# Select Detailing vs Ferrari 599GTB



## Select Detailing (Feb 19, 2009)

Well for me this has been the highlight of my first year trading as Select Detailing.
The story goes like this. I was made aware of this customer through a good friend that rents his commercial garage from him.

The customer has a fleet of exotic super cars in his collection that range from

1. Ferrari 599
2. Lambo Murcielago
3. Porche Cayenne 4x4 Turbo
4. GTR
5. Mercedes Benz SL600 AMG V12
6. Range Rover

His collection also includes a T5 Lighting and some stunning classic motorbikes. I have been trying to obtain his business and detail his cars, but its been hard work trying to get my foot in the door. There has been bookings that have been cancelled and calls from me to him, where i was told. Ring me back in a month
Well i have kept on and then i bumped in to the customer in the flesh and he agreed to allow me to visit him at his home to look at the ferrari and see what I thought.
Well i was blown away driving up through the huge gates, to see this old T5 lighting plane in his front garden.










It just set out was was about to be the most enjoyable detail of my carreer.
The customer although ultra wealthy was the most down to earth person i had met and was a rags to riches person and worked very hard.

Some of the stories he told me was quite simply WOW.

Well he was honest with me, and said the reason he had not had me in sooner was because he did not know me, and not heard of detailing and did not know what to expect, but because i kept on at him he said there must of been something with me. So he gave me my chance.

I would like to Thank VRS_Chris for his help and advice in what for me was my most expensive car to date.
Well enjoy all.

Gareth Select Detailing.

*DAY 1*

Arrived at the customers for 8am and was greeted by this.










Being the first Ferrari I had heard, the noise she made on Start Up was goose tingling.
The detail was already being in fimed in HD and this is being edited for the website.
I had booked the car in for 2 days on a enhancement detail with 1 Stage Machine Polish.










Upon inspection prior to washing the car was in pretty good condition with just wash marring and some few rds and some light haze to drivers front wing that only showed up due to 3m sun gun.

I still could tell the car was going to be a beast to work on and to take the detail a step in hand.

*My Normal Wash Process *

*Wheels*
Wheel were quite clean, but this is down to the Carbon Brakes that give very little dust so minimal cleaning was needed
just a clean with Megs Wheel Brightner and cleaned with selection of brushes.










*Wheels After*










Gentle soaking of Tardis applied and cleaned with megs microfibre pad and washed via power washer.










Inner wheel arches were treated with Megs SD allowed to soak for a few mins and power washed, again Tardis applied to inner arches to remove Tar Spots.

*Engine*

Engine was very clean with just surface dirt, and as per what Chris_VRS mentioned I set about with a light soaking of Megs APC and plenty of microfibres and some detailing brushes and cleansed the engine and plastics before being rinsed with the power washer, engine was then wash with filtered water, blown dry and run for 10 mins to aid drying.




























*Exterior Trim*

Various rubbers and plastic trim is on the 599 the largest being the rear defuser. 
This was all treated with APC and cleaned with detailing brushes from Monza and rinsed of with the pressure washer.










Sorry for lack of pictures, but it was all being filmed for my first video.

Car was then rinised with Megs Shampoo Plus fed via Karcher and allowed to soak for a few mins, before being rinsed.



















Car was again soaked in tardis to remove built up speckles of road tar and applied with megs microfibre applicator and power washed off.

I have noticed with Tardis that if you dont give a prewash before claying it can cause damage to the clay, so again vehicle was re washed with Shampoo plus via karcher to remove traces of tardis.

Car was then washed with TBM using Megs Shampoo Plus and One panel per time starting from roof and working round the side. All rinsed and washed with filtered water before being blown dry with leaf blower.

Again sorry for lack of pictures.



















Vehicle was looking quite clean, although various defects that had been masked were starting to show in the direct sunlight, and was clear that the back end was suffering with swirling.

*Clay Stage*

Car was now ready for claying and I choose to go with my tried and tested Megs Pro Mild with Quick Detailer as Lube.

There very little being removed by the clay and this showed, although the car before claying felt quite rough to the touch, but felt silky smooth after claying. Wheels were clayed and vehicle rinsed again with shampoo plus and filtered water , and again blown dry.

This stage the car looked different with the Ferrari Red looking deeper and wetter. The customer was quite happy with the work already.




























Time on the clock was 4 pm so that was 8 hours clean time to get the vehicle ready for the machine stage.

*Machine Stage*

Had already settled on Megs 205 with a polishing pad, i wanted to try a few different pad combo and in the end settled with the 3M Yellow polishing pad.

