Testarossa [126 pics]

This was done back in 2009 when I was first starting out of my home garage. To date, this is one of the most extensive jobs I have done and so far the one I am most proud of(being able to say you detailed a Testarossa in your home garage is something not a lot of detailers can say they got a chance to do).

 

The opportunity to work on this Testarossa presented itself to me when the owner’s co worker saw some of my other work and referred me to him. I got a call near the end of November 09 from the owner saying that he wanted to get his car detailed for storage. We figured out a date and the car was picked up from Hamilton and driven back to my house in Toronto.

 

 

First off a walk around the bella macchina.

lol yes that is a dog biscuit

In defense of the owner, he said it had been a while since it was detailed and the last time it was just a quick job

 

 

 

So starting with the interior I dusted the car down to get in the tight areas. At the time I was using a Meguiars Slide Lock Brush but it gave out on me and I had to take what was left and wrap it in a rubber band, but it still did the job

 

 

Vacuumed the entire car using various attachments to get in the tight areas

 

 

 

Then gave everything a wipe down with all purpose cleaner cut 50/50 with water to have a clean surface to work with

At the same time I used my foam stick to get in the tight areas that my fingers couldn’t reach

Got in the tight areas of the prancing horse on the hood and trunk latch and here are some before and afters

Before

After

Before

After

Got in the even tighter areas with a q-tip

 

 

 

Had to scrub a few areas with the fine side of my detail brush like…

The cassette tape holder buttons

And the “PRESS” on the seat belt

Before

After

Scrubbed the door sill

And the pedals, no dressing was applied after the clean up as common sense is I don’t want the pedals slippery

Before

After

 

 

 

Pretty much everything in the interior is leather. So I leather cleaned and conditioned everything… the seats, dash, doors, and roof

Gliptone Leather Cleaner & Conditioner is what was using back then

Scrubbing away with my leather brush

Leather conditioned by hand and massaged it in to the leather

Doors

Seats

Roof

 

 

 

I let it soak in for a bit then wiped off the remainder for a nice natural finish.

Did I mention it was cold!!!

Brought the tool bag, owners manual, and jack inside for a cleaning.

Tool bag was dirty and disorganized

Cleaned up the bag with some APC and the tools as well

Clean and organized(yes I realized afterwards that one of the wrenches is backwards lol)

Leather cleaned and conditioned the owners manual bag

Cleaned the bag that held that jack etc and wiped down the jack and tools

And here they are ready to go back in the car

 

 

 

I took these pics at the final end of the detail but felt it was appropriate to put them here. These are the finished pics of the interior.

 

 

 

Now getting started on the exterior I start off with the wheels.

A non acidic wheel cleaner was used to clean the rims. I could leave this cleaner on the rims all night and no damage to the rim. Acid based wheel cleaners you can’t say the same for and even a light application of them to ceramic brakes, anodized rims, etc and a beautiful rim or brake system is ruined. So no acid based wheel cleaners….ever!

Let the rims soak while I attended to the engine bay

 

 

 

I didn’t get to aggressive on the engine bay but still did the best I could. I wiped down with Meguiars All Purpose Cleaner and then dressed it with Meguiars Hyper Dressing cut 20/80 with water for a nice natural finish.

Here is a before and after pic

Before

After (still a little wet from the dressing)

Artsy Fartsy

 

 

 

Moving on to the rims

Getting in the inner barrel with my handleless EZ brush

Behind the rim

Cleaned the rim face with a microfibre mitt

And used a foam stick to get in the lug nut area

 

 

 

Rinsed down the car

And sprayed on Prep Wash to strip off any silicones which will if left on hinder the paint correction process because the silicones fill scratches and if not removed the polish will not cut out the swirl but just glide over them

Then washed the car using the 2 bucket method and a natural sea sponge.

The reason for 2 buckets when washing is simple, 1 bucket is only water, and the 2nd bucket is soap water only. After washing every panel or even half a panel you rinse off the dirt from your mitt in the water only bucket before putting it in the soap bucket, there by keeping your soapy water dirt free. Most people use only 1 bucket to wash their car and this one bucket ends up with dirt in it and this same dirt filled soap water is what is rubbed all over the car and in time a perfect paint finish gets all swirled up

Rinsed my sponge off in the water only bucket after every panel or a half a panel

Dryed the car off and brought it in to clay bar it.

 

 

 

The reason for clay barring your paint is it basically sheers out contaminants embedded in the paint. This can be raildust, fallout, or even just tiny dirt debris. If you wash your car and run your hands along the paint you will probably find that it is still pretty rough. What you are feeling is the surface contaminants.

Pretty contaminated

 

 

 

Measured the paint to see what I was dealing with and look out for any low spots. The owner had told me that the whole car had been repainted so I was dealing with fairly thick paint. Measurements were taken in microns which are a thousanth of millimeter

 

 

 

Masked off the rubber trimmings

 

 

 

And here is what I was up against under 500w halogen lighting

Did a quick test spot to find a combination that worked and here are the results of a wool pad and Menzerna Super Intensive Polish which is a medium cutting polish.

Now for a few before and afters of the body panels

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

Before

After

And a 50/50 shot

Single stage paint really clogs my pads up so I had to change them frequently

All the tight areas my rotary couldn’t reach I did by hand. They did not end up perfect but still a huge improvement to how they were before

 

 

 

This was a full paint correction so the few deeper scratched I wetsanded with Micro Mesh sand paper 2400 grit and then 4000 grit to refine and then finally polish out the sanding marks. Results were either to round off the edges of the scratch to make it less apparent or to completely remove the scratch. Unfortunately my camera died so I didn’t get pics of this process and I was pretty overwhelmed with how intensive it was that I probably wouldn’t have gotten to many shots anyways.

After all the compounding and wetsanding I finally jeweled the paint with a light cutting pad and polish. Here is a shot of me jeweling the paint.

And finally the results of my work

 

 

 

Unmasked the car

http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/nn31/WesRobles1/webtestarossa/89_zps069a3065.jpg

 

 

 

Dusted it down and got in the tight crevices.

Gave it an alcohol wipe down to clean off the polishing oils

 

 

 

Then double checked my work with my 3M Sun Gun which omits the same color spectrum light as the sun. So basically what I see with this light is how it will look in natural daylight.

Perfect

 

 

 

Applied Swissvax Concorso

While the wax was curing I attended to some other areas

Sealed the rim with wheel sealant to protect against brake dust

Dressed the tires with Blackfire Long Lasting Tyre Gel which after being left on for awhile then wiped off leaves a beautiful finish

Here is an after pic of the tires and rim

I couldn’t get the exhaust perfect but still made an improvement.

Before

After

 

 

 

Now finally after a little over 50 hrs of work, -10 weather, and the first snowfall of winter here are the finished pictures.

First up some shots of the sun on the paint

 

And my last 3 favorite pics.

 

Right after taking these pics I drove the car to Oakville Mall to meet the owner and deliver the Testarossa. Lol I looked pretty crazy driving the cleanest Testarossa you ever saw 1 week before Christmas. The staring was too much for me and I wished the windows were tinted.

 

Looking back almost 10yrs ago now I really appreciate the progress I’ve made in terms of business, learning new techniques, trying out new products and systems, and just so many other little things I’ve learned along the way not to mention the people I have met.  Really excited for the future as I feel I can definitely top this and have some new tricks in the bag that I haven’t had a chance to showcase or even use on customer vehicles.

Big thank you to the owner for giving me a chance and trusting me to do my thing.
I hope you enjoyed reading the write up :).