This Porsche 996 was brought to me to return some of its original luster back to the car. With over 120k miles on the clock and years of wear, it was no easy task bringing life back to this weary paint. Over the course of two days, I did my best to enhance the overall appearance of this car and bring some pride of ownership to the new owner. Early on the morning of the first day, the sun was in a perfect position to highlight the swirls and imperfections visible on every part of this car. A foam bath was done prior to washing the car, to loosen up debris and make for a safer wash. I took this time to also hit any crevices where grime had built up over the years. Once I dialed in a compounding step, I proceeded to remove some fairly heavy swirls, scratches and other paint defects. Some areas of this car had healthy paint readings, but others like the sunroof, were thin so I had to tread lightly. Also, the hood had been repainted at some point, rather poorly. A 50/50 of sorts. Corrected above, still work to do below. All compounding was completed the first day. The following pictures were from day 2, with the sun in the same position as the first before pics. This is after compounding only, a second step was still needed to refine the finish, but the improvement is clear. The last order of business was to remove the wheels to clean them as well as possible. I don't think this had ever been done, the amount of brake dust was as bad as I've ever seen. Although they didn't come out 100%, I was happy with the improvement given the mileage of the car and the neglect shown by the original owner. Some final shots were taken before pick-up, with the wheels cleaned, reinstalled and torqued down properly. The windshield cowl was faded and cracked, so it was going to be replaced afterward. Please excuse the ashy appearance. Thanks for looking. I hope to catch up on some more of my older work and post more frequently!
FWIW, since someone elsewhere asked, I figured I'd explain about the wheel wells. They WERE dressed while the wheels were off, but they kept soaking up the dressing and didn't black out as well as I'd hoped. They did darken noticeably in person, but in these pics the camera flash exaggerates their ashy appearance. Just wanted to clear that up. ^_^
what was the paint like to work with? how much did you remove on average to get it to where it is now?
