Please note, this was a 40 hour job that was primarily documented via video. The videos are being edited and will be added as soon as possible, in the mean time please enjoy the photo documentation.

Hi everyone! Thanks for checking out our writeup on this beautiful Ferrari 458 Spider. The goal here was to perfect the paint on this newly delivered car, as well as install clear film on large portions of the vehicle. The work was performed by Marco from Marco from Advanced Automotive Films and myself, Kevin from GTA In Detail over the course of three days and about 40 man hours..

Before I start I'd like to address some questions I've had about why we need to do so much work to perfect a newly delivered super car; this stems from our writeup we did on the first two Mclaren MP4-12C's in Canada.. For many people in our industry it's long been understood that (generally speaking) the more expensive the car the worse the paint condition (not quality) is when it arrives. This is usually because, unlike most production cars, "exotics" or super cars are either painted by hand, or painted by machine then finished by hand. That means at some point they are hand sanded, or sanded by hand with an air sander, then hand polished prior to factory completion. In many cases this happens before the paint is baked, and as a result the cars often arrive with issues that would be typical from a body shop. That means you'll normally see sanding marks, but hand and mechanical, buffer trails, compound residue, and occasionally small paint repairs, drips, blow-ins, etc. The end result is that the paint is usually more flat than a typical production car (less orange peel), but arrives with a variety of correctable issues.

In the case of this 458 Spider the issues were pretty typical with two exceptions. The primary issues were buffer trails on all panels (which is normal), quite a bit of compound residue, some sanding tracers on the horizontal panels, and quite a few deep clear coat scratches. The secondary, less typical issues were a large amount of air sanding marks on all the lower portions of the car and one small paint repair on the rear deck. Overall the repair process was straight forward, the most intense work was done on the bottom half of the car which had the air sanding marks (which were quite deep). Here are some examples.

Marring/buffer trail/compound residue on trim pieces.

More buffer trails.

Air sanding marks.

More air sanding marring.

A small paint repair on the deck, likely to repair the dust nib in the middle of the frame.

A few issues here, buffer trails, RIDs and some chipping around plate screw holes.

The bumpers had quite an assortment of buffer trails.

. The process for this car was as follows:
- Wash, decon (finish kare ABC system), claybar (~3 hours).
- Air sand 3000 grit lower sections of doors/fenders/bumpers. (~4 hours)
- Compound lowers with Surfbuff pad/Megs 105 (~6 hours)
- Compound entire car, MF pad/Megs D300 (~8 hours)
- Refine with Menzerna Super Finish/Buff and Shine white Euro (~4 hours)
- The car was then given to Marco from Advanced Autmotive Films for clear film installation (see below) - Re-wash, apply Opti-Coat to all surfaces (see Mclaren writeup.)

We also steamed the seats (which are natural leather, as opposed to semi aniline), the carpets and mats, then applied a protectant to all leather, vinyl, and carpeted surfaces. The engine, jambs, wheel wells, exhaust & rubber were also cleaned and treated.

The clear film installation took ~14 hours and included the following coverage. Front bumper, full hood, full front fenders, lights, a-pillar (one piece), full roof, full rockers, rear wheel impact area, and fuel filler door. Where possible (and in this case it was possible on all panels) the film was installed in one piece which no seams, all edges wrapped. Opti-Coat was applied over the film to help ongoing maintenance.

No more marring, or residue

Fixed the area under the plate. No one will ever see it, but we will know!

RIDs and buffer trails on rear bumper sorted

After the correction Marco was called in to complete the film installation. All emblems/lighting was removed so that the film would have no visible edges.

We pulled the car out to check the film.

Remember, the entire front end (full hood/fenders/bumper/lights) are wrapped, as well as the a-pillar (which Marco was able to wrap with one piece, no seams), roof, and rockers.

And finally, some completed shots after Opti Coat was applied!

Thanks for looking!

Contact via e-mail or call 647-203-5164.