# The Doctor Gets A Very Sexy Italian Patient (Ferrari F355)



## The Detail Doctor (Feb 22, 2008)

*Ferrari F355 (1997) Correction Detail By The Detail Doctor*

This weekend saw a visit to Wiltshire to meet up with a sexy young Italian model, in the shape of a Ferrari F355 Berlinetta. The machine was to have a 'wheels off' detail including leather clean & paint correcton.

Upon Arrival at 7:55AM I was greated with this....









Hardly what one would call 'in a state' really.

So I get busy, starting with jacking the car up to facilitate removal of the wheels......









So off came the wheels & time to get started on the arches.

First off was the front right arch, as it started out.......









so time for a rinse with the P/W & a good spray with G101 & agitation with a Vikan soft brush & a Halfords wheel brush, taking care not to remove the dealer applied underseal.









Brake calipers cleaned with Bilbaerry 4:1


















Various tar sport were treated with Tardis, then the arches were dried off with a couple of my older M.F's & treated to a dose of Bare Bones.









The rear arch was treated in the same way....

Before









After









This was repated for the LHS.

Then it was time to move onto the wheels, which started like this.









Close up.









First I started with some Bilberry at 4:1 and the Vikan Soft brush again.


















I was left with various heavy tar deposits that needed a good dose of tardis to start them shifting.









After 4 hits of tardis I was left with this.









Nice easy clean with Bilberry 4:1 on the front face.









Finished wheel.









So ready for some Rim Wax to protect.








Agian, this was repated for all wheels, the rears took 2hrs to get looking respectable.

Then my attentions were turned to the engine bay, which was basically clean.









Used G101 on the most part, a litte Meg's Wheel Brighter on the alloy castings and once cleaned off & dryed dresed with Bare Bones, Swisswax Pneu & Aerospace 303.









Final job for the day was the leather, started by masking a door panel to see what I was dealing with.









Then a spray of Chemical Guys Leather cleaner, worked in by hand mainly, with some light agitation from a brush as required.









And time for the 50/50








At which point the owners returned from shopping & were made up with the improvement in the leather colour & condition.

The finished door panel...









Then the seats were treated in the same way...









Dash panels were also cleaned in the same manner, but light was fading so no befores.

And then finished off all of the leather with some Gliptone.









There was some mild cracking to the leather, so I passed on LTT's details.

And the dash...









Then just time to torque wp the wheel nuts & then it was time to pack up as the light had gone........

Returned 8AM on Sunday morning and first thing was a good session with the snow foan, which didn't really want to stay put as the car was so clean anyway.









After two minutes most of the Snow Foam had run off.









So time for a jet wash off & a wash.

Cleaning the door air intakes in the doors.









Getting around the sidel ights with the Envy Brush.









And getting all around the grille, again with the Envy brush.









And found some dirt behind the side air intakes.









Witch was cleaned out with some G101 & an Envy detailing brush again.









A couple of tar spots needed sorting.



















The car was carefully dried with the massive Plush Drying towels and a spritz of Last Touch & all of the door & boot/bonnet shuts were carefully dried too.









Then it was time for the clay bar, Dodo Juice Gentle Grey, which I needed to soak in warm water to soften as it was pretty cold.









Gentle Grey after half the roof panel.









The whole car was clayed ready for polishing.

The correction was going to be carried out using the Cyclo where possible, and in the more intircate areas the new Kestral DAS-6 with 4" pads.

Started with the front R/H wing - Before.









After a hit of Meg's #80 on Orange LCC pads & Men'z FF on LCC white pads.









Then on to the bonnet, same approach, only needed go to #83, followed by #80, then FF to get a decent level of correction.

Bonnet before.









Bonnet after.









Then it was the same for the rest of the car, Meg's #80 was enough on most panels, with a couple of areas that needed #83, finished off with Men'z FF in all cases.

R/H Rear wing before.

















R/H Rear wing after.


















Nice reflection on the door after correction.









Rear light lenses lightly swirled.








After polishing.









Time to get the car in the garage as it started hoofing down with hail & rain.









L/H Front wing before correction.....









And after a couple of hits of Meg's #80 on an Orange LCC pad, followed by Men'z FF on a white LCC pad.......









Then it was a good dose of Lime Prime Lite all over.

Time for the LSP, this time Dodo Juice Supernatural, and whilst it was curing the plastics were treated with Aerospace 303 & the glass cleaned with Meg's glass cleaner.

LSP curing.









No chance of any decent finished pics I'm afraid as it was 6pm by the time I finshed, dark & still raining.


















Roof reflection


















Thanks for looking:thumb:


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## Danny787 (Aug 7, 2008)

looks amazing, personally love that car - top notch detailing


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## TriBorG (Feb 14, 2007)

Great Job Looking Beautifull !


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## Ibi_TME (Jul 20, 2008)

Liking the detail.
Great job:thumb:

Just a quick question, I notice I have the same buckets you do,
How have you got grit guards in them?
I can't seem to find any that fit as they one size

All the help appreciated.
Ibi


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## The Detail Doctor (Feb 22, 2008)

Ibi_TME said:


> Liking the detail.
> Great job:thumb:
> 
> Just a quick question, I notice I have the same buckets you do,
> ...


