# Ultimate Shine: An Iconic 1997 Lamborghini Diablo SV in Purple



## Ultimate Shine (Jun 3, 2008)

This is strange for me to have 2 write ups so quick but here is another, this was my dream car from my childhood along with the ferrari testarossa.

These cars back in their day were something that dreams were made of, or so i remember that to be the case:argie: and this has to be the most wild looking car i have seen to date, just totally over the top and an absolute head turner.

A little history behind the car Lamborghini SV Diablo produced 510BHP, had forced air induction and was more powerful and less luxurious than Lamborghini's original Diablo. The VT's adjustable suspension was used along with four-caliper Brembo ventilated discs and 18-inch OZ Racing wheels. The reworked 510bhp motor replaced Lamborghini's earlier 492bhp unit, the SV's additional 18bhp coming thanks to a new LIE engine management system. SE30 Jota-style engine covers were used along with an almost identical rear wing featuring an adjustable Gurney flap.

This car has only covered 10,000miles since new and had a sports exhaust option fitted from the dealer where it was bought and has had the same owner since.

The overall condition of the car was very good but here you will see the sections that always matter to me in a detail as they make the difference between a car looking good and a car looking amazing(in my eyes)
Well here she is, this detail was started back in January when the cold weather was here.



















Tar was a severe issue on this car as you will find out.




























This was as bad as the condition was on the paint so it would not need a major correction but merely a refinment in most places and i knew that this car was going to need a major wash and clean to assure that the car was looking at its prime again,










Ok the first of MANY foam washes, this was done @ 60oC with megs APC with quite a strong mix of APC,



















As usual the most important part of a wash is using the brushes in all the little edges that will be noticed at the end,










Handle removed from small EZ detail brush to get into tight places,










A nice plate showing real itallian passion for disegno.










All vents brushed clean. If the section is too dirty i would use a Trigger bottle as well to make sure of enough cleaner,










Stunning split rims on the car,









Now onto the cleaning process using a mixture of wheel cleaners and lots of brushes










The rear wheels were so wide that it was hard to get any pressure from the ez detail brush right at the inside of the wheel,










Notice the rinsing from the rear,










rinse down,










Front wheels were so tight due to brakes and the size of the front wheels,










Rinse,










While doing wheels there was nothing wrong with another foam and soak,



















Foam up wheels and arches to try and make the APC break down the dirt as much as i could,










Some more brushing as the ammount of edges and little tight sections on the car trying to contain it to sections to make sure the apc didnt sit on the paint too long,










For those bug's that have been stuck to the front end for years a little harder approach used using Duragloss ultimate orange, an under-rated product that works well when you are looking for good cleaning degreasing action without the worry of chemical damage.










Rinse,



















Door checks were filthy and were going to take Megs Super Degreaser strong mix to clean,










Engine Bay,










Classic Italian instuction on the cover of going throught the whole 12 cylinder firing order.










Not an easy engine bay to clean as when the engine was running it was absolutly cooking and the noise was ridiculous, just the way i like it.




























Factory Fit Lambo Style Doors :lol:










Door checks getting better,










Another rinse round the door checks so no super degreaser had any chance of sitting on the exterior paint surface,










The dirty foam was showing how dirty she was,










Tar was next and i knew this was going to be bad from first look. This actually blew me away as i have cleaned some really bad ex-taxi's and rep's cars a few years ago and i remember using ltr after ltr of tardis on them to get them clean, this wins the prize.

Normal tar removal,










Normal tar spots,










Wheel Arches:doublesho










Oh my god! has there been a dual carrige way layed under the arches:doublesho










Now this is getting ridiculous,










:doublesho:doublesho:doublesho










Thankfully the customer was talking about getting tar layed in his drive,










I hope this doesn't dry,










Right come on time to phone Grant my local Autosmart Rep to find out if he could get me a 5 Gal Drum of TARDIS, like always i nipped away for 20 mins to find him with a 5 gal drum, cheer grant,



















rinse rinse rinse,










Foam foam foam, this time with Hyper Wash and a touch of shampoo plus in the mix and a 2BM with Shampoo Plus and a genuine lambswool washmitt for washing. Notice the sun is going down now and light and temperature is dropping fast.










