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As business grows, my goal has been to keep a high level of quality with my company. As such, clients are happier with the attention to detail to their vehicles, and more people begin to call based off referrals; knowing the level of work to expect by having already seeing it in person. This job in particular is a testiment to that scenario exactly, with a client of mine who owns a black 993 putting me in contact with this Porsche race car driver's PR director to prep his vehicle for a show.
Christian Maloof took the plunge and acquired his National Auto Sport Association Pro Race License in 2008 after several years of being a certified performance driving intructor for many high performance clubs to include Porsche Club of America, Ferrari Club, Lamborghini Club, Lotus Car Owners Club, CGI Driving School, and several more. To say the least: the guy is talented at what he does, and in 2007 began racing this amazing Porsche 993 RS CS. In addition to competing in the GTS3 division of National Auto Sport Association races, he also has signed with Freedom Autosport to be a co-driver in a MX-5 ST car participating in the Grand-Am KONI Challenge.
Onto the Porsche!
This beautiful baby is considered a 1995 RS Clubsport clone, as none were imported to the United States. As you'll see from the pictures, it has been heavily modified, and the class it runs in is limited to just under 11 lbs per horsepower. As the owner describes it:
"It has a 3.8L race motor, full custom race gear box, stainless steel synchros, Porsche Motorsport Limited Slip diff. The suspension is relatively tame; Bilstein PSS9 custom valved for 600/800 lb springs. Custom hats, monoballs, and very big sway bars. Fully welded and gusseted 1 3/4" cage, 27 gallon fuel cell, triple accelerometer / gps data acquisition, quick release steering wheel, carbon fiber seat and 6 point belts."
With a strict deadline (the 993 was to be shown in a car show in downtown Ann Arbor the next day) and lots to do, I called my buddy Marc Harris from Harris Detail to lend a hand. Even still, this was a complete all-day project: we arrived at 9:30 AM and left just before 11 PM.
Upon arrival began the initial inspection and set-up of equipment
paint was.... dull looking
To begin the work that needed to be done, Stoner's Tarminator was applied to the lower portions which had a lot of rubber build-up while the impressive Porsche Motorsports 3-piece forged wheels and massive 6 piston calipers got a generous helping of P21S Wheel Cleaner Gel.
After agitating the wheel faces, calipers, barrels, and between the spokes with various brushes, the brake dust / road grime residue was flushed away using the pressure washer. This process was then repeated again to get all the accumulated grime off. The dust from race brake pads is caustic and will cause corrosion on wheels and paint if it is not removed promptly. The high temperatures these wheels and dust particles see makes them stick harder, sooner. This worsens even more if the wheels get wet after the dust is cooked on. Although we did not remove the wheels to clean the underside, our experience with race wheels is they usually look like they are covered in rust and black brake dust and is quite difficult and requires a specialist in wheel refinishing.
Following the wheels, the entire car was pressure washed carefully to help loosen and remove residue / debris from the vehicles surface. Using Meguiar's NTX wash and the foam gun, the car was set to soak. This wash has nothing special about it, its just a good deal and adequate for the first cleaning. This car had not been waxed in quite awhile, would be clayed and polished, so no chemical stripping was necessary. The 993 had to be carefully washed as the driver and passenger windows do not exist. Hopefully any spills onto the driver seat will dry off before tomorrow
This was also the time the rear-end was opened to reveal the engine bay, which was carefully cleaned. We used the tried and proven APC+ at 4:1 with various brushes and some rags to clean whatever we could reach in the engine compartment, which is not much! All electrical connections were greased, and all critical fasteners had paint marks to aid in visual pre and post race inspections. These marks needed to be maintained. Luckily, the APC did not harm the paint marks, and we were able to keep it off the dielectric grease on the connectors. The pressure washer was set on soft flow and used to get the hard stuff off. Since this engine does not have many street miles on it, it was fairly easy to clean. When being rebuilt and serviced at its specific interval (after every season), many of the parts are cleaned. Even with the intense race usage, a race car lacks the dwell time soil and grime stays on the engine in a typical street car. Further, unless the car is raced in the rain ALOT or driven in winter, a race car has much less corrosion in the engine bay than say a SUV. So after washing and drying, a spray with Meguiar's Trim Detailer on the plastics was all that was needed to make this engine bay look as impressive as it really is! The following day we were able to meet the engine builder, who complemented us on the engine detail.
