Black 1995 Porsche 993 with Sourneran

[jlb85]

This is a friends car, I owed him big time so I decided to tackle his car. It has been a track car for the last 4 years, and he confessed to having washed it with a kitchen sponge and dryed it with an old bath towel :banghead:
I had this car for two weeks, so I could take my time and do just a little each day. Each wheel took me one afternoon! And I could not get them to where I liked it. Oh well, a free job, right?
Swirls, scratches, chips, this one had it all! It took about 10 hours on the paint correction alone, plus wax and washing, interior and wheels. BTW, I will never take on a job with non-clear coated polished aluminum wheels again! These wheels are rolling over very aggressive race brake pads, which are caustic and after some time and some moisture, become basically rust embedded in your paint, wheels, etc. The interior was clean to start with, so just a wipe down, vacuum, and protectant was enough. Leather was treated with Leatherique left on for a week, then toped with Lexol conditioner.
The car...

OMG!

Interior before

Interior after:

After the interior, I did the wheels. Took them off, washed the underbody (and wheels) with Meguiar's Super Degreser, then dressed with Hyper Dressing at 5:1

Wheel wells after (wasn't too concerned with the wheel wells, just a quick clean and dress):

Wheels before (like I said, caustic brake dust FTL):

Wheels in process:

 

[jlb85]

So with the interior and wheels out of the way, off to the paint. I had already washed the car with a High Pressure washer followed by Megs Gold Class (which I don't like as much as Poorboys) via foam gun, bucket-less method, dried with the leaf blower and a supper guzzler MF towel. So now, armed with both a rotary and a PC, I tried to clean up the paint as much as I could.
polishing products:

Started out with the rotary, a CCW Orange, and Menz IP..

...and then I forgot to take more pictures of the process (plus it took me a few days). After the rotary, since I was not able to get everything out, I went to the PC with Menz Power Gloos Compound on a CCW orange pad (didn't want to use the compound with the rotary on a car with so many curves like the 911), followed by Menz Nano Polish on a white pad, followed by Menz Final Finish on a black pad. I washed it again with the high pressure washer to get as much of the polish off and out of the cracks, then did one more pass with Meguiar's #7 on a blue pad with the PC, then toped with 3 coats of Pinnacle Sorvern, the first one burnished with the PC and a red pad, the second one via hand rub, and the third by hand with an applicator.
Afters:

A happy owner!

In all, I was able to get about 90% or the defects out. Some where very deep, the rock chips were much more and worse than I imagined, and although it looks like a simple car, it has a lot of panels with some hard to reach areas (fender/trunk/door area + mirrors, the rear hood with the spolier and plastic grill, the clear bra on the rear fender swells). Porsche paint is great to work with, though. The glass was also a PITA, took multiple passes with Daimondite. Having the car for as long as I wanted really helped too, as I would try something, see how it came out, then sleep on what to try next. The wheels were the hardest part by far. I should have just given them a quickie, and told the owner to take to a pro to disassemble, polish, and clear coat the damn things. 50+ bolts FTL. Wheel brightener with a green scoring pad was the only thing that would take the rust off, which messed up the polished lip pretty bad, requiring some tricks and power tools to get back to shine. Now I know better :suspect:

 

[Eruptiv]

Outstanding job! Wheels look awesome. How long did it take to do the whole detail?

 

[Totoland Mach]

Great JOB!....looks fantastic. But, I don't believe that's you holding the white buffing towel in one of the pics...somehow the body just does not match LOL!

I did my neighbor's 996 black Porsche and the lower panels are indeed tough.

Toto

 

[dsms]

Vwey nice work. I love air cooled 911's.:cheers:

 

[jlb85]

Great JOB!....looks fantastic. But, I don't believe that's you holding the white buffing towel in one of the pics...somehow the body just does not match LOL!
Toto

Thats my GF, helping out, she really digs the detailing :righton:
Although she is kinda scared to do it, I plan on letting her loose with the PC soon on my Jeep...


Thanks for the comments!

 

[ScottB]

mines next .... when are you free ??

 

[Surfer]

Loved our 993, last of the "good" 911s.

 

[HHIslander]

Awesome job. I love how happy the owner looks, that's one of my favorite parts of doing this job.
Wheels look great... everything looks great for that matter!!

 

[rwisejr]

Sweet recover on a hot ride !!!!

 

[nitro78]

fantastic job. your work on those wheels is amazing!

 

[dannythekid]

Great work.

 

[MadOzodi]

Great turnaround on those wheels! And very nice correction as well...what brand rotary is that? I've never seen one with a knuckle guard for the drive hand.

 

[jlb85]

Thanks for the comments!

The rotary is a Vector, and you can put the handle on either side, which is great for when you get fatigued.

The wheels look good, but up close the lip is not mirror polished like they are when new, and on the backside there still is rust deep in the seam where the center section bolts to the 2 halves of the rim, but there is no way to get there without dissasembling the wheel. But the owner was more than pleased with the results on the wheels!
I usually take wheels off the cars I do as part of the job, and do the backsides with Wheel Brightener to get them nice, but most of the cars lately are cars that have never been detailed like this and the wheels are in really bad shape; WB 4 times with a stiff brush won't even get all the black out from the under the spokes

Like I tell customers, the best, quickest and easiest way to clean a car is to keep it clean, especially wheels. But from now I'll probably skip this step unless an in-depth wheel cleaning is requested. I still have sore knucles from this job!

 

[tkarns24]

JLB85
what did you use to transform the wheel barrels

 

[jlb85]

Whoa this is an old thread! I think I used steel wool, maybe even a green scouring pad. Something like p21s metal soap would have worked great here with the scouring pad. I believe I used blue magic metal polish with 0000 steel wool then maybe a dry buff with steel wool, but I really don't remember much.

 

[pcw25]

Vwey nice work. I love air cooled 911's.:cheers:

Me too! Now they screwed up the 991 with electric steering instead of hydraulic....

 

[nrsk4u]

looks like a job for Iron X......

Well done, looks 100% better

 

[SkateForGirl]

Wow awesome job on such a beautiful car. Nice shot with the owners face