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Ferrari F430 Scuderia: A Tale of Correction, Damage, and a Dealership

The Ferrari F430 Scuderia (scuderia meaning “stable of horses”) is an amazing and beautiful machine, at least when it isn’t hammered with paint damage! My client purchased this Scud from Florida and had it shipped here to New Jersey. After inspection we decided that a two step correction and then coating would be ideal for this car.

Being black we knew there would need to be some correction, but it showed up in pretty rough shape.

 

Using my Rupes LHR 15 and some Meguiar’s MF Cutting pads with M101, I did my initial correction.  I’m sure you’re thinking, “Did I read that right? The LHR15? Not the 21?” Correct, this car has quite a few contours and the throw on the 21 would have required me to switch to a smaller throw machine too often, so I decided to use the 15 for the majority of the work. I also used my Porter Cable with a 3″ Lake Country Backing Plate, and my 2″ polisher.

After the correction I followed that up with a white Rupes pad, and some M205.

I did a lot of 2″ work using BuffDaddy/Kevin Brown’s 2″ pads. He is the only person who sells 2″ foam pads for the small 2″ air powered machines now out on the market. If you would like Detailed Image to carry pads this size, backing plates, and even machines, leave your suggestions in the comments section of this article!

The exhaust was cleaned up with my 2″ polisher, another BuffDaddy pad, and some Optimum Metal polish.

You can see the water spots on the carbon fiber in the back, that is because I haven’t yet addressed the Carbon.

Now we can do the Carbon!  All of the carbon fiber inside and out got corrected and coated. There were a couple of deeper issues in the Carbon Fiber that I was unable to remove.

The car got another wash, and then a CarPro Eraser wipe down. I began applying Cquartz Finest. Here you can see Finest has been applied and I am waiting for it to flash in order to level it and apply the second coat.

The results of this black were stunning, with lots of depth, clarity and gloss.

The owner was blown away with the fact that the car was released with  95%+ defect removal. The car was headed to the dealership right from my shop after the owner saw a small patch of coolant on his garage floor. It was also missing a heat shield for the rear exhaust and that needed to be replaced. We put signs in all the windows saying DO NOT touch or wipe down the paint while it was in the dealership for these repairs. As a free service after 5 weeks at the dealership, I offered to give it a wash and to my horror this is what I found…

The car returned with extensive damage throughout the paint! The owner confronted the dealership and they claimed that they didn’t touch it. The dealership instead claimed that my photos were doctored, I used glaze to hide the damage, or the damage was already there. Speaking with the owner he knew what the car looked like when he picked it up from me. I decided to help out the owner and do a reduced rate to fix this damage. He brought the car back down to my shop and I went back to work.

The car is now re-coated and ready to go home, not back to the dealership. In fact, this owner vowed never to go back and will only go to a private mechanic from now on. 

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