Ferrari Paint Questions

[Swiss_T]

Hey fellow geekers!

I'm going to be traveling back to Europe soon, as summer break finally approaches, to recharge and spend some time with my family. There is nothing better than knowing that I can dedicate a full 2 months on nothing but being at home and detailing our cars. To me that is all the vacation I need!

Now to my actual question.. In the garage my dad has 2 toys. A 2006 Ferrari 612 Scaglietti and a 2010 Ferrari California.

The California is Rosso Corsa (gloss red)
The Scaglietti is Nero (gloss black)


I bought a bunch of new tools/pads/towels that I'm bringing over. I'm excited to use all the new stuff that I bought and was wondering if other members had worked on Ferraris in any of these, or other, colors before.

Questions I have are along the lines of:
Am I looking at hard or soft paint?
Is there a pad/product combo that anyone recommends?
Any particular things to look out for? (bumper paint softer than body?)
*They just need a light polish to remove slight swirls from washing and drying during my absence, and clear up some depth in the paint* (As seen in the pics)

I'm bringing new plush micros, and a bunch of LC flat pads 5.5" and 3". (orange, white, black, blue)
I need to re-order Menzerna, but Meguiar's is still stocked.

Still have the basics:
M105
M205
Ultimate Paste Wax
Ultimate Liquid Wax


As a side note. I would like to know what worked for other members. The products here are way more expensive, so I'm trying to minimize my trial and error costs and stick to the basics, as I'm not here year round. (E.g. $56 UW and $35 M105 16.oz) Not fair, I know, but I guess those are import charges.
Also, I can't risk fluids in my luggage (risk of leaks and no more room due to other products already coming with me.)


Any input or help is appreciated! Thanks guys!

As a little thank you for your time, enjoy some pics of the two!








To Highlight the problem:

[LavJordan]

Wow, your toys put my toys to shame...

[Swiss_T]

Wow, your toys put my toys to shame...

Not my toys, but maybe one day I'll get lucky and have one handed down.

Seeing my parents have toys like this just motivates me to work harder and achieve as much as they did, so that one day, hopefully, I can afford one of these myself. It just shows me that hard work really does pay off! I take nothing for granted and want to make the most of the opportunities that I am fortunate enough to have.
My toy is still my beloved daily driver hand-me-down from 2006, and I love her!!

[Cosmin]

i found the paint on ferraris as medium to hard
most jobs on ferrari i use sip mezerna with flex, the pad depends of the paint condition.i follow with 205 , or 3m ultrafina , depends....

watch for door handles, tape them. also in general you may need a lot of tape because of the vents and shape of the cars.

i always find bumpers to be more difficult to correct because does not heat up as the other panels.

"light polish" sounds like a 2 step polish at least. )

if you mess with this cars , why you don`t apply an semi-permanent coating.

[Swiss_T]

i found the paint on ferraris as medium to hard
most jobs on ferrari i use sip mezerna with flex, the pad depends of the paint condition.i follow with 205 , or 3m ultrafina , depends....

Ok, good to know. I have a different range of pads to choose from, foam to microfiber. I was able to do spot corrections by hand using the M105 and a microfiber cloth, so I'm guessing M105 will work great on a polish pad, but I will do a test spot with M205 first and try different pad combos before using M105. As they say around here: Least aggressive method first!

watch for door handles, tape them. also in general you may need a lot of tape because of the vents and shape of the cars.

So would you recommend a hand polish here? Is the paint just that much thinner on the handles?

i always find bumpers to be more difficult to correct because does not heat up as the other panels.

Ok, I'll make sure to adjust my method if I need to on these parts.

"light polish" sounds like a 2 step polish at least. )

Hopefully I can keep it to a Polish step only and then do a hand wax application. Usually I do a machine wax, but I mean who doesn't want to have their hands all over these beauties!!

if you mess with this cars , why you don`t apply an semi-permanent coating.

I'm looking into some CQ finest, but I'll only commit if I can get it for a reasonable price here. I really wish products were as easily available back home and for the same price as here in the US. We really need an Autogeek in Europe. These small time importers really rip you off if you know the US price equivalent.