Earlier this year, I had the distinct pleasure to work alongside two very good friends prepping a Ferrari 328 GTS for the 2014 Cavallino Classic. I also was lucky enough to have Tyler Cauley ready and willing to come out and snap his usual top-quality pics of the stunning finished product. Not a bad way to spend a cold January weekend! I'd like to thank "Detail" Dave Eller for introducing us to the client and his beautiful Ferrari, and also thank David Strum ("weekendwarrior" on many detail forums) for helping Dave with the initial inspection process and for offering us the use of his well-appointed garage for the actual detail work and storage of the car until it could be trailered down to Florida. And of course, thank you to Tyler Cauley (silverbullet) for his camera skills and renting some special lenses and equipment for this shoot. This detail was performed by the three of us over the course of one long weekend, with a total of 40+ man hours put into all cleaning, wheel removal, paint correction and interior work. As such, this write-up isn't as pic-heavy with in-process, before and after shots as I'd normally like, so hopefully the pro-quality after pics will make up for that oversight! With an older car like this that may be prone to rust, sometimes it's best to err on the side of caution. Standing water from the normal foam bath and two bucket wash may end up trapped in places that lead to corrosion down the road. We opted to wash with Optimum No Rinse to reduce the amount of water used and to minimize the chances of water getting introduced somewhere it shouldn't. After the wash and clay, the first order of business was to remove the wheels so they could be cleaned inside and out. David Strum handled wheel cleaning duties while Dave Eller and myself proceeded to detail the wheel wells and suspension. It looks like these wheels hadn't had a true deep cleaning probably ever. After using several applications of ph-neutral 1Z Colortec Wheel Cleaner, followed by Stoner's Tarminator for tar specks, these wheels came out looking incredible. David finished off the look with Giovanna Tire Gel. The wheel wells and suspension created a bit of a challenge. Vinatge Ferraris come with factory markings in grease pen on many parts, and we didn't want to lose the originality by removing these marks. So we carefully used a combination of degreasers, solvents and steam along with brushes and LOADS of microfiber towels to clean the wheel wells without risking removing these marks. The buildup of gunk on these links was heavy....and bothering me. In the above picture you can see the process has begun. Sorry for the blurry pic, but you can see that even though it took a while to get through it all, eventually I won! Here you can see the starting condition of the wells and suspension, along with the factory markings. I'm lost in a cloud of steam...but getting work done! Also, check out the swirls in the camera flash...paint correction was definitely next on the list. Suspension cleaned as far back as could be reached. Dave doing some finishing touches on the engine. David cleaning the interior. Dirt accumulates in the little valleys of the leather texture, and towels won't get down to clean it out. A gentle, soft bristled brush will remove that last bit of grime that keeps an interior from truly being "detailed". And finally, a little bit of paint correction. Before. After. Although the swirls are gone, there is a bit of pitting/sandblasting in the finish. But this Ferrari is a driver, so that's to be expected! David taping edges and delicate areas to prevent damage while polishing. Unfortunately, that's all the pictures of the paint correction itself. The three of us were too busy working for any more pics. But Tyler's pictures should make up for it. And..... Detail Dave Eller, myself and David Strum at the end of a loooong weekend. Oh yeah, I forgot a couple of pictures. Thanks for looking!
Thanks Andy! David Strum spent some real time on those wheels. The level of embedded brake dust wasn't as bad as some cars I've seen, but I doubt they'd been cleaned this thoroughly since it was new. That was probably 25-year old brake dust! Thank you Jordan! Thanks very much Jeff! This was a total team effort, one week's worth of work squeezed into 2 days by 3 guys doing their best not to get in each other's way!
Thank you very much Kyle! Appreciate it Mike, a lot of work but spreading it out among three of us made it manageable in our short time frame.
