Crown

lexs4:

I'll give it this, yellow certainly stands out in the parking lot.  A sea of the many shades of grey.

Porsche, separates Le Mans from Le Boys

Joost:

lexs4:

I'll give it this, yellow certainly stands out in the parking lot.  A sea of the many shades of grey.

 

So I realize very few on here care about American cars but had to share a couple pics.  There are a few fellow petrol heads at work, my friend who parks next to me every day happens to be one.   He has this very well maintained C5 Z06 he drove in last week parking by my GT3.  I know it's an older car but what struck me was the fender to wheel gap compared to the GT3...it's enormous. 

But the real reason to post is his fabulous 66 GTO that he completely re-built on his own.  Again I know most of you could care less about cars like this, but I think it is awesome.  A perfect cruiser for the strip.  Massive, loud, and despite all the horsepower, very slow.  He avoids taking it on the interstate as the final drive he has on it means getting to 70mph is not all that practical.   It is the very personification of Whoopsy's description of American drivers and roads

Both the Goat and the Z06 are keepers in my book

I would love a go in the GTO , bet it has so much character. Different car but it reminds of Cheech’s car in “Up In Smoke’’ ...

throt

"I Have Done It!".

991 GT3 pick up in October 2014.

991 GT3.2 pick up April/May 2018. ( Hairy Chest Spec ).

Rennteam Hairy Chest Advisor.

I'd say there's quite a bit of interest in US cars in Europe, but they try to sell the new stuff at premium prices.. If they sold Hellcats etc for the US price then I imagine they'd sell a lot.  At +50% and more, they're competing against Audi and BMW, and the fit and finish is not at the same level.

I went along to a US car show in Switz a couple of years back, although I made the mistake of arriving at 2pm, when everyone was leaving to go home .  Swiss car shows start at 7am or something stupid.  Lots of interesting cars though, and a lot of enthusiasm for them.

Love the GTO.. 

2015 911 GT3, 1964 Type 1

DaveGordon:

I'd say there's quite a bit of interest in US cars in Europe, but they try to sell the new stuff at premium prices.. If they sold Hellcats etc for the US price then I imagine they'd sell a lot.  At +50% and more, they're competing against Audi and BMW, and the fit and finish is not at the same level.

I went along to a US car show in Switz a couple of years back, although I made the mistake of arriving at 2pm, when everyone was leaving to go home .  Swiss car shows start at 7am or something stupid.  Lots of interesting cars though, and a lot of enthusiasm for them.

Love the GTO.. 

US car manufacturers are dumb, maybe with the exception of Ford and the Mustang.

They (GM, Chrysler, etc.) could sell tons of cars in Europe with a different price and marketing strategy. I suppose this happens when you let US managers take care of the EU business or EU managers take care of US cars. 

First thing first: They cannot sell US cars at comparable EU products prices. It just doesn't work.

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RC (Germany) - Rennteam Editor Porsche 991.2 Carrera GTS Cabriolet (2018), Porsche Cayenne S Diesel (2017), Audi R8 V10 Plus (2016), Mini JCW (2015)

Well it's been much delayed but I detailed the GT3 finally.  We had such a crappy spring with it either being below freezing or monsoon like rain that when nice weather hit I never wanted to stop driving the car.  So my detail of the GT3 was piece meal and frankly in the wrong order.  First off I started with replacing the side sills.  I didn't like the painted ones so bought some black ones to match the front and rear trim pieces:

So had to remove the old painted ones, pretty simple to do, but man was it dirty under there:

So being the OCD person I am had to clean up the area and coat with AMMO Skin prior to installing the new side sills:

With the trim sorted, my buddy who runs a detail business gave me some Kamikaze ISM to coat the trim.   Far and away the best trim coating I've used.  A nice satin finish.  Normally I would do this after detailing and coating the paint, but this was quick and I had the ISM so went ahead and did it.  For all my wipe downs prior to coating or removing polish residue I use Gyeon Prep.  Stuff smells great and removes any oils left on the surface:

I then took a break from the GT3 to just drive it, have put about 1200 miles on it in the last 2 months, which really is only about 3 weeks of driving since the weather has been crap.  See I drive the car...

Next up was practicing removing PPF.  I've never done so, so using the old side sills was a good chance to try it out.  Bought a cheap steamer to help out.  Worked out really well.  No adhesive left behind using the steamer.  I would advise using gloves when doing so.  Steam after all is pretty dang hot.

You can definitely tell where the PPF was...so next was removing PPF off the side view mirrors and bottom of doors.  I can't stand the dirty edges PPF builds up so hence removing it off the mirrors.  Below are before and after pics.  The line on the bottom of the door also annoyed me to no end so took that off.  I actually left the partial wrap on the A pillars and roof as I have some long road trips coming up and will wait to remove that PPF until later.  But I've included a pic of how much dirt has built up at the edges.  And you can't clean that crap out.

