After finally going through some photos taken a couple years ago when I detailed one of the best exotics on the road, I wanted to share its story and some photos on the blog here. The car in question is a brand new 2011 Ferrari 458 Italia. Well, it was brand new at the time of these photos and the detail. I was actually recommended to the owner of this gorgeous 458 by my good friend and our very own blog manager, Todd Cooperider. After seeing the quality of work I performed on his other two cars, a BMW 650 and Porsche Cayenne, the client decided to have me work on the 458 from the start. I won’t spend too much time introducing the 458 as many are already aware of this amazing machine, so I’ll go straight to the photos and some information about the detail.
The car was purchased at a local exotic dealership in Chicagoland, which I won’t name so as not to soil their name online in a blatant manner, but the delivery condition was quite lacking for a $300,000+ exotic sports car! The dealer did whatever prep they usually do, but prior to doing any waxing, they installed paint protection film as the client requested. The film was applied to the entire front end (hood, bumper and fenders), mirrors, rear bumper and side skirts. The film itself was of good quality and the application was spot on, but the dealer managed to ruin it immediately by what could only be described as “waxing the edges of the protective film”! Every edge of the film had wax residue on at least a few spots along the edge, which gave me the opportunity to spend a good 3 hours removing it. There was also wax residue throughout the car in certain crevices and on panel edges.
Aside from the horrible wax application, there were typical Ferrari defects from the factory. While some of the holograms may have been from a bad dealer prep, there were obvious sanding marks on quite a few areas of the car. Overall, I spent about 28-30hrs on the car between the cleaning, correction and wax application at the end. The interior got only a quick wipedown as that was in perfect shape and needed nothing. Onto the photos…
Here we see quite a bit of wax just sitting in the key hole…
Wax residue left by the dealership “detailers” on the rear driver quarter panel…
Some wax on the rear diffuser piece…
Along the driver door top edge…
And of course the beautiful job of waxing the clear protection film…
Can’t deliver a $300k Ferrari without some dirt under the fuel door…
A TON of wax dust and residue under the vent grille by the engine bay…
Reason behind all that dust? Someone waxed the actual grille…
Let the cleaning begin! Multiple cotton swabs were used to carefully remove all the wax residue from the film edges…
As well as other hard to reach areas…
Cotton swabs were also used to give the wheels and brakes a thorough cleaning…
Once the washing and decontamination was completed, I got a chance to inspect the paint condition. It wasn’t as horrible as I’ve seen on some other Ferraris, but it surely wasn’t pretty. There were many sanding marks like the one below…
Swirl marks were predominantly present on the upper panels…
But there were also spots of heavier swirling on the doors and other side panels…
After a thorough inspection and performing some test polishing to find pad/polish combos (more on that later), we taped off areas like window edges, all the protective film edges, grilles, etc.
Polishing was done using the Flex 3401 polisher and various pads and polishes to achieve the best results…
The Porter Cable 7424XP polisher and 3″ Meguiar’s Microfiber pads came in handy for correcting some tighter areas…
After a grueling 3 days and roughly 30 hours of work, we had a proper looking Ferrari 458 Italia!
The wax residue was removed from all areas…
Every square inch of paint was thoroughly inspected and corrected to perfection, which left us with the following results…
This was the section where most sanding marks were present…
Few other places where there was heavy swirling before…
Some outside shots in the sun…
A mandatory photo of that gorgeous engine bay!
And finally some photos of the 458 enjoying the sunshine in front of the garage…
Well that about covers it. The client did have some photos taken by a professional photographer a few days after the detail, so I will get in touch with him and see if I can have a few to post on here along with the above photos. From April to November, the owner washes the car once or twice a month and I see it every 4-5 weeks for waxing, so the car receives great care and it surely shows. Aside from a few random swirl marks that will catch your eye only if the car is being meticulously inspected in the sunlight, it has remained flawless for just under two years now, all thanks to using proper techniques and quality products.
Some of the products used in the detail:
Flex XC 3401 VRG
Porter Cable 7424XP Random Orbital Buffer
Meguiar’s DA Microfiber Cutting Disc Buffing Pads
Surbuf R Series MicroFingers Buffing Pads
Lake Country Orange Light Cutting Pad
Lake Country Hydro Tech Crimson Ultra Fine Finishing Pad
Meguiar’s Ultra-Cut Compound M105
Meguiar’s Ultra Finishing Polish M205
Menzerna Micro Polish SF 4500 (PO85RD)
Pinnacle Souveran Paste Wax
Well I hope it was as enjoyable to read as it was for me to go through the old photos and grow a new appreciation for this beast!
Thanks as always for reading and please feel free to leave any comments or questions below.