Marc@AutoLavish
Club Sponsor
Despite being over 6 years old, the styling of the Lamborghini Gallardo still has a commanding presence on the road. Smaller, lighter, and arguably more driver friendly than the Murcielago, the Gallardo isn't only well built for an exotic (something you wouldn't say of many past Lamborghinis), it has some amazing potential if an owner is daring enough to tap into it. This Gallrdo is one such example.
We gave the estimate for this car to the owner 10 months prior to working on it. After he saw the end result (not even full correction - the goal here was presale prep), he made it known the replacement would be getting the AutoLavish treatment at the beginning of his ownership rather than towards the end. Though the PPG Cerami-clear shell has been holding up well, it was still plaqued with light swirls, excessive marring, and other problems due to improper washing techniques which overall led to a big lack of clarity. Lack of clarity and cleanness is the number one issue in a vehicle looking older than it should. The scratches, swirls, marring, and other visual impairments refract incoming light so that the color doesn't shine true to the eye. Fixing such issues allows for proper reflection of light resulting in a more vibrant appearance that looks crisp and sharp: these are the exact type of things that truly add to resale value of a car.
With Jacob suffering from badly strained back muscles (happened when we had three cars in three days which started with a 13 hour marathon on a turbo NSX), I was lucky enough to have a good friend of mine able to lend me a hand. Nate is not only a car enthusiast, but a motorcycle mechanic with a good grasp of how things work. It also helps he's dabbed into detailing a little which allowed me to be able to assign him tasks of what to use, how to use it, what to look for, and why, and he could get it done. Putting your reputation on the line as a person and business is not a light decision, so I'm glad I had someone trustworthy to lend a hand.
Upon arrival, the "pre washed" Gallardo was waiting for us.
The owner was most concerned with making the engine bay look as nice as possible. After a custom twin-turbo install, you need to be able to show off the goods. The light build up needed to be safely removed to bring back the looks.
Intake not looking as shiny as it should...
Nor did the exhaust tips.
Standard build up in the gas cap area. Nothing too bad, but in need of some light help.
Door jams rarely are cared for with most cars - here you can see the dirt that has settled.
I began on the engine bay with a boar's hair brush and P21S Total Auto Wash to help loosen all grime. While TAW might be on the expensive side, there is little I'd trust more on an expensive customized engine bay. It is not only safe - but effective.
Nate began with treating each wheel to a nice layer of P21S Wheel Cleaner Gel. The beautiful aftermarket wheels could have easily been damaged with the wrong type of cleaner, so P21S got the call to action. Not only the wheel faces and lugs, but inside of the wheel, the brake calipers, and behind the spokes were all treated. Here the calipers are cared for with a 1inch boar's hair brush
Lug's already treated and finishing off the calipers - it was a little awkward for me to be working with a right handed guy like Nate when it's normally two correct-handed individuals doing the work, but I knew I had to take it easy on him; he's still learning
Yes - even the emergency brake brake caliper was properly cleaned. When you come to us - you're going to have it all done, and done the right way.
Steel wool (#0000 of course) and a stronger dilution of Meguiar's All Purpose Cleaner Plus helped the exhaust tips come back to life. Of course the owner is running restrictive exhaust and double cats, so I'm sure they'll stay clean for a long long time.... :lol:
While Nate played clean up with the exhaust tips, I got to the door jams and other harder to reach / sometimes over-looked areas.
With many exterior surfaces now cleaned, we could foam down the car to help loosen anything on the paint, as well as neuturalize and remove any chemicals still on the car that weren't completely flushed.
Wait 5-10 mintues (10 here as the sun wasn't out to bother us) and flush off!
Then it was time to re-foam and actually wash the car: microfiber mitts were used of course.
Once finally rinsed again, the blower was brought out to assist with drying. In this case, it was only good getting standing water out of hiding places such as the inside of the mirrors as the car wasn't slick at all (rarely if ever waxed, and lots of contamination needing to be removed with clay) and thus towels truly NEEDED to be used to remove the extremely hard water. Once complete, we pulled the Gallardo inside the garage to continue to work without having to worry is the sun would come out to annoy us.
The garage was also the home to the fuel used to keep this baby going strong - these two 55 gallon drums of racing fuel and another 5 or so 5 gallon jugs.
Claying commenced with Dodo Juice Born Slippy and Detailedimage.com's fine grade clay on all painted surfaces to include inside the engine bay.
Claying took more than twice as long as expected mainly because of the clear-bra that was installed on the car. The edges of paint protection film is known for causing headaches once dirt begins to get lodged there. Gently claying the edges in very short motions going with the cut of the film was time consuming, but yeilded great results.
Here you can see on the left the dirt layer removed, while on the right side, the line of trapped dirt is very apparent.
Done, the piece doesn't stand out nearly as bad and blends in much better with the paint.
Another:
Not 100%, but a lot better
Claying complete, a quick rewash removed any film of clay lubricant left behind, and once redried, we could begin masking off the car.
One of the neighbors coming home after a cruise
The owner wanted to clean the paint up, but wasn't looking for perfection with the car potentially changing hands. He opted for like-new condition rather than better-than-new condition. Here's how that turned out.
Before: missing clarity, swirls, marring, and overall a more dull look in the paint.
After on the ajacent panel:
Because of the pearl color, Halogens just white-washed everything without providing the needed inspection ability like the Brinkmann Dual LED could provide.
With the clarity of the paint coming back, the color nearly changed infront of our eyes. The orange was BRIGHT BRIGHT orange.
Getting close to finished!
The paint protection film needed to be treated as well (it's surface is even softer than the paint's), but needed to be done gently. I switched pads and polish to slowly bring back the clarity which made the film even harder to see.
