Ferrari 360 Challenge Stradale Quick Detail
Discussion
Must admit I’ve had worse Thursdays off, spent the best part of the day doing a minor paint correction and general clean up on a 360 CS, rare car and a rare opportunity. Was also like going to the gym for few hours in an oven, the Dubai Summers and manual work really are not an amusing combination.
Anyways on to the car, for an 11 year old vehicle the condition overall is very impressive however with this type of car and low use you would also hope to find them in such condition and this one is a cracking example.
Aim of the detail, a quick tidy up of the paintwork which had acquired the natural swirl marks over time albeit fortunately mild ones and also give the engine bay a quick going over, the carbon fibre has started to lose its shine.
Before starting the wash process is vital, considering the vehicle involved some time was taken over this process circa 2 hours, few of the car before:
Engine bay before (got to be one of the best sights in automotive history)
Paint swirls showing in the sun in the usual places door top edges and boot/engine cover lid:
Exhausts, naturally would expect a bit of carbon build up on these:
In keeping with the care needed for this type of car a snow foam pre wash was used to remove any loose surface particles:
Metal de-contamination used on the exhausts:
Engine bay cleaning in progress, still using non damaging (i.e acid) kind products and carefully brushed in:
Age of the car had started to show in certain joints, using specific swabs it was possible to remove a lot of the buildup hiding:
Car all washed and carefully dried to head inside:
Being prepared for polishing, the mesh at the rear of the car is worthwhile being taped up, it would not be much fun trying to remove excess polish from each individual hole!
Stripes also taped over to be protected, in this picture id also sectioned off two areas to experiment with regarding compounds/pads to see what would work, the idea is to remove light marks not go heavy so a 1 stage minor correction was decided on with a medium grade pad:
Wheels and exhausts after:
Engine bay:
Paint up close on two panels:
Final of the whole car:
Unfortunately it won’t show the usual night/day before and after pictures that I’m used to showing but it’s good that the car only needed very minor work being the age it is. Was finished off with a good sealant to help protect over the summer months.
All in all a rare opportunity and a good experience working with such a car.
Anyways on to the car, for an 11 year old vehicle the condition overall is very impressive however with this type of car and low use you would also hope to find them in such condition and this one is a cracking example.
Aim of the detail, a quick tidy up of the paintwork which had acquired the natural swirl marks over time albeit fortunately mild ones and also give the engine bay a quick going over, the carbon fibre has started to lose its shine.
Before starting the wash process is vital, considering the vehicle involved some time was taken over this process circa 2 hours, few of the car before:
Engine bay before (got to be one of the best sights in automotive history)
Paint swirls showing in the sun in the usual places door top edges and boot/engine cover lid:
Exhausts, naturally would expect a bit of carbon build up on these:
In keeping with the care needed for this type of car a snow foam pre wash was used to remove any loose surface particles:
Metal de-contamination used on the exhausts:
Engine bay cleaning in progress, still using non damaging (i.e acid) kind products and carefully brushed in:
Age of the car had started to show in certain joints, using specific swabs it was possible to remove a lot of the buildup hiding:
Car all washed and carefully dried to head inside:
Being prepared for polishing, the mesh at the rear of the car is worthwhile being taped up, it would not be much fun trying to remove excess polish from each individual hole!
Stripes also taped over to be protected, in this picture id also sectioned off two areas to experiment with regarding compounds/pads to see what would work, the idea is to remove light marks not go heavy so a 1 stage minor correction was decided on with a medium grade pad:
Wheels and exhausts after:
Engine bay:
Paint up close on two panels:
Final of the whole car:
Unfortunately it won’t show the usual night/day before and after pictures that I’m used to showing but it’s good that the car only needed very minor work being the age it is. Was finished off with a good sealant to help protect over the summer months.
All in all a rare opportunity and a good experience working with such a car.
Edited by After_Shock on Friday 5th June 16:12
Jules360 said:
Got to say James did a stunning job on the car. I thought it looked ok to start with, I had no idea how many imperfections there were that he has now put right. He even found time to remove the sun cream deposited on the Cayenne seats by my kids !
A true gent, thanks mate.
Many thanks on the kind words.A true gent, thanks mate.
The mentioned sun cream, before:
After:
It's much better since coming back from ARM. To be honest have wondered what all the fuss about these things was since getting it - handling always seemed a bit vague and too much understeer.
Took it to Mr Renner's last week to have all suspension geometry put back to factory setting and it has transformed the car. Handles like a go cart now, steering so precise and feels so much more planted.
Not sure what I have the 458 for now - it may have to go !!
Took it to Mr Renner's last week to have all suspension geometry put back to factory setting and it has transformed the car. Handles like a go cart now, steering so precise and feels so much more planted.
Not sure what I have the 458 for now - it may have to go !!
Edited by Jules360 on Monday 8th June 01:58
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