# Refined Detail - '73 Porsche 911 2.7 RS Carrera Lightweight



## Refined Detail (Nov 27, 2006)

:wave:

Firstly, a belated Happy New Year to everybody :thumb:

As I'm sure a few of you reading this will be aware from my recent postings on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, I have had the immense pleasure of working on this incredibly rare 1973 Porsche 911 2.7 Carrera RS Lightweight. This is not a replica, but a genuine 1 of 17 RHD examples (of 200 Lightweights ever made) with an extensive racing background / history!

So with me being rather quiet on here of late, it seems like the perfect car to post as my first write up of 2013! :thumb:

The car was delivered to me in an already very presentable condition - from a few yards back it already looked immaculate, but with the owner considering restoration work, I was commissioned to thoroughly detail the car to establish how much restoration work was really required. I was also to tread carefully around any 'battle scars' that hinted to it's racing past in order to keep the car's authenticity and 'life story'.

I will skip most of the initial wash & decontamination stages as it's something we're all too familiar with...

Obligatory snow foam shot - Auto Finesse Avalanche:



















Wheels and arches were to be addressed more thoroughly during the course of the detail but were provisionally cleaned none the less with Bilt Hamber Surfex. Engine bay was also deep cleaned with Surfex & G101.

Paintwork washed via 2 bucket method and lambswool mitt with Autosmart Concentrated Car Wash to begin degrading any existing LSP's. Tar spots removed with Autosmart Tardis and paintwork clayed with Bilt Hamber medium grade clay (very little removed)

Re-rinsed and bought inside before being towel dried and panel gaps / crevices blown dry with warm air. Time to get it under lighting and assess what I'm up against:

With the car having been extensively raced previously, it's seen more than it's fair share of paintwork, having also received a colour change too - some areas of paint were immediately going to need to be given extra care and weren't going to correct particularly well (especially given sporadic paint readings in some areas):




























With this in mind, I settled for the bulk of correction work to be carried out via DA polisher with a microfibre cutting pad and the Meguiars DA system compound. This kept temperatures down, yielding great results but with minimal clearcoat removal.



















The corrected paint became a much more vibrant white leaving the uncorrected paintwork looking somewhat grey in comparison:




























Brilliant levels of gloss starting to come through too even before refinement - the DA system leaving minimal hologramming:










Even the tight areas were machine polished with smaller pads:









































































Note the deeper RDS on the wing - numerous marks around the car like this that appear to be wet sanding / flatting marks inflicted during respray work - far too deep to even begin to touch as a couple of test areas demonstrated (numerous hits barely touching them)



















Porsche badge removed from bonnet to ensure I was able to polish the whole bonnet:










cleaned with IPA and later machined:










Grille removed from boot lid to allow me to get tighter to the recess around it without the risk of catching it with the polisher (and to allow me to clean the grille properly later):










The infamous duck tail machine polished:










This heated up very quickly and had some pretty hefty RDS so is far from perfect, but much better nonetheless:










A blend line along the leading edge of the bonnet from a previous blow in. This will definitely be seeing paint to rectify it as it was not easily correctable:










Some areas that didn't respond too well to the DA combo were machined with a spot pad via the rotary with Scholl S17+




























Another blend line this one I was able to correct a lot better:



















Staining from the exhaust was too tight to access with a machine polisher so was polished by hand with Scholl S17+



















Then everything refined with 3M Ultrafina via the rotary (larger panels again with a full size pad!)










De-masked:










Then given a CarPro Eraser wipedown to ensure all correction was genuine:




























Grille cleaned with Auto Finesse Citrus Power and refitted:










At about this point the snow hit. With a manic diary for the next couple of months I was glad of the winter tyres on the van which allowed me to still get to the unit and crack on!










Car jacked up with specific jack pad adapter:










and supported with axle stands at suitable jacking points as per a diagram I found on an owners forum:










Wheels before:










cleaned with Meguiars Wheel Brightener as Smart Wheels wasn't up to the job. Then decontaminated with CarPro Iron X:










Old wheel weight residues soaked with Autosmart Tardis to aid removal:










Polished by hand with Scholl S17+, then Auto Finesse Rejuvenate and sealed with Auto Finesse Mint Rims:



















Arches deep cleaned and at the owners request, removed as much underseal as possible - the yellowing underseal wasn't shifting with anything!










