2006 Porsche Cayman S Restored with Swirl!
2006 Porsche Cayman S Restored with Swirl!
This is what I worked on today, a preowned Cayman S. Full write up coming later. Just a teaser. I started at 10AM and just finished at 9:30PM, and had both the owner and Jay helping. We spent nearly 4 hours to wash, clay, and tape before I got to polishing.
Started out as:
After about 4.5 hours of polishing with the rotary and PC. I only used Swirl and Epic on this one with the Prima Orange and Prima White pads.
****************Here's the full writeup. I preserved the original part of this post for historical continuity.
The owner of this great looking 2006 Porsche Cayman S contacted me to see what I could do about the swirls on this car. It was preowned and he's had it for about 3 months, but it never looked as good as he wanted it to. Let's take a closer look at what he's talking about.
Preinspection
I see some holograms on the hood
Some light scratches and smudges on the rear quarter panel
Ohhh and lots of swirls!
Look the swirls are everywhere!
Nice combination of swirls and holograms. Somebody has been working on this car!
Well so far, it's pretty convincing that the swirls are over the entire car.
Uh oh, I see a dent!
Yep it's a dent alright!
I also see light scratches around the door
Wax/Polish residue from somebody!
Factory wheels seemed to be in decent condition.
Yep, even from a distance those swirls are visible!
Oooh a Black Wow opportunity!
After washing the paint, the Cayman S was brought inside the shop to be prepped. Washing was with the two bucket method using Dirt Guards, Prima Mystique soap, lambswool wash mitt and a variety of brushes. I walked the owner through the proper techniques for washing the paint. Most importantly because we didn't have shade available to wash the car in was to keep the surfaces wet so that water spots couldn't form on the paint before we got it back into the shop for drying.
Drying was with two microfiber waffle weave towels. You can see the swirls pretty clearly.
This detail was more than a polish job. It was a teaching session which the owner fully embraced. He got to see his car transformed and actually take part in the process. Here we are claying the paint. I talked about the reasons why you clay and how it works. I then demonstrated it, and let him try. His first attempt was good, but not very effective. So I reclayed the section he did, showing that he needed to apply more pressure and vigor to the process. He was amazed at the result, and in just minutes, he was claying just as effectively! I also showed him the new high tech body sponge aka foam rubber clay bar, but we opted not to use it for this car.
Here I'm explaining how bonded contaminants form and how they are more likely to be found on the horizontal surfaces rather than the vertical. Simple explanations like that help in determining where to focus your efforts.
That's me wearing the Italian Job t-shirt talking and claying. The temperature inside the shop was probably hovering around 85 deg.
Even my employee Jay got into the act--he was taking the photos, so I gave him a break so he could have some fun too!
Ok after nearly 4 hours, with the paint fully prepped (washed, clayed, taped), I laid down my mf towel for the test spot. With the swirls pretty deep and my experience with Porsche paint, I decide to use Prima Swirl with a LC Orange Pad on my rotary.
The orange pad worked great.
I followed it with polishing using the UDM, LC white pad, and Swirl.
And check out these results! Looks superb.
After some polishing, I realize that the orange VC (variable contact) pad isn't the ideal pad for this paint. A flat pad conforms better to the curves on the Cayman, so I switched to my white LC pad that's flat. But there were several instances where the white pad just wasn't aggressive enough to get out some of the defects for the nearly flawless finish I seeked, so I still had to use the orange pad at times.
Porsches can all benefit from my Black Wow. Here I did the side by side test.
Incredible improvement in just seconds.
So with the sun going down and about 5 hours of polishing, I had the owner pull the car out into the sun to check the progress.
Looks fantastic as expected.
Ooops, see some slight surface defects below the sun spot. Will have to work those out. That was because I used the white pad. The orange pad knocked those out with ease.
Saw some slight marring still on the fender edge. Will do some more polishing here.
Yep, Black Wow looks great outside too. LOL.
I had the owner face the car towards the sun to light both sides. Saw some light hologramming on the doors. That made sense since I hadn't yet PC'd them.
Otherwise, all in all, the finish looked pretty darn good.
Only 10 minutes later and the sun went down. I showed the owner how to use air to clean the crevices. At one point he noticed particles inside the rear brake light housing, and after looking at how it was attached, I suggested that maybe using air might blow out the particles, and sure enough it worked.
