Sunday, August 24, 2014

1985 Porsche 911 Carrera gets Full on Restoration


Hey Everyone,

This was a restoration type detail that I was excited to get my hands on. I am such a big fan of these old school Porsche's and when this owner called me to come out and look at it, I was right on it. Once I inspected the car I knew right away the potential that it had. We scheduled the car and two weeks later I arrived.

This write up documents the process and products used to revive this 1985 911 Carrera. Lets get this going.


Here is the car when I arrived

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Lets start with the wheels. One of my favorite wheel cleaners is P21s wheel gel. It is a pH balanced wheel cleaner safe and any wheels, painted,polished,clear coated... any wheel.

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And another Favorite for cleaning the wheels is the EZ Detail Brush and Wheel woolies.

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After the wheels I pre-rinse the paint to knock off any heavy and loose debris

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After the pre-rinse, I then give the car a foam bath. The foam bath is very functional, and not just for show. When the foam is applied to the surface it acts as a suspension for the dirt and also gives the surface lubricity. all of this helps keep your car swirl free.

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After washing the car, I brought it inside to inspect the paint under good lighting. this shows the tru surface and lets me know what I'm dealing with.

here are some pics under halogen lights which imitates what you would see under direct sunlight. the paint was very swirled and oxidized.

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21 years of crust and residue build up around the emblems

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So I finally got to work on the paint and begin the revival.

here is a picture of how much oxidation was removed.

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Here is a before of the passenger door handle.

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And here is the after

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Rear Quarter Panel Before

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Rear Quarter Panel After

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For this next part, I noticed the emblem had 20+ years of crud built up around it, so I decided to remove the emblem to clean it underneath.

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While making my way around the car, I found myself at this faded whale tail wing in the back. I knew that I could bring it back, so I taped off the surrounding areas and began to revive the paint

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I also decided to paint the faded back air vents

here is a 50/50

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and here was the final outcome

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Here is another before and after of the Driver Quarter

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On this door, not only did I polish out the scratches, I touched up the chips on the edge too.

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These pictures are up close of what actually happens in Tru paint correction. The clear coat is leveled out removing the defects and not hiding them with glazes and waxes

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Now for all the faded trim and plastics, I used a product that is a nano crystalized coating that has 1-2 years of protection for the rubber,plastic trim pieces, Gtechniques C4.

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After all of that was done, I decided to revive the wheels by polishing them out and coating them with Poorboys wheel sealant.

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Now that the car was finished, lets see what it looks like outside and in the sun.

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