Porsche 993 - Merc C-350 - Golf R32

A bit of a round up here guys. Some of my latest work (in the one post rather than creating three fresh topics!)

Porsche 993 Carrera 4

An early start saw me travelling into the West Mids for this lovely mid 90’s Porsche.

A relatively recent purchase for the owner; requiring a decent machine polish to lift and restore the lustre that seemed to be missing!


Product

• 303 Aerospace Protectant
• 3M Glass Cleaner
• AutoSol
• AutoSmart G101
• Dodo Juice Born To Be Mild
• Dodo Juice Supernatural
• Menzerna 203s
• Menzerna RD85 3.02
• Meguiars Last Touch
• Meguiars Hyper Wash


Upon arrival:






A great looking classic, but, as you will see, a bit rough on the edges.






Polish residues were everywhere:






My usual approach was taken: wheels, arches and door shuts. Not much attention payed to the wheels as the following day they were being stripped off and replaced.

Following this, a decent well-needed deep clean:











Drying as I go today as the sun was proving rather difficult to work against with the hard water droplets appearing everywhere.

General defects spotted:














The plan was to get as much of the work done out the front as possible (before the rain…). The reason being, the garage was only accessible via an access road some 200 yards round the corner so it would mean packing up and relocating etc.

Polish/pad combination finished up with a green hexlogic light cutting pad and Menz 203s which seemed to be finishing down nicely.

A grey haze was covering the whole car:




Before:






After:






Delivering some nice results and only leaving the deeper random scratches.

Finally, the inevitable happened. I’d only made it half way round the wings and bonnet and the heavens opened:




Packed up, reposition and was straight back to work.


50/50 on N/S/F wing:








Methodically working my way around the car…

Rear arch stone protectors cleaned up quite nicely after the one hit:

Before:




After:




“Carrera 4” badge removed upon owners request (Actually, it was him that actually removed it! Heat gun and Tardis used to remove glue residues)






After a couple of hits:




The roof wasn’t in a great way. Lots of deep marks spotted under the strip-lights:




Again, cleaning up nicely but leaving the odd deep scratches requiring further attention.




Smaller in-accessible areas were cleaned up by hand with a German Applicator pad and Menz 106FA.




Porsche badge was removed earlier on in the polishing stages; a good opportunity now to give it a going over:




Getting there now… the finer details remain (IPA wipedown, wax, dressings and finishing touches etc)






Dodo Juice Supernatural applied:




Glass cleaned with 3M Glass Cleaner.
‘Tooth-pickery’ work carried out to remove excess polish build-up.
Exhausts worked with 00 wire wool and autosol.
Final wipeover before packing away and we’re done. Finished around 9pm (an 11 or 12 hour day).

















So that was Thursday. Thursday night saw me have an overnight stop half-hour down the road for an early start on a b7 Audi A4 Avant the next day. Another overnight stay and I was a further 30 mins up the A38 to Burton Upon Trent where I attended a TDi-Sport.com club meet and had my 1.9TDi Avant mapped! Pushing 170bhp and 398lb/ft now!

Thanks!

Jim

Mercedes C-350 – Protection Detail

A concerned customer called through to ask about the ‘roughness’ and sticky residues that’d been left on his Mercedes.

Turns out, being based on an RAF camp, it’s parked close to nearby trees and is only just round the corner from constant new construction… All manor of air-born contaminants were going to be on this one!

Having booked for an external Protection Detail only, I hoped to lift all sticky fallout off of the car, tidy ‘the edges’ and add to protection already in place.

Product

• 3M Glass Cleaner
• AutoSmart G101
• Belgom ALU
• Chemical Guys New Look Trim Gel
• Dodo Juice Born To Be Mild
• Jeffs Werkstat Prime
• Jeffs Werkstat Jett Trigger
• LTT Auto Ultra Foam
• Meguiars Hyperwash
• Optimum No Rinse (ONR)
• Sonus Green clay

Inspection…


















Other than the contaminants and a few bits on the britework areas, it’s going to be tough to ‘add’ to this one! Makes a change having well prepped and cared for vehicle from the off!

Starting with the fancy wheels, AutoSmart G101 was used alongside various brushes and mitts aswel as dealing with the sills and shuts.

A thick delivery of snowfoam was given. Meanwhile, buckets were filled and intricate areas cleaned with a few small brushes.








Because of the heat, once the wash stage was complete, I opted to dry the vehicle before moving on to the important claying stages… In using Megs Last Touch I find residues have to be rinsed after every panel; using ONR however allows a panel to be clayed, and then merely wiped dry again. With the heat issues and hard-water spots appearing everywhere, ONR would be my clay-lube of choice!




Lots of grime being ripped from the bonnet:




Likewise, the roof, glass and boot lid weren’t much better!




A decent amount of time was consumed in the claying stages. Noticeable difference spotted (and felt!) already.

Jeffs Prime applied by hand to cleanse the paintwork followed by multiple hits of Jeffs Jett Trigger which would act to seal and protect.

The chrome dished alloys were polished with Belgom ALU and the black painted surfaces cleansed with Jeffs Prime.

Other britework attended to with Prime (front grille surround, exhausts and carbon fibre splitters etc)














Tyres dressed. Windows cleaned inside and out. Interior tickled with the hoover, G101 and the drivers seat cleaned up with LTT Auto Ultra Foam. Pretty much there? Yeah, we’re finished. Oh, one final job was to polish the doorshuts as the water spotting had left a right mess!

An eye-catching car! As said, difficult to make a massive transformation, but, a worthwhile job nevertheless. Thanks for reading.

Jim

Volkswagen Golf R32 – mk5 in black

A bit of a pre-sale prep here. Booked in for a Protection Detail in readiness to pass on to the new owner…

Product

• 3M Glass Cleaner
• 303 Aerospace Protectant
• AutoSmart G101
• AutoSmart Tardis
• Autosol
• AutoGlym Vinyl & Rubber Care
• Chemical Guys JetSEAL109
• Collinite 476s
• Dodo Juice Born To Be Mild
• Jeffs Werkstat Prime
• Lusso Revitalizing Cream
• Meguiars APC
• Meguiars Wheel Brightener
• Meguiars Last Touch
• Meguiars Endurance Tyre Gel
• Sonus Green Clay
• Zaino Z8

Not many photos taken throughout unfortunately; still getting used to the new camera and had no time to spare with the sun beating down on the wet body panels…
















Generally, a well looked after vehicle. A quick tidy of the interior, the leather, and a full exterior body machine cleanse should see it well for the sale.

Wheels, arches and shuts cleaned in the usual manor. Several passes of Wheel Brightener were required to shift the most of the pitting on the wheels… The remaining bad spots were lessened with a clay bar.

Moving on to the wash/decontamination stage (I had to move quickly!) Although we were forecast for rain, the sun was blistering hot and made for washing/claying the car a bit of a nightmare.


Just after water-sheeting and pre-clay stages:






Once inside and fully dried down, a finishing pad was used to cleanse the paintwork with Lusso’s Revitalizing Cream.

Collinite 476s wax applied and removed with soft plush mf towels.

Wheels cleansed and protected, tyres and engine bay dressed.






All glass cleaned with the fantastic new 3M Glass Cleaner:




Exhausts brought back to life with a mix of AutoSol, Belgom ALU and Wirewool.

Interior tickled with various brushes, VAX attachments and G101.

Front alu grille cleansed and protected with Jeffs Prime.

Plastics dressed with 303 Aerospace Protectant

And finally a Z8 wipedown before moving round into the sun for some final photos.
























Thanks!

Jim.