Once again I took a break from detailing the GT3.  The weather got nice, so I took the opportunity to drive it and work on correcting my Macan.  It had picked up water spots on the hood and roof last year when some remnants of hurricanes came through.  So strip washed the Macan, polished out the spots, and re-coated and sealed it.  Below is everything I used to correct the Macan.  I'm using the same stuff on the GT3 as well.  For the Macan I finish polish with the Ex-04 and for the GT3 use the Perfect Finish.  For both vehicles I used the Jescar compound.

Pictures don't do it justice, but the color is way more vibrant and you can see the clean reflections in the hood.  Love it.

At this point it was time to start on the GT3.  Starts with a strip wash, then Iron-X spray down, then DI rinse and dry with no drying aid.  The strip wash is to remove any wax or coating left over on the car to improve efficacy of the compound and polishing steps.  After washing I let the car sit over night prior to taping it just to be sure any left over water has dried.  I also enjoyed my favorite adult beverage and caught up with Bo who had been wondering where the hell I'd been for several days.

I realize in the last pic of the car looks like it's in great shape.  Well in that lighting and that far away sure it does.  But in the sun it's a horror show.  All you see are swirls.  The pic below kind of shows the condition of the paint before and after the correction.  This only shows the compounding step.  The Perfect Finsh 2nd step adds vibrancy to the color I can't really capture with my iPhone.  I had to use a white pad and Perfect Finish only on the rear quarter panels as it didn't have much clear coat left.  So no compounding step in that area.  There are still a lot of scratches there, but it is better to have scratches than burn through your clear!  Finished all the non-PPF portions of the car and have put on the base layer of AMMO Reflex.  Tonight I'll add AMMO Skin and let it cure for a day.  I'll also coat the wheels in  Polish Angel Supersport and CarPro Perl for the tires.  Some may ask why the heck would I spend 20 hours or so doing this, well it's a hobby and I like it.  Why else do we do stuff?  Once done I'll take another pic if I think about it.  Otherwise I'll just go out and drive the crap out  of it.  Long post, if anyone has any questions just ask.  I'm a novice at this stuff but really enjoy discussing it.

Excellent type up!  Love these DIY posts but they are unfortunately very rare on RT. Keep them coming 

Need to get one of those polishers too 

2017 991.2 Carrera 4 GTS | GT Silver Metallic - The GT3 Killah!
2013 Audi S3 | Glacier White

Thanks for posting - a really interesting read!  I agree with bluelines - we need more of this sort of write-ups 

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Porsche Boxster GTS Carrara white / VW Golf GTI 5dr DSG Tornado Red

I love it man! You are having such a blast with the car in your own OCD kind of way! 
Haha j/k mate (partly). I can so relate to "making the car your own"...  I have always had that when buying second hand... you need to get the feeling that you know the car inside out, that it is yours. Thanks for posting and here's to many happy miles of enjoying it! 

Porsche, separates Le Mans from Le Boys

Thanks guys, enjoyed putting this together.   Joost you are absolutely right, part of this is making the car my own.  I would have preferred to spec my own new car, but that wasn't in the cards so really enjoying this one.  My next project is putting this together so I can more easily get the wheels off.  And then maybe Dundon exhaust and headers

Thanks for posting this  

I agree. we need more of this kind of posts. You made it so interesting . 

Made me wonder if I actually should not do PPF on my upcoming car . Those dirty marks seem worst then having a few stone chips .

I wish I had your patience to clean my car like that , but I don't . I spray wash it in 10 min , that is my max 

Bo, is pretty scary , I would not contradict him ! 

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 964 Carrera 4 --  997.2 C2S , -20mm --  991 GT3 RS 

Fantastic post - well done - makes me look very lazy

Great report, would even be curious about the individual steps you took, e.g. more pictures of the procedure.

20 hours is a lot of effort but it‘s a great thing if you do it with passion. Looking at your dog, he looks as if he spent the entire 20 hours with you.

I’m not much of a detail guy but I found your post interesting reading. Fwiw, I always felt that PPF was a waste of money.

Where the willingness is great, the difficulties cannot be great.

Ferdie:

Great report, would even be curious about the individual steps you took, e.g. more pictures of the procedure.

20 hours is a lot of effort but it‘s a great thing if you do it with passion. Looking at your dog, he looks as if he spent the entire 20 hours with you.

Yes, Bo was looking pretty pitiful there.  Bo and Belle are my gf's pups.  Like Gnil said they are pretty intimidating though, especially if you have food.

When I remove the PPF from the A pillars and roof I'll do a better job documenting the actual paint correction steps.  That should be in the next couple weeks. 

Thanks for all the comments guys, there are definitely times I question my sanity for doing all the work.  But I should only have to do the compounding step once in the ownership of the car, and then once a year do a strip wash and reapplication of the coating and sealant.  PPF serves a purpose and helps with protecting against smaller rocks and rubber being thrown on the car at the track.  But I personally would just rather deal with the chips and cleaning the car.

Great post ! I too wish I had the patience to do this. car is looking very good and good choice on the black side trim. 

