Red Porsche

[Lydia]

Hi y'all,
I have a detail lined up for a red Porsche. I was just wondering if y'all had any Porsche-specific advice? In your experiences with Porsches, do they have hard or soft paint? I'm not sure what kind of Porsche it is, and I haven't even had a chance to look at it yet. They live probably less than one mile from me; it's a guy getting his wife's car detailed as a birthday gift. They do have a carport at their house, so I left it up to them as to whether they bring it here, or I go to their house. Any advice at all would be appreciated!!

-Lydia

Edit: he wants the full five step process on it.

Another edit: I just happened to pass the lady that owns it on the road. (she recognizes my truck because she goes to the gym I work at). I still don't know what kind it is, but it's a little car, and it's got "slats" (that's the best word to describe it that I can think of!) on the back. It looked to me like it has a black rag top. Like I said, we just happened to pass on the road, so I didn't get to look at it well at all.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Red Porsche

Couple of things...

Don't try to pre-judge whether the car has hard or soft paint, what's more important is to wash the car, clay the car if needed and then do a Test Spot.

Map out a small section and then work on it with your products and process of choice and see if you can fix a small area first, if you can then just duplicate this process over the entire car, if you can't...

Aren't you glad you didn't go over the entire car!


Are you planning on doing this detail by hand or machine?

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Red Porsche

and it's got "slats" (that's the best word to describe it that I can think of!) on the back.

You'll want to work on these by hand, use ScratchX, then polish and wax.

It looked to me like it has a black rag top.

You'll want to tape this off using a plastic drop cloth. First run a tape line around the edge of the convertible top between the paint and the fabric then attach your plastic with more tape to this tape line.

We'll try to snag a picture to show you what we mean.

[Lydia]

Re: Red Porsche

Lol good idea with the test spot. I was intending to do this by G100 where I can. The products I have for use with the G100 are #83, #80, and #82. I don't want to use the #83 unless I have to because I still can't seem to get the knack for it.

I don't have much DC polish left at all, so what kind of polish would you recomend I get? I wanted to try something from the pro line if I can get it around here.

Thanks so much for the help, Mike!

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Red Porsche

We've worked on some newer Porches that actually had single stage paint, so check first before working.

Try the M82 with a W-8006 polishing pad first, check to see if this combination will remove the swirls in the paint on the 5.0 setting. If not then try the M80 Speed Glaze.

Have plenty of clean, dry polishing pads on hand for maximum speed and efficiency.

For a pure polish in the Pro line, see if they have M81 Hand Polish on hand, if not then give M03 Machine Glaze a try... it's been around a long time and you can use it by hand or machine.

Here's a cylinder bottle from the 1960's

[Lydia]

Re: Red Porsche

Wow that's pretty neat. Must be a good product if it's been around that long!

Ok I'll try #82 first, then #80 if needed. There isn't any different procedure for buffing SS paint, right?

Oh I talked to the owner tonight at the gym, and it is a 1988 911 Tanga.

Also, I wasn't able to get a polish yet. Probably tomorrow I will call around and see if I can find #81 or #3. If I can't find either, will DC#2 suffice?

Thank you very much for the help, Mike! I'm very excited to start working on this car and I sure hope I can make it look better than new.

Oh a question about an LSP...does #26 have good longevity? It's my favorite wax for the nice look it gives, but I haven't had it on my truck long enough to know if it lasts well. NXT, GC, and DC#3 are my other choices. I think #26 would look the best though.

Thanks again!

Edit: One more question. What product could I spray on a cloth to wipe the engine down with? I do not feel comfortable spraying water or cleaner into the engine (I'm sure it would be fine, but still!), so I was planning on just spraying something on an MF to wipe the engine off.

[PorscheGuy997]

Re: Red Porsche

Well, I'll chime in a little.

An 88' Targa. Hmmm.

Here are some tips that I've learned from detailing my 911:

1. Along the side, under the deco strip and near the undercoating, that area tends to collect a lot of grime - tar (mine has chrome which really doesn't like tar).
2. Those rear flare rock guards are very pesky (I don't have them, but I know plenty that do). Almost everyone that I see with the rock guards has a line of wax surrounding it.
3. Targas are not the easiest to wash. The Targa top tends to become a little mishappen and might leak the older they get.
4. If you are detailing the engine, use caution. I believe the fuse panel is on the left fender wall.
5. Older 911's have quite a few swirls - most that I've seen.
6. The Fuchs rims (unless they were swapped for something different) are anodized and tend to soak up everything (unless someone polished off the anodizing coating). The centers should also be color matched with the body. That paint is usually oxidized, but it does buff out.
7. The rain gutters along the roof are always a pain to clean - my fingers are too big to reach in the gap and get all the dust out; I use a wadded up MF towel to get to it.
8. I really wouldn't do much to the engine other than dust off the injection / intake system. At most, I would apply some #40 to some of the plastic pieces.
9. I believe that most dashes were black. Try some Natural Shine on it - it looks great on mine.
10. The rings around the VDO gauges tend to get dusty, but they look 10x's better if you just wipe them off.

