This 997 with the GT3 Kit (and a very nice sounding Eisnmann system) is a recent purchase from a specialist dealer, the owner was a bit disappointed with the prep they had carried it out, so dropped it off with me for a week and asked me to do whatever was needed
So day one was all about washing, decontaminating and an assessment of the paintwork
General idea of how it looked
i.e. Polish residue left in all the usual gaps and edges
First job was wheels off for cleaning
Cleaned using AS Smartwheels at 3:1, then a spot of Tardis to remove tar and wheel weight residue, they were dried and put back on, but not waxed at this stage as the faces needed some extra work carried out later on
Exhaust tips were also removed to make cleaning them easier, leaving them looking like this afterwards
Then my camera battery went flat! so I have no wash stage pictures, but nothing out of the ordinary was used so once washed, clayed and de-tarred it was time to have a closer a look at the paintwork
General swirling
Poor refinishing from some recent paintwork
Bonnet looked really flat and hazy under the fluorescents
I guess being completely covered in DA sanding marks will do that!
After a test areas and coming up against a bit of sticky paint, I opted to use a wool pad with menz 3.02 on the lighter swirled areas, and stepping up to M105 on areas needing a bit more correction
Couple of before and afters (pre-refinement)
You can just make out the faint trails left from the wool pad, easily sorted when it comes to the refining stage
As mentioned some of the car needed a bit more correction, this ended up making a fair bit of dust, so car was given a wash to remove.
Then back in and dried, then the faces of the wheels were attended to, being solid gloss black they had picked up a fair amount of swirling and were lacking in lustre.
One of the front wheels had picked up a stonechip so this was attended to first
Before
After
The wheels were then machine polished using Menz 3.02 and a 4″ Megs polishing pad
Before
After
Once machined, they were treated with Swissvax Cleaner Fluid normal
I like to give CF 5-10 minutes before buffing off seems to come off a lot easier, so while waiting I gave the callipers a coat of Swissvax Autobahn and dressed each arch with Swissvax Pneu
Autobahn being applied to the wheels, I always prefer applying Autobahn to wheels by hand, again just a personal preference
Wax all buffed off and looking a lot better, just the other 3 to do…..
Once the wheels were finished it was onto refining the paintwork, this was carried out using a 3M yellow pad an Festool MPA11000 polish
Leaving the finish looking like this
Notice the top part of the rear spoiler has been removed in this pic to enable full access to the rear end
Once the refining had been done, the paintwork was treated with cleaner fluid followed by 2 layers of..
While the first layer was curing I set about a few of the other jobs that needed doing
I think it clear to see which parts have been treated
Engine bay dressed
Interior was given a dust down and vac, leather was cleaned and a protector applied, glass cleaned, exhaust tips refitted, and all that was left to do was grab some final shots ready for it to be collected at 7.00am the next morning
