Question RE: Ferrari Paint

[Michael Stoops]

Looks like I'll be removing a ton of swirls left behind by a recent $300 detail job an a Ferrari 360 Modena next Monday and I'm curious about the workability of the paint on these cars. Hard, soft, middle of the road? I saw the car in bright sunlight this morning and while the swirls are pretty bad there doesn't appear to be anything worse on the finish.

Just curious what I might be up against here.

By the way, I got the gig because this gentleman stores this particular Ferrari at Superformance's HQ in Irvine and, well, it looks like I'm the new guy to prep those vehicles for delivery to their customers. I know from experience that the paint on the Superformance vehicles is crazy soft and quite easy to correct.

[RDVT4ME]

Re: Question RE: Ferrari Paint

Hi Mike,

Sorry no info on the Ferrari.....but does this mean you will be quitting your day job???? Congrats on the new job of detailing those mighty cool cars!!!!!

[imacarnut]

Re: Question RE: Ferrari Paint

By the way, I got the gig because this gentleman stores this particular Ferrari at Superformance's HQ in Irvine and, well, it looks like I'm the new guy to prep those vehicles for delivery to their customers.

it's about time, you need to put those skills to work!

[Executive Detailing]

Re: Question RE: Ferrari Paint

Superior Shine should be able to answer the question, as he is the one lucky enough to work on these types of cars on a regular basis.

I would think it is a soft paint, and MANY layers, so correction should be no problem.

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Question RE: Ferrari Paint

Hi Mike,

Sorry no info on the Ferrari.....but does this mean you will be quitting your day job???? Congrats on the new job of detailing those mighty cool cars!!!!!

Don't think I'll be quitting the day job any time soon, but this is a great way to pick up some "mad money"!!

Superior Shine should be able to answer the question, as he is the one lucky enough to work on these types of cars on a regular basis.

I would think it is a soft paint, and MANY layers, so correction should be no problem.

Hopefully Joe will chime in here....or I'll just shoot him an email if he doesn't soon. If your suspicions are correct though I'll be a happy camper. Oh yes, the Ferrari owner said he has a black Range Rover he wants me to take of as well. (how the heck did I forget about that one????)

[Detail Werks]

Re: Question RE: Ferrari Paint

Congrats Mike. Most of the Ferrari's I have worked on have been in the soft to medium range but it is always best to evaluate each vehicle on an individual basis. Let me know if you have any more question.

[christian6984]

Re: Question RE: Ferrari Paint

Ferrari owner said he has a black Range Rover he wants me to take of as well.

RR paint can be very tricky. If its the new water based efforts it will be very hard paint. I found this out from Finerdetails a professional detailer from the UK Meguiars forum.

Someone asked me but i never got round to it, Finerdetails said dont expect much change from two days work.

Hope this was useful
Christian

[TH0001]

Re: Question RE: Ferrari Paint

I have done 45-55 Ferrari's in the past 4 months. 360's are a very nice paint to work with, meduim-soft. Just soft enough to remove defects and not so soft that it marrs the paint when wiping off. Very easy to finish hologram free on a rotary.

All photo's by me (all different cars as well, lol, even though 95 percent are red)

[CarbonBlack]

Re: Question RE: Ferrari Paint

I want that Enzo pedal car.

[SIC]

Re: Question RE: Ferrari Paint

That one photo of the 456GT has an amazing reflection. Its great to see beautiful cars beautifully detailed.

[gators241987]

Re: Question RE: Ferrari Paint

i dont think being a cop will afford me to buy a ferrari

[Superior Shine]

Re: Question RE: Ferrari Paint

I think TH0001 has me SMOKED as far as Ferrari experience goes. I agree though, soft to medium.

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Question RE: Ferrari Paint

Well now, that's certainly some Ferrari experience to go on!! Thanks guys, much appreciated.

For those who don't know, the Superformance cars I'll be dealing with are primarily Cobra, GT40 and Daytona Coupe replicas that can be had with anything from 302V8s up to the biggest and baddest 429 Cobra Jet you can stuff into one. The bodies are assembled in South Africa and the shop I'm dealing with is owned by the guys who own that factory and are also the importers of these cars. They also deal with Shelby Continuation cars, those vehicles built using original parts, stampings, etc.

I took these pictures last week when I was there:

[TH0001]

Re: Question RE: Ferrari Paint

Sweet, I got a chance to detail a real Daytona Cobra (4th one out of 5 I believe). Awesome cars!!!

You can see it in to the left behind this 18 million dollar Ferrari... Also the Ford GT on the top rack is the prototype (concept), and my client also owns two orginal GT40's as well as the only orginal paint 427 Cobra in the world (which I refused to polish for obvious reasons)

[TH0001]

Re: Question RE: Ferrari Paint

One thing to consider is that in 2005, Ferrari switched to PPG based Cermaic Clear (similar to Mercedes) BUT the paint doesn't seem near is hard. It is harder than years previous, not quite the polishing delite the 360's are.

If the Ferrari you are going to work on is an '03 or '04, check the fender above the rear tire for these paint drip marks that are showing up on them. They almost look like terrible blend marks and are from the factory, but don't show up until later. I would say about 40 percent of the 360's I have worked on have them, and usually required wetsanding to remove.