Full Detail Lamborghini Countach: Matt Farah

hey guys on today's episode I'm heading out to sunny California to see Matt Farah and detail his Lamborghini Countach now many years ago in high school I would go to his room and look at his massive poster of this car and I say hey man if you ever got that car I will totally detail it for you well today is the day so I'm gonna head out there now this cars a little bit complicated it's older Italian paint it's single-stage it's very very finicky meaning it's thin and of course you wants to keep it original so we're gonna be doing a one pad one polish technique and I'm breaking out the big guns meaning I am bringing Kevin Brown Gary Bemis and Daniel Hollinger to help me with the car because there's a lot of work and there's a lot of real estate obviously plus there's an added excitement matt is actually getting married in the next couple of weeks so I'm really excited for him I want to see him out there and then of course I'm going to the wedding but for me I want to kind of prepare his car before he gets married I think that would be kind of fun and meaningful to a longtime friend of mine so we have a lot going on in this episode that and tons more on Drive protect a Lamborghini Countach has affectionately described as the first real supercar and hung on the wall of every child of the 80s wishing their mom's minivan had scissor doors however 30 years later Matt achieved the dream of moving the poster from his wall to his very own garage this is his 1988 Countach qv4 quattrovalvole II which is a dual overhead cam and Rosso sattvic Lea red one of only 607 ever produced and with even fewer in this color combo with an Alpine CD player the first in any production car at the time and was a $9,000 option Matt's car also has the only other option available which was the wing and that was an additional $5,000 in 1988 for a total MSRP of a hundred and twenty four thousand dollars to give the paint a proper inspection we headed over to the warehouse where we could have a bit more space and light to see what needed to be done hi so tell me a little bit about the car dream car obviously poster car 88 Countach in the best color with it's the best year it's the best color yes wheels it's perfect it's everything I want out of a crazy you know car like this highly original 18,000 miles no accidents no paintwork it has had a little bit of touch up because it's been it's been used you know the the last owner before me had it for 10 years he only put about a thousand miles on it but the gold finish on the wheels is original the interior is original except for part of the driver's seat and and the paint you know we're talking about 80s Italy and we're talking about mixed materials this car has fiberglass this car has aluminum and this car has carbon kevlar on it so you know there's a lot kind of going on you know and in the case of the the carbon Kevlar which is the engine bonnet and a couple other pieces you know like you remember from like the f40 you can kind of see that we move there you can totally see it through here and you know as you can imagine being a Countach the engines hot and so you have some toasting here on the engine bonnet you have a couple yeah a little bit up there you have a little bit of spider cracking around there this the engine bonnet is very thin and then on the passenger side radiator scoop there's a stress crack there overall like for a 30 year old Italian original paint job like it's pretty good and it's dusty now so it doesn't look as good as it could you know when it when it's just washed it cleans up real nice yeah yeah based on all of that I'm thinking focusing more on a preservation detail which is typically one liquid one pad sort of minimizing the amount of yeah that's gonna be removed yeah the goal here is just to keep it in its original can you you know stay where you're at and it's you know it's a very special car not just for me you know being a my first kind of crazy exotic be the car that you know you saw as a kid on my wall but also you know this very car you know it's done photo shoots with Cindy Crawford and it's been it's been yeah it was in Motor Trend classic it was an automobile it's the car I got to review it 26,000 original kilometers and it is just the greatest thing ever this was the first Countach beautiful to again so so the fact that I had the opportunity to buy it and be the you know the caretaker of it and and the dude who bought it for me about once a month you text me and he goes I can't wait to buy that car back from you and I can't wait to charge him three times no but I want I want to keep it you know looking as good as it can so I can keep driving and having fun with it right yeah between Kevin Derek and Daniel I think we can handle it I'm sure but the big thing is we need you to go because I got a lot of work to do ah leaving excellent see you later because this is such a big job with a lot of real estate to cover and I'm only in California for three days I called in some heavy hitters Kevin Brown Derek Bemis and Daniel Hollinger to help restore the very thin finicky and single stage paint step one of course is to clean the paint to remove any obvious dirt or contaminants that could interfere with the polishing pad and the liquid because of La regulations we set up a water reclamation man in the driveway and park the Countach on top of the waterproof berm before we sprayed any water or foam first Kevin applied a mow boost and car soap to the wheel wells tire tread and subframe of the vehicle to knock off the heavy grime in the hard-to-reach areas to perform a detail of this level we started from the ground up and allowed boost and foam to do their work in these tight areas and after about a three minute soak Kevin came back and power washed the boost off the very special Alberto knee exhaust the rear subframe and wheel wells prior to starting the wheel cleaning process as you can see from the brown color of the rinse water the undercarriage held a ton of unseen junk the next step was to actually clean the magnesium wheels referred to as phone dials in the original gold finish and manufactured by Aussie racing the rear tires are 345 Series 15s which is insane back in 1988 thankfully being in California Derek drove up his truck with plenty of supplies in this case we applied wheel cleaner to the rims and a PC to the rubber then I immediately hopped in to agitate the dirt while dereck moved on to the next room the Sun was getting intense so we had to move quickly once done Daniel pressure washed my wheels as we all leapfrogged around the car to avoid premature drying afterwards we use deionized water from the mobile truck tank to rinse the paint then foamed it with ammo boost before Derek and I washed the paint at the same time Kevin worked in the creases and seams with a small detailing brush and bottle of soapy water mixture similar to the technique he used on Barry McGuire's Ford GT last year while Daniels using a designated towel just for the lower portions of the car then we carefully power wash the remaining foam off the paint without getting too crazy on the vents in rear hatch followed up by an open hose water rinse to carry most of the standing water away and the Derrick Bemis leaf blower method for the nooks and crannies while we cleaned up the jams and drips with dry microfiber towels only to reveal swirled dried-out paint in desperate need of preservation and protection in Phase two of the detail with the car moved out of the Sun and back into the garage we vacuumed up all the water with a wet vac wiped it dry and carefully folded the mat back up into Derrick's truck once inside we