Jonny......Been following this thread and have learned sooooo.... much.You write as well as you do all things Porsche. And.....I am delighted that my rear deck spoiler found such a good home. Stunning car!
Cheers,
Johan

Thanks, Johan, it's fun to share, and glad you enjoy my blathering on....

And also another thank-you for the faux-duck or whatever it;s called. Another gratuitous pic, just because it's more fun to look at pics of my car than working..... :) Going to be hard to put this one in storage for the winter, the Indischrot always brightens my day!

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1540905070.jpg

is this a static grille insert/frame?
or is this an adapted 964 iftable spoiler?

btw, great result in freshening up th paint!

Hi Flo, thanks for following along!

The spoiler is indeed a static wing from Better Bodies (there may be others too, not sure the origin of this one), the beauty of it is that it covers the mounting holes for the original carrera wing. It accepts the standard pre-964 engine cover grille. Link below:

Better bodies | Lupa

I did the same thing on my former "Guards Red" '87 Carrera (it too has indischrot paint decal in the frunk) and it took some commitment to man up and do it. I too was surprised that the color went from dark to light. My first clue into how the color had aged was the hood badge removal. When I saw it was a brighter red underneath, I was surprised

I went a similar route and started with 3M microfinishing compound via an orbital polisher and foam bonnet. It's definitely a tedious process going from progressively coarser to finer grits (gotta follow the steps and don't skip too far or you're making more work for yourself) and therefore you have to be willing to temporarily ruin the finish to make it better. The microfinishing compound has some legitimate grit in it and dulls the paint instantly. It's some aggressive stuff.

The first step is the hardest one because you look at what you've done and think, "oh man what have I done....???" Just trust the process of going from coarse to fine and keep going with individual/dedicated bonnets and towels for each stage of polish. Can't let polishes/grits get intermixed and therefore you have to use clean, uncontaminated bonnets and towels to ensure the polishing process is most effective. When it's all done, the results are fantastic.

Just have to make sure you don't over-do the polishing. The paint is only so thick and you can see how much color is coming off on your bonnet and towel each time you do a stage of polishing and wipe-down. It can get a bit concerning so you only need to polish an area for a short time until you get to the finer polishes.

I always joke with the new owner of my former car (he's become a good friend) that you better be careful to not get crazy with waxing/polishing. Because i'm not sure how much paint is left before you go through the red into the primer!!!! It is indeed white basecoat. I saw signs of it when I was touching up the windshield frame during a seal replacement.

Here you can see some signs of the white basecoat and I was pretty happy with the finished polish job. Not bad for pretty badly weathered paint. Far from perfect but a big improvement like Jonny's pictures show. Definitely worth the time spent to brighten up the appearance and put a new & improved shine on the car.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1540916121.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1540916135.jpg

So now I wonder..... what best to protect the paint and keep it looking good? I put a coat of plain old wax on for now, but wonder if these fancy ceramic coatings might be a good idea.

Just did our two winter/daily drivers in cQuartz. Jury is out on that. Water beads off like crazy, dirt seems to stick just as bad or worse than before which is a letdown after all the prep.

I think that there is allot of snake oil out there being promoted as the latest shiny wonder. Fancy names borrowed from out in space movies just help to confuse me. Sorry, I digress.....
I have a shelf full of disappointments. Then I came across some obscure detailing forum where this fellow was so convincing about his new find that I got suckered into buying it myself. Can’t say enough about Blackfire Wet Diamond All Finish Paint Protection followed by a good carnuba was such as PS21 or Zymol. I always start with a good clay rubdown.
Should be interesting what others do.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1541564090.jpg

Cheers,
Johan

Johan your car looks great! I think that Blackfire is a good choice. I don't think anything will beat a conventional sealant like that with wax on top for shine. And although period maintenance is required, it's part of the fun.

I have a similar shelf full of disappointments. Not sure why I even keep them around. I tease my wife about the endless number of lotions and potions she accumulates, but I'm no better!

Some of these "space age" things are pretty interesting, and actually the cQuartz stuff I chose for the dailies is pretty neat. But lets face it it's a fancy paint sealant, nothing else. And since I don't have the time or inclination to polish and wax the drivers more than once a year I was looking to add something to the paint with some "tooth". I wouldn't recommend it for a 911 since it basically disallows any sort of maintenance polishing. But since my car wash routine involves a NO TOUCHING philosophy, I'm hoping the beading properties of the coating will allow me to pop into the coin-op, spray off the salt, snow, and ice, and leave, no soap, no brush, no wax, just water. The streets are wet/snow/ice covered from mid november to april so there's really no point in cleaning the car more than that.

Here's a gratuitous pic of the black TDI Touareg after clay, compound, two steps of polish, and the coating:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1541690045.jpg

As for the RotRod, it's gone into hibernation for the winter:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1541690689.jpg

Johan,

Since posting this I have read reviews and watched YouTube vids. Pretty impressive stuff. I have a shelf of "Snake Oil" stuff too. I recently threw out a lot of stuff. But, bought some other garbage promising excellent results. It's great when you and others share what works.

Thanks,

Andy


A Werk in Progress