Intermediate Detail: Porsche Carrera

A car with low mileage but has not been maintained well enough and is in for a one-step polish, sealant and wax, interior detailing and headlight restoration.

Firstly I tackled the headlights. I was expecting it to be in a worse condition. It had some micro cracking on the sides and mild yellowing. I tried to polish with Meguiar’s #105 Ultra-Cut Compound and Lake Country Orange CCS Pad, but progress was slow. The build up of yellowish oxidation was quite thick, so I gave it a 5 step polishing process. No sanding was required since there were little stone chips and I wanted to preserve as much of the lens’ thickness as possible.

Process:
1) Osren P40, twisted wool
2) Meguiar’s #105, twisted wool
3) Meguiar’s #105, orange cutting foam
4) Meguiar’s #205, white polishing foam
5) Meguiar’s PlastX, black finishing foam
For protection, GTechniq EXO.

Next up was the interior.
Carpets were steam cleaned with Meguiar’s APC. The leather surfaces were in a terrible condition, they had been resprayed and the paint was coming off too easily with Osren Leather Cleaner. So I diluted Meguiar’s APC to 15 parts water and 1 part cleaner and scrubbed with a normal white sponge. No melamine sponge for this one.

Wheels cleaned with Osren Degreaser FX, tough stains removed with Osren StainX, leftover brake dust pitting removed with Sonax Acid Free Wheel Cleaner and tar removed with Osren Tar Spots Remover.

It’s a dirty job, but someone’s gotta do it.

Body is pressure rinsed and washed with Osren Car Auto Shampoo. Intricate areas brushed with Osren Degreaser FX. Finally clayed with Perma Glass No.2 Clay.

I did some light masking with 3M blue painter’s tape to avoid damaging the trim.

As you can see from the pictures below, the paint is very swirled up. Since the owner opted for a one-step polish, I decided I need to use something with as much cut as possible while leaving it hologram and buffer mark free.

After some testing, I settled on the following:

Liquid: Scholl Concepts S3 Gold Extra Cut Compound
Pad: Lake Country White Polishing Pad
Machine: FLEX 3401 forced rotation dual-action polisher @ Speed 4-5

It isn’t perfect but the paint looks WAY better. Pretty great results for a one-step.

Wheels were polished with Mother’s Powercone on a Bosch Cordless Driver and some Dodo Juice Need For Speed. Residue is buffed off with Soft99 Triz Premium for added protection.

Paint is protected with:
1) Duragloss #601 Polish Bonding Agent
2) Duragloss #105 Paint Sealant
3) Osren Synergized

Feel free to ask or comment below. Thank you!
Hoped my Malaysian visitors enjoyed their holidays.