The engine bay housing getting blown-dry
Still it is amazing that 3 people and 2 cameras were not able to get any pictures on the finished engine, doh!
Following a good washing, the paint was clayed using Meguiar's aggressive clay, with Chemical Guy's Luber and Meguiar's Last touch being used as clay lubricant. Aggressive clay was necessary due to the amount of tire marks and buildup on the many contours of the 993 body. The rear fenders being so pronounced receive the grunt of whatever the front tires dish out during the race. Here is an example:
before clay
after clay
The PorschePurist.com sticker had bubbles and had to be replaced. With claying completed, The car was re-washed lightly, then dried with an "absorber", a few waffle weave microfiber towels, and the dedicated leaf-blower.
Prior to paint correction, we set out to work on the interior. Usually you'd think a vehicle with a gutted interior would be easy... It turns out that a car with no windows gets a significant amount of dirt / dust in it, and nearly everything needed APC 10:1 with agitation then a good thorough wipe-down. Some areas got APC+ at 4:1! Further, roll cages and fixed back seats means reaching around and into the rear quarters requires a contortionist on the team. Here are some interior before, during, and afters. Notice the black trim not looking quite so black, the red painted portions looking quite dusty/dirty, and how much of a difference an hour of work makes: even in a race-car. The remaining black on the floors and around is residue from the gutting process and could not be removed.
Allow me to pause here and talk a little about this Recaro seat. It was a royal pain in the butt to clean as the short nap grabbed and held every dirt fiber, hair, piece of lint, etc. It was vacuumed, brushed, vacuumed, taken apart, brushed, vacuumed, then finally vacuumed. Still it did not come out as I expected. Leather is so much easier to work with!
With the interior now taken care of, and a nice Subway lunch completed, it was time for the paint to be exfoliated, polished and protected. Despite the roof's thin single stage paint, the majority of the body was healthy in terms of paint thickness readings.(other than the plentiful war-wounds from track time, and the repainted driver's door which was t-h-i-c-k). On the other hand.... the body was very sick (think black-death plague style) as far as defects.
There was no time to hesitate. I helped prep the subject for immediate operation by taping up every sticker and al the door moulding.
Test Panel time....
Here we are doing the roof, which was single stage:
before:
after one pass with Ultimate Compound:
after M105 as softly as possible due to the paint's thinness.
single stage coloring my pads, oh noes!! These pads will be just fine after a wash with DP Pad Restore. When you do a clear coated finish the same thing happens, only you cant see "clear" colored paint. Always wash your pads!
The amount of M105 may see heavy, but I wanted to keep the product from drying up too fast. I needed cut, but I needed to cut slowly rather than much. M105 flashes very fast, so you either use the KB method (water spray) or use more product. In this case, using more product resulted in a slower cut and less mess (remember no windows!!).
The combo we went with was the Flex rotary running and Edge 5" Orange pad with M105, with Marc following with the Makita rotary with M205 on a LCC white polishing pad. This combo is hard to beat!
With things working out well, the headlight protective covers got some love thanks to Megs Clear Plastic Polish on a white 3" pad on the Flex Rotary. Although not perfect, they turned out MUCH better. They looked like French-Style headlight covers at the beginning (yellow). Now we see they are not really yellow at all. I wondered what had caused the color as I swift weird odors while polishing them :/
The front bumper was a nightmare: severely beaten, deeply pitted, some paint cracking, etc. Parts of the bumper had been "fixed" during a race, probably from a spray can. We had to tread lightly. Marc hit it using the Flex DA and M205 to be careful. This proved to be sufficient to brighten up the paint and remove many of the fixable defects. Any more aggressive would have compromised the paint color and the end result.
Much better. With defects as rough as those seen, and the nature of the beast (a race car...), this would be enough to work.
