Raising the bar for detailing BLACK

Amazing work and results. Equally amazing is the poor paint quality found on a $300K car.

 

I'm sure the 550 looks great after having Joe work on it! I was not particularly excited by the prospect of sanding down a new 458, that's for sure! The owner is very particular though so I looked forward to the challenge of taking abrasive paper to Ferrari's newest and seeing if I couldn't help perfect the finish.

Thank's for compliments Joe. I didn't realize this thread existed until now, but the compliments mean a lot coming from you!

I hope it was enjoyable!

Thank you Pap!

What choice does a new Ferrari owner have? I have never seen what I would consider to be a good finish on a Ferrari from the factory. You buy the engine and Ferrari throws the car in for free . I would say that Ferrari has the worst QC as far as paint as any company at any price although some of the dealerships do a good job at fixing the mess that is delivered.

Your check is the mail . This is the absolute truth, most people will never know the difference (and are probably more sane because of it!) because once you can see the difference it leads to insanity!

I don't know of any shops but you might look at Street Dreams Details: http://www.streetdreamsdetail.com/

Thank you!

Rick Nelson and Ryan Blanchette of Unique Car Care. I believe that Rick owns a shop and Ryan works for Rick on occasion. Both are incredible detailers and Unique is famous in the MA area for the quality of work that is consistently turned out.

Thank you!

Replied to your EMAIL. Let us know how it all turns out!

Thanks!

Way too many!!! The problem is that the owner is a true fanatic and wanted/wants the best looking 458 in the world, and given the mess that Ferrari handed him, the solution was to get it right (which takes time).

The three problems were that 1) nobody had sanded a 458 (tmk) before so I was treading new waters and couldn't call anybody for reference. 2) OEM clear coat is thin so I could not make the paint perfectly flat because it would have comprimised the long term durability of the paint system. 3) My client wanted as close to uniform paint as possible. Since I could not remove all of the texture and since you can only remove texture, I had to be very careful and consitantly check, re-check, and triple check my work. Sand too much in one area and I would have to re-sand the whole car to make it even and remove more paint, which I wanted to avoid at all costs. Thus it was better to work a little at time and create as flat (and even!) of a finish as possible with out removing too much material; no room for error and that takes time.

Thank you! I agree about expectations on such an expensive car (although it is great job security for me!) but as long as there are people in line to purchase I don't see Ferrari doing much to correct the problem. In fact I would say the quality has gotten worse recently.