Black Ferrari 430 Paint Correction
by Ivan RajicHere’s another gorgeous Italian I detailed last year for a client who wanted the job done right. Due to bad weather and somewhat of a time limit, I was unable to take as many photos as I would have liked, but I did manage a few good ones.
The car was in overall decent condition, but was not cleaned properly in a while and had quite a bit of swirling, nothing unusual for a black car. While I didn’t get any photos of the wash process, here’s what the engine looked like before the work started…
After a proper cleaning, polishing and wax, the engine compartment cleaned up very well and the carbon fiber parts started showing some shine again…
For paint correction, I used 2-3 polishing stages with a few different pad and polish combinations. Ferrari paint is normally fairly good to work with, so even though it was horribly swirled, it didn’t cause too many complications throughout the process. Below area few half and half photos showing the paint condition and how well it improved. Overall, it was a major transformation and the photos will show just that.
Here is a photo taken after compounding stages were performed on the left side…
As you can see above, I could’ve left the paint alone after just the compounding stages and it would’ve still been a night and day difference compared to the before condition. The photo below shows the paint on the left completed after a finish polishing stage.
The results were pretty much perfect aside from some random deeper scratches on various sections of the vehicle. The below photo shows a half and half using only the garage fluorescent lighting. Even with this non-direct lighting, you can easily tell how much the paint improved both in terms of swirlmark correction and overall depth/darkness. The car was finally BLACK again!
The following few photos are some I took to show the condition of the paint before and after correction…
Finally, here are a few photos after correction was done. It was pouring snow/rain outside when the detail was done, otherwise I would have had some really nice shots outside in the sun. These will just have to do…
Well that’s all I have on this beauty. The client enjoyed the clean car for a few months and then traded it in on a brand new Porsche 911, which I should be correcting sometime this year. Needless to say, the car was easily the cleanest and best looking in the dealer showroom, for which my client actually received quite a few compliments :).
Some of the products used in the detail:
Flex XC 3401 VRG
Porter Cable 7424XP Random Orbital Buffer
Meguiar’s DA Microfiber Cutting Disc Buffing Pads
Lake Country Orange Light Cutting Pad
Lake Country Hydro Tech Crimson Ultra Fine Finishing Pad
Meguiar’s Ultra-Cut Compound M105
Meguiar’s Ultra Finishing Polish M205
Menzerna Micro Polish SF 4500 (PO85RD)
Pinnacle Souveran Paste Wax
Thanks as always for reading and please feel free to leave any comments or questions below.
Great job as always. That car looks great in black when properly detailed, although I feel it is somewhat hurt by those garish yellow calipers. What are those small specks that show up in the pics of the final results, lint?
Thanks Chris! Yes those small specks are in fact leftover link and just dust that settled on the surface as I didn’t take the after shots immediately after on some photos. Also, sometimes you get such specks in a photo when you actually capture the small indentations made by rocks hitting the paint over time but not chipping it, so I believe in one of the after photos above that’s what you’re seeing as it’s on the hood. Hope that explains it.
Hi Ivan excellent work with the Ferrari, I’m looking to do a light detail job on my LS 460 white exterior color what would you recommend?
Hi Paul,
I wish I could be of more help, but I’d really need more specific of a question to be able to help you out. Typically it’s good to get an assessment done with a good detailer to determine exactly what the car needs and go from there.
Beautiful car. About how many man-hours did it take to do this?
Chris, I honestly can’t remember exactly but probably around 15-18 if I remember correctly.
Great work Ivan! I dunno if pics make it looks worst than it really is but that thing was swirled nasty! It sure makes for some cool before and afters tho:) proper washing ftw from here on out.
Ivan, that is an awesome job, the intensity of the swirls and to see it so beautifully black again.. WoW…
Nice job !
Nice work as always, Ivan. Suggestion: it would be helpful if you could indicate what speeds and pressure you use when applying various polishes etc with the PC as well as how many passes are made while polishing/waxing. Thanks.
Abe, the pics are straight off my camera and it was surely that bad in person, maybe even worse as I could see a much larger swirled area than I can show well in a photo! It did correct somewhat easily compared to other black cars, but it took a good amount of work.
Thanks Sean!
Thanks Steve. I do plan on doing some articles with photos and/or videos on proper polishing with both the random orbital or Flex dual action, but for just this article it may have been a bit much. I’m hoping to have it done within a few weeks.
I been wanting to try the menzerna line. which of there polishes would you recommend to apply before a sealant and a wax. especially on black. thanks mike
Hi Mike,
Unfortunately that’s a very general question, because I don’t’ know the condition of your vehicles and can’t really recommend an exact polish and/or pad to use before a sealant or wax. Pretty much all of the Menzerna polishes perform well, so if you’re looking to try them I would get 2 or 3 of varying aggressiveness and start with the least aggressive to see how it looks. Hope that helps!
Nice work. Question. In some of the close up afters, is that micro-marring in the pictures I am seeing?
Thanks Andrew. Aside from the initial half/half photo that shows the micro-marring left by the compounding stages, there’s no other marring in the paint. There is some dust and microfiber lint on some photos, so I’m not sure if that’s what you’re referring to?
Wow! Nice car! You did a great job, looks like a brand new car.