Balboni. What a name.
Valentino Balboni was the former chief test driver for Lamborghini. Upon retirement in 2008, Lamborghini built the Gallardo LP550-2 Balboni Edition to pay tribute to him. 550 horsepower, rear wheel drive, LSD, and of course, those stripes, make this one of the rarest Lamborghini's around, with only 250 built, and only 7 in Australia. And this is the only one in Australia in the signature Verde Ithaca colour, in our nations capital. Working on this car was truly a privilege.
This entry will be split into two parts, so stay tuned for part two which should be ready in a few weeks, as we still need to complete the interior. Unfortunately, we ran out of time to do the interior and complete a proper photoshoot, as this car needed to be ready for our stand at Auto-Italia, but rest assured, a full shoot is coming.
James contacted us when he acquired this car, after having us complete some work on his C63 AMG some years back, and Opti-Coating his wife's new VW Beetle.
He asked for the works, wanting it to look as good as possible. Importantly, this car is not a garage queen, its get driven, hard, and goes to the track regularly. James didn't want to spend hours waxing the car, so after seeing what options we had available, he requested Modesta Glass Coating. It took a lot of time to get this car booked in, but luckily, we were able to complete the job in time for Auto-Italia 2014, and the crowd response was amazing, they loved it. And we are happy to say, they James too, was amazed at how the car turned out stating "I didn't know it could look this good", and highlighting the candy effect as a result of the Modesta.
Without further ado, here are the pictures of the work. As always click on them to see the larger versions.
As usual we started with the wheels, attacking them with a cleaner to remove any iron fallout:
Then it was foam bath time:
The paint was also sprayed with a product to remove contamination and iron fall out:
You can see contamination here, contamination that can't be removed by standard washing:
Then it was time to examine the paint. Plenty of swirls and scratches:
The blue tape helps focus the camera:
It was late at night by now, but we wanted to come up with a plan, so a quick pass was done on the bonnet to ascertain the best plan of action:
Then it was time for bed.
The next morning, bright and early, with the car taped up, we proceeded with the correction:
We were seeing good initial results:
The tail lights are a masterpiece, and it was important to get them right, removing all haze and scratching:
The lower panel was completed with a small pad, and the honeycomb grill was painstakingly cleaned with a cotton bud:
The car is incredibly low, and most of the day was spent sitting down, caressing those gorgeous lines:
The black stripe was badly swirled, and you can see a 50/50 here:
The correction restored the blackness and gloss nicely.
Under the lights, you can see a before, and after a single pass with an aggressive compound, which was then refined to create a flawless finish:
The whole car was polished a second, and third time, to create a perfect finish:
You can see the industry standard Menzerna Polishes in the reflection:
Just beautiful:
It was getting late, and we examined every square centimetre of the car for perfection:
Some more reflection shots:
Once satisfied, the whole car was wiped down with 15% isopropyl alcohol to remove any residual oils:
And then the Modesta P-01A primer was applied:
Whilst curing, the wheels had Opti-Coat applied:
And the car was left to sit for the primer to cure:
The exhaust was polished to a mirror finish:
And then it was time for the Modesta:
You can see how the finish drastically just jumps at you! Its like a liquid effect on the paint!
The next day, we woke up at 5am, to prepare our stall.
And the car looked stunning.
And at our display:
James didn't see the car until the following day, as he has to head away. Suffice to say, he was blown over, and felt that he could not longer drive it for fear of ruining how good it looked!
Stay tuned for part 2!
