Shahid called a few weeks back and wished to book his Porsche 911 Turbo in for a Gold Waxxx Detail. Shahid explained over the phone that the car was suffering from severe swirl marks and scratches which had been picked up over 4 years from hand and automated car washes and wanted to give the car a finish it so rightly deserved.

Shahid arrived on Saturday morning a little later than planned due to a late night as he drove from Leeds to Birmingham in the early hours. Shahid showed me around the 911 Turbo and stressed the car suffered from swirl marks and random scratches all over and as a result could never get the car to look its best and explained it always looked dull even after a layer of wax. Shahid explained that he wished for all the swirls and scratches to be removed and desired a wet-look finish and said he would return the following day to pick the car up.

I began the detail by rinsing the wheels and then lathered them with Meguiars All Purpose Cleaner diluted 4:1 and left to dwell for a few minutes. The arches also received the same treatment. The wheels were then worked with a range of wheelbrushes and this was a timely process as the alloys are extremely deep and a range of brushes were needed to get in as far as the back of the wheel and into each and every crevice. The arches were also cleaned with a long-handled brush and this also took longer than normal due to the wheels filling the arches so well. Eventually, after just over an hour of cleaning, the wheels looked as good as new. The car was then rinsed over and washed with a combination of Meguiars Shampoo Plus and a couple of capfuls of Meguiars APC for some bite using the two bucket method and rinsed clean.

Onto claying and a new bar of CYC Yellow Poly Clay was used on the bodywork with Meguiars Last Touch diluted 1:1 acting as lubricant. The clay bar removed very little in the way of contamination although the lower sills needed a dose of Autosmart Tardis to remove some stubbon tar spots which the clay bar was unable to remove. The car was then rinsed over and dried with the Miracle Dryer.

The car was taken into the garage to see what Shahid had warned me of in terms of swirling and scratches. And under the halogens, Shahid did not disappoint. I can honestly say this 911 Turbo was one of the most swirled cars I had ever come across. Every panel was housing severe swirl marks and scratches and the paintwork was extremely dull and tired. I knew from the off what with the usual hard Porsche paints that this was going to be one of those epic machine polishing sessions. Paint readings were random ranging from 80-395 microns which meant some panels had seen a lick of paint at some time. As a result, the paint reading process also took longer than normal as every inch of every panel had to be measured and taken down to make sure I knew how much paint I had to play with when polishing.

So onto polishing and the car was taped up and a 18"x18" square was marked up on the bonnet to act as an initial test area. I began with a Meguiars Softbuff Polishing Pad sporting Menzerna Intensive Polish PO85RD 3.02 and hit the area with the Metabo Rotary at speeds 1100-1500-1800-1100. After a wipedown, around 30% correction was achieved. So taking another Meguiars Softbuff Polishing Pad, this time primed with Menzerna Power Gloss S34A, the area was hit again using 1100-1500-1100 and after a wipedown around 80% correction was achieved although the polished area was heavily marred. To refine the finish, I reached for a Meguiars Softbuff Finishing Pad and, primed with Menzerna Final Finish PO85RD, hit the area using 1100-1500-1100 and after a wipedown was happy with a little further correction and the marring being replaced with a glossy finish. Around 85% correction had been achieved although a few RDS remained together with stonechipping. The remainder of the bonnet was corrected with three polishing steps; Power Gloss S34A on a Meguiars Softbuff Cutting Pad, Intensive Polish PO85RD 3.02 on a Meguiars Softbuff Polishing Pad followed by Final Finish PO85RD on a Meguiars Softbuff Finishing Pad to remove marring and to restore gloss back to the paintwork. Although a lengthy process, this was the only way the paint was going to be corrected with 90% correction being achieved all round. The remainder of the car needed the same three steps of polishing although Intensive Polish PO85RD 3.02 was replaced with Meguiars #83 Cleaner/Polish as the IP PO85RD 3.02 was clogging up the pads and the sticky Porsche paint was being a little troublesome in areas. Having to swap between 4" and 6.5" pads every so often did not help and the polishing stage took me well past midnight into the early hours of Sunday morning which meant machine polishing alone took well over 14 hours to complete. Around 85% correction was achieved although the plastics were only corrected up to 75% due to the severity of defects and the fact that I did not want to hit the area more than two times due to the abrasive nature of pads and excessive heat build up with the rotary. I called it a night at 2.30am.

The following morning involved an early start at 8.30am which began with a thorough dusting to remove polish residue. The 911 Turbo then received a cleanse with Zymol HD-Cleanse to prepare the paintwork for waxing. The choice of wax was straightforward; Zymol Glasur as this is designed specifically for Porsche paintworks and each panel received a thin coat followed by an immediate buff to avoid the wax from setting which can be a pain to remove. Following removal of the wax, the car received a wipeover with Zymol Field Glaze to remove any remaints of wax and to avoid holograms from forming.

Onto the wheels and the alloys received a couple of coats of Chemical Guys JetSeal109 and the tyrewalls were dressed with Chemical Guys New Look Trim Gel as were the rubber seals and front diffuser grilles. Further, the windows were polished inside and out with AutoGlym Fast Glass and finally, the exhaust pipes were cleaned with Meguiars NXT Metal Polish followed by a going over with Meguiars Last Touch and buffed with a microfibre.

Overall, this detail was one of the most difficult I have had the pleasure of carrying out. Total working time was around 20 hours over just one and a half days. I was extremely pleased with how correction went although the car would have benefited from a complete wetsand as there was nothing I could do with the RDS which remained in the paintwork. HD-Cleanse and Glasur used in conjunction left an absolutely brilliant wet-look finish to the paintwork and although I thought "Glasur for Porsche" was all marketing hype, I do believe there may be some truth to it now as it does do wonders for Porsche paintworks.



The photos - click thumbnails to enlarge