Ok, another 4 hours of polishing and now I'm done.
Unfortunately no more sunlight to really capture the beauty of the paint, so I had to make do with these.
This was a night shot as the owner was leaving. I could see a lot of reflections in the paint, so I put the camera on the ground and took this shot before he left.
This was a great day. All in all about 12 hours of work using a combination of the Makita rotary with Prima Swirl and the UDM with Prima Swirl and LSP was Prima Epic synthetic polymer wax. The owner got a crash course on how to wash, polish, and wax his car the "OctaneGuy way", and as he said, his car was now "Better Than New".
Started out as:
After about 4.5 hours of polishing with the rotary and PC. I only used Swirl and Epic on this one with the Prima Orange and Prima White pads.
****************Here's the full writeup. I preserved the original part of this post for historical continuity.
The owner of this great looking 2006 Porsche Cayman S contacted me to see what I could do about the swirls on this car. It was preowned and he's had it for about 3 months, but it never looked as good as he wanted it to. Let's take a closer look at what he's talking about.
Preinspection
I see some holograms on the hood
Some light scratches and smudges on the rear quarter panel
Ohhh and lots of swirls!
Look the swirls are everywhere!
Nice combination of swirls and holograms. Somebody has been working on this car!
Well so far, it's pretty convincing that the swirls are over the entire car.
Uh oh, I see a dent!
Yep it's a dent alright!
I also see light scratches around the door
Wax/Polish residue from somebody!
Factory wheels seemed to be in decent condition.
Yep, even from a distance those swirls are visible!
Oooh a Black Wow opportunity!
After washing the paint, the Cayman S was brought inside the shop to be prepped. Washing was with the two bucket method using Dirt Guards, Prima Mystique soap, lambswool wash mitt and a variety of brushes. I walked the owner through the proper techniques for washing the paint. Most importantly because we didn't have shade available to wash the car in was to keep the surfaces wet so that water spots couldn't form on the paint before we got it back into the shop for drying.
Drying was with two microfiber waffle weave towels. You can see the swirls pretty clearly.
This detail was more than a polish job. It was a teaching session which the owner fully embraced. He got to see his car transformed and actually take part in the process. Here we are claying the paint. I talked about the reasons why you clay and how it works. I then demonstrated it, and let him try. His first attempt was good, but not very effective. So I reclayed the section he did, showing that he needed to apply more pressure and vigor to the process. He was amazed at the result, and in just minutes, he was claying just as effectively! I also showed him the new high tech body sponge aka foam rubber clay bar, but we opted not to use it for this car.
Here I'm explaining how bonded contaminants form and how they are more likely to be found on the horizontal surfaces rather than the vertical. Simple explanations like that help in determining where to focus your efforts.
That's me wearing the Italian Job t-shirt talking and claying. The temperature inside the shop was probably hovering around 85 deg.
Even my employee Jay got into the act--he was taking the photos, so I gave him a break so he could have some fun too!
Ok after nearly 4 hours, with the paint fully prepped (washed, clayed, taped), I laid down my mf towel for the test spot. With the swirls pretty deep and my experience with Porsche paint, I decide to use Prima Swirl with a LC Orange Pad on my rotary.
The orange pad worked great.
I followed it with polishing using the UDM, LC white pad, and Swirl.
And check out these results! Looks superb.
After some polishing, I realize that the orange VC (variable contact) pad isn't the ideal pad for this paint. A flat pad conforms better to the curves on the Cayman, so I switched to my white LC pad that's flat. But there were several instances where the white pad just wasn't aggressive enough to get out some of the defects for the nearly flawless finish I seeked, so I still had to use the orange pad at times.
Porsches can all benefit from my Black Wow. Here I did the side by side test.
Incredible improvement in just seconds.
So with the sun going down and about 5 hours of polishing, I had the owner pull the car out into the sun to check the progress.
Looks fantastic as expected.
Ooops, see some slight surface defects below the sun spot. Will have to work those out. That was because I used the white pad. The orange pad knocked those out with ease.
Saw some slight marring still on the fender edge. Will do some more polishing here.
Yep, Black Wow looks great outside too. LOL.
