Acid Rain Etched Daily Driver Silver 996

[countrysquire]

This `99 996 is my personal daily driver and spends most every day parked at an oil refinery. I`ve made an attempt to remove the etching via polishing, but it was just too deep on the horizontal surfaces. Not too noticeable being silver, but you couldn`t miss it once you were aware of it.



One note before the pictures: I`m a horrible photographer and silver is the color that i find the most difficult to capture a quality reflection.



The process was straight forward, nothing out of the ordinary for any of us.





Light wet sanding of horizontal surfaces until etching was gone.

Meguiars 105 with orange pad using KBM.

Menzerna PO85 with green pad.

HD Poxy applied with black finishing pad.





Etching up close:

http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/7218/etching.jpg



Sanded:

http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/3821/sandedh.jpg

http://img651.imageshack.us/img651/5827/sandedrear2.jpg

http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/5271/sandedrear.jpg

http://img839.imageshack.us/img839/6847/hoodsanded.jpg

http://img594.imageshack.us/img594/8393/hoodsanded2.jpg



After first pass:

http://img854.imageshack.us/img854/4822/firstpass.jpg



Finished:

http://img30.imageshack.us/img30/992/after1v.jpg

http://img849.imageshack.us/img849/2163/after2w.jpg

http://img577.imageshack.us/img577/166/after3.jpg

http://img854.imageshack.us/img854/4034/after6.jpg

http://img851.imageshack.us/img851/9245/after5.jpg

http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/2374/after4d.jpg

http://img850.imageshack.us/img850/2955/bfest1.jpg

http://img718.imageshack.us/img718/5782/after7.jpg

http://img28.imageshack.us/img28/5461/after8.jpg

http://img8.imageshack.us/img8/3060/interiorka.jpg

http://img846.imageshack.us/img846/7713/engined.jpg



Thanks for looking.

[Ron Ketcham]

Looks great for what it has been exposed to.

Lots of sulfuric in that enviorment.

Can`t help but ask "why no car cover?"

Grumpy

[Bill D]

Nice results! Wish I had the skills and the courage to remove/reinstall those lights!

[countrysquire]

Why no cover? A combination of being too lazy and not wanting to deal with putting a wet cover in the car (assuming it ever rains in Texas again!).



Removing the headlight assemblies on a 996 is really simple. It takes less than 5 minutes and is simply a matter of using a tool supplied in the tool kit to move an internal clamping rod which allows the whole assembly to slide out.

[C. Charles Hahn]

Excellent recovery! I know what a bear that paint can be to correct once it`s been deeply etched, so I feel your pain. Even still, that car looks better than probably most early 996es out there.

[Bill D]

:xyxthumbs to Porsche for providing the tool! Wish all cars were as simple as that sounds.

[Brad B]

Removing the headlight assemblies on a 996 is really simple. It takes less than 5 minutes and is simply a matter of using a tool supplied in the tool kit to move an internal clamping rod which allows the whole assembly to slide out.



Well gee, that sound pretty complicated to me. :) On a 993 you don`t even need a tool. The housings have a lever beside them that you twist and it pushes the lights straight out. It unplugs it from the wiring harness at the same time. I can beat your 5 minutes by 4:30. LOL!



Great job on the paintwork. What grit sandpaper did you use. And did you use a backing pad? The whole Carrera looks outstanding.

[Ron Ketcham]

I understand the "wet cover" and I am as lazy as they come.

Years ago was called to paper mill in Canada, the employee`s cars were being eaten up in a couple of months.

When asked what could be done, said build a car canopy area and then have a soap/rinse simple drive through carwash, no brushes, for them to go through when they leave work.

Item 2.

The other suggestion was buy all of them a car cover, if they didn`t put it on, it was their problem, came with their paycheck.

The company did put in the drive through, simple carwash, no canopy, and it resolved probably 80% of the concern.

Grumpy

[Bill D]

I just hope Autopians don`t work there because they`d never get their work done! The car cover thing us cool. I`ve used one regularly.

[countrysquire]

Well gee, that sound pretty complicated to me. :) On a 993 you don`t even need a tool. The housings have a lever beside them that you twist and it pushes the lights straight out. It unplugs it from the wiring harness at the same time. I can beat your 5 minutes by 4:30. LOL!



Great job on the paintwork. What grit sandpaper did you use. And did you use a backing pad? The whole Carrera looks outstanding.



Well. not only do you have to retrieve a tool from the tool bag, you also have to unclip and pull back the semi-rigid carpet liner (not flaccid carpet like in your `crappy, old` 993 :biggrin:), then remove a rubber plug, insert the tool, turn it, then slide out the headlight assembly. Seriously, same basic process as a 993. Both headlights and tail lights out in less than 10 minutes, so it was crazy not to do it while polishing with 105.



I used 2500 grit paper and hoped one quick pass would level the surface. Unfortunately, the hood and roof took a little more sanding. Not too much, but I did keep in mind that perfection can sometimes be just slightly past the thickness of the clearcoat.



Hopefully later tonight or tomorrow, I`ll post pictures of a 26,000 mile 993 C4S that I did a paint correction on over the weekend. However it is silver, and it was cloudy, so the pictures are even worse. What a great car though...

[mikenap]

Nice work, CS. Beautiful car, with some sick wheels too. I wish my daily driver was a Porsche!:chuckle:

[Accumulator]

countrysquire- Hey, that turned out great!



I understand about the "no car cover"...IME you`d just scratch up the paint eventually anyhow. Scratches (and hassle, yeah, wet covers are a PIA) vs. etching, huh?



Hope that Poxiy offers good protection; don`t think you want to sand it again ;)

[countrysquire]

Yeah, we`ll see how well the Poxy holds up in this environment. It sure looks good, but but if it doesn`t hold up as well as I think it will, the car will be a good candidate for Opti-Coat.