacuum entire interior using MetroVac Vac'n'Blow and various attachments.

-Clean interior plastics, dead pedal, and door shut and trunk shut weather stripping with 1Z Plastik Reiniger

-Polish interior metals (shift gate, shift lever, and gas pedal side plate) with Blackfire Fine Cut Metal Polish and Blackfire Wet Diamond Show Polish, topped with Blackfire All Metal Sealant

-Hand apply Leatherique Rejuvinator Oil to all interior hides. I also applied Rejuvinator Oil to both tool cases and the Targa Top leather case and set them in a black plastic bag to soak in the sun for the three days.

-Apply two coats of Eimann Fabrik Black Sapphire Tire Gel to tires

-Tape Ferrari for paint enhancement and restoration.

Day One Pictures.

The opening chapter of this detail began with a thorough pre-rinse of the Ferrari using pressurized de-ionized water.


I generally start with the smaller, more time consuming areas first. The tires where scrubbed with Eimann Fabrik Tire Cleaner (a favorite of mine, and what turned me on to the entire line) using a Meguiars' Tire Brush.


I worked each area one at a time, using Menzerna 7.5 Wheel and Tire gel for the wheels and Eimann Fabrik Hi-Intensity Cleaner for the wheel arches.




The body was then washed with Eimann Fabrik Auto Spa and a two bucket method. After rinsing clean I wasn't in a rush to dry this Ferrari as it was lightly raining outside and I was planning on claying when wet.


The front trunk area gets pretty dirty as several vents allow water and road prime to enter. The spare wheel also appeared soaked in some old dressing that was still greasy, yet flaked away when scrubbed with a fingernail!




After removing the spare wheel and tire, I pressure rinsed the front trunk area and radiator area in front of the trunk. I then cleaned all the surfaces with Eimann Fabrik Hi-Intensity cleaner using a Swissvax Wheel Brush.


A Meguiars' Slide Lock Brush worked perfectly for cleaning the narrow jambs of the trunk and engine covers.


A q-tip came in handy for more out of the way spots, such as this headlight raiser arm tucked underneath the trunk area


I clayed the Ferrari while it was still wet. I was surprised by the large amounts of contamination that the Blackfire Polyclay II was picking up, this picture resulting from just ¼ of the hood!


At this rate I was going to chew through clay fairly quickly. Blackfire makes an excellent product called Clay Bar Extender which is sprayed on to the contaminated face of the clay, then rubbed in with your fingers. A quick rinse in a bucket of water removed 95% or more of the contamination on the clay's face, which means that I am not folding the grit back into the clay. I was able to fully clay the entire Ferrari with just this small piece (although rougher patches and the wheels where clayed with Clay Magic's Red Medium Clay).


The door shuts even had some minuscule over spray and responded well to claying.


Each section was drying using a Big Blue Waffle Weave towel after claying. I figured now as a good as time as ever to clean the headlights, which looked as if they had done battle with some bugs in Florida's Everglades.

[Todd@belladetailing]

My four year old son joined in on the action, spraying the headlights with Gloss-It Gloss Detailer to help looses some of the bugs.


A q-tip and Meguiars Safety Degreaser cleaned up 20 years worth of road gunk from the inner lips, then the headlights and buckets where clayed and cleaned.






The windshield wiper container had years and years of stained residue. A wire brush and Meguiars' APC made long work of it, slowly removing the staining after a thorough scrubbing.




Here is a picture that most eyes will never see as this area, tucked under the head light area is not really visible by the eye. In fact I had to snap photos and inspect the pictures to make sure that all surfaces where clean. The focus on these particular pictures was the wiring harness.




Klasse AIO did an excellent job of chemically removing the semi gray appearance of the black cover and restoring the original, high sheen finish. To me this is in better taste then spraying some tire dressing on the surface and calling it detailed.




The front latch was in pretty poor shape, looking every bit its age.


Eimann Fabrik Hi-Intensity Cleaner, a q-tip- and patience was used to remove years and years of crud, prime, grit and grease.




The latch was lubed with DuPont Teflon Lubricant.