The car was masked up, found it to be a challenge due to all the mesh grills and as i had not used the 205 before, I did not know what sort of splatter I would get.
Anyone that admires car will always notice the finer details and what I did not want was splatters going in behind where i could not gain access so i choose to fully mask these areas.





































The clock was ticking on, I wanted to see what the 205 was like so settled on testing on the drivers rear and was very impressed with the 205 and the results I gained.

Paint Thickness Readings were taken and all appeared to be in good order with no signs of paintwork being carried out.

I wanted to see what the 205 went on like so settled on trying this on the drivers rear panel. Results were impressive with easy on process, with good wipe down afterwards.

It took 2 passes to gain results that i was happy with.
This was achieved with on Makita, Speed 1 to work product in, Speed 2 to work product, Speed 3 on final pass, before back to speed 1 to refine.



















From testing the rear panel, I started with the roof and then carried on working down the drivers side with the same process.
I did find a area where the roof meets the pilar that had soft paint, but was aware of this from Chris_VRS, this was easy to correct and then the bonnet section. This was done in 8 small sections working from the middle to the wing.
Found the bonnet quite hard due to the sheer size but the results were worth this.

*Some More Machine Work Shots*



















Time was close to 9 pm and I was shattered as had to travel to, so wrapped up leaving just the passenger side to correct and the front and rear bumpers.

*Day 2 Time 8am*

Today was a really sunny morning but with strange weather, one min hailing then snow then rain.
I took the time to go and inspect the aircraft in the front garden.
The customer explained that he and some friends brought 4 t5 lightings and about 4x 40 ton lorrys full of spares.
This was one was flown in to Exeter Airport at the end of its service life, and the customer for a few years used to blast up and down the run way at a cost of £1200pound a time on fuel.
He then brought this aircraft back and has kept this at this home and it is as you see it now.

Sadly he sold a T5 last year that crashed in South Africia killing a friend of his.
When i listen to the plane stories and see some of the pictures i can only dream of leading this lifestyle. He tells me often pilots will fly past looking at the T5, before igniting there after burners in to the sky. The other day a appache helicopter kept popping up from behind the hedge, quite funny then two americian f16s come over.

*T5 Pictures*









































































Well back to the detail in hand.

Leaving from Day 1, the vehicle needed just passenger side correction and the front and rear bumpers correcting.

This was completed by around miday, so the car was wiped down with IPA and then taken outside for a wash and rinse to remove compound.

I was pleased with the 205, and would recommend this to anyone. It goes on easliy, little sling, easy to remove with very good results.

*Some more of the finished machine work.*














































*Wax Stage*

I choose Zymol Concourse on this detail with HD Cleanse as my cleaner.

This was applied and buffed of with Eurrow Towels, Coat of Concours applied by Megs foam app being misted with water. Left to dry for 20 mins and buffed off.

Again sorry for lack of photos, time was against me.



















Front and rear bumpers were treated to Zymol Detail.



















*Wheels and Tyres*

Wheels were treated to Werkstat Prime Strong, followed by 2 coats of Poorboys Wheel sealant, and tryes dressed with megs tyre app and blackfire long lasting tyre gel.



















*Little touch*

The car had a new windscreen fitted and Autoglass had left a nice tax disc holder, i thought it would be nice to have this made by a company to give as a gift to the customer.

*Old Tax Disc Holder*










*New Tax Disc Holder*




























*Interior*

The customer asked if i could clean the inside as he was going to a Ferrari Owners Club Day.

It was short notice, so I set about hoovering the inside, Carpets were fairly clean, so Autosmart Brisk was used to remove any bits that were visable.

Leather was cleaned with gliptone liquid leather cleaner and fed with Gliptone liguid Leather.

Carbon dash trim was treated with DODO Lime Prime and waxed with Super Natural.
Door shuts were treated to Zymol Concours.

Metal work treated with Brilliant metal polish from the guys at Polished Bliss, as Rich told me to try this, and very glad that i did.























































*Engine Dressing*

The engine and Exterior Plactics were treated with 303

This does not pick up dust and leaves a natural finish.




























Rear Defuser was also treated with 303.

The car was finished on day 2 for 8pm.

The customer was very happy with the results and this has now lead on to me detailing his collection and mainting them for him.

Some more pics of the detail in no real order.

Thanks for reading Gareth.


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## HC1001 (May 27, 2007)

Nice car, finish, write up, pic's and just about everything else!!

Looks like you had fun too...............:thumb::thumb:


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## macca5050 (May 17, 2008)

Not ever day you get a customer like that!


