King of the 911's
This is a Porsche 996 GT3 RS, a personal favourite and a rare car.
For the last two years this car has been used almost exclusively for track days – nearly 14000 miles worth of them! The car has stood up to this amazingly well, a real testiment to the Porsche build quality. Its now being given a rest for a year and will just be used as a road car (with the occasional track day so it doesn’t forget how). The client doesn’t enjoy cleaning it very often, so following removal of defects the brief was to treat it for maximum protection and minimum upkeep.
Upon arrival I moved it outside for a wash.
Really not too bad, generally grubby, covered in bits of rubber and tar as I expected, and a good splattering of bugs on the front. The whole car was carefully washed, then rinsed, then clayed to remove bonded contaminents, of which there was plenty. Once the paint was smooth and clean, I gave it a final rinse before drying and moving it inside.
The lack of light in the carpark made photography a little difficult, but the areas of concern were easy to highlight.
Using a digital paint depth gauge to inspect the car I was glad to find healthy levels of paint all round, if somewhat varied across the panels. With no further delay I made a start on a test patch, settling on a Menzerna polish, using the Metabo rotary polisher. This worked really well, removing 90-95% of the marks, giving a much cleaner whiter look and restoring the shine.
To show the difference, I ran some tape across the bonnet, polishing just one side. Tape removed, here is the resulting 50/50 picture
The client was on hand to see this, and being impressed with the immediate improvement was keen for me to continue.
Around half way through the polishing stage the client came to see how I was doing. He was stunned at how much whiter his car looked (the pictures car look rather creamy thanks for the light), and was pleased with how good a condition is car is considering the life its lead. It is very obvious that this car has spent next to no time in car parks, there was not a single dent or ding anywhere on it!
Particular to this model, it sports carbon fibre mirrors and wing on the back. They had all become somewhat misty, but by carefully polishing them, a deep glossy finish was restored.
As mentioned, durable protection was the priority for finishing products on this job. To achieve this, a mixture of products were selected. Firstly, 2 layers of Chemical Guys Jetseal 109 sealant were applied, each one being given 15 minutes to cure before being buffed off. To add to this Collinite wax was applied to the paint. Known for its excellent durability and resistance to erosion, it also suits the white colour. While the wax was curing, the Wheel Guard applied earlier to the alloys was removed. It was applied soon after moving the Porsche inside, to give the maximum possible time to cure. Final touches were to clean the glass, polish the exhaust tips and dress the plastic trim once the masking tape was removed. At the clients request, tyres were left undressed because they were grippy track tyres and were soon to be replaced with more road biased rubber.
A last wipe down of the body to ensure no wax had been left unbuffed, followed by a wipe down of all the panel gaps and door shuts with a microfibre cloth to remove any dust, ready for some final shots. Take particular note of the beautiful bare carbon bonnet underneath.
Testimonials
“I would definitely recommend anyone to use Shine On regardless of marque, Paul is a genuinely nice bloke who has the rare attributes of actually loving his job and doing it to the best of his ability (bordering on OCD). I personally plan to use this service at least every 8months to keep the cars looking at their best.
And to top it all off…..even my wife commented on how and I quote ‘amazing’ it looked, that testimony alone is worth its weight in gold!
Andy (M3 and Battle Bus!)”
