A client of mine for many years now has just picked up a new Porsche. His last Porsche was a silver Boxster S. Silver being a much more forgiving color than what we are now faced with, the Ooo so unforgiven color of black!
We all love black cars, especially when they look their best! So I was called in to do just this, get the car looking it’s best! My client picked this car up out of New York, and had it delivered to Florida, where we reside. I was expecting a much worse condition before actually seeing the vehicle. To my surprise it was in pretty good shape considering the car being a few years old and having less than 4,500 miles on the clock before purchase. This makes this detail practically a new car prep, well almost.
The detail was a total of 16 hours and started with a thorough wash and decontamination. Much like some of the recent articles here on Detailed Image, I to have taken a liking to the NanoSkin AutoScrub systems. To decontaminate this vehicle I used the NanoSkin Auto Scrub Fine Wash Mitt. Ivan and Greg, have both done a great review on this technology.
- Review by Ivan, Product Review NanoSkin AutoScrub Foam Pads
- Review by Greg, NanoSkin AutoScrub Foam Pad
Here are a few pictures of how the paint looked before the detail under the natural sun.
Now with the car back in the garage, prepped and with the halogen lights aimed at it makes it a bit easier to fully asses the damage. The vehicle had looked as if it has had a few improper washes and dries done. Keep in mind the car has had very little road time and probably hasn’t been subjected to to many washes. Add an additional five thousand more miles on it and this damage could very easily have been doubled. As a result, the overall look would have lost most of the luster a black car should have. Needless to say, we got to this one just in time!
This detail was really going easy for me! Every step was finishing with great results and found no major issues with the paint. The body did however have two very small door dings but they didn’t play a roll in the paint correction process.
I worked my way from the bottom to the top on this one. Usually I work from the top to bottom but given that the more difficult areas to polish were correcting with ease I got them done and out of the way with first.
In the picture below I used 3″ Meguiar’s DA cutting disc with 105 Meguiar’s Ultra Cut Compound on the Porter Cable 7424. Working at speed 4 with minimal amounts of pressure this soft Porsche paint was coming right back to life. The Porter Cable is a force to be reckoned with and holds its place as a very universal and reliable “must have” machine in the detail arsenal.
On the larger panels I used the Rupes 15ES (Big Foot) with 5″ Meguiar’s Cutting Disc’s. This car was corrected in a two step method. Meg’s Cutting disc’s and 105 had taken care of the scratches etc. Then the car was followed up with Sonax Perfect Finish as the final polish with 5″ and 3″ foam pads.
3″ pads are key to working in tight areas such as the picture below. I would say I spent the most amount of time here on this detail. The picture below has not yet been fully finished, but did take some time to get into each vent with the wing down and up to achieve a full correction. I would say most of this area was done with my Porter Cable along with a little bit of rotary action on 3″ foam pads.
Along with spending so much time on the rear of this car was the tail lights. Some extra added details that really pulls the whole thing together in my opinion. The tail lights here were done with my trusty Flex PE-14 Rotary Buffer and 3″ medium cut foam pad and Meg’s 105 (since it was already out and handy) to get the correction. After corrected I finished them with Menzerna Super Finish Polish, again with a 3″ pad on the Flex rotary.
The finished results after 16 hours. Trying to sum up x amount of hours in a few pictures is really tough, so what is important in this detail?
That this car is “black” and will require more maintenance to keep it looking great. Along with my time spent on this detail also came some valuable instructions to the owner on how to maintain this Carrera S. I recommended the same must have items that Addison Good, recommended in his article.
Top 7 Must Have Items For A Swirl Free Car Wash by: Addison Good
Before I even completed the car the owner had already made a few purchases. I as well ran him through some techniques to better protect my work and his investment! I must say, I really enjoy doing black cars and seeing them look above the norm! The owner was very exited to now enjoy his new purchase with confidence!
Thanks for looking! And Thanks Ivan, Greg and Addison for having articles and reviews to back up details like this one!