Seems like all I've done lately is Porsches and this one was no different Another contract start on this 911 so it was in for a 3 day major correction: As usual, pre-foam with Megs APC @ 60 degrees: After 5 minutes this was rinsed off at high pressure and I then cleaned up the wheels (WB 10:1) and Arches/Tyres (Megs Super Degreaser): The shuts/petrol cap, exterior trim etc were sprayed with Megs APC and then agitated with a soft brush: I then washed the car with the 2BM and Gloss-It Shampoo: A thorough rinse off was followed by Autosmart Tardis to remove the many tar spots that were stuck to the lower half/rear of the car and also the wheels: One final rinse was carried out and I then put the car inside and clayed with Gloss-It Mild Clay. Once dried off, it was time to assess the paintwork with the Sun Gun which showed loads of tightly packed swirls: The Halogens show the "swirls" in their true state, under single point light sources such as the sun and Sun Gun they look circular, whereas under the halogens/petrol station forecourt lights etc they can be seen in their true state, which are in fact straight line scratches: Paint readings were taken and all was completely standard (and healthy)except for the front bumper which had recently been painted to get rid of a couple of stone chips I've done enough Porsches now to be pretty sure when I'm going to be up against one with sticky paint, and after a quick play with 106FA this one was no different Sticky Paint isn’t something that I find overly troublesome any more for a couple of reasons, but for a change I decided to try the Gloss-It polishes out as they are designed to be worked slower and have a certain level of chemical cut too. And guess what? It worked! Not 100% perfectly but my god was it an improvement on any other polish I've used on sticky paint before! As you can see, the polish was breaking down nicely with no dusting or buffer hop etc: Results were good too: Before: After: The Gloss-It polishes are quite thin and watery compared to the thicker menz polishes so you don’t need alot once the pad is primed: The trick (and for those that previously stated that they cant be worked with the rotary might want to pay attention here - you know who you are ) is to make sure you spread it out nice and evenly at 600 or 900rpm's... ... Then after every couple of passes while gradually upping the rpm's, give the pad a quick mist with the Gloss-It QD (this seems to really help keep heat down and lets the polishes work nicely): Then work untill the polish is broken down: Done Now, alot of you may be thinking "why would I want to use a polish I have to continually stop working in order to spritz the pad?", and you'd be correct! I am of the same opinion and for that reason I still prefer to use the Menz and 3M ranges for rotary use, but when it comes to sticky paint I believe they are a very good solution and offer a significant improvement over any other polishes I've used. The above guide is just for those that may want to try it by rotary in future I should state that the Gloss-It polishes are designed for Dual Action machines though and for this use no spritzing is required :thumb: Anyways, back on with the correction work: Before: After: The back reflector was corrected with 3M Fast Cut Plus: There were some pretty deep scratches along the O/S rear quarter panel so in order to try and reduce these a bit I wet sanded with 2000 and then 4000 Mirka pads by hand: Removal was never going to be possible as they were too deep and after approx 8 microns of clear coat removal they were still visible: Baring in mind that polishing out the sanding marks would take another couple of microns off (making approx 10 in total) I decided this was a sensible level to leave it at Getting the camera to focus on the scratches was nigh on impossible once the gloss to the paint was restored but you can kind of get an idea of what was left: The headlights were in need of some correction too: Menzerna P0203S was used to correct: After (A couple of deeper marks left): Once the correction work was done, the finish was further refined with Menzerna PO85RD: I could have finished down with the rotary but in all honesty it would have taken twice as long in order to ensure there were no buffer trails left in the paint so the refining was done with a finishing pad on the G220 The car was then dusted down with the wool duster and then given a thorough wipe down with Menzerna Top Inspection to make sure the paint was clean of any polishing oils. The glass was also done with Top Inspection in order to make sure the Rain-X would bond properly: While the Rain-X was curing, I applied the LSP which was Zym0L Vintage: This was then buffed off after 10/15 minutes and I then started to feed the trim under the windscreen which was looking rather sorry for itself: Gloss-It TRV was used for this, and whilst it needed a couple of applications it brought the trim back nicely: I then turned my attention to the interior: Full Process was: - Thorough Hoover - Wipe down of all plastics with APC - Glass with Eimann Fabrik Clear Vision - Leather cleaned and fed with Gloss-It. - Shuts polished with Werkstat Prime Strong. Back onto the exterior again, the paintwork was given a wipe down with Gloss-It QD whilst Marsha sealed the wheels (Blackfire Metal Sealant), dressed the tyres (2 coats of Gloss-It) and polished up the tail pipes (NXT). Then it was out with the cameras Firstly, a quick walk round with the Sun Gun again: This pic shows a couple of RIDs that were too deep to safely remove: Total Work Time: 29 hours Thanks for taking the time to read Clark
Thanks for the Gloss-It lesson. I need to buy some now. I just can't say enough good things about your detailing.Fantastic.:worship2:
Hmm for the pre-soak APC, what mixture of soap did you use? or was it just APC straight up? Excellent job though, love it.
about 2cm of APC in the Foam Lance bottle, then topped up with warm water, nothing more to it than that
Do you think a foam gun will do that too? It's regular Megs APC, not APC+ right? Also, APC isn't harsh on CC? Finally, whats you're dilution ratio when you use APC for touch ups on the paint? Thanks!
Is it just me or do cars look shinier when done by someone who really loves what they do? Great job again Clark and I'm really sorry you had to work on yet another Porsche. You and Phil should start a support group, you poor bastards!
