Black 1987 911 correction & coating - Pinnacle Auto Detail - CT

[PinnacleAutoCT]

This 1987 911 was bought as a daily driver and was in need of some serious TLC. The car was fully repainted in 1994 with bc/cc, and appeared to have been wetsanded and polished at some point based on the very minimal orange peel. Though the car had a decent shine to begin with, the paint showed moderate-heavy marring and deeper RIDS under intensive lighting. The paint was also very rough in a way that indicated it had probably been parked near someone's paint project and accumulated some overspray. The goal here was to remove 80%+ of the defects to amp up the shine and depth, then apply a coating to make maintenance much easier. I unfortunately didn't get any full-car pics in the beginning due to my camera dying, so the before pics are mainly close-ups of the paint under LED lighting.

Before:

This is the driver's side fender. Here you can really tell that the paint hadn't been polished or properly cared for in quite some time:

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/614/33120674652_c37097febd_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/SsL7EG)
Further down on this same fender you can see some vertical RIDS:

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/691/32433411244_a83a598e0c_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/Rq2HcA)

The marring continued on the hood and other panels:

https://c1.staticflickr.com/4/3768/32893534640_07a17abf4e_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/S7FXRA)

https://c1.staticflickr.com/4/3768/32893534640_07a17abf4e_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/S7FXRA)

https://c1.staticflickr.com/4/3913/33148542671_291a961750_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/SvdWRM)

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/563/32893510960_24f7809eec_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/S7FQPj)

https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2854/32893506430_851a5cfae3_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/S7FPtd)

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/693/33148523451_eb33d799a0_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/SvdR9p)

The top panel of the front bumper showed a decent amount of deeper defects:

https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2942/32893495790_d421f18da9_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/S7FLiL)

https://c1.staticflickr.com/4/3714/32893491280_060bd64c10_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/S7FJY1)

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/668/33148501431_31cc46c8ec_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/SvdJAK)

At first I was concerned that our initial plan of a one-step correction wouldn’t work due to the severity of the defects. However, after testing some polish/pad combos I realized that the paint was only moderately hard and responded well to a mixture of D300 and HD Polish on Lake Country black finishing pads (w/the Rupes 21 MKII). The result of that process was this 50/50:

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/757/32461703313_c4ec54f1ec_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/RswHrT)

At least 80% of the defects were removed with this combo, but in some areas there was some remaining micromarring, so a quick refining pass was done with CarPro Essence on LC black pads.


After:

https://c1.staticflickr.com/4/3786/33120681032_d58575a076_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/SsL9yG)


https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/682/33235201466_db91d70c12_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/SCT6uW)

https://c1.staticflickr.com/4/3748/32461685053_25a3822443_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/RswC24)

Here you can see that the paint actually had a small amount of metallic flake that wasn't visible in its early swirled-up condition:

https://c1.staticflickr.com/4/3727/32461675733_417705c367_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/Rswzfn)

https://c1.staticflickr.com/4/3938/33148461991_7dd19e9502_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/SvdwSK)

https://c1.staticflickr.com/4/3937/33148451931_94ec21ca68_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/SvdtTi)

https://c1.staticflickr.com/4/3874/32433280654_74334af4ba_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/Rq23o3)
The hood corrected well but was still peppered with tiny pockmarks from road debris:

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/705/33148443271_893b4a1b4a_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/SvdriZ)

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/605/33148434641_1c957c27b5_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/SvdoKc)

https://c1.staticflickr.com/4/3791/32893431950_562dba6ac5_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/S7Frk5)

https://c1.staticflickr.com/4/3783/33148409551_7193166fda_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/SvdghB)

https://c1.staticflickr.com/4/3908/33148393071_cd6b2d53d0_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/Svdbot)

https://c1.staticflickr.com/4/3929/33276423055_8c5c240ac3_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/SGwneZ)

https://c1.staticflickr.com/4/3750/33276411395_0878eecec8_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/SGwiLX)

https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/702/33148379621_765241bbcf_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/Svd7oz)

In this shot you can see what a nice, un-distorted reflection this paint had once polished correctly. There really was almost no orange peel to be seen:

https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2817/32893373940_efe77473ee_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/S7F95U)

https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2948/32893390420_2bf440b035_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/S7FdZ3)

https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2825/33148365711_01307868bd_b.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/Svd3fK)

As you can see, the end result easily met our target of 80% correction, and adding 22ple to the corrected paint resulted in some great gloss. Thanks for looking, comments and questions are welcome!

[Sizzle Chest]

Very nice! Great work, write up, pics and everything! The owner will be blown away at the results!

[ronkh57]

Beautiful work........ Just in time for the blizzard........

(sorry)

[lane5515]

Nice job! I bet that was a fun car to work on. Thanks for sharing!

[Sicoupe]

Beautiful job my friend.

[JKDesign]

Beautiful work and car!

[DARK HORSE]

Very nice work, I'm sure the owner will be thrilled! I'm kind of surprised you got that much correction with a black pad. Not surprised the mixture of D300 and HD Polish worked well. I often use D300 with few drops of m105, works very well. Usually cuts great, without dusting, and usually finishes very well.
Once again great job!

[Desertnate]

That car looks beautiful now. Great work!

It was a 911 EXACTLY like that one, Magnum PI's 308, The Lambo Countach and a couple BMW's of the same era that ignited my passion for cars. Of all of them, a black 911 Turbo of that vintage will always be my holy grail.

[oneheadlite]

Awesome work! Light years ahead of where it was, and as others mentioned I'm sure the owner will be super happy. I love when you can get that huge turnaround from hammered grey to proper black. Even if the deep defects not worth chasing are still there, the pop and curb appeal you get make such a difference!

[WRAPT C5Z06]

Moderately hard? I'd say it was on the softer side if you got those results with a finishing pad.

Looks great!