[Todd@belladetailing]

All rubber weatherstripping in the various shuts was wiped clean with 1Z's Plastik Reiniger.


Not only was the wheel of the spare covered in road grime but the tire was soaked in a hardened and yellowed silicone dressing.




A wire brush was needed to remove the caked on and hardened dressing, and care was used to avoid removing the original paint marking on the spare tire.


Klasse AIO was used to clean and pre-treat the painted wheel, which was then topped with 4 coats of Sealant Glaze over the remaining days. This process was repeated on the Ferrari's wheels as well.




The black vents on the engine cover and rear side windows was helplessly grayed and stained.


Klasse AIO, topped with Sealant Glaze cleaned and restored the finish, with out being overly glossy.
The second vent from the left has been cleaned.


The resulting finish was deep, black, and semi-permanent (instead of dressing the trim it has been restored to like-new and will hopefully stay that way for a long time before it re-degrades).


Various brushes where attached to the MetroVac in order to thoroughly clean all cervices, corners, and hard to reach areas.




The Italian Leather hides received the first to two Leatherique Treatments, which started with rubbing Rejuvinator Oil into the hide by (gloved) hand.


All metal surfaces, including the gas pedal scuff plate was polished with Blackfire metal polishes, the trim cleaned with 1Z.


Before masking off the 328 and calling an end to day one, I polished the glass in the same fashion as detailed in this thread...
http://www.autopia.org/forum/car-det...trucitons.html



Day Two and Day Three
The second and third days where solely dedicated to the external surgery of this Ferrari, namely removing 100% of the paint defects, although in the end I would say the paint was 99% percent perfect but at its fullest potential. A few deeper scratches and some rock chips remained of course. Although I am some what sporadic in the way I polish and don't follow a system, I have included what would comprise the general process I followed.

Overview
-Inspect paint in sunlight as well as halogen lighting to establish a correlation between the two on this shade of Rosso Corsa paint.

-Cut paint with as many passes as necessary (often two) using the Kevin Brown Method on with Meguiars' M105 on a Lake Country CCS Orange 4inch foam pad and a Meguiars' G100 (Porter Cable 7242) worked on speed 5-6 until all deep rids and scratches where removed.

-On areas where deeper scratches or RID trails remained I wet sanded using Meguairs' Unigrit 2000 grit and finished with Meguiars' Unigrit 2500 grit. The sandpaper sheets where allowed to soak in a bucket of warm water mixed with a few drops of Meguiars' M00 Hi-Tech wash.

-Wet sanded areas where then cut with Menzerna S34a Power Gloss Compound with a Lake Country 100% 4 ply twisted wool pad. The wool marring was removed with Meguiars' M105 on the random orbital.

-Wipe paint with 91% Isopropyl Alcohol and inspect in direct light.

-Refine light marring with Menzerna 106fa using a combination of Lake Country White Polishing Pads in both 6.5 inch and 4 inch foams using a FlexLK603BBV rotary at various rpms and pressures.

-Final Polishing (jeweling) with Menzerna PO85rd using a combination of Lake Country Gray Finishing Pads in 7.5 inch, 6.5 inch, and 4 inch foams using a FlexL3403VRG mini-rotary. Note: Areas with less clearance where also polished with the minuscule FlexL3403VRG during other stages.

-Wipe paint with 91% Isopropyl Alcohol and inspect in direct light.

-Polish plastic tail lights and reflectors with Meguairs' M105 by hand followed by Meguiars' PlastiX.

-Hand polish all door, hood, and trunk shuts as well as rear window portals with Autoglym Super Resin Polish with Lake Country Euro-Green finger foam pads.

-Polish engine intake scoops with Meguiars' M105 Ultra Cut Compound using a Lake Country Orange finger foam pad until scratches where removed (roughly 6 passes per sections)

-Polish engine intake scoops with Menzerna 106fa using a Lake Country Gray finger foam pad

-Wash exterior vehicle with Karcher 1800 psi filtered with De-Ionized Water with Eimann Fabrik Auto Spa car wash and a Lake Country Grout Sponge. Blow Dry with Black Baron drier and two Big Blue Waffle Weave towels.

