Vehicle number 3 of 3 that Detail Werkz had the honor to prepare for the 2009 Houston Classic Auction. I have to admit this was a bear of a correction job and wore myself and Chris out completly, but first a bit of history on the vehicle.
This professionally constructed tribute car is dedicated to the highly sought after Porsche 356 Speedster. Just as the original 49 cars up through the 356C were lower, quicker, racing inspired cars using mostly Volkswagen technology, this tribute is made to duplicate the look, feel and performance of the original Speedsters, utilizing tried and true mechanicals. This tribute incorporates many original parts including, Porsche trim, instruments, lights, and Speedster-style seats into an accurate recreation. The 1,600 cc air-cooled "boxer" engine has been upgraded with enhanced carburetion and internal performance upgrades.
Up on first inspection I noticed the paint was very hazy and very cloudy and swirled like no other. We started to hit this paint with everything under the sun that we had in our arsenal of products, pads and equipment. Not making a dent in the swirls and haze I called the owner and asked just what the hell was this thing painted with. He chuckled and said..oh yea..forgot to tell you that the cars body is gel coat. So I am thinking ok, so its painted with a gel coat type of paint like a boat might have, ohhh no.. we are talking about a GEL mold exactly like boat hulls are made, color threw out, solid color, and the oxidation had taken its toll.
I made a call out to Sexy Bob to get his opinion on what I should do, use and try to determine a proper course of action on this gel paint. Bob told me that I needed to get under the haze or oxidation and sometimes on Gel paint that could be a mill of removal. So I decided to DA sand all the most obvious areas of the car with 800, 1000, 2500 and 3000 to remove as much of the haze that I could. I then ended up using a mixture of GI Evolution Cut Beta, 105 with a meguiars red twisted wool pad to cut out about 85% of the swirls and deeper rids from the sanding. The only thing I could find that would work to remove upwards of 90% of the micro swirls was 85RD and I had to work it at speed 3-4 on the high speed with the GI yellow and red foam.
Once we had it just about swirl free we applied a glaze and really worked it slow till the glaze was translucent and could not be seen. I really wanted this thing to pop so we applied 5 coats of the Concorso Gloss via the 7424 and using a meguiars black foam pad.
The interior was a no-brainier and we PH cleaned it via GI satin leather cleaner and applied the GI T.R.V. on all the vinyl, plastic and rubber items and the seats were treated with the GI Satin Leather Polish.
Tires were treated with the GI Signature Tire Gloss and we did multiple coats of the GI Gloss Enhancer to finish off this detail.
This vehicle sold for 30K at the auction!
I did not capture any shots of the sanding process as we were scratching our heads trying to figure this all out and not waist time.
Enjoy the shots...
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