richy
New member
- Mar 27, 2007
- 5,158
- 0
I honestly can't remember whether this customer was a referral or a hit from my website. He came to me a few months ago to book in his baby...a 2002 911 Carerra 4. It had great potential, but was going to be a lot of work. Ya, I guess I kinda gave away how much work in the title, didn't I?!? Oh well, let's see what I was dealing with here.
In fact it was raining as he arrived and then miraculously cleared up in time for me to wash it (symbolism for a job that was going to be very rewarding):
There were 2 major issues with the paint: a MULTITUDE of chips and badly swirled paint. Check out these (some are huge!) chips:
This was also going to be a wheels-off, Finest detail. He wanted it to look fabulous!! Here are the wheels:
The red painted calipers were looking especially dirty:
Now was time for the wash. First up the wheels that had the barrels cleaned with Tarminator followed by Zep Citrus and Megs HW and a demoted wash mitt. The faces were cleaned the same way. Unfortunately, while cleaning the wheels, I had a bad experience: my wash mitt was coming away red from the calipers and the paint seemed to be spotting immediately. It was as if someone had painted them in water-based paint!! I called the customer and he said that he bought the car with the calipers already painted and that it had happened to him too. They looked terrible before when they were dirty, and truthfully, they didn't look a whole lot better now. I was not impressed!
The tires were cleaned with Zep 505 and the wells with LATA.
The car was washed with Megs HW and then given a decontamination wash with IronX paste. It was then brought inside and clayed with my CarPro clay towel.
Now it was time to inspect the paint:
Now this spot was irreparable. The paint had a break in it and was pushed up from underneath. It's like something hit it from below while closing the hood.
Would you even call these chips??
OK, so I think you get the point of the degree of challenge here, right? Now it was time to tackle the wheels:
The faces and barrels were first cleaned with Squeaky Clean. If you're not using this product, you are NOT getting your paint as good as it can look. The crap it pulled out of the paint on the wheels was amazing. Here's a face all coated:
And the barrel after a double coat of CQF:
The plastic wheel wells were dressed with the DG beta trim dressing. Please forgive the blurry shot:
As good as Squeaky Clean is, it couldn't help these stupid calipers. This was as good as it was gonna get after a double coat of CQF.
The wheels were re-torqued to factory spec using my torque wrench and the little bother of lining up the Porsche crest on the wheels on each side.
Now it was time to play with paint! What ended up working well for this car was the new Megs burgandy foam compounding pad + M101 + Flex 3401. That was followed by my Rupes 21 + M205 + B/S white pad. Here is what those 2 stages brought about (or maybe just the first stage, I don't remember, LOL)
The car was compounded, polished and had its chips filled. The head and tail lights were also given the same 2 step process. Next came a double coat of CQF on the paint, glass and head and tail lights. The windshield got treated to Forte. I also treated the convertible top to DG 341 which is an amazing product! Here is the coating getting baked by the IR lamp. I have noticed when I use my lamp that the cord ends get warm and it blew the fuse too. I have since upgraded to a 12 gauge cord (had a 14) and what a difference!
Here it is after 18 hours of work:
The customer was blown away. I was very happy for him. Comments are appreciated.
In fact it was raining as he arrived and then miraculously cleared up in time for me to wash it (symbolism for a job that was going to be very rewarding):
There were 2 major issues with the paint: a MULTITUDE of chips and badly swirled paint. Check out these (some are huge!) chips:
This was also going to be a wheels-off, Finest detail. He wanted it to look fabulous!! Here are the wheels:
The red painted calipers were looking especially dirty:
Now was time for the wash. First up the wheels that had the barrels cleaned with Tarminator followed by Zep Citrus and Megs HW and a demoted wash mitt. The faces were cleaned the same way. Unfortunately, while cleaning the wheels, I had a bad experience: my wash mitt was coming away red from the calipers and the paint seemed to be spotting immediately. It was as if someone had painted them in water-based paint!! I called the customer and he said that he bought the car with the calipers already painted and that it had happened to him too. They looked terrible before when they were dirty, and truthfully, they didn't look a whole lot better now. I was not impressed!
The tires were cleaned with Zep 505 and the wells with LATA.
The car was washed with Megs HW and then given a decontamination wash with IronX paste. It was then brought inside and clayed with my CarPro clay towel.
Now it was time to inspect the paint:
Now this spot was irreparable. The paint had a break in it and was pushed up from underneath. It's like something hit it from below while closing the hood.
Would you even call these chips??
OK, so I think you get the point of the degree of challenge here, right? Now it was time to tackle the wheels:
The faces and barrels were first cleaned with Squeaky Clean. If you're not using this product, you are NOT getting your paint as good as it can look. The crap it pulled out of the paint on the wheels was amazing. Here's a face all coated:
And the barrel after a double coat of CQF:
The plastic wheel wells were dressed with the DG beta trim dressing. Please forgive the blurry shot:
As good as Squeaky Clean is, it couldn't help these stupid calipers. This was as good as it was gonna get after a double coat of CQF.
The wheels were re-torqued to factory spec using my torque wrench and the little bother of lining up the Porsche crest on the wheels on each side.
Now it was time to play with paint! What ended up working well for this car was the new Megs burgandy foam compounding pad + M101 + Flex 3401. That was followed by my Rupes 21 + M205 + B/S white pad. Here is what those 2 stages brought about (or maybe just the first stage, I don't remember, LOL)
The car was compounded, polished and had its chips filled. The head and tail lights were also given the same 2 step process. Next came a double coat of CQF on the paint, glass and head and tail lights. The windshield got treated to Forte. I also treated the convertible top to DG 341 which is an amazing product! Here is the coating getting baked by the IR lamp. I have noticed when I use my lamp that the cord ends get warm and it blew the fuse too. I have since upgraded to a 12 gauge cord (had a 14) and what a difference!
Here it is after 18 hours of work:
The customer was blown away. I was very happy for him. Comments are appreciated.
