My buddy brought over his car today for some TLC. The car is a year old, has 7000 miles on it (good for him - he
drives it!). The car has been washed improperly in that time, and it really had some pretty ugly swirls - clearly visible in broad daylight. (sorry, no before pictures. )
Products/Steps/Techniques Used:
1. We started by washing the car. Dried with leaf blower followed by blotting with terry towel, and finally wiping with a microfiber drying towel. (Griot's 11117)
2. There were a considerable number of above-surface defects, so out came the clay bar. I used both a Mother's and a new AutoSol bar - both with Meguiar's Final Inspection for lubricant. Within minutes the finish was smooth and soft as a baby's butt.
3. Next we went after a few of the more prominent scratches by hand. For this I used Scratch-X - and I was very impressed with it's performance. Unlike the experience on the Porsche, it actually DID not only fill/hide but REMOVE some of these scratches.
3) The swirls were bad enough I knew that SMR wouldn't be enough - so the first machine step was 3M Finesse-IT II Finishing Material. This was applied with a Meguiar's foam polishing pad - the kind that screws right into the orbital. For everything else, I used the velcro backing plate and velcro-backed pads. I used the orbital cranked all the way up to 6, with good firm pressure until the material started to haze/dry, and then successive passes at lighter and lighter pressure. The result was better than I had hoped for - the swirls were significantly reduced and the the gloss level was quite good. I don't know if the Ferrari paint is softer or harder than the Porsche, but there was definitely less of a haze from this compound than I've experienced before. My friend started to get excited. He followed me and buffed out the residue with Meguiar's Ultimate Wipe towels. The FIII is a little hard to remove - I find it comes off much easier with the aid of a little of the Final Inspection. This step took the longest - probably 1.5 hours.
4) Next I applied Meguiar's Swirl Remover 2.0. Orbital on 6 with a white polishing pad. This stuff is excellent. I think it is easier to use than the 3M SMR - it doesn't seem to look bad if you fail to work it enough, where this is a real problem with the 3M stuff. It is also much easier to remove the residue. Anyway, the SM2.0 got rid of any remaining haze left by the Finesse-IT II, and brought out a beautful gloss. Once again my buddy followed and buffed out. This went a good bit faster - probably 45 minutes.
5) Now I lowered the orbital speed to 4, put on a soft finishing pad and applied the Gold Class Liquid wax. This goes very fast - since all you're doing is applying it, evening it out, working it in a little bit. You don't need to linger.
6) Lunch time - we went for a burger while the Gold Class cured. We only had about 45 minutes, but the conditions were nice and dry and the stuff was ready to buff out when we returned.
7) Buffed out the Gold Class with the orbital on 4, and Meguiar's Ultimate Bonnet stretched over a soft-buff finishing pad. This gets 99% of the wax off really easily. We followed up with Ultimate Wipes and we were all done.
Conclusions: I'm jealous. I wish the Porsche paint responded as well. The car looked FABULOUS. Incredible gloss and depth. The entire process, not counting lunch, took just a little over 3 hours.
Mistakes made:
I had 2 scares, both of which could have been prevented if I was a little more careful. First, I didn't remove my watch and managed to create what appeared to be a really nasty scractch pulling the wipe through some of the FI-II. Went right after it with the Scratch-X - 100% gone. I couldn't believe it - thought I was toast, it looked so bad - but maybe I just compressed/spread some of the FI-II around - anyway - dodged a bullet there.
Also, at one point I mistakenly lifted the orbital at speed 6 with the Meguiar's pad on. It started to spin (this is to be expected) and achieved a high enough speed that it tore about 3/4 of the foam away from the red vinyl backing plate. I didn't notice this, and while working down into one of the 360's glorious concave curves, the foam pad worked up and the side of the backing plate touched the car. It left a really nasty looking scar, but fortunately for me this turned out to be only transferred vinyl. Scratch-X to the rescue - gone without a trace. That's 2 strikes - time to slow down and be way more careful.
Fortunately there were no other mistakes or close calls, but I know I should have been even more careful.
Anyway - the car looks great, my friend is happy, and so am I (although my back is a wee bit sore...
) Before he left we parked it next to the Porsche in my driveway for a few glamour shots. My driveway has never been happier
More pics at:
Ferrari 360 Detail Session
Cheers!
Webmaster 
LOL