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## karl_liverpool (Sep 25, 2008)

fantastic work mate, and a gorgeous car.


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## spanerman (Aug 28, 2008)

Wonderfull work. I adore those wheels 

Sam


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## Select Detailing (Feb 19, 2009)

Thanks guys. Really was for me a fantastic detail and i really enjoyed what I did.

Gareth


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## karl_liverpool (Sep 25, 2008)

Select Detailing said:


> Thanks guys. Really was for me a fantastic detail and i really enjoyed what I did.
> 
> Gareth


so we gonna be seeing write ups on his collection in future?

im really liking that tax disc holder too thats a very nice touch. did you supply it or the client?


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## Select Detailing (Feb 19, 2009)

I used a company that engraved it for me.

Company was called laser grave, tried to get link but it states the link is a domain name.


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## ads2k (Jul 12, 2006)

Great job :thumb:, but I would say you 'NEED' to improve your skills behind the camera because you have not shown off your work I'm sure to it's best. Some are blurry and out of focus and not very well composed. I'm not having a pop at you for sharing just think it would really enhance showing what you can offer.


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## Spoony (May 28, 2007)

Thats a great job sir, I love those alloys. Great thorough work, and the extra mile with the tax disc holder - great customer focus.


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## Select Detailing (Feb 19, 2009)

ads2k said:


> Great job :thumb:, but I would say you 'NEED' to improve your skills behind the camera because you have not shown off your work I'm sure to it's best. Some are blurry and out of focus and not very well composed. I'm not having a pop at you for sharing just think it would really enhance showing what you can offer.


As we speak, I just brought a book after Talking to Rich at Polished Bliss.

Magic Lanterns, so trying to learn as not good at the photo thing.

In process of trying to do a Nikon training day.

Thanks for feedback.

Gareth


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## -tom- (Jan 27, 2009)

:argie: simply stunning are you going to detail the plane as well


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## Select Detailing (Feb 19, 2009)

karl_liverpool said:


> so we gonna be seeing write ups on his collection in future?
> 
> im really liking that tax disc holder too thats a very nice touch. did you supply it or the client?


The next vehicle booked in is the Lambo, its a Pearl Yellow on a full correction.


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## Select Detailing (Feb 19, 2009)

-tom- said:


> :argie: simply stunning are you going to detail the plane as well


The plane is on the cards, but not a detail, it needs to be sanded down and repainted, but we have spoken about this project.

Gareth


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## WHIZZER (Oct 25, 2005)

nice job - Love the car and the plane is something different


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## Select Detailing (Feb 19, 2009)

Thanks Bill,

cheers for the advice on the phone earlier.

Regards

Gareth


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## RandomlySet (Jul 10, 2007)

stunning work there mate! assume you'll be visiting him more often for his other cars then 

Try a detail on the plane


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## GlynRS2 (Jan 21, 2006)

The Lightning is certainly some alternative to a graden gnome 

Cracking work on a beautiful car :thumb:


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## ianFRST (Sep 19, 2006)

a fighter plane in his garden? WTF! slightly different to the bird table / pond most have :lol:


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## tim (May 2, 2006)

Fantastic, love hearing the stories behind a writeup. Always makes it that bit more special!

Was the client a former Serviceman himself, or just a keen Aviator?

Congrats on booking this job, seems like your heading the right direction!

Tim


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## Clark @ PB (Mar 1, 2006)

Good Work Gareth :thumb:

You need to edit the tax disc though as it shows the reg number of the car :thumb:

I'd also get some acid free wheel cleaner as even diluted Wheel Brightner was probably a bit OTT on those wheels considering how clean they were to begin with


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## Select Detailing (Feb 19, 2009)

Clark said:


> Good Work Gareth :thumb:
> 
> You need to edit the tax disc though as it shows the reg number of the car :thumb:
> 
> I'd also get some acid free wheel cleaner as even diluted Wheel Brightner was probably a bit OTT on those wheels considering how clean they were to begin with


Thanks Clark,

Take that as a compliment from the Master himself.

Thanks

Gareth


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## amiller (Jan 1, 2009)

Fantastic work on what looks like a perfect customer.

Check out Bilberry or Espuma's wheel cleaner. A much better bet for high quality cars. :thumb:


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## Select Detailing (Feb 19, 2009)

tim said:


> Fantastic, love hearing the stories behind a writeup. Always makes it that bit more special!
> 
> Was the client a former Serviceman himself, or just a keen Aviator?
> 
> ...


The customer was in the building game, the story behind the plane, was during the T5 Service with the RAF, he was a young boy in London and he remembers the T5 landing and the noise, that did it for him and was his boy hood plane.