I must admit shampoo plus has yet to be beaten in my eyes due to the way it makes the mitt glide over the paint finish. smooth silky smooth.



















Oh dear my vas is looking slightly dirty in the background is that what winter is like.










Pop up head lights raised for cleaning










A little wheel cleaner used for exhaust tips Gloss It Wheel Gel works here as it works on the one place for a long time without running off the surface. Neat product for this exercise.










I was running out of time outside so mind made up to take inside for correction work and then go outside the next day with my trolley jack and axle stands and breaker bar.

Here we are now inside, dried and inspecting. The paint defects were so hard to capture on this car as the flake played games with the camera lens,










After the tar removal outside the contamination removed by megs mild was minimal.










Now defect removal was done by using gloss it yellow pad and 205, don't know what made me try the combo but it worked for the correcting part.










Next i removed the rear lid section that had the spoiler attached for acces for machine on the tops of the rear quarters.










Paint was pretty hard on the car so for the tight parts i couldn't get to i used LC hand pad and 205.










What a difference with the lambo doors opened for working on, just makes me want a car scissor lift more and more.










DAY 2,

Now correction done and time to go back outside and remove wheels as the various different brushes and wheel cleaners i had did not clean well enough.

Here is evidence of what 13 years of brake dust looks like.

Notice when working on wheels cut up 2 bits of 2x2 timber and rest the wheel on the timber face down. This way great access to rear of wheel without risk of damage to front of wheel. This way you can apply some pressure and see clearly enough.










Whilst wheels were having a good soak with AS smart wheels,










Time to move onto inner arches when wheels removed to get to the parts that were impossible to reach when the wheels were on. Super Degreaser, APC were my main cleaning agents here,




























Wheels still soaking being super carefull not to let the product dry into the surface.













































More tardis



















Now we are getting there,




























Now there was no time left for refinment so a simple sealant was used to seal the paint for my next visit.

Due to work comitments for both customer and myself we got a date sorted to finish the car off and do a couple of others at the same time(another thread to write)

The first section i was needing to perfect was the engine bay. This was in need of some attention as the finish on the parts of the engine bay were letting it down. So out comes APC and the TORNADOR. What i would do if i didnt have this wonderful tool, if you dont have one buy one as it will do what you wouldn't think possible.










Cover removed,










APC



















That's better, you know when an engine bay is clean is when you stand back and notice parts that you couldn't see before.










Now car taken outside and foamed to remove dust and remove the weak protective coating on the exterior.

Car then taken inside and then refined using Festool Black pad and the Festool High Gloss finish.

Now was my first time out with my new Wax.

Oh how this wax is applied and removed blew me away the first time i used it, so easy.










What a joy to work on and what an eye popping car. This is what supercars were is the 80's and 90's wild in every way.

Enjoy,















































































































































































































































































Thanks to the customer for the chance of working of such a fantastic car and hope you all enjoyed as much as me.:thumb:


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## ross-1888 (Feb 22, 2009)

nice write up and nice finish


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## Auto Detox (Dec 22, 2007)

nice work on a school boy classic


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## bimmerjam (Feb 26, 2009)

Beautiful car, must have been very hard to clean with all those special body shapes. Great job.


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## Rick74 (May 31, 2009)

Stunning,had your work cut out with the tar,adore these lambos


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## -Kev- (Oct 30, 2007)

awesome work Paul :thumb:
(i take it the drive cleaned up o.k afterwards?..)


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## Guest (Jul 19, 2010)

stunning


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## ChrisST (Jul 19, 2009)

Not a lot you can say about that really, apart from stunning.:thumb:
Superb work and a great write up, thanks for posting.


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## Prism Detailing (Jun 8, 2006)

About time Paul, how long ago did you do this lol

As always, excellent work


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## badly_dubbed (Dec 11, 2008)

lovely car!

i want one!

BUT what type of absolute TOOL puts wheel weights on the polished rim of wheels like these!?!?!


