In-Progress: 1986 Porsche 951 (Guards Red)

[Slowcorrado]

Hi all,

Here's my initial thread on the forums about my 1986 Porsche 951. I purchased it about 10 years ago and haven't driven it over 500 miles in that whole time. It was my dream car when I was in high school, so I had to get one. :-) When I purchased it I just "knew" it needed a new paint job. So; I never really did anything to the paint, just let the car sit in the garage for 10 years. Well, recently I was asked to detail a car for sale and was surprised at how nice the newer detailing products were. I looked over at the Porsche and decided to give some paint restoration a try. The Internet directed me to Meguiars Online and Autogeek. I read thread after thread of other people having great success. Over time, we'll see if I can count myself as one of them! :-) Here are a few pics to show its current condition.

The whole car... FLAT red/pink/orange


A close-up of the paint's condition. FLAT pink, rough as 800 grit sandpaper, lots of defects


The previous owners must have buffed through the paint on the gas flap. In this pic, you can see some of the original color in the hatch area


A great example of the mismatched colors. Look at the flat-orange trim. Of course, the stone guards need to be replaced as well.


Hope that gives a basic overview, thanks for reading. I look forward to any suggestions everyone may have to get it back into shape! My next post will explain what products and tools I currently have and my current test plan.

[Slowcorrado]

So, I'm a big fan of Meguiars products. My recent detailing of a sale car had me purchasing a few items. At the moment, I have a selectrion of washes, clay bars, interior cleaners, dressings, etc... But my Meguiars items are: Cleaner Wax, Tech Wax 2.0, Mirror Bright Polishing Wax (use to polish my guitars!), M7 Show car glaze and Ultimate Polish. For tools, I have a Porter Cable DA, a white wax foam pad and a black polishing foam pad, standard foam applicators and many microfibers.

As a start, my research taught me about the differences between single-stage (what the Porsche has), and Basecoat/clearcoat paint. This led me to some discussions on how best to restore single-stage paint. One of your members "Mike Phillips" has some amazing insight and experience on the topic and this convinced me to try his methods on a test panel.

The left rear quarter-panel got a waterless wash and then a thorough pass with a clay bar using soapy water as a lubricant. Already, the 800-grit sandpaper feel was gone. :-) I then worked some M7 into the paint by hand using moderate pressure and was surprised to see the color starting to return. There was some mild paint (oxidation) transfer to my cloth, but not as much as I expected. In keeping with Mike's directions, I let the M7 sit on the paint overnight. (Of course, by this time I decided to start disassembling things to make this easier, so I took the sidemarker out, opened the hatch, pulled the turbo rear bumper trim, and removed the rear arch paint protection stripe.) The following day I did 3 more applications of the M7 by hand and was left with this:

Click the pics to see them in Full size/resolution



Not too bad for a single product applied by hand on 30+ year old neglected paint! Needless to say, I am shocked and excited. The paint's color is back and about 75% of the dull haze is gone. The M7 is really hard to remove properly and doesn't leave behind a nice smudge-free finish, so the pic shows lots of haze and product swirls. As you can see by the next pic though, I still have a LOT of correction to do to get that last 25% of shine and remove at least some of the defects.



Now is where my questions come in: What should my next step be? I was always taught to start with the least aggressive technique and that would lead me to the Ultimate Polish applied with the PC and the black pad. I just don't think that'll cut it though (pardon the pun). I'm open to purchasing the Ultimate Compound and trying that, but I'm a bit scared that may be too much in my inexperienced hands. All suggestions are welcomed and thanks for reading!

[the other pc]

M07 is usually pretty easy to remove, as long as you don't use too much and you wipe it off immediately. Don't let it dry. Although, on very porous oxidized paint, pretty much any product will be harder to remove than normal.

And speaking of single stage reds from the eighties, ever notice the pic on a bottle of Ultimate Compound?

[Nick Winn]

Awesome start to your "In-Progress" thread! It sounds like you have done some good reading & also have some great tools/products on hand. Your results so far have been great.

I would agree with Meguiar's Online Member the other pc on your next step, our Ultimate Compound, applied on a foam polishing pad with a dual action polisher, will make a world of difference.

Hope this helps

Nick

[Old Bear]

Paul C.
I have spoken to a friend that used Mike Phillips techniques with M07 leaving it on overnight.
It is difficult to get off, yet more oils get into the paint.
This is important if the single stage paint has been neglected.
My friends experience, includes "Overnight's the way to go" on old paint.