inspected the paint again now that it was a hundred percent clean and came up with a game plan based on its age condition single stage and soon to be discovered clear coat areas but the biggest concern on dry brutal paint is of course burned through on the edge work I guess the trick that we're trying to determine right now is how long is it going to take to do with your hand literally on the edge you know but that's hours and hours of little fine work like this so if we were to put a pad on this right here these two edges this is burned right through this paint is non-existent so all this edge right here as an example there's 5,000 other examples here it's all gonna have to be done by hand so this edge right here look get this one right this edge right here this edge right here this day I mean it's just all over the plate here if you were to hit this with a pad and it's already it's some of this is already starting to come off but you see a little white lines there she's starting to wear out and see how the paint is already broken through here I guess the point of the story is this just went from a lot of work to an insane amount work so step one of the preservation is to rub out all the edges by hand with m110 and a microfiber towel which works surprisingly well but it's obviously time-consuming and tedious think of it this way it's sort of like painting a room you first clean up the edge work then you go in with your big rollers on the flat big areas in this analogy however if you bump the edges with one of your rollers you actually blow through the sheetrock if that makes sense so I do think the mission here is literally just every time there's an edge we just need to work the edge by hand and leave the space in the middle for the bigger machines so I guess I'm just in my mind I don't think it's very complicated it's just incredibly tedious because of the amount of you know this flips off this flip set you know all these little gaps and stuff but it's not hard it's just [Music] going from the front to the back we're cleaning up all the edges like we talked about before we get into the bigger machines and as I moved or transitioned from the front to this a pillar here I stopped getting you know single stage obviously red on the towel and I'm rubbing and rubbing up saying what's going on here then all of a sudden there's a distinctive line right here where I pick up single stage again so the moral of story is this has been clear repainted and clear coated same with the roof and then they transitioned and blended it in it actually turns back to single stage then it goes from here this is to stage you know clear coat this here is single stage again so I can only imagine we're going to find on the back of the car a few hours and numb fingers later we were ready for step number two now this is done with a machine and a pad cut to a particular shape if you're trying to remove a defect along an edge tied up against the fender where it meets the hood somewhere like that and you want to get just right up to the edge with the pad and put some pressure down well there's no backing plate support for that so it just squishes okay so by eliminating the flare in that situation now when we do some pressuring you've got backing plate support directly below the backing plate you're gonna get the most cut from pressure and tilt okay so now we moved on to the defect removal step and we're using our small machine to get in these very tight areas and for this process because small pads load up so quickly we're gonna clean them a lot so we don't use a lot of buffing liquid actually gonna start with that quantity they're gonna move back and forth first we're just gonna do a couple of back-and-forth passes stop and I'm gonna inspect it because I don't think we would have removed all of the defect it wipes away easily a quick run against the pad against a microfiber and I'm gonna use what's left which is not very much but I want to clean it up so I can see what I've got I'm even a little slower speed a little bit of tilt a little more pressure on the edge of the pad and that's that we're gonna stop and get my inspection light and see what we've got and we'll do that maybe three or four times in certain sections maybe even more than that it's just we want to go small incremental steps so we leave as much paint on as possible inspecting the paint and I've got the defects removed that I wanted to now we're not going for a perfection we want to remove as much defects as possible and keep as much paint intact so we're gonna go ahead and in the small areas use our small machines and of course anything that's large like the door or the roof we can use the bigger machines but we determined in our testing that once we've done the defect removal step we're going to switch to the bigger machines because we're going to jump up the surface area of the pad we know that the small pads really load up quickly and that can cause scouring the larger pads we can use them a longer period of time or less passes to get the work done plus there's a lot more force on these bigger machines so they cut quickly so that's gonna be the process again notice the modown technique used on the flip up headlight the arm motion is relatively quick in somewhat imprecise this is a great example of what a low down pass is your goal is to pick up as much dry dead paint first before correction the dead skin or residue is cleaned off onto the towel or blow station then part two is another few passes without adding more 110 to further mow down or pick up the last bits of residue before focusing in on strategic correction this concept is key to older cars in finicky paint after we feel more comfortable with the level of Correction appropriate and more importantly safe for this particular car then and only then do we switch to a beveled edge yellow foam pad with m110 at a higher speed to finish the paint and avoid scour huh by bumping the speed up the pad can't drag as as hard and grip right so it glides more and then you can bump your speed up because it's gliding so we're getting a lot of movement we're getting we're mimicking mimicking a large stroke essentially in a skinny area by moving our arm speed faster you're extending the stroke this way right instead of this way you're just kind of doing it this way so the increased arm speed gives you that long stroke effect and the increased rpm doesn't allow the pad to dig in and bite so for our lowers for our initial cutting do what you normally do run whatever speed you want that's comfortable grind away your defect wipe that off I'm switching to a different pad I'm switching to the flared pad which conforms better and doesn't bite on the edge like this one would right right and bringing the speed way up look at that incredible that is a 12 out of 12 cut that if you drawback the quantity of liquid and the pad drag foam higher speed we're not creating heat we're just dragging it finishes out great look at that so cutting this was in this case not the best idea it was for cutting so when I want to get along this edge and get right in here and come in cut cut cut cut cut right if I do it with this one I'm not getting much cut I have to come to here to get the cut because the backing plates now for finishing for finishing I'm using very little pad drag right I'm not creating a lot of friction I'm going high speed and I'm mimicking a larger stroke so if it momentarily touches that it's not even affecting it or just cleaning up the haziness so it's tough it's tricky paint but it smarter of a tricky car it's thin on the edges this sharp edge did on the back a single-stage on the phone yep we don't know the