BjoernB:

Fantastic post - well done - makes me look very lazy

+1

Tim

2010 997.2 GT3RS;  2008 Cayenne Turbo;  2006 911 Club Coupe;  2016 911 GTS Club Coupe;  2015 Macan S
 

Well my detailing friend called me up yesterday asking for help with center locks.  He's not had to remove any since moving into his new space and didn't have the torque wrench and breaker bar needed for them.  So I stopped by to help out.  Took a couple pics to further illustrate the madness he and I share.  The reason for removing the wheels was to clay, polish, and coat the barrels of the wheels as they are painted black on this Turbo S.  The gentleman who owns the building has a predilection for black cars, having a detailer in house is a good thing for him.  Sorry for the photo quality, space was dark and I was distracted trying to help out more so than take pics.

The Turbo S and Panamera are client cars of Scott (detailer).  The most interesting car in the garage is this GT3 the owner had Scott convert to a ducktail.  It turned out to be a pretty involved process that was a real pain.  The owner doesn't track his cars and I think he liked the idea of annoying people who think he shouldn't modify the car.  I don't get it, but to each their own.  The plate hints at who the previous owner of the car was as it came from Nashville.  Not surprisingly the interior of the car reeks of cigarette smoke that no amount of ozone, steaming, and cleaning regiment seem to be able to remove completely.

Wow 

I used to like giving my wheels a nice full clean inside and from time - but then I moved to a new place with nowhere to do it and also ended up with centrelocks which is a 2-person job. So now I have dirty wheels 

Claying, polishing, and coating the barrels is pretty committed!

2015 911 GT3, 1964 Type 1

I've converted my RS CL to 5 lugs and have been happily changing wheels by myself.

I think Porsche should offer an option for clients to order new cars in 5 lugs instead of CL wheels.  I'll do it even if it costs more.

Tim

2010 997.2 GT3RS;  2008 Cayenne Turbo;  2006 911 Club Coupe;  2016 911 GTS Club Coupe;  2015 Macan S
 

Yes because the 997.2 had this “tyre losing” issue. It made somewhat sense. However there’s no point in converting the 991 CL...

2018 White 911 GT3

Gauss:

Yes because the 997.2 had this “tyre losing” issue. It made somewhat sense. However there’s no point in converting the 991 CL...

Yes, no reported issue with 991CL, but wheels change is still a pain.

Other than look, I don't see any advantage of CL.

One local client changed to CL in his Macan.  My service advisor sent me a picture to laugh at.
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Tim

2010 997.2 GT3RS;  2008 Cayenne Turbo;  2006 911 Club Coupe;  2016 911 GTS Club Coupe;  2015 Macan S
 

Targa Tim:

One local client changed to CL in his Macan.  My service advisor sent me a picture to laugh at.
 

2017 991.2 Carrera 4 GTS | GT Silver Metallic - The GT3 Killah!
2013 Audi S3 | Glacier White

BjoernB:

Fantastic post - well done - makes me look very lazy

Welcome to the Club...  

RC (Germany) - Rennteam Editor Porsche 991.2 Carrera GTS Cabriolet (2018), Audi R8 V10 Plus (2016), Mercedes E63 S AMG Edition 1 (2018), Mini JCW (2015)

My cars get washed once a week. That’s it. Life is too short to waste it on finding dirt inside wheels or underneath a car. I don’t understand the obsession of keeping a car clean as our friend from Kentucky insists on. But if that is what he wants to spend his time on, good for him.

Where the willingness is great, the difficulties cannot be great.

nberry:

My cars get washed once a week. That’s it. Life is too short to waste it on finding dirt inside wheels or underneath a car. I don’t understand the obsession of keeping a car clean as our friend from Kentucky insists on. But if that is what he wants to spend his time on, good for him.

Nick, I loved cleaning my cars...when I was a student and didn't have much worries in life (other than my studies).

Now? I barely have time to drive my cars, so spending hours cleaning them is a no go.

RC (Germany) - Rennteam Editor Porsche 991.2 Carrera GTS Cabriolet (2018), Audi R8 V10 Plus (2016), Mercedes E63 S AMG Edition 1 (2018), Mini JCW (2015)

nberry:

My cars get washed once a week. That’s it. Life is too short to waste it on finding dirt inside wheels or underneath a car. I don’t understand the obsession of keeping a car clean as our friend from Kentucky insists on. But if that is what he wants to spend his time on, good for him.

I think some of you misconstrued my posts a little.  I like my car to be clean, but what I shared is a once a year kind of thing.  And then it's only half of what I showed.  Some of what I did is once in the lifetime of the car (compounding).  Other than that I just wash my cars every two weeks or so.  I'm not spending 20 hours a week on cleaning.  I spend maybe 3 hours every 2 weeks cleaning both cars.  And I hate detailing interiors so I do that every couple months...

Once you have done a paint correction you shouldn't have to keep doing it.  If you do you are doing something very wrong.  I'm not a sadist

It is great that you show us what you have done . I wash my cars maybe every second month , sometimes even less then that , but I love seeing a shiny detailed car 

I get it . The reward is beautiful . Doing it is a kind of meditation probably   

 964 Carrera 4 --  997.2 C2S , -20mm --  991 GT3 RS