No GG's in my buckets, new buckets coming this week from Dom @ Dodo


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## Ibi_TME (Jul 20, 2008)

Lol
New buckets for me too then.:lol:


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## detailersdomain (Sep 13, 2006)

nice work!


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## pampos (Mar 15, 2008)

Great job mate and great writing .... Lovely car too!!!


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## The Detail Doctor (Feb 22, 2008)

The cistomer has asked if I'll be happy to work on the car every 6 months or so. 

The long term plan is to get the vehicle in as close to concourse condition as possible, whilst remaining useable.:thumb:


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## vauxhall (Aug 26, 2008)

Nice work mate:thumb: How did you find the new Kestrel DA?


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## SimonW (Jun 3, 2007)

Love the 50/50 on the door panel, shame it was dark when you finished  

Simon


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## The Detail Doctor (Feb 22, 2008)

exotic detail said:


> Love the 50/50 on the door panel, shame it was dark when you finished
> 
> Simon


Yeah, although the owners are going to e-mail me some pics once the sun returns, so some time next June then!!!!


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## SimonW (Jun 3, 2007)

The Detail Doctor said:


> so some time next June then!!!!


The funny thing is, your probably right :lol:


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## caledonia (Sep 13, 2008)

Lovely car and finish. Great write up also. Top class :thumb:


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## paddy328 (Mar 4, 2007)

looking good mate.


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## The Detail Doctor (Feb 22, 2008)

vauxhall said:


> Nice work mate:thumb: How did you find the new Kestrel DA?


Had a quick go with 6" megs finishing pad & it seamed terribly easy to stall the machine under only light pressure in comparison to my Cyclo. I really needed to play with the speeds a bit, stalls easily at speed 4, but time precluded this so I used the Kestral for the fiddly areas with a 4" pad with no issues at all.

Playing with the speeds with a 4" oad confirmed to me that I probably had the speed too low on the 6" pads as when I upped the speed on the 4" pads there were no issues as all.

Next purchase is a Kestral rotary......


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## Rowan83 (Aug 21, 2007)

Very, very nice mate! Love the F355! :argie:


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## Silva1 (Sep 16, 2007)

Lovely work mate :thumb:


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## PootleFlump (Jan 1, 2006)

Lovely, a bit of corrosion on the springs and track rod arms, maybe time to break out the bilthamber.


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## RRobert (Aug 10, 2007)

A lot of effort going in there well done mate. its always a joy to work on these cars i say. even tho that shape is getting on it still has a little something that i like. good work.:thumb:


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## The Cueball (Feb 8, 2007)

Danny787 said:


> looks amazing, personally love that car - top notch detailing


So do I, but I can't help thinking MR2 whenever I see one now....

This one is obviously a real one, and a cracker at that!!!

Nice job :thumb:


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## The Detail Doctor (Feb 22, 2008)

The Cueball said:


> So do I, but I can't help thinking MR2 whenever I see one now....
> 
> This one is obviously a real one, and a cracker at that!!!
> 
> Nice job :thumb:


Yes, the owner was asking if I thought the car was in good condition, obviously he's invested a fair bit of cash in the purchase of this car.

I tried to put his mind at rest, it's one of the tidier 355's I have seen.


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## ahaydock (Jan 4, 2007)

Fantastic job :thumb:


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## mel (Mar 8, 2008)

great job.......but would you not be better putting the alloys onto an old carpet to detail, rather than face down on stone???


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## The Detail Doctor (Feb 22, 2008)

mel said:


> great job.......but would you not be better putting the alloys onto an old carpet to detail, rather than face down on stone???


Yes of course, they were resting on a rolled up microfibre to prevent contact with the stone purely for the purposes of the photo, tried to keep the M/F out of shot, the actual cleaning was done in the upright position.


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## Ali (Apr 5, 2006)

beautiful.


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## PTAV (Nov 10, 2007)

nice car but nice flooring what is it paint?!!!!!


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## The Detail Doctor (Feb 22, 2008)

PTAV said:


> nice car but nice flooring what is it paint?!!!!!


Carpet!!!!!


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## chunkytfg (Feb 1, 2009)

The Detail Doctor said:


> Carpet!!!!!


Why the exclamation marks? I've never had a garage without carpet in it?:thumb: Dont go so far as to have it properly fitted along with underlay though:lol:

And fantastic work. The 355 is the last of the 'classic' looking ferrari's imo before they got to round!

:thumb::thumb::thumb:


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## Mr Face (Jan 22, 2009)

The prancing horse restored to perfection:thumb:

Great finish and write up too

Thanks for posting, a pleasure to :doublesho at a weekends work.


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## JohnWoods41 (Aug 20, 2008)

love the 355 such a nice looking car

great correction, colour looks superp


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## PaulN (Jan 17, 2008)

Lovely job there, looks like the owner takes good care of it.

Cheers

PaulN


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## Mr Face Jr (Feb 20, 2009)

Done a cracking job and in good time to!


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## The Detail Doctor (Feb 22, 2008)

PaulN said:


> Lovely job there, looks like the owner takes good care of it.
> 
> Cheers
> 
> PaulN


He did, until he sold it & bought a Maseratti Gran Sport, that I shall be attending to shortly.


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## wickey (Nov 6, 2008)

nice work mate


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