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## SimonW (Jun 3, 2007)

Great work buddy :thumb: 

Simon


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## Oli1983uk (Aug 31, 2009)

lovely looking car and great write up.


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## vxlfan (Oct 6, 2009)

Another fantastic detail, Paul....and a great write up, too ! :thumb:

Was worth the wait since January for the write up, though.

Cracking collection of cars that customer has between this, the Ferrari and 
the Porsche...

Loving the colour of the car, and can hardly believe the tar in those arches :doublesho

Don't think I've ever seen so much suede (or alcantara ?) in one car :lol:

Cheers!


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## -Aid- (Nov 28, 2009)

Nice work never seen so much tar in my life tho!


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## johnnyguitar (Mar 24, 2010)

woweee - that looks fantastic. Paint almost looks different shades in the different light.
Great work there.


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## Jorge (Oct 12, 2009)

:doublesho:doublesho:doublesho...

AMAIZING!!!!!

What a great R8...no...Now I´m Shure it´s a Lambo!!! :lol:

Fantastic, I don´t have words to apreciete this...absolutly fantastic, the work, report, pictures, fantastic :thumb:

Thanks for charing,

Best regards,

Jorge


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## PIT (Apr 22, 2010)

Nice writeup and work


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## nicp2007 (Apr 25, 2007)

very nice work mate :thumb:


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## horned yo (Feb 10, 2009)

I mind having a poster of this years ago. Absolutly stunning. Cant get over how much tar came off the wheel arches


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## angajatul (Oct 14, 2008)

Dream car indeed...very nice detail also !


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## paranoid73 (Aug 5, 2009)

Superb :thumb:


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## Greedy80 (Jul 6, 2010)

Awesome!


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## m4rkie23 (May 19, 2009)

wow. what a beautiful car!


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## Yoghurtman (Dec 9, 2008)

Great write up and lovely old school supercar......


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## dazzyb (Feb 9, 2010)

just WOW!


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## RandomlySet (Jul 10, 2007)

cracking work there fella/.......


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## Deeg (Mar 30, 2009)

Great work there. 

I'm amazed at how much tar was there!!


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## Gleammachine (Sep 8, 2007)

Old Skool Cool, stunning work Paul on an equally stunning piece of machinery.:thumb:


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## amiller (Jan 1, 2009)

your write ups are still among the best. a really good set of photography skills makes it. 

I bought the smaller EZ brush on your recommendation in the F430 thread and it is simply brilliant- cleans everywhere!

:thumb:


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## S3-DAVE (Jun 1, 2010)

80`s and 90`s was definitely the era of the best supercars
The detail wasn`t to bad neither:thumb:


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## -tom- (Jan 27, 2009)

stunning work


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## gb270 (Aug 22, 2008)

Great write up super car to see to


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## Perfection Detailing (Nov 3, 2007)

Stunning car Paul, nice work mate.


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## stuy180 (Mar 10, 2008)

Great work!!... Could I just ask what machne that is you are using?

I currently have the Makita but have seen the machine you are using in a few topics in the studio now.

Is it a Rotary or DA?

Thanks in advance :thumb:


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## Ultimate Shine (Jun 3, 2008)

Auto Detox said:


> nice work on a school boy classic


You know the crazy thing about the whole school boy thing was this exact car was meantioned by my pals when i was at school that a guy in *********** had bought one and here she is the exact one that was in the story about 13-14 years ago

That made it even more special



-Kev- said:


> awesome work Paul :thumb:
> (i take it the drive cleaned up o.k afterwards?..)


Yes no hassle there:thumb:



stuy180 said:


> Great work!!... Could I just ask what machne that is you are using?
> 
> I currently have the Makita but have seen the machine you are using in a few topics in the studio now.
> 
> ...


It's a Rotary called a Festool Shinex Raptor 150. A completely different tool to the Makita as it's a lot lighter but has totally different plus and negative points to the machine you use.

I see an advantage of owning both but it's my only one, easy to hold and lift but if you are up against hard paint it's hard work whereas the makita will do so much of the work for you:thumb:


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