Lady in Red - 1986 Porsche - 4-Step Process

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Lady in Red - 1986 Porsche - 4-Step Process


This is a 1986 Porsche 911 SC Cabriolet with Turbo Wide Body Slant Nose conversion and boxed rockers. This belongs to my buddy Mike Gelter. Mike just purchased this Porsche for himself and says he hasn't even had time to wash it since taking possession.

Mike let me borrow his Porsche for my latest detailing boot camp class to show,

• How to clean and protect cloth tops with RaggTopp Products.
• How to machine polish glass with Ceriglass and CarPro Rayon Pads.
• How to clean and condition leather seats with Wolfgang Concours Series products.

After the class was over the paint still needed some attention and that's where I took over. Here's the car as she looked when she first arrived...



Looks pretty good in these first three shots...

Here's the Porsche moved into the garage. Looks pretty good in a few of the shots...

Hmmm... needs some cleaning and detailing...

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Here's how she looked after the detailing class, she's been washed, the seats are cleaned and conditioned and the top has a good coating of RaggTopp Protectant.

These pictures were taken on Tuesday morning...

Ounce of prevention
Tuesday night I started prepping the car for machine polishing including running a tape-line around the cloth top to protect the weave from any compound or polish splatter.

A tip for buffing out Porsche 911 models
Every time I buff out one of these cars the first thing I do is look to see if the other detailers before me have already burned through the 2 distinct raised body lines on the hood. Right here where I'm pointing with my finger or anywhere down the hood.

1//4" Blue Vinyl Tape by 3M
Mike is luck in that so far no one has burned through the paint anywhere and I'm not going to be the first. The remedy is to use some 3M Blue Vinyl Tape and run it down the top of the raised body line like this...

Tape-off and cover-up
Next I taped off as much of the rubber and plastic trim as I felt necessary or that I could get paint to stick to. I could not get tape to stick to the rubber on the whale tail.

Wheel Maskers
I also placed wheel maskers over the tires and wheels as we washed and cleaned these thoroughly at the class using Wolfgang Uber Wheel Cleaner.

Baggie Test and Pinnacle Ultra Poly Clay
I felt the paint using the baggie test and it was pretty rough so I clayed before starting the machine polishing steps.

Removing Swirls with Wolfgang Uber Compound
After claying I machine polished all the paint, everything, even the thin panels surrounding the whale tail and the front grill.

Compounding over...
I finished the compounding step at 7:10pm and called it a day...

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Results from Wolfgang Uber Compound

I took these shots after compounding with Uber Compound and BEFORE machine polishing with the Wolfgang Finishing Glaze. To me the paint looked ready to wax...

Wolfgang Finishing Glaze
After compounding, I re-polished each panel using Wolfgang Finishing Glaze. Didn't take any pictures as it looked as good as it does above.


Detailer's Paint Coating Prep
Next I thoroughly wiped down each panel including into all the tight areas and the long thin panels as well as complicated areas using the Paint Coating Prep to remove any polishing oils.

Time to wipe off...
To remove the paint coating prep I wanted to be uber careful so I wore microfiber gloves and used super soft, rolled edge microfiber towels.

Coating the paint
After all traces of the paint coating prep were carefully wiped off I then used a gold finger pocket to apply the coating.

25 Minutes
Don't know if it helps anyone but you can see by the pictures of the clock how long it took to apply the coating to every square inch of paint.

20 minutes
After applying the coating, I carefully gave the paint a final wipe plus removed any residues out of cracks and crevices.

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Here's the beauty shots...

Sun Shots
I can't drive a stick shift car so I can't drive the car out of the studio for the sun shots so here's some using my trusty, dusty Brinkmann Swirl Finder Light.

When Mike picks up the car, "if" it's sunny outside I'll be sure to get some sun shots as is my norm...

The cloth top looks brand spanking new and beads water like no tomorrow...

The car is now ready to race or cruise and I'll give the owner Mike a call and let him know he has a date with a lady in red.


:xyxthumbs:

 

[Sicoupe]

Like always, awesome work MIKE

 

[LSpec]

really good and big change..
Inside after pictures?

 

[allenk4]

What did you use to revive that trim?

 

[rmagnus]

Mike that looks amazing. Q for ya...during this step below did you apply by hand or machine to remove the oils?