-Apply three coats of Blackfire Wet Diamond Sealant using a Porter Cable 7242 and a Lake Country Kompressor Gold 7 inch foam pad, waiting 8 hours between coats (I even awoke at 3 am on day three to apply the second coat). Smaller received Blackfire Wet Diamond Sealant using a 4 inch Lake Country Gold foam hand applicator, including shuts and vents.

-Apply additional coats (one on day two and a second on day three) of Klasse Sealant Glaze to wheels, black vents, interior glass and trunk cover.
Apply Klasse AIO to external glass, then seal with Klasse Sealant Glaze

-Remove Leatherique Rejuvinator Oil with Leatherique Pristine Clean on day three and reapply Leatherique Rejuvinator Oil for a second treatment.

[Todd@belladetailing]

Day Two and Day Three Pictures.

I started day two by inspecting the paint in the sun light.










The driver side had some deep scratching and heavy marring, so I elected to see test this area and see what would be needed in terms of paint correction to refinish the paint and restore it to better then new gloss.


After experimenting with various cutting methods, I settled on the Kevin Brown Method of cutting,using a Lake Country Orange prepolymer CCS 4 inch pad and a random orbital at speed 6 with Meguiars' M105. Using a lot of pressure and long work times, (because of the non-diminishing abrasives you polish until the defects are removed, not until the polish has diminished), I was able to remove 99 percent of the deep rids.

Unfortunately the hood had some deep scratches (as well as the driver side rear fender and rear engine cover) that required wet sanding with Meguiars' Unigrit paper. In this case, I found that using a more traditional compound and method, Menzerna S34a Power Gloss and a Lake Country Twisted Wool pad, removed the sanding marks far quicker and more efficiently. I remain convinced, however, that the Kevin Brown Method of compounding paint with a porter cable style orbital polish does as effective (if not more effective job) of removing deeper marring and RIDS, while leaving a very gloss, near perfect finish.

The test side after sanding.


The test side after polishing with a wool pad and Power Gloss.


The condition of the paint before, on the untouched side of the hood.


Some after/split shots of the polished side. This is the finish left behind by Meguiars M105 and the Porter Cable, no additional refining has been carried on at this point!

[Todd@belladetailing]

It took a most of the day to remove the defects and polish with Menzerna 106fa using a Lake Country White CCS 6.5 inch pad on a rotary. The second day consisted of finishing the polishing step, and then jeweling the paint with Menzerna PO85rd using gray Lake Country Foam pads. The following before and after pictures where taken in various stages, sometimes after M105 and sometimes after polishing over the second and third day.

I realize not all of the pictures depict the ultimate result achieved (I'll let the sun shots speak for themselves later in the thread) but they give a good base line of the work accomplished).
Passenger Side Door




Front Bumper




Headlight




Driver side Door




Passenger side Rear Fender

[Todd@belladetailing]

Driver's Side Door




Tail




Rear Bumper (polished completely with a Meguiars' G100/Porter Cable) using a Lake Country Purple Foam pad, Orange Prepolymer Foam pad, and Gray Finishing Pad.




Passenger Side Rear Fender




The engine intake scoops have a tough radius to polish with a machine. Meguiars M105, a lot of elbow grease, and a Lake Country Orange finger foam pad removed 95 percent or so of the scratching. This was followed with Menzerna 106fa on a gray foam pad, again worked in with a lot of passion.




The plastic reflectors and tail lights where rubbed out with M105 by hand, finished with Meguiars PlastiX

[Todd@belladetailing]

Smaller areas and hard to reach places where polished with the FlexL3403VRG mini rotary.


Day Four

The fourth day of this detail was mostly a wrap of all the little details as well as engine detailing. Ordinarily I would have washed the engine compartment on day one and cleaned it thoroughly; I simply don't trust Italian electronics and refuse to pressure wash the engine compartment of older Ferrari's

Overview

-Remove tool cases and the Targa Top cover from the plastic bag and clean with Leatherique Pristine Clean.

-Clean all tools with Blackfire Fine Cut Aluminum Polish followed by Blackfire Wet Diamond Aluminum Show Polish topped with Blackfire Wet Diamond All Metal Sealant.