history of the edges if we kind of got an indication in some areas who knows why that was repainted but the car itself is fantastic we want to keep it that way so we're gonna do our defect removal to a level we think is acceptable and safe and then we're gonna finish out all with one liquid and one essentially one pad we're changing the pad design but we're using the same type of foam so we're really just adjusting our procedures with that we bumped up to larger size machines and pads when possible to cover the larger areas okay at this point we've been working on the car for about seven plus hours something like eight hours and as you can tell with single stage paint as you're polishing all the residue is coming off embedding itself in the pad and you have to get rid of it but once you do get rid of it where does it go so we have a couple of different options here based on complexity and price the first one of course is you can just take our regular bucket as you can see this is just laundry detergent and Derrick drilled a hole in here and this is a vacuum goes to your actual vacuum you turn it on you put the pad right here you blow it out with your compressed air and it catches it and doesn't go everywhere as you can see we're in this ridiculous amazing place and if we were to blow out pads just freehand just anywhere we'd have to clean up red dust all over every single car so that's not a great idea so you'll want to do that at your house or at your detail shop very simple it's like five bucks or whatever option to you have a pad washer it has water in it you put the pad on it and you know obviously you get all the residue out doing that but they kind of downside with this is it is very wet so you have to blow the pad out again it's a little bit of a longer process so I typically use pad washers at the end of the day when I have all my pads after I'm done with the car I'll take them clean them like thoroughly then blow them out let them dry out etc and then we have the Kevin Brown blowout station it's a little bit more complex just like Kevin Brown is but it's amazing because we're in this big place and we literally can the four of us can just run over here we flip on the switch when you flip on the switch the fans turn on and so as we're blowing the pads the the residue comes out sucks in through because the fans are in Reverse goes all the way down and on the bottom here there's filters all the way around so as the air comes out the dust gets caught in those filters and just the air comes out and there's nothing on any of these cars so the point of the story is one you got to get rid of the residue because it's coming off the car to when you do get rid of it you'll have to capture it somehow you can have something complex and fun obviously if you have a shop this is a good idea and you know we do this all the time so it's nice to have this or you can get as simple as just a bucket with a hose or even if you don't have the hose put some water in it just a light dust of water the mist of water spray it in there it'll attach you know the residue will attach to it and it's not stuck all over your walls with a bit of tape placed on the more sensitive areas we spent much of the rest of our day perfecting the larger sections of the paint in between the edges after following the mow down and subsequent steps the before and after is significant but the aspect of detailing that causes the most issue is what's called the detailing dilemma the detailing dilemma is the drive to have everything perfect all the time this mentality although admirable can be devastating if the risks outweigh the rewards possessing self-control especially on these very technical cars will keep you out of trouble and hopefully the repaint booth another thing to keep in mind when working on finicky single stage paint is to position your body in the most comfortable way to work on the paint without causing the pad in the machine to inadvertently tilt by default because your body is actually higher than the machine itself so laying down on your back especially for taller Detailers is not only economic but it actually produces a better result most of the time because of the increased pad control as we finished up for the night I wanted to add a few layers of protection now so I can add a few more the next morning to do this apply a dollop of July to your palm while wearing gloves and work the formula into the wheel overlapping as much as possible but try to keep the layers thin focus more on even coverage than heavy layers once a hundred percent covered removed with a designated wheel microfiber towel and allow one to five minutes to cure before adding another layer if desired then moisturize the rubber with mud for a balanced shine two coats may be necessary on older or non irregular maintained tires while I was working the wheels Daniel polished the Bertoni tailpipes which sound insane on the road and afterwards we added two layers of ammo skin to preserve the paint from further oxidation in the California Sun [Music] right in early the next day we pulled the car outside to go for a drive up in the mountains and truly got to see the depth of the preservation detail once it hit the sunlight the paint literally looks dripping wet or brand-new straight out of the booth from there we headed up PCH to get up into the hills and out of the LA traffic to give the Countach a proper Drive dude this car is ridiculously shiny it's crazy and you know it's like my favorite part about this you can probably attest to it is that like when you really really clean a car it drives a little happier now what do I do like you're leaving what about like now what like great you came into the car it looks amazing like this is Golden Rule touch at least amount as possible when you do touch and have as much lubrication I eat water if you can't have water because we're in California you know use frothy something something with a patient in it well I've only got two right I only have to make it so August is then right Westside collector car storage my place is opening and we have a permanent wash bay so I only have to figure out how to keep it clean from now until like just after Pebble Beach as little touching as possible once you're in that spot I would power wash it down when you have the right get on things power wash it down dry it with a damp microfiber towel hydrate like you literally have to do nothing so like you're in prescription or whatever for this is like don't title it's boss yeah after an amazing afternoon up in the mountains we stopped off at the famous Malibu kitchen for lunch and got to take a few minutes to ourselves just to catch up about our old car wash business in New York and the excitement of this upcoming wedding in a few weeks back at home now I've known Matt for over 25 years grade school high school college we started a business together we started filming videos on this new thing at the time called YouTube together and now as adults being able to pursue our respective dreams while with in the car world is a very special privilege and us looking back at that long journey it was well worth the sacrifices for more behind the scenes info on Matt's car and our detailing process watch the smoking tire podcast with Kevin derrick myself and matt finally I want to give a huge thank you to Kevin Brown from buff daddy calm Derrick Bemis from detail werkz net and Daniel Hollinger from the car connoisseur calm for all their hard work and expertise in such a short period of time a more helpful how to car care videos visit MO NYC calm and subscribe to our YouTube channel as always thanks for watching and we'll see you next time you

