Here's a 1999 Porsche Boxster with over 100,000 miles. The current owner purchased this car off eBay, and it was supposedly in Excellent condition. Let me tell you, when I saw the swirls, I had a grin from ear to ear! But oh man, this job really challenged both my physical and mental state. There were key scratches, a large dent, gouges, etchings, swirls, deep scratches, and plenty of other defects that I knew couldn't be repaired.
Wheels were caked in brake dust!
Large dent between fender and vent
Ouch, this key scratch goes down to metal and stretches from the front of the car to the back!
Another large defect on the drivers door. It looks like the result of an accident with a machine. The horizontal scratch has uniform square shaped indentations. The vertical scratch is raised and offset from the main surface.
Light hologram visible on door edge bottom
A quick test spot was done using two passes of M80 and a W8006 pad on my Makita. But this wasn't going to be as simple as that!
I called my friend Rick from Dent Express and he came right over to fix the problem! I like working with Rick. He's a super nice guy. With his body shop and paint experience he showed how this panel had been in an accident and repainted, and showed how the grill he was holding was improperly installed.
I washed using the two bucket method using both the Dirt Guard and Grit Guard. Meguiar's Gold Class Car Wash Soap was used along with a lambswool wash mitt. Then I clayed using the Meguiar's Professional blue clay.
Got the top taped off
My neighbor Larry stopped by with his Porsche
After claying and buffing, the paint wasn't looking as good as I wanted, so out came the Unigrit to try to minimize some of these defects. I knew I wouldn't be able to wetsand them away, but I wanted to try to make it look better.
Then it got dark! But I was actually waiting for that. Under darkness with just my overhead lights, I could really see the paint clearly.
Once I had finished polishing, and was getting ready to wax, I removed the plastic sheet, and taped off the canvas top so I could wax the paint.
This is where that expensive wide tape really comes in handy!
Check out the trim at the base of the windshield.
What color do you think this trim is? It looks grey in person.
I think it's supposed to be black!!! Like this!
Yep, can you see the true color?? I've started to apply it to the trim.
To get a good feel for the true color, I applied some tape to compare the before and after.
OMG, can you believe this??? The darker side was one application of the gel I use for restoring plastics.
The black side is not wet, and the gel is clear--silicone based. It's not black or paint! You apply it to neglected plastics and it restores them! I use it on my customers MINI Cooper plastic trim all the time.
Looking at this front grill, I was thinking--this white grill can't possibly be black too can it?? Well I didn't take any pix because no, it wasn't black. LOL. It was actually a grey color, but the difference after the application wasn't night and day.
Here's the trim all restored!
The trim around the canvas top could also use restoring.
Pretty amazing huh? I only applied it to the front portion, not the rear portion.
A photo of my Sidekick 3 showing that it's 11:08PM now. I started at 10AM.
LSP is Prima Epic. Blue in this picture.
Holding my Xenon Swirl Finder light--no swirls! Green in this picture!
This is a very strange metallic paint. It can look green, blue, or purple at any given time. I did my best to restore the paint, despite some of its serious flaws. Although I knew going into it there were inherent problems that would prevent a flawless finish, I still strived for it. That meant 2 passes of M80 with the Makita at first, then 1 pass with M83 with the Makita, then 1 pass with M84 and W9006 with Makita, and final finishing with the PC and M80, often times at speed 6. Working in the extreme cold actually prevented the backing plate from heating up and suffering delamination issues. I knew there was some benefit to freezing my butt off! LOL
Day 2 Photos
Taken by owner
Customer Photo on Day 2
Customer Photo on Day 2
Customer Photo on Day 2
Customer Photo on Day 2
Customer Photo on Day 2
Customer Photo on Day 2
Customer Photo on Day 2
Customer Photo on Day 2
Customer Photo on Day 2
lil'Black Wow
1988 TOYOTA MR2
Threaded Mode