Polishing complete. We performed another wash, this time with Zaino Z7 wash, to get all the polish off and out of the crevices. Then dried with the absorber/MF/blower combo. Here is the result: The work put in gave the Porsche a much needed make-over.
It was time for protection and trim.
The sealant of choice was Wolfgang Deep Gloss Paint Sealant 3.0. This was from Marc's arsenal, and was chosen because it is very easy to use, very easy to take off, offers great protection and a beautiful shine. The trim was hit with Meguiar's Trim Detailer once the sealant hazed over. In this fashion, the overspray comes off when you remove the sealant. Easy and quick! One area I constantly see either improperly dressed or not dressed at all is the black plastic louvered deck-lid cover that acts as a grill for the rear engine. It is a hard one to dress by hand, and sprays get all over the place. But with Meg's Trim Detailer it was a snap.
Even the owner got in on the action Here it is about 10 PM and we are finishing off before the dew point drops too much. Once that happens, any wax or sealant will not buff off cleanly from the finish. So it was all hands on deck!
The day now officially over, it was time to put her to bed for the night: she had a long day of head turning to do in Ann Arbor the next day...
The following day, the Rolling Sculpture Show rolled into downtown Ann Arbor. The day was beautiful! Not too hot or humid and we had great turnout both in cars and in people. The Rennstatt display consisted of this 993 alongside various other Porsches they work on. Even though this 993 was one of the older models and definitely the most abused at the track, it really stood out. As the autoLavish Team arrived to location (and did a quick wipe-down with Z6 to get rid of any finger marks or dust on the finish), many owners and enthusiasts complemented the work as they had seen what condition the car was in before the detail. We handed out quite a few business cards that afternoon, while enjoying great company!
The end result was beyond what we expected for a race car. It corrected great and showed even better. Owners and sponsors were quite impressed and very happy, which is really what drives us! All the pictures are straight out of the camera on full automatic mode (Sony alpha-200) with no adjusting - the red is really that red!! But to do this would have been impossible without Marc's (HarrisDetail) hard work and perseverance, great attitude, and relentless attention to detail. Thanks Marc! AutoLavish is proud to have you as part of the team!
I hope you guys enjoy reading this and looking at the pics. C&C are always welcome :hello:
Thanks for looking!
autoLavish
Christian Maloof took the plunge and acquired his National Auto Sport Association Pro Race License in 2008 after several years of being a certified performance driving intructor for many high performance clubs to include Porsche Club of America, Ferrari Club, Lamborghini Club, Lotus Car Owners Club, CGI Driving School, and several more. To say the least: the guy is talented at what he does, and in 2007 began racing this amazing Porsche 993 RS CS. In addition to competing in the GTS3 division of National Auto Sport Association races, he also has signed with Freedom Autosport to be a co-driver in a MX-5 ST car participating in the Grand-Am KONI Challenge.
Onto the Porsche!
This beautiful baby is considered a 1995 RS Clubsport clone, as none were imported to the United States. As you'll see from the pictures, it has been heavily modified, and the class it runs in is limited to just under 11 lbs per horsepower. As the owner describes it:
"It has a 3.8L race motor, full custom race gear box, stainless steel synchros, Porsche Motorsport Limited Slip diff. The suspension is relatively tame; Bilstein PSS9 custom valved for 600/800 lb springs. Custom hats, monoballs, and very big sway bars. Fully welded and gusseted 1 3/4" cage, 27 gallon fuel cell, triple accelerometer / gps data acquisition, quick release steering wheel, carbon fiber seat and 6 point belts."
With a strict deadline (the 993 was to be shown in a car show in downtown Ann Arbor the next day) and lots to do, I called my buddy Marc Harris from Harris Detail to lend a hand. Even still, this was a complete all-day project: we arrived at 9:30 AM and left just before 11 PM.
Upon arrival began the initial inspection and set-up of equipment
paint was.... dull looking
To begin the work that needed to be done, Stoner's Tarminator was applied to the lower portions which had a lot of rubber build-up while the impressive Porsche Motorsports 3-piece forged wheels and massive 6 piston calipers got a generous helping of P21S Wheel Cleaner Gel.