[Slowcorrado]

Thanks for the replies! Today I was able to continue around the corner and onto the back left side of the car. I removed the ruined rubber trunk lock seal, then the back got a good wipedown and clay bar treatment. In Picture #1, you can see just how bad the oxidation is. On the turbo cars, the rear bumper is an amazingly smooth aluminium extrusion. I'm scared that the paint there will be so thin I can't do anything with it. Also, you may notice the bumper cap is a different color (more orange) than the rest of the car. I have no clue how to treat that.... When this was all done, I did a heavy wipedown of M7 and left it overnight.

Click the pics to see them in full size/resolution

Horrible oxidation before the M7.

Found remnants of where it was purchased originally... :-) (before the M7)

[Slowcorrado]

OK, on to something MORE exciting... Heh. I stopped after work and picked up some Ultimate Compound. After I treated the back of the car to another M7 wipedown I decided to try the compound on the original area I started on the left rear quarter panel. I was apprehensive, but tried to be careful and gentle. It turns out, you can be aggressive (without being straight stupid) and it's OK. I'm liking the product. After I finished the area, I went over it with the Ultimate Polish using the same process. Don't let anyone fool you; some people advocate skipping the polishing step. This step made a WORLD of difference in my case. Where the UC corrected much of the small scratches, etched stains, water spots, etc... The UP really cleaned up any micro scratches and brought the color up even more. Below are some pics of the finished product. No, the paint isn't perfect, but it's SO much better than where I started, I honestly never thought it possible.

Click the pics to see them in full size/resolution

Same shot of the top of the rear fender as before. Look, actual reflections!


An overall view of the improvement. (and a little teaser of what the M7 did for the bumper)

[Slowcorrado]

Weekend update: I was out of town, but got a chance to go a little bit further. I had left the M7 on the left side of the back for a couple days and had applied it at least 3 times. Now it was time for the UC. This area has many more complex shapes, hollows, stickers (PORSCHE), etc..., so it is testing my skill limits. I have particular trouble getting into recessed corners (by hand, no chance with the DA) and into concave places (like just below the taillights). I can clearly see that I need more correction there, but I'm not sure how to do it! (suggestions welcome!) You can see in the pic though that it looks MUCH better at this point. The aluminum bumper that was so oxidized it was white in the middle cleaned up and now shines nicely. My only other real question is on the bumper caps. As you can see in the 2nd picture the paint has faded to an orange color. This picture is after 3 coats of the M7 and a pass with the UC. The part of the cap that was covered over the years looks perfect, but the rest isn't really even shiny. Does anyone have any suggestions? I'm certainly scared to hit it harder.

Click the pics to see them in full size/resolution

Improvement! Check out the bumper, it actually came out great!


Color and gloss problem: Any hints?


I'm going to start disassembly of the passenger's side rear and complete the same process there. Updates to follow.

[Nick Winn]

Looking good! Depending on what Dual Action Polisher you have, you can potentially get a 3 inch backing plate, to run 4 inch foam pads, like our:

DBP3 Soft Buff 3" Backing Plate
G3507 DA Power Compound Pads
G3508 DA Power Polish Pads
G3509 DA Power Waxing Pads

[Slowcorrado]

Thanks for the response Nick, I have the older model PC 7424. I think a smaller pad would help on these tighter areas. I've read that I need to change the counterweight as I would change pad size, do you have any solutions for this?

On to today's update! I realized while disassembling and preparing the rear and passenger's side that I never showed how I removed the rear arch stone protection. The key to this was MILD heat with a good plastic scraper. In the pics below you'll see the process. I used my wife's strangely shaped hair dryer to heat the area while simultaneously using the plastic scraper to peel the old broken film off. It was best to take it in small strips instead of all at once. In my case, the film came off as basically a brownish "glitter". You're left with an adhesive area shaped exactly the same as the original sticker. I soaked that with standard "goo gone" and let it sit for about 2 minutes. Then, use the plastic scraper to peel sections of the adhesive off. Once you've gone over it once, reapply the goo gone and repeat until 95% of the adhesive is gone. I was able to use moderate pressure without damaging the paint. When done, I used a goo gone dampened paper towel to gently remove the remainder of the adhesive. Then, the area was cleaned with soap and water. Lastly, I used a clay bar to remove any residue and bonded contaminants. Voila! Removed!

Click the pics to see them in full size/resolution

Tools used:


Peeling the old film off



Peeling the adhesive off

The "before" shot

(Yes, the paint is really that bad on the rest of the car)

The "after" shot