Paint condition from factory

Hello, I have been reading some threads were constantly it's being recommended to repair the paint after delivery (brand new cars) quite honestly I'm puzzled. I have never heard of such thing. One may think that the factory should assure the quality of the paint?

In any event, I'm expecting my F12 to arrive in September and I would like to get some education to plan accordingly.

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

 

Plan for it to be perfect and beautiful, the same way mine was.

 

Not sure what others have said but from my experience with brand new cars the paint is absolutely beautiful except for one bad wash will swirl the crap out of it. I think some dealerships get their young inexperienced car washers to wash the cars. Paint correction by a pro will make her better then new. All it takes is a few hrs of buffing followed by a polish. I do this to every car I own at least once a year

 

My f12 came with swirls and scratches all over the places. Detailer corrected everything.

 

All my Ferraris have been rubbish. The problem is that until someone educates your eye which unfortunately takes two minutes, you will think it is fine. So either educate your eye and spend the money or just continue to look superficially. As a general example, if anyone can show me a buttress by the rear screen on a 458 spyder that is anything other than tragic I would be amazed. I have seen so many Ferraris, and always check the paintwork out of interest and unless they have an optional colour which is not applied at the factory, to me they are a disgrace at this price point.

When my spyder was rubbed down we found poorly blended and over sprayed panels and I have posted both that and my F12. On the F12 it was so bad we called in the factory and even they agreed it was beyond the pail. Once they were corrected which was a major job, the difference was truly immense and parking by an identically schemed F12 the other day you could really see the difference.

 

Curious if anyone has had the same problem on the triple layer paints, which are painted separately? My 458, which was a triple white was fine.

 

Every triple layer I have seen have been fine but then they are not painted at the factory from what I understand.

 

I have the tripple layer..

 

Traveller's F12 experience was epic; there is a thread on it in this forum. My own experience with 5 Fcars is that the painting quality has degraded over time. My pre-millenial cars were spectacular. The more recent ones have been acceptable but not great. That's the bad news. The good news is that they can usually be corrected if you are dissatisfied.

 

The water based paint is very soft and they are forced to use it because of government regulation.

 

I think you're right. Things went downhill when they switched to water. But others managed the transition pretty well.

 

From my experience, Ferrari has the worst high end paintwork. The water based paints, on German and British cars is better with less orange peal that Ferraris. Only exception is the triple stage paints that are painted outside of the Ferrari factory.

 

you will likely be very happy with the paint .. However you will see if you get a very high quality paint correction the car will look so much better. When i say paint correction what we are talking about is an EXPERT car detailer type guy spending a couple of days buffing and working the paint maybe a high quality sealant then you will realize how much nicer the car can look for a few hundred dollars. SO while waiting on the car you need to locate the best detailer in the area..I get all my cars done..and what a difference...

 

Agreed 100%

 

On the positive side they use a lot of paint, so it's easy to correct (plenty of material to work with)

 

I believe FChat member TizerDog also had issues with his Rosso Fuoco tri layer F12 paint job. It's not only the in-house paint jobs that have quality issues.

 

Took my detailer a full 2 days to fix the paint on my 458 and it's still not as great as other cars I own.

So, I'm hoping for the best but already have my detailer lined up for when the F12 arrives.

It's insane...this much cash and you have to fix the paint.

 

I have yet to see a Ferrari paint job that does not have issues. I personally own 2 tri-level paint cars and both had issues with the paint quality. An extensive professional paint correction (3+ days) can fix most swirls, light scratches and sanding marks, but if you look close enough, you will find other flaws such as poor blend lines, spot repairs, runs, nibs, etc. Ferrari's colors are phenomenal, they just need to step it up on the finishing and QA process. They pass too much stuff that would be unacceptable to almost every other manufacturer, not just direct competitors, but cars that cost a fraction of the price. As Traveller mentioned, most people who are not familiar with what consititutes quality paint will for the most part say Ferrari's paint looks ok, but a trained eye or someone with good attention to detail will say otherwise. To me its frustrating that they 1) continue to ignore the issues, though everyone else in the industry doesn't seem to have these problems. 2) charge incredibly high premiums for "special'" paint options and the overall quality is no better. Honestly I wish I didn't know what I was looking at when it came to paint, because the initial enjoyment of these cars would not be hindered by the delivery process involving a tug of war with Ferrari and the dealer to fix issues that should not be there. I know that I may be in a small percentage that feel this way, but I have resigned to expect future F-cars will have paint issues regardless of what I pay and if I continue to purchase them, I will need to correct those issues.

 

In my opinion Ferrari paint is one of the worst out of any manufacturer... that being said after a quality pain correction the paint will be beautiful.

 

Took delivery of a new car a few weeks ago and the paint was covered in swirls…I'm planning on sending it to the detailer shortly

 

I just posted on this topic here:

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/458-italia-488/487199-poor-paint-condition-brand-new-ferrari.html

See picture and explanation at the link above. I'm so disappointed in Ferrari.

I recommend to new buyers to request the dealer to not touch the paint upon arrival. That way you can inspect it. Then have a pro detail it and then wrap it. The paint is just too soft and sucks. Not worth the time and effort to keep out small scratches. Just wrap it and don't worry about it.

 

I'm ordering my first Ferrari later this year so this paint issue does worry me.

However can someone please explain how the paint can be that bad if a detailer can mostly sort it out?

I'm no expert but surely when painted the car is painted in primer, then the colour and finally a clear coat. So surely all the detailer can really do is work on polishing the top clear coat to remove the scratches, swirls and the orange peel effect? He can't actually get to the colour beneath the clear coat can he, so if he can 'correct' the finish then only the top coat is at fault?

 

Do a search on the forum as there are many threads on this issue including two of mine on a 458 Spider and F12. That will help explain the process.

 

Yes, they can, but the scratches shouldn't be there in the first place. The point is that Ferrari knows it's soft paint. Why should we have to pay professionals to detail the top layer and end up removing a small amount of clear coat on a brand new car? It's ridiculous. Ferrari's people in the supply chain after production (road the track test, shipping etc) should be trained on what chemicals and materials to use to prevent swirl scratches. Then put a layer of protection on it for shipping. Or make the right long term fix and use a harder paint.

 

No one told me about the triple paint option when I bought the car. Bummer. I would have chose it. It wasn't on the option list. How are we supposed to know and what does it cost?