After agitating the wheel faces, calipers, barrels, and between the spokes with various brushes, the brake dust / road grime residue was flushed away using the pressure washer. This process was then repeated again to get all the accumulated grime off. The dust from race brake pads is caustic and will cause corrosion on wheels and paint if it is not removed promptly. The high temperatures these wheels and dust particles see makes them stick harder, sooner. This worsens even more if the wheels get wet after the dust is cooked on. Although we did not remove the wheels to clean the underside, our experience with race wheels is they usually look like they are covered in rust and black brake dust and is quite difficult and requires a specialist in wheel refinishing.
Following the wheels, the entire car was pressure washed carefully to help loosen and remove residue / debris from the vehicles surface. Using Meguiar's NTX wash and the foam gun, the car was set to soak. This wash has nothing special about it, its just a good deal and adequate for the first cleaning. This car had not been waxed in quite awhile, would be clayed and polished, so no chemical stripping was necessary. The 993 had to be carefully washed as the driver and passenger windows do not exist. Hopefully any spills onto the driver seat will dry off before tomorrow
This was also the time the rear-end was opened to reveal the engine bay, which was carefully cleaned. We used the tried and proven APC+ at 4:1 with various brushes and some rags to clean whatever we could reach in the engine compartment, which is not much! All electrical connections were greased, and all critical fasteners had paint marks to aid in visual pre and post race inspections. These marks needed to be maintained. Luckily, the APC did not harm the paint marks, and we were able to keep it off the dielectric grease on the connectors. The pressure washer was set on soft flow and used to get the hard stuff off. Since this engine does not have many street miles on it, it was fairly easy to clean. When being rebuilt and serviced at its specific interval (after every season), many of the parts are cleaned. Even with the intense race usage, a race car lacks the dwell time soil and grime stays on the engine in a typical street car. Further, unless the car is raced in the rain ALOT or driven in winter, a race car has much less corrosion in the engine bay than say a SUV. So after washing and drying, a spray with Meguiar's Trim Detailer on the plastics was all that was needed to make this engine bay look as impressive as it really is! The following day we were able to meet the engine builder, who complemented us on the engine detail.
The engine bay housing getting blown-dry
Still it is amazing that 3 people and 2 cameras were not able to get any pictures on the finished engine, doh!
Following a good washing, the paint was clayed using Meguiar's aggressive clay, with Chemical Guy's Luber and Meguiar's Last touch being used as clay lubricant. Aggressive clay was necessary due to the amount of tire marks and buildup on the many contours of the 993 body. The rear fenders being so pronounced receive the grunt of whatever the front tires dish out during the race. Here is an example:
before clay
after clay
The PorschePurist.com sticker had bubbles and had to be replaced. With claying completed, The car was re-washed lightly, then dried with an "absorber", a few waffle weave microfiber towels, and the dedicated leaf-blower.
Prior to paint correction, we set out to work on the interior. Usually you'd think a vehicle with a gutted interior would be easy... It turns out that a car with no windows gets a significant amount of dirt / dust in it, and nearly everything needed APC 10:1 with agitation then a good thorough wipe-down. Some areas got APC+ at 4:1! Further, roll cages and fixed back seats means reaching around and into the rear quarters requires a contortionist on the team. Here are some interior before, during, and afters. Notice the black trim not looking quite so black, the red painted portions looking quite dusty/dirty, and how much of a difference an hour of work makes: even in a race-car. The remaining black on the floors and around is residue from the gutting process and could not be removed.
Allow me to pause here and talk a little about this Recaro seat. It was a royal pain in the butt to clean as the short nap grabbed and held every dirt fiber, hair, piece of lint, etc. It was vacuumed, brushed, vacuumed, taken apart, brushed, vacuumed, then finally vacuumed. Still it did not come out as I expected. Leather is so much easier to work with!
With the interior now taken care of, and a nice Subway lunch completed, it was time for the paint to be exfoliated, polished and protected. Despite the roof's thin single stage paint, the majority of the body was healthy in terms of paint thickness readings.(other than the plentiful war-wounds from track time, and the repainted driver's door which was t-h-i-c-k). On the other hand.... the body was very sick (think black-death plague style) as far as defects.