I had the owner face the car towards the sun to light both sides. Saw some light hologramming on the doors. That made sense since I hadn't yet PC'd them.
Otherwise, all in all, the finish looked pretty darn good.
Only 10 minutes later and the sun went down. I showed the owner how to use air to clean the crevices. At one point he noticed particles inside the rear brake light housing, and after looking at how it was attached, I suggested that maybe using air might blow out the particles, and sure enough it worked.
Ok, another 4 hours of polishing and now I'm done.
Unfortunately no more sunlight to really capture the beauty of the paint, so I had to make do with these.
This was a night shot as the owner was leaving. I could see a lot of reflections in the paint, so I put the camera on the ground and took this shot before he left.
This was a great day. All in all about 12 hours of work using a combination of the Makita rotary with Prima Swirl and the UDM with Prima Swirl and LSP was Prima Epic synthetic polymer wax. The owner got a crash course on how to wash, polish, and wax his car the "OctaneGuy way", and as he said, his car was now "Better Than New".
Last edited by OctaneGuy; Jul 14, 2007 at 12:57 PM.
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6th Gear
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 1,781
Likes: 3
Yeah, if they could have just extended the 1/4 panel back and down another foot and made the bumper a lot smaller that sould have looked better. But the Cayman is a beautiful car. I have always loved Carrera's but this is high up on the list compared to the Carrera. You just don't get the back seat with the cayman though which is always useful.
OVERDRIVE
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 12,326
Likes: 6
From: PA
Ewwwwwwwwww... that looks like Michael Strahan's front teeth ! 
Besides, everyone knows that a well made machine has the tailights cut out of the quarter panel with no seams on the tailight ! Sheeshz, for that kind of money, you'd think they could make a better car. 
BTW, where is that OG with more pics on his project ??
Besides, everyone knows that a well made machine has the tailights cut out of the quarter panel with no seams on the tailight ! Sheeshz, for that kind of money, you'd think they could make a better car. BTW, where is that OG with more pics on his project ??
Me and my date (who was taller than me and my best friend's little sister) rode to our junior prom in the back seat of an old 911. It did NOT turn out to be very useful for me.
6th Gear
Joined: May 2005
Posts: 15,478
Likes: 2
No, sorry. Those are the 19" "lobster claws", OEM 997S Carrera wheels. Tires are PS2s, N-Spec, 265/35 ZRs (rated for in excess of 186 mph).
295s are OEM C2s, 305s are OEM on C4s.
wats more of an eye sore is that gap between the quarter panel and
tail light.
What your really see is aerodynamics The tail light is recessed from the quarterpanel for airflow. The "gap" is a rubber gasket.
295s are OEM C2s, 305s are OEM on C4s.
wats more of an eye sore is that gap between the quarter panel and
tail light.
What your really see is aerodynamics
The tail light is recessed from the quarterpanel for airflow. The "gap" is a rubber gasket.
Last edited by chows4us; Jul 14, 2007 at 06:59 AM.
6th Gear
Joined: Oct 2006
Posts: 1,781
Likes: 3
Well, it allows me to put bags back there and model planes when I go to the RC flying field so its useful to me.
No, sorry. Those are the 19" "lobster claws", OEM 997S Carrera wheels. Tires are PS2s, N-Spec, 265/35 ZRs (rated for in excess of 186 mph).
295s are OEM C2s, 305s are OEM on C4s.
wats more of an eye sore is that gap between the quarter panel and
tail light.
What your really see is aerodynamics The tail light is recessed from the quarterpanel for airflow. The "gap" is a rubber gasket.
295s are OEM C2s, 305s are OEM on C4s.
wats more of an eye sore is that gap between the quarter panel and
tail light.
What your really see is aerodynamics
The tail light is recessed from the quarterpanel for airflow. The "gap" is a rubber gasket.time ago.
yes, ZR rated can go over 186mph or 15mph over one pot hole. lol
was that car in an accident? i dont remember seeing such gap between
the quarter and tailight on others.
not that it matters....we're looking at OG's work, not the car.
6th Gear
Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 3,802
Likes: 0
From: SF Bay Area
Looks beautiful OG, no doubt if I bought a car in SoCal I'd come a knockin
Sorry I don't understand the question. But to make finding the writeup easier, I modified the first post for the writeup.
Richard
Richard