I worked on three Ferraris this week. I love those cars. The first had a pretty deep gouge on the front. A good-sized stone had skipped its way up the hood.
Ferrari Gouge Repair
To begin my repair, I applied the trusted Dr. Colorchip paint in a bead along the side of the damage and then slid a small, rubber squeegee across it, guiding the paint into the paint scar. I mostly use this technique for very high-end work. I hold the squeegee close to the car, and very gently pull the paint into the chip. Then, wait a few minutes for the paint to dry. I wouldn’t normally bother layering the paint, but when you want to make it perfect, and especially for show cars, it helps to add two or three layers. The key is to thin the paint a little more each time you add a layer of paint. I use acetone to do this. If you don’t thin it out a little, you’ll just take out the paint that you’ve added when you use the blending solution. The Dr. Colorchip blending solution comes with every kit and removes just the excess paint around your chip. For more information on the Dr. Colorchip system, you can visit their website or check out our blog post here.
Ferrari Road Rash Repair
While I was waiting for this to dry, I also worked on my customer’s Bentley, Hummer, two Porsche 911s, and his MBZ 550SL. This was all before noon. At one o’clock, I was due to work on another customer’s two Ferrari 599s. Both of those cars where about to be clear-bra’d. They had road rash around the wheel wells which is easily and quickly fixed. For cars like that, I’ll use one of two methods. With the first method, I apply the paint in the ‘shoe polish’ method – dipping the paint bottle over my terry cloth and just rubbing it on the car, waiting, then removing the excess paint with the blending solution. To see that method in action, click here to watch a time-lapse video. The second method is to put a big ol’ blob of paint at the start of the rash and pull my rubber squeegee across the damaged area, and then remove the excess when it’s dry.
No Mistakes
Once in a while, I tease my customers when they see me put large blobs of paint on their priceless cars. I tell them I’m done and start to walk off. I have to be careful – I think I’ve cause a few heart attacks. The beautiful part of this paint system is that there are no mistakes. Any paint that I’ve put on the car is very easily removed with the blending solution. I have to be careful about who I joke around with, but either way, I always leave every car looking awesome.
I’m very good at what I do. I have a bachelor’s in fine art and have been painting since I was a wee lad. I owned a printing company and an advertising agency for many years, so I’m not only a professional, but I know color, what looks good, and am only happy when your car looks great!