As he grew up, he did well and had the money to buy the planes i think he said he paid 30k for 4 T5'S and four lorry loads of spares from the airforce.
Problem was obtaining a valid fly ticket from the CAA, they achieved this, till one crashed and the air ticket has been withdrawn, due to BAE systems not backing it.

Sadly this T5 is starting to corride, so planes are to restore it and treat it to a fresh lick of paint in the correct phantom grey.

Still to this day the plane has a huge following.

Regards

Gareth


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## Guest (Feb 28, 2010)

Well done fella i'm sure you were a bit stressed for those couple of days -trying to do you job take pics and so on .you probaly enjoyed it more after you had finished ha ha any good job and goo dluck on the concrete hard lambo,

Anthony


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## Summit Detailing (Oct 9, 2006)

Top job fella

Not often you see one on standard alloys!


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## Select Detailing (Feb 19, 2009)

Chris_VRS said:


> Top job fella
> 
> Not often you see one on standard alloys!


Hi Chris,

Once again many Thanks for the advice on tackling the job in hand, may have to take you up on the coffee offer at some point.
The customer said to me, that these were up grade wheels.

Still I would not moan at having it on any wheels. Again Thanks

Gareth


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## Select Detailing (Feb 19, 2009)

DETAIL said:


> Well done fella i'm sure you were a bit stressed for those couple of days -trying to do you job take pics and so on .you probaly enjoyed it more after you had finished ha ha any good job and goo dluck on the concrete hard lambo,
> 
> Anthony


I was quite stressed with the job, but would say my happiness and joy out weighed this, and the pros that know me, will know how hard I have worked to get the business off the ground and to show that I can do the job, Guess I owe a lot of Thanks to Matt at Off your Marks, as he was the person that sent me in the correct direction and still after a year helps me out with the different questions I have.


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## Gleammachine (Sep 8, 2007)

Nice work on a lovely car Gareth.


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## Leemack (Mar 6, 2009)

Superb mate - Really enjoyed reading that


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## MdsS R32 (Dec 14, 2009)

Tpo job fella, I always begrudge the wealthy so much less when they actually have fun with their wedge:thumb:


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## SparklesFylde (Jan 28, 2010)

Nice Job!!!!! Wasn't Jeremy Clarkson was it? I know he has a lightning in his garden


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## Select Detailing (Feb 19, 2009)

SparklesFylde said:


> Nice Job!!!!! Wasn't Jeremy Clarkson was it? I know he has a lightning in his garden


Sadly not, lol:wave:


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## Perfection Detailing (Nov 3, 2007)

Nice work Gareth, glad it all went well :thumb:


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## Exclusive Car Care (Jan 14, 2007)

very nice Gareth, well done


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## Mad Stuntman (Oct 25, 2009)

:doublesho:doublesho Stunning work pal. Enjoyed reading this post. :thumb:


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## Select Detailing (Feb 19, 2009)

Mad Stuntman said:


> :doublesho:doublesho Stunning work pal. Enjoyed reading this post. :thumb:


Thanks to everyone for the comments. Very happy with this.

Gareth


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## gb270 (Aug 22, 2008)

Great work and great car to work on.


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## Select Detailing (Feb 19, 2009)

Does anyone know how to bring the photos back on this post please.

Gareth:thumb:


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## tim (May 2, 2006)

Photos are working for me 100% Gareth!


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## Select Detailing (Feb 19, 2009)

Cool, when i look at the post, its saying i need to up grade.

Thanks chap for letting me know

Gareth


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## Envy Car Care (Aug 17, 2006)

Very nice Gareth, lovely job, location and its lead to more. Cant get better than that.


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## ade33 (Jun 4, 2008)

That's a cracking write-up mate, had to read it over again! And a beautiful car, can see why you enjoyed it too. Thanks for posting it up. :thumb:


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## Select Detailing (Feb 19, 2009)

ade33 said:


> That's a cracking write-up mate, had to read it over again! And a beautiful car, can see why you enjoyed it too. Thanks for posting it up. :thumb:


Many Thanks for the comments and the Private Mail


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## prokopas (Apr 29, 2010)

well done  

Just an observation: Since the brakes are carbon, avoid using such aggressive products on wheels as they could damage the discs.


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## GSVHammer (Feb 7, 2009)

Nice write up, don't know why but I enjoyed looking at the pictures of the plane more than the Ferrari. I suppose I'm use to seeing Ferraris on this forum.


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## James_M (May 22, 2009)

A great detail on such as lovely car, top stuff!


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