Detailing of a 1987 Guards Red Carrera

[Anthony O.]

I will attempt here to give a somewhat detailed account of how I went about detailing this 911.



Of course the first order of business was to take it out in the sun and get a look at what I was up against. I wash the car from time to time but the doctor who owns it never has the time to leave it with me to give it a detail. This weekend though he was able to leave it with me for 2 days so early Saturday morning I got started.



Jason a fellow autopian came by and lent a hand with the wheels and we of course di dmore shop talking than actual work:D



Condition of Paint



The paint was in some sad shape. It was pitted, severly scratched, lots of sap build up and if that wasn`t enough the rear panels are repaints. The guy who repainted it though cleared them and did not match the paint very well. The two different colors of red might be picked up in some of the pictures.



Exterior trim was also sad. It was mainly years of road grime that discolored the trim and also hazed up the plastic lenses.



Here are a few BEFORE pictures........even before the wash.



A view of the front

[Anthony O.]

Rear:

[Anthony O.]

Front deck lid

[Anthony O.]

Rear area that shows the gunk and grime lodged into all the trim.

[Anthony O.]

Last BEFORE shot of the front wheel and fender

[Anthony O.]

After my final rinse I clayed the car down and then rinsed again.



Took it over to my detailing area and then wiped it down with a product from Hi-Temp called "Klean". It removes oils and residues before and in between buffing. Does a nice job of pre prepping the paint.



I then went about removing all the lenses, trim pieces and moldings. Just about everything that could come off did come off.



Here is a picture of the lenses removed.

[Anthony O.]

In the above picture notice all the crud in the nooks and crannies? This stuff can be lethal to a detail job if not cleaned out well. Use an air compressor to remove the grit or else it may be dislodged while buffing and picked up by your pad or towels:nono



After removing certain items I then began the time consuming job of taping off everything else.

[Anthony O.]

Now comes the cleaning up stage. When I do a detail of this size I always start at the bottom. I clean up anything that the washing stage and clay did not clean up or remove.



Hi-Temps Tar & Wax remover does a bang up job of the lower panels, some Q-tips and various brushes.



After that I then set about leveling the paint. My weapon of choice was the DeWalt and Hi-Temps Extreme Powercut Leveler. This is an abrasive water based forumula that cuts fast and well. Perhaps a bit more abrasive than the Menzerna PG.



I applied this with a Lake Country orange pad at 1400 rpm`s. I use a lower rpm for abrasives and a higher rpm for chemical cleaners. The lower rpms allows the abrasives to work and then break down to a polishing medium. Too fast of a rpm and the product breaks down to quick and may not be as effective.



Some areas had to be done twice as the Leveler got gummy with all the oxidized paint being removed.



Next comes a polishing pad on my Metabo set at speed 5, which is about 1500 rpms, and another Hi-Temp product called "medium-Cut". This levels out 1500 grit sanding marks and works well, low dusting and no problems sticking. I am testing this product right now.



In between each buffing stage I wipe the paint down with "Klean". This helps me to see what I missed as it removes all splatter and residue.



Hi-Temps Light Cut came next with a Lake Country finishing pad at about 1600 rpms to remove swirls and give the paint a nice gloss. I went through pads real quick as they loaded up fast with dead paint. I did maybe two panels then rinsed the pad out and used a new clean one as that one dried. If you use the "Klean" you can spray your pads with it and it helps remove product.



Now after the Light Cut I went about putting everything back together. I polished the lenses, cleaned, detailed and dressed the trim and my lovely wife went to cleaning the interior.



I am using a new product that actually dyes trim, doesn`t just dress it, and it works great BUT the cleaner you get with this kit is AWESOME:xyxthumbs It cleans old wax out of moldings and trim like nothing else. Many pieces came out so nice I did not have to dress them.



After the pieces were back together I then used my Cyclo and Menzerna FP to give me a nice base to lay down some AIO by hand.



I used Trade Secret as my topper. Polished the windows with a product from Buffco, and she was done!



Here are a few AFTER shots.

[Anthony O.]

Rear area all done. All the lenses were removed that you see and the reflectors were cleaned and the inside of the lenses were also polished. This gives the plastic and nice bright look but also makes the lights at night much brighter

[Anthony O.]

911 hood all done. Sadly nothing can be done for the pitting but the majority of the scratches were removed and it looks pretty good for being 16 years old.

[Anthony O.]

The rear trime area BEFORE pic was of the left side but the AFTER here is of the right side.......my bad:doh



You can still see the difference though.

[Anthony O.]

Now a few random shots

[Anthony O.]

Next

[Aurora]

Wow, quite a bit of work! But the results are insane! Greatjob. Now tell us more about this trim dye. Heh heh. Really, awesome!

[Anthony O.]

Last Pic:wavey



Thanks for reading the LOONG post,



Anthony