1993 Porsche 968 - Red Single Stage

This would be my first time ever working with single stage paint.

As you can tell from the before shots, the car was lacking gloss and covered by a ton of oxidation. The main focus of the detail was to remove as much oxidation as possible while correcting swirls and scratches to an acceptable point. I think that was achieved, but it was a long and difficult process.

At first I tried a bunch of paint cleaners and light polishing, but those barely made any sort of dent in the oxidation. This was also my first full detail using my Metabo, which performed flawlessly. After using it for over a week, I got very used to working with it in different positions, and using the speed control.

I am lacking pictures during alot of the process, I am not fast by any means, and if I would have taken all the pictures I wanted to, I'd still be detailing it!

Let's start with the befores...



Lot's of faded paint, oxidation, cloudiness, whatever you want to call it. The odd shaped stain at the bottom left corner of the hood was about 90% removed in the end.




:yikes:Check out that spoiler! All I can think of is that water pools on there after it rains, causing all that damage. This would be the most difficult part of correction.






The lights in my garage show the aged paint even more.



Some Fenix shots. Alot of defects showed up after the car was stripped with a strong wash.



My arsenal for the wheels and wells.
*CG Sticky Citrus Gel, 1:1
Amazing Roll Off - tires and wheel wells
EZ brush, Griot's wheel scrubbe, and more
Pressure washer
Bucket of water with a big shot of NXT soap

*First time using CG sticky citrus gel, It worked well at 1:1, just about on par with P21S, so it's a bargain, I will have to pick up a gallon of it. Funny though, it really has almost no "gel" properties, it doesnt stick nearly as well as P21S, but that's OK.

Car was sprayed all over with TAW and left to dwell. Then foamed and washed with CG Maxi Suds and a few ounces of TAW using a DD sponge. Trim, emblems, and seams were cleaned with boar's hair detail brush.
I then clayed the car with Riccardo yellow clay and ONR. While claying I treated a few spots on the fender lips, side skirts, and wheels with Tardis. I'm still on the fence with this stuff, sometime I t works great and sometimes it really doesn't. For me at lest.



Transforming from track attack to daily driver!


Top right corner of hood after SIP and Power finish
On to the correction -
Still being pretty clumsy with the rotary, I worked slow, and tried almost every combination I could with what I had.
Most the of the car received 2 hits of *Menzerna Power Finish on a green LC pad, some spots I used a white pad.
A few sections, like the hood, fenders, and roof got SIP on an orange pad first.
I used a TON of pads, 5.5" 4" and 3.5". I had to keep washing and drying them, they are all now tinted pink from the single stage paint.

*First time using power finish, I like it alot. But for the life of me, I can't understnad how I can work it for soooo long. I feel like it takes an eternity to break down compared to other polishes. I was working at about 1500-1700 rpm, and it just keeps going. Didn't dust too bad either.


Working on the roof.




My poor attempt at a 50/50 after an SIP pass with green pad.




A green pad after a couple of passes, well it used to be green...


Top portion polished, bumper not. That was a real tight spot to get into.

It took forever, but I knocked out that spoiler. Only a few spots remained, but I did not want to risk going at it any more. I can honestly say I lost count of how many passes it took. Mostly used *M105 with 3.5" PFW. But I tried almost everything, including powergloss.

*Opposite of power finish, it seemed to vanish almost immediately. I think I'm doing something wrong with this stuff. Didnt want to behave with wool or foam. It did cut better then anything else though.



I finished up polishing everything the same way. The 203S finished down just fine, even better when using the white pad.

I did notice quite a bit of filling, I'm guessing because of the single stage paint. It was also rather hard to clean up. I had to use Wurth clean solve with alot of MF towels. Yellow towels from DD are great for this.

I washed the car again with CG maxi suds, dried it real good and blew out the cracks with an air hose. Next the car got glazed with CG EZ Creame, using a black 3M pad on the UDM. This brightened it up a bit and cleaned up some areas that couldn't be gotten to. I also used Meg's paint reconditioning creme on a bunch of spots that I couldn't polish. That stuff works excellent by hand.

LSP -
Wolfgang sealant
Pinnacle Souveran

The Wolfgang sealant went on easily and spread far, waited about an hour then buffed it off. It streaked on some areas of the car, but it might have been because of the glaze or the finicky single stage paint. The next day I waxed it with the pinnacle, on and off one panel at a time, it was a breeze and looked great.

Odds and ends -
Trim treated with Black Wow and 303.
Tires dressed with one coat of Adam's VRT, wanted a very natural look.
Wheels were cleaned up with Duragloss 501, and a buff ball while my drill batteries lasted, then by hand.
Exhaust tip also cleaned up with 501.
Glass cleaned with Duragloss new glass, but it'd didnt work as well this time as it has in the past.

Interior was just freshened up with a vacuuming and 1z cockpit.

On to the sunny shots
(I realize I completely left out dressing the little black frill in front, doh!)










My favorite reflection shot of me and the happy owner:applause2:

In the end I think the difference made was huge. It is not perfect, but with 16 year old single stage paint, I am more then satisfied.

Thanks for looking, comments, tips, advice always welcome. :thumb:

 

Man that looks GREAT. Guards Red FTW! I love 968s; I've always wanted one.

You're right that Power Finish's working time is measured in days, not hours. :giggle: You may be using too much of it for a given area, that's a possibility. Otherwise, when I'm using it, I don't have a system for "knowing" when it's done being worked. Mostly, I work it until it looks like it's nearly gone, then wipe clean and inspect my results. If it looks like I need to polish some more, I do so.

For getting the red paint out of your pads, try some of your favorite APC. Rinse the pad as clean as you can get it in the sink, squeezing it out. Then spray some APC right onto it, and work the APC into the foam. Polish jumps out of pads this way, it's pretty amazing.

 

Yea that paint makes cleaning the pads a pain!

I find that DP pad cleaning powder, or snappy clean powder, work the best for me. Key is to use warm to hot water when rinsing them out, it really helps release everything.

 

Nice turnaround :thumb:

 

Man I hadn't seen one of those in years....Nice Save

 

Seriously great work! And I know what you mean about Tardis, when it works good its amazing but sometimes it doesnt do the job when you need it to.

 

Beautiful job. Gives me hope for the red Jetta I've got coming in on Friday. The hood is white! Stay tuned.

 

came out beautiful! Wolfgang DGPS topped with Pinnacle Souveran is one of my favorite combos for ease of use and brilliant results.

 

joe that came out like crap!

 

just kidding that looks greeeeeaaaaat:applause::applause::applause:

 

Great save and I know the owner was thrilled! And I'm guessing the Bobcat in the reflection shot was to carry your fee since you did such an incredible job!!!

 

thanks for all the kind words everyone!

 

Wow thats a great detail. Haven't seen a detail thats made my jaw drop like this one has in a long while! Great job, I hope you got paid your moneys worth on this one!

 

a bump for joes fine work . he really worked hard on this guys !! i know because he kept telling me this paint is an f ing pain in the ass!!:yikes::giggle:

 

Great work, the car went from a drab pink to a vibrant red

 

Damn, that paint is bright like a LIGHTHOUSE!!!

 

Beautiful results, Nice work.

 

joe and you said it just came out ok . good but not great.. whats a matter with you . that car looks great !!! i outa slap you in the face with your blitz wax :lol:

 

:thumb: Great job!

 

This needs to be entered into the monthly competition. Simply amazing job!