A Pair of Ferrari 355s!

[imported_Dave KG]

Yes - two of them! :thumb:



Took a trip back to Jim`s (Renmure) today to detail his friend`s Ferrari 355, in rosso corsa as well... also, with the help of Jim, we topped up the Best Of Show on his car as well, two months after its detail.



So, on with the show so to speak!



Bryan and I arrived at Jim`s at 9am and there were two 355s ready to be detailed, the one requiring full machine polishing was looking in the daylight notably lighte (owing to many light swirls, see later) than the detailed one...











Here are the two together, detailed car in the foreground...







First to the car to be machined. Bryan started, as always, on the wheels and arches using APC on the arches and dressing them with Meguiars ASD. Then a congination of Meguiars APC, Autobrite Glue & Tar Remover and Chemical Guys Premium Blue rim cleaner on the wheels, tyres dressed with Meguiars Endurance at the end of the detail. The car was washed with Meguiars Hyper Wash and a Meguiars Lambswool Mitt, and then rinsed and clayed using Sonus Green Clay and Meguiars Last Touch cut 1:1 as a lube. Once clayed, the car was rolled into the garage, and now out of the rain ready for machining.



On the paint, there were medium to severe looking swirls that were definitely taking the edge of the lustre in the red and even making it look just a shade lighter than it should... a few before shots:















Holograms on the paint also suggested that this car had been machine polished before. Inconsistency with the paint readings meant we were to be treading very carefully with this car. 355s were the last hand painted cars by Ferrari and as such they tend ot have thicker paint, however this one was averaging 150 - 180um at the front which whil would be normal or even thick for a normal car, struck me as very thin for one of these... It seemed likely the car may been resprayed at the front at some point, apparently this is commonplace to deal with stone chips so these readings in the end weren`t that surprising but highlighted a need to tread very carefully.



Stepping up as usual through the aggressive levels, I finally settled on Menzerna PO85RD3.01 Intensive Polish by rotary on a Meguiars W8006 polishing pad, 600rpm to spread, two passes at 900rpm, two passes at 1200rpm, passes at 1500rpm until residue clear (~8 - 10) and then two pases at 900 rpm to refine the finish. Bryan cut in the complex lower areas and the rear "bonnet" and bumpers, again quite fidly, by PC with Menzerna IP on a 4" pad. Some 50/50 shots during the polishing stage:











And some pics of the car with the machine polishing completed:















With the paint now corrected as far as we felt safe toaking it - all swirls removed, 80 - 85% of RDS removed however the deeper ones had to remain with our concerns over the paint thickness - it was time to prepare the car for wax. Swissvax Best of Show was the choice of wax on this car, so the paintwork was prepped by hand using Swissvax Cleaner Fluid, applied using a new applicator that Alex at Elite Car Care kindly sent me - I will do a separate post on this applicator shortly, but it was very nice to use and fitted in the hand easily. The applicator...







And in use with the CF...







and the finish after the CF still nice and swirl free showing the applicator was not marring the paint (this Ferrari paint is quite easy to marr and was a good test of this applicator, I also tried it on even easier to marr Honda paint first though so I was confident the applicator would be 110%! :thumb: ):







Now this car was ready for waxing we turned our attention to the other 355, still looking great two months on and the two month old single layer of BoS stil beading very well on this garaged example (but still driven)...















This car was readied for waxing and rolled into the garage alongside its "twin"... I waxed the newly detailed car with BoS while Jim waxed his car with the BoS. Rubber and plastics were treated to Meguiars ASD, glass was cleaned with Swissvax Cleaner Fluid.



Owing to the great British weather this weekend (rain, rain, rain), we couldn`t get the cars out this eve for final pics so we`ll have to settle with in the garage pics for the time being - if its dry tomorrow, Jim is going to take some outdoor pics for us.



The afters of the two cars - a special moment for me, taking pictures of not one but two 355s!

[imported_Dave KG]

Again, I would like to say a huge thank you to Jim and Wendy for their hospitality today and allowing us to eat you out of house and home! :thumb: Seriously, very much appreciated!

[Evenflow]

Oh my God sweeeeet cars and awesome befores and afters.



Got a pair of deep wet looking Ferrari`s nothings better than that.

[imported_ChrisNJ]

beautiful cars! and wonderful work

[imported_DieselMDX]

how do compare bos to zymol estate glazes?

[DetailersDomain]

very nice!

[Todd@RUPES]

Awesome job

[Old Pirate]

Sweet!!!!!!!!

[Clean Dean]

Nice work on some real nice car !!! Cheers !!!

[Thomas Dekany]

Beautiful details as always!!!!

[Ron Harris]

Nice work!



I have a few applicators just like the one you show. LC sent them to me.

Their very nice.

[imported_rydawg]

Excellent work! I wish all details were this nice.

[awahl63]

Very nice details!

[CBlakeNS]

Great pics and the cars look really good.

[P1et]

Stellar work Dave! I cannot think of the last time I detailed two Ferraris back to back!