Have fun!!!

[Lydia]

Re: Red Porsche

Thanks for the help, Porscheguy! The rims must have been switched out because the centers are not color matched. They are Porsche rims, but they are all the way chrome.

I just went out there and gave it a good look over (they delivered it late last night). It's got major swirls and some holograming too. It's single stage, and somewhat orange instead of red. I'm looking forward to working on this!!!

That's all for now...I've got to get going on it. I'll probably check this thread ever once in a while (when I have a lunch break or something) so if you have any more tips, I'd appreciate it. Thanks again!

[J. A. Michaels]

Re: Red Porsche

Good luck lydia. I'm sure you will do a great job.

[PorscheGuy997]

Re: Red Porsche

Well, I must add another suggestion on the rims.

The Fuchs rims are easily polished - using almost any polishing compound, you can make them look like chrome.

The problem is that the magnesium likes to pit. You might try a metal polish and the owner should really be impressed!!!

If the rims are chromed, the owner paid someone too much because the chrome doesn't stick well on the magnesium.

[thejazzguy]

Re: Red Porsche

If the rims are chromed, the owner paid someone too much because the chrome doesn't stick well on the magnesium.

Fuchs are aluminum, not magnesium (forged centre, rolled rim.)
Source: Porsche 911 Story, Paul Frere (8th edition, pages 173-174.)

[PorscheGuy997]

Re: Red Porsche

Oops...

Yup, they are aluminium. But still, they should be only polished.

I can't remember what every material is made of. (early 911's have magesium cases while later ones have aluminium, CGT's have magnesium wheels, etc...)

[Lydia]

Re: Red Porsche

Lol. I don't know what was up with the wheels. I washed them as usual with the car wash soap I was using and an old MF, but when I tried NXT metal polysh on them, it didn't change them, and the polish didn't turn black or anything. So I just left them because I was running low on time.

I ended up using one pass of #82 on it all 'round (#82 is a great product...that was my first time using it and it was very easy to use...similar to #80). Some of the panels had been repainted. In fact, there were three different paints on there. One was single stage, and slightly orange (not oxidized like I originally thought, just orangish); one was single stage, and red; and the other was red BC/CC. The red SS was VERY soft, and the other two were pretty soft, with the BC/CC being the hardest. The clear coat was cracking a little on part of it. Despite all that, I think it turned out very well. After #82, I used NXT wax. When I did a test spot, I did a test spot on the softest paint (I hadn't realized that there were three different kinds yet). After removing the swirls with #82, I put on DC2, and #26 and pulled it out into the sun. Somehow I had instilled a very little bit of swirling. I didn't have time to post to the forums, so I called Mike Phillips and he helped me out a bunch (thanks again Mike!! you were right about the NXT wax). On the inside, since I didn't have natural shine, I used Gold Class leather cleaner/conditioner spray. I used #40 on the black top and the black trim. The windows got Glass Cleaner from the pro line. The tires got Endurance. The owner was very happy (either that or good at pretending). She said it looked like new and gave me a good tip. My sister said it looked much better than before (of course she would say that....and the owner is very nice for that matter so the owner may have been just saying that). The owner wants me to detail on a regular schedule and asked me how often it should be done. I told her around 2 months, which may be a shorter amount of time than is needed, but I don't want the clear coat to fail more. Sorry, no pics but it ended up looking nice after 8.5 hours of work. Thanks for all the help, y'all!

PS. And thanks for the encouragement, 23jam.

Edit: I just remembered something I forgot to do! Lol. The brakes were painted red and needed to be cleaned better. Oh well.

[Blaze]

Re: Red Porsche

Congratulations on the car and new repeat customer Lydia! How crazy with three different paint types on there! But all of your efforts and hard work paid off ... sounds like it turned out just great!

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Red Porsche

Lydia, I think this is just great!! But you're either selling yourself short, being very modest, or are just lacking a bit of confidence: you made several comments about compliments being given just because your client is nice, but being nice will only get you the compliments, NOT the tip and the request to regularly detail the car. If your client didn't think she had honestly gotten her money's worth but was too nice to say anything negative then all conversations would have stopped there. You go girl!!!!!