(note the colour change of the shock absorber!)














































Also fished this out from the bottom end of the engine whilst the wheels were off!










Wheels refitted. Tyres dressed with Auto Finesse Satin Tyre Gel:










Paintwork cleansed with Auto Finesse Tripple:










Sealed with 3 coats of Auto Finesse Tough Coat:










and given a Auto Finesse Finale wipedown:










Tailpipe polished with Auto Finesse Mercury:




























Windows deep cleaned and sealed with Werkstatt Prime Strong:










along with chrome trim / brightwork.

Polish residue removed from fixtures & fittings (largely caked on compound which was present on the car upon delivery and didn't shift with normal cleaning)














































Little hard to reach areas tidied up with Auto Finesse Rejuvenate on a cotton bud:




























Interior was pretty spotless to begin with but was thoroughly vacuumed, deep cleaned with Meguiars APC and wiped down with Auto Finesse Spritz:










Spare wheel well cleaned:










and spare wheel cleaned & sealed:



















I'm unsure of the exact amount of time spent on this one tbh as it was a labour of love in the end! But with a rough calculation I estimate around 40 hours was spent in total on this awesome machine. Cue plenty of after shots! 


















































































Engine bay finished with Autosmart Finish, Tango and a sample of Kleers metal polish I picked up at Autosport 2013



































































































































































and parked up next to my M3 showing just how small it is!










If you've made it this far, well done! :lol:

Thank you for reading.

Rich @ Refined Detail


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## john90 (Nov 22, 2012)

Legendry car and lovely job :thumbup:


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## Scrim-1- (Oct 8, 2008)

Thoroughly enjoyed this write up, stunning work on a stunning car.

Well done.


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## shaunwistow (May 13, 2011)

Awesome work & car, love it, well done.


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## Soul Hudson (Jul 5, 2011)

Fantastic write up my man. Was a pleasure to see the work in progress on instagram but was nice to see the finished shots. Hell of a lot of work gone in to the Porsche and the final shots show off your hard work.
Cracking shine from white and the car looks super clean especially those nooks and crannies you paid attention to. 

Sent from my KFTT using Tapatalk 2


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## Gleammachine (Sep 8, 2007)

One of my all time favourite Porsche's, looks great mate.


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## richtea78 (Apr 16, 2011)

Love it Richard and your attention to detail is at almost OCDish levels 

I especially liked the fact you took the care to look up the jacking points on a forum. 

Did you check the date on the crisp packet to work out how long it had been there?


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## matt_83 (Apr 28, 2009)

Stunning work Rich! :thumb:


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## MK1Campaign (Mar 27, 2007)

Awesome. Good to see the real article for once!
One quick query. I was under the impression Tripple and Tough coat aren't compatible due to Tripple having wax content?


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## TopSport+ (Jul 22, 2012)

awesome car:argie:


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## Peter B (Dec 22, 2009)

:argie:I'll **** its owner to get to it..

Nice car.. I'll have a 2.2E my self..


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## cotter (Aug 31, 2008)

Oops, sex wee :argie:


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## Wout_RS (Jun 13, 2012)

amazing work!

you've been a lucky guy to work on one of this beauties!


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## archiebald (Sep 7, 2009)

That is everyday perfection the colours on that car still look fresh and contemporary today. Such a useable classic and really good correction on the paint.


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## kk1966 (Aug 8, 2007)

Superb result......been looking forward to seeing the outcome of this since seeing it on Twitter...worth the wait ;-)


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## CleanDetail (Mar 7, 2009)

Looks well that buddy!

ATB
Nick


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## Porkypig (Jun 20, 2012)

Just beautiful...:argie:


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## Alex L (Oct 25, 2005)

Very, very nice 

Although I think you should've left the blue tape on as it really suited the car lol


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## FFV Jonathan (Jun 30, 2012)

Im immensely envious of you guys.
Being able to sink 40 hours into a car is a dream for me.
Excellent work too.


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## philmuskin (Oct 4, 2010)

Great sympathetic detail..... Just the right amount of correction without going over the top.


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## horned yo (Feb 10, 2009)

stunning motor and work


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## JBirchy (Oct 9, 2010)

Really enjoyed this write up Rich, great pictures and goes without saying that the work is incredible!

Jon


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## BUGLASS21 (Oct 11, 2012)

Very Nice


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## 888-Dave (Jul 30, 2