2011 Lambo Performante Paint Correction
Well ladies and gentlemen I was lucky enough to get the honor at a new Lambo a 2011 Performante (LP 570-4) Spyder. This is only 1 of 3 white ones in the USA and while I’m not a white color fan, this really got to me after the many hours I worked on her. In my opinion the Lambos are really hitting their stride right now, amazing engine sounds, great drivers, and styling looks are really giving the long held Ferrari’s a run for the money.
This car from a distance is a stunner, even up close you have to have a discerning eye for the details that needed to be addressed. My client is such an owner, while 95% of the public would just goo and aaawww over it, he could see its full potential was yet to come. When white cars are perfected they are become really glossy and blinding in full sun……..pure brilliance. I have tried to capture the paint defects, white is a difficult color to video or photograph the defects. You will be looking for haze, sanding marks, a few pigtails and just general not up to standard for such a super-car.
The paint on these newer lambos is rock hard, they don’t release defects very easily…….so you will see purple foam wool used to correct the finish. For the compounding stages I used Megs 300 and 105, together…..yes I was mixing to get what I wanted out of both polishes. I like the 300 because of the next to no dusting, yet the cut of 105 is a bit more, so when I mix the ratio of the two that worked the best in my test areas I was ready to go! What is amazing is that you can almost call it a day and throw on some LSP and be done after this combo, however if you just refine the finish with a burnishing polish such as 106fa,menzerna 203 or megs 205 you can amp up the gloss. While many of these polishes are not true burnishing polishes on this rock hard paint they act like it. The owner and I talked over what LSP to use, and the advantages of each choice, we settled on Blackfire wet diamond, now many know its a great LSP for black and dark colors but lately, glossed out white cars really love this stuff.
The real challenge with this car were the engine vents, super small, easy to burn edges, and this are had most of the major damage. I guess mario at the Lambo factory knew this area would be a pain and just left it for Reflections Detailing of Utah to take out………I need to send mario a thank you card. This car also has a lot of small areas that are super hard to get into with large pads, so using the small 3″ pads really helped. While it seems to take forever to correct these areas, it was far more effective and easier than trying to compound by hand! Now remember this is a unmolested car, the dealer didn’t even wash it when it came in per the owners request, so ALL these defects are factory installed options. If I recall the total time to work this paint was close to 14 hours, a lions share on one day. While I could have finished in one day, when you start to get tunnel vision and you’re tired you need to know to stop, this is when trouble starts and you can make careless mistakes……get some rest and start fresh.
You can see the haze and un-clear reflections in the paint. You want clear sharp images in the paint.
Yet another reflection lacking clarity. In order to obtain maximum gloss, you have to have absolute clarity.
You want to work towards images like below, these will yet be refined to a higher clarity, but much improved over the above.
A video (below) of corrected areas and untouched, while you don’t think its much when you multiply that times the amount of surface area…..that is how a car gets it gloss on.
The following photos are of the rear engine deck lid. This was a slow process, protecting all the decal work, the thin edges……..this area took about 4 hours to work over……..its also the area with the most defects in the paint!
You will also notice I keep using various towels to protect the car, this simple detail can save you if the polisher gets away from you…….protect at all cost.
Time to pull it out in full sun and get on the sunglasses, its going to be brilliant.
Yes the stance is not right, we had to raise it so it didn’t scrape going into the garage, and we where so blinded by the glowing white forgot to lower it for the photos!
I have been working with a local professional photographer Tyson Bybee here in Utah to help capture the workmanship of reflections detailing of utah. As you can see, he truly captures and shows far better than I can, the true appearance of the cars!
I look like a bum wiping down this car, I spent so much time polishing the lower sections of the car I got filthy on the floor (almost sounds wrong like a dance move in a club?).
While I looks like I was polishing with my eyes closed, rest assured they are wide open……..Just checking the amount of correction with my cree bulb flashlight.
Thanks for viewing the outcome and the process.
Cheers,
GREG
