Street Dreams Detail San Diego - Jet Black Ferrari California and 458 Italia

Two jet black Ferraris came into my shop for complete details and paint correction a few weeks back. There are a few hundred pictures to sort through between the two cars details so I have to break this writeup into two parts. This is the first part which features the California.

On with it!

Both cars had less than a couple thousand miles on them. Taking into account Ferraris poor factory finishing, dealership prep and then a few attempts at detailing prior to coming here the finishes had been through a lot. You don't have to take my word for it :thinking:

Prep started as usual with thorough pressure rinse car followed by sudsy foam bath with a foam cannon



Sonax wheel cleaner safe for carbon fiber wheels and carbon fiber brakes



Decontamination stage



After claying drying and cleaning the finish I pulled the California outside to see not IF the finish was in rough shape but instead how bad it was.

Heavy overspray by the scuderia shield







Some interesting holograms, I can't imagined how this happened





Rear bumper also suffering from RIDS and holograms



Yikes










Dominic and Christensen from CafeSPA came down from San Francisco to shoot a video for their website. Here they are setting up some shots for the video





Filming took a good bit of the day and I was able to put the finishing touches on the lighting setup in the shop to get it just how I wanted. Wall art came out awesome also!

Back to the detail here one of the few very LOW readings coming off the California, again more evidence the car was cut and polished by others before me. Tread carefully..




Bad enough I'd say








Some 50/50 shots, heavy swirls and water etch on the doors





Working through some of the haze on the door, 50/50 showing the grey




LHR75 for tight corners







Roof pillars





Before



After. Not chasing two RIDS on A pillar with less than 70 microns.. as far as compounding and polishing will take me








After, not quite there but after some light sanding and heavy compounding I was able to clean up the damage and level out. This side of 1200grit paper those scratches were not coming out. Again caution exercised here, thin paint on bumper



This is probably my favorite 50/50 on the California



Im sure much to peoples surprise a glass coating was NOT used on this car for final protection. Instead I opted for a traditional polymer sealant (Powerlock) which delivers easy to maintain durability and great slickness of feel to the paint.

These Ferraris will not be daily driven and I may not be able to see them for routine coating maintenance so avoiding that route seemed like the wisest option.

To say the final finish suffered at all from NOT using a coating would be a misstatement. We all detailed cars before coatings existed and were able to achieve great end result finishes with simple products. The goal beyond all of this of course is the countless hours of prep and polishing work that brings out the real brightness of these cars and their paint systems. Whatever you apply afterward should always be as I say "icing on the cake"

Beautiful sky outside the shop around 6pm, not ideal for after shots but it still damn beautiful to look at



No longer being in New Jersey has its benefits, Southern California weather means more opportunity for after shots in sunlight. Next morning after finishing!

So here we go..







Remember that door with all the swirls and rids and haze..
























Back in the shop for a final wipedown and some last shots








The Dark Knight is ready to go. Thanks for checking out the writeup, part two with the 458 Italia will be posted shortly just check back on the thread!

Dave
Street Dreams Detail
9823 Pacific Heights blvd. Suite Q
San Diego, 92121

Check out more street dreams stuff on instagram @streetdreamsdave

 

great job, thanks for sharing!

 

Great work

 

Great job Dave! Nothing wrong with Powerlock!

 

Damn nice job David. Afters are fantastic!

 

good job Dave! don't what princess said about u, you still a prince.

 

nice Dave!

a lift would fit nicely into that shop. =D

 

Really Nice Dave

 

Awesome work Dave, that's a true showing of skill, caution, and knowledge. Oh the days of Powerlock. I still use the stuff regularly, so hard to beat the quality and price.

 

very nice work!

 

Nice correction man, everyone hates on the California but I loved working on them when I was still with Ferrari, had a customer with almost identical to yours right there. Thanks for sharing up!

 

Excellent work once again.

 

looks to good

 

Great job

 

Flawless. Stunning work as always. The shop looks great, too. All RaceDeck I assume?

 

Looks stunning. Is that your 1M? If so you're a lucky man, I'm trying to keep my eye out for one that's not so overpriced, made the fatal mistake of not ordering one new .

 

Flawless is good to hear, coming from you! Racedeck yep, shock tower with the rubber bottom inserts. Softer on the feet and less crackling noise when you walk.

Yes it is. And yes it might have been. LOL if you see one fair priced snatch it up!

 

great work as all ways.

 

Nice work someone hacked that thing up previous to you and they should be slain.