Channel: AMMO NYC

Views: 1,881,826

Rating: 4.8815336 out of 5

Keywords: Top Detailing Tips, Larry Kosilla Detailing, AMMO Detailing Products, AMMO Products, AMMO Detailing, How to remove a scratch, AMMO Car Care Products, Matt Farah Lamborghini Countach, Lamborghini Full Detail, Full Detail Lamborghini Countach Matt Farah, How to polish single stage paint, Kevin Brown Detailing, How to remove swirls from paint, Most expensive car detail, How to restore car paint, How to car detail, How to properly clean wheels, AMMO BOOST, lamborghini countach

Id: 1pEU4GMZBxo

Length: 23min 52sec (1432 seconds)

Published: Wed May 15 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/RandyFeFiBobandy]

As a complete amateur to detailing, seeing all that red single stage paint on the microfiber cloths was terrifying.

[u/TheRagCompany]

I've been waiting intently to see this one!

[u/Keep6oing]

Did not know they went to high school together

[u/Srockzz]

Is this Matt Farah's Million Mile Lexus?

[u/Kye7]

Look at the arms on that boy

Absolute unit

[u/Esc_ape_artist]

That was really interesting, I learn something every time from these videos (mostly how amateur I am at detailing, lol). Also, that’s still a beautiful car.

[u/jrussell3823]

This is probably going to sound like a dumb question bc I’m just getting into detailing but if this is single stage and the paint is super delicate and old, shouldn’t it be PPF’d as soon as it’s been corrected?

[u/marcthedrifter]

Does anyone know where to get that battery powered mini-DA they used?

[u/Nariek]

KB is a fuckin' wizard, that is all.