Nate helped to bring the deep black color of the underside of the hood out using 303 Aerospace protectant on a microfiber applicator. This was done in 5 thin layers.
Being finally done with the hard to reach areas of the engine bay, I could finish polishing with doing the rear bumper and tail lights.
We gave the estimate for this car to the owner 10 months prior to working on it. After he saw the end result (not even full correction - the goal here was presale prep), he made it known the replacement would be getting the AutoLavish treatment at the beginning of his ownership rather than towards the end. Though the PPG Cerami-clear shell has been holding up well, it was still plaqued with light swirls, excessive marring, and other problems due to improper washing techniques which overall led to a big lack of clarity. Lack of clarity and cleanness is the number one issue in a vehicle looking older than it should. The scratches, swirls, marring, and other visual impairments refract incoming light so that the color doesn't shine true to the eye. Fixing such issues allows for proper reflection of light resulting in a more vibrant appearance that looks crisp and sharp: these are the exact type of things that truly add to resale value of a car.
With Jacob suffering from badly strained back muscles (happened when we had three cars in three days which started with a 13 hour marathon on a turbo NSX), I was lucky enough to have a good friend of mine able to lend me a hand. Nate is not only a car enthusiast, but a motorcycle mechanic with a good grasp of how things work. It also helps he's dabbed into detailing a little which allowed me to be able to assign him tasks of what to use, how to use it, what to look for, and why, and he could get it done. Putting your reputation on the line as a person and business is not a light decision, so I'm glad I had someone trustworthy to lend a hand.
Upon arrival, the "pre washed" Gallardo was waiting for us.
The owner was most concerned with making the engine bay look as nice as possible. After a custom twin-turbo install, you need to be able to show off the goods. The light build up needed to be safely removed to bring back the looks.
Intake not looking as shiny as it should...
Nor did the exhaust tips.
Standard build up in the gas cap area. Nothing too bad, but in need of some light help.
Door jams rarely are cared for with most cars - here you can see the dirt that has settled.
I began on the engine bay with a boar's hair brush and P21S Total Auto Wash to help loosen all grime. While TAW might be on the expensive side, there is little I'd trust more on an expensive customized engine bay. It is not only safe - but effective.
Nate began with treating each wheel to a nice layer of P21S Wheel Cleaner Gel. The beautiful aftermarket wheels could have easily been damaged with the wrong type of cleaner, so P21S got the call to action. Not only the wheel faces and lugs, but inside of the wheel, the brake calipers, and behind the spokes were all treated. Here the calipers are cared for with a 1inch boar's hair brush
Lug's already treated and finishing off the calipers - it was a little awkward for me to be working with a right handed guy like Nate when it's normally two correct-handed individuals doing the work, but I knew I had to take it easy on him; he's still learning
Yes - even the emergency brake brake caliper was properly cleaned. When you come to us - you're going to have it all done, and done the right way.
Steel wool (#0000 of course) and a stronger dilution of Meguiar's All Purpose Cleaner Plus helped the exhaust tips come back to life. Of course the owner is running restrictive exhaust and double cats, so I'm sure they'll stay clean for a long long time.... :lol:
While Nate played clean up with the exhaust tips, I got to the door jams and other harder to reach / sometimes over-looked areas.
With many exterior surfaces now cleaned, we could foam down the car to help loosen anything on the paint, as well as neuturalize and remove any chemicals still on the car that weren't completely flushed.
Wait 5-10 mintues (10 here as the sun wasn't out to bother us) and flush off!
Then it was time to re-foam and actually wash the car: microfiber mitts were used of course.
Once finally rinsed again, the blower was brought out to assist with drying. In this case, it was only good getting standing water out of hiding places such as the inside of the mirrors as the car wasn't slick at all (rarely if ever waxed, and lots of contamination needing to be removed with clay) and thus towels truly NEEDED to be used to remove the extremely hard water. Once complete, we pulled the Gallardo inside the garage to continue to work without having to worry is the sun would come out to annoy us.
The garage was also the home to the fuel used to keep this baby going strong - these two 55 gallon drums of racing fuel and another 5 or so 5 gallon jugs.
Claying commenced with Dodo Juice Born Slippy and Detailedimage.com's fine grade clay on all painted surfaces to include inside the engine bay.
Claying took more than twice as long as expected mainly because of the clear-bra that was installed on the car. The edges of paint protection film is known for causing headaches once dirt begins to get lodged there. Gently claying the edges in very short motions going with the cut of the film was time consuming, but yeilded great results.
Here you can see on the left the dirt layer removed, while on the right side, the line of trapped dirt is very apparent.
Done, the piece doesn't stand out nearly as bad and blends in much better with the paint.
Another:
Not 100%, but a lot better
Claying complete, a quick rewash removed any film of clay lubricant left behind, and once redried, we could begin masking off the car.
One of the neighbors coming home after a cruise
The owner wanted to clean the paint up, but wasn't looking for perfection with the car potentially changing hands. He opted for like-new condition rather than better-than-new condition. Here's how that turned out.
Before: missing clarity, swirls, marring, and overall a more dull look in the paint.
After on the ajacent panel:
Because of the pearl color, Halogens just white-washed everything without providing the needed inspection ability like the Brinkmann Dual LED could provide.
With the clarity of the paint coming back, the color nearly changed infront of our eyes. The orange was BRIGHT BRIGHT orange.
Getting close to finished!
The paint protection film needed to be treated as well (it's surface is even softer than the paint's), but needed to be done gently. I switched pads and polish to slowly bring back the clarity which made the film even harder to see.
Nate helped to bring the deep black color of the underside of the hood out using 303 Aerospace protectant on a microfiber applicator. This was done in 5 thin layers.
Being finally done with the hard to reach areas of the engine bay, I could finish polishing with doing the rear bumper and tail lights.