There was no time to hesitate. I helped prep the subject for immediate operation by taping up every sticker and al the door moulding.
Test Panel time....
Here we are doing the roof, which was single stage:
before:
after one pass with Ultimate Compound:
after M105 as softly as possible due to the paint's thinness.
single stage coloring my pads, oh noes!! These pads will be just fine after a wash with DP Pad Restore. When you do a clear coated finish the same thing happens, only you cant see "clear" colored paint. Always wash your pads!
The amount of M105 may see heavy, but I wanted to keep the product from drying up too fast. I needed cut, but I needed to cut slowly rather than much. M105 flashes very fast, so you either use the KB method (water spray) or use more product. In this case, using more product resulted in a slower cut and less mess (remember no windows!!).
The combo we went with was the Flex rotary running and Edge 5" Orange pad with M105, with Marc following with the Makita rotary with M205 on a LCC white polishing pad. This combo is hard to beat!
With things working out well, the headlight protective covers got some love thanks to Megs Clear Plastic Polish on a white 3" pad on the Flex Rotary. Although not perfect, they turned out MUCH better. They looked like French-Style headlight covers at the beginning (yellow). Now we see they are not really yellow at all. I wondered what had caused the color as I swift weird odors while polishing them :/
The front bumper was a nightmare: severely beaten, deeply pitted, some paint cracking, etc. Parts of the bumper had been "fixed" during a race, probably from a spray can. We had to tread lightly. Marc hit it using the Flex DA and M205 to be careful. This proved to be sufficient to brighten up the paint and remove many of the fixable defects. Any more aggressive would have compromised the paint color and the end result.
Much better. With defects as rough as those seen, and the nature of the beast (a race car...), this would be enough to work.
Polishing complete. We performed another wash, this time with Zaino Z7 wash, to get all the polish off and out of the crevices. Then dried with the absorber/MF/blower combo. Here is the result: The work put in gave the Porsche a much needed make-over.
It was time for protection and trim.
The sealant of choice was Wolfgang Deep Gloss Paint Sealant 3.0. This was from Marc's arsenal, and was chosen because it is very easy to use, very easy to take off, offers great protection and a beautiful shine. The trim was hit with Meguiar's Trim Detailer once the sealant hazed over. In this fashion, the overspray comes off when you remove the sealant. Easy and quick! One area I constantly see either improperly dressed or not dressed at all is the black plastic louvered deck-lid cover that acts as a grill for the rear engine. It is a hard one to dress by hand, and sprays get all over the place. But with Meg's Trim Detailer it was a snap.
Even the owner got in on the action
Here it is about 10 PM and we are finishing off before the dew point drops too much. Once that happens, any wax or sealant will not buff off cleanly from the finish. So it was all hands on deck!The day now officially over, it was time to put her to bed for the night: she had a long day of head turning to do in Ann Arbor the next day...
The following day, the Rolling Sculpture Show rolled into downtown Ann Arbor. The day was beautiful! Not too hot or humid and we had great turnout both in cars and in people. The Rennstatt display consisted of this 993 alongside various other Porsches they work on. Even though this 993 was one of the older models and definitely the most abused at the track, it really stood out. As the autoLavish Team arrived to location (and did a quick wipe-down with Z6 to get rid of any finger marks or dust on the finish), many owners and enthusiasts complemented the work as they had seen what condition the car was in before the detail. We handed out quite a few business cards that afternoon, while enjoying great company!
The end result was beyond what we expected for a race car. It corrected great and showed even better. Owners and sponsors were quite impressed and very happy, which is really what drives us! All the pictures are straight out of the camera on full automatic mode (Sony alpha-200) with no adjusting - the red is really that red!! But to do this would have been impossible without Marc's (HarrisDetail) hard work and perseverance, great attitude, and relentless attention to detail. Thanks Marc! AutoLavish is proud to have you as part of the team!
I hope you guys enjoy reading this and looking at the pics. C&C are always welcome :hello:
Thanks for looking!
autoLavish
That Porsche is incredible!
Awesome work!
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