-Refinish metal trim on front 'Cavallino' Ferrari badge, using Blackfire's Heavy Cut, Light Cut, and Wet Diamond Show Polishes applied with q-tips.
-Polish exhaust pipes with Eagle One NeverDull.

-Spray engine compartment with Meguiars' Safety Degreaser and agitate with a variety of brushes, q-tips, and towels. Rinse clean using de-ionized water at low flow.

-Dress engine hoses and trim with Meguiars' 3:1 Hyperdressing

-Polish engine aluminum with Blackfire Fine Cut and Wet Diamond Aluminum Show Polish.

-Apply additional coat of Klasse Sealant Glaze to wheels, interior and exterior glass and plastics.

-Remove Rejuvinator Oil from interior hides using Leatherique Pristine Clean and dress all interior hides and plastics, and switch gear with 303 Aerospace Protectant.

-Spot remove stains from carpets and flow mats using Folex.

-Treat all interior fabric with 303 Fabric Guard

-Apply 1Z Gummi Pheldge to all weather stripping and soft rubber.

-Dress Tires and exterior lower trim with Eimann Fabrik Black Sapphire Tire Gel
-Apply one coat of Blackfire Midnight Sun Ivory Carnauba wax

Day Four Pictures.

The front 'Cavallino' Horse's metal was dulled and slightly tarnished. I carefully taped around the badge.


A q-tip and Blackfire Heavy Cut Aluminum Polish removed the oxidized metal and left behind a nice shine. This was followed with Blackfire Fine Cut Aluminum Polish and then finally the Wet Diamond Aluminum Show polish to restore the final shine. Over all it took about 2 hours to fully restore the thin metal trim around the badge, but the results (although difficult to photograph the dramatic difference) where well worth it, in my opinion.












The tools where polished with Fine Cut and Aluminum Show Polish, then sealed with Blackfire's Wet Diamond Metal Sealant.


The leather tool carrier bags where removed on day one and set outside in a black bag, covered with Leatherique Rejuvinator Oil. The nutrient oil was removed and the surface conditioned with Pristine Clean.

[Todd@belladetailing]

The carpets and mats where spot cleaned with Folex, before being treated with Fabric Guard from 303.




Autoglym's Super Resin Polish is another amazing polish, particularly for removing oxidation and light swirls by hand. 3 to 5 applications removed most swirl marks and restored full gloss to all of the various shuts and hard to reach areas.


1Z Gummi Phledge was applied to all weatherstripping.


Even neglected areas can be made to look stunning. Here the polished jambs, polished plastic, and conditioned rubber makes the detailed areas of this Ferrari look stunning!


The engine was dirty but over all in very good shape.






The engine was sprayed with Meguairs Super Degreaser and agitated with numerous brushes and q-tips, then rinsed with de-ionized water. Metal pieces where hand polished and all plastics, seals, hoses, etc, dressed.








With the majority of the journey behind me, the floor mats where reinstalled, the carpets re-vacuumed. The leatherette process was finished.




Sun shots taken after polishing and two coats of Blackfire Wet Diamond Sealant (day three)
The original black trim looked even and rich in the sunlight.

[Todd@belladetailing]

The wheels had 4 coats of Klasse SG over Klasse AIO. The tires received several coats of Eimann Fabrik Black Sapphire Tire Gel.

[Todd@belladetailing]

The small trim areas on the 328 are exceptionally difficult to polish. The sharp edges and small areas require a lot of taping and working small sections to perfect the paint with out burning through a surrounding panel. Even though the front of the car had typical road abrasion, it was worked carefully (about 5 hours on the front alone) to achieve a 100 percent swirl free and high gloss finish.













Day Five
The final day went quick, as the owner picked up his dream Ferrari around noon.

Overview

-Apply additional coat of Blackfire Carnauba wax

-Apply additional coat of Klasse Sealant Glaze to wheels, trim, and interior and exterior glass.

-Final wipe down with Blackfire Deep Gloss Spray

Day Five Pictures. (taken on the evening of day for, after applying Blackfire Midnight Sun Carnauba wax.