"Detailer's Paint Coating Prep"
Next I thoroughly wiped down each panel including into all the tight areas and the long thin panels as well as complicated areas using the Paint Coating Prep to remove any polishing oils.

 

[Bates Detailing]

Thats ridiculous Mike! Awesome turnaround man :dblthumb2:

 

[Knotch83]

Great Job Mike! It looks awesome! Nothing like a red porsche that shines!

 

[Chris@AutoCleanse]

Beautiful work as always. The car has a brand new paint job thanks to you. Excellent results again.

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Like always, awesome work MIKE

Thank you sir... always nice to see people appreciate not only the hard work but the pictures too...

really good and big change..

Inside after pictures?

Yes! I finished the interior, the rear plastic window, applied Tuff Shine Tire Clear Coat to the tires and polished the aluminum wheels starting at 8:00am this morning and finished at about 11:30am.

Took lots of pictures but no time to post. Have to go clean up after this project and get ready to restore the original paint on a 1956 Chevy.


1956 Chevrolet Bel Air - Original Paint

What did you use to revive that trim?

CarPro Pearl.

Have some great after shots...

Mike that looks amazing.
Q for ya...during this step below did you apply by hand or machine to remove the oils?

I did it all by hand using a gold finger pocket. I prefer to work by machine but this body style would mean switching between multiple tools and pad sizes so I just rolled up my sleeves and did it all by hand.

By "all by hand" I polished everything that was red, all the paint on the front of the grill, around the whale tail, ever portion of red paint was clayed, compounded, polished, cleaned and then coated.

Thats ridiculous Mike! Awesome turnaround man :dblthumb2:

Great Job Mike! It looks awesome! Nothing like a red Porsche that shines!

Thanks Anthony!

Beautiful work as always. The car has a brand new paint job thanks to you. Excellent results again.

I just took a video that shows the end results with the top down and then I go through all the products used for this inside and outside detail job.

No time to post any more pictures but as soon as I can carve out the time I'll share some more from this project.

 

[Pinpoint_Precision]

Amazing work Mike. I got some of that Wolfgang Über 3.0 when I went there last week, I got thank Andre for pushing me into buying this, amazing product, no dust and finishes it off beautifully, LSP ready.

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Amazing work Mike. I got some of that Wolfgang Über 3.0 when I went there last week, I got thank Andre for pushing me into buying this, amazing product, no dust and finishes it off beautifully, LSP ready.

I swear... and I don't swear), I almost stopped after the Uber Compound step but because this is a super cool Porsche I only wanted to do my best work so I went ahead and re-polished with a fine cut polish if for no other reason than to maximize gloss and clarity.



This shot was taken AFTER the Uber Compound step...

(as were a number of the pictures in this article, any picture for I listed the Wolfgang Finishing Glaze in the order of steps)

 

[richluu]

Ohh so lovely!!

 

[WantcarPerfect]

This is one of the most gorgeous cars I have ever seen! Mike is a magician.

 

[sjb89]

Beautiful job Mike ! Curious, what pad did you use to compound, and what pad to polish ?? It must have been tough polishing such a low car.

 

[custmsprty]

Awesome Mike. I would loved to have seen the owners reaction when you unvelied that make over. That would be a cool post for future jobs.

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Ohh so lovely!!

I'm not a huge Porsche fan but I like this one...

This is one of the most gorgeous cars I have ever seen! Mike is a magician.

Not a magician, just use good products, pads, tools and technique.

Beautiful job Mike ! Curious, what pad did you use to compound, and what pad to polish ?? It must have been tough polishing such a low car.

Foam polishing pad to polish with Uber Compound. LC Black Finising pad to polish.

As for working on low cars... yep... don't like it, causes you to have to bend over while at the same time working very carefully as you control the buffer. The only way to go is to have a lift. But you do what you have to do...

Awesome Mike. I would loved to have seen the owners reaction when you unvelied that make over. That would be a cool post for future jobs.

The owner picks it up tomorrow... I'll let you know what he thinks. He's also picking up the Model A we just finished, sanding, buffing, polishign and waxing...


Time to shut the garage down and head for home...

 

[UglyBetty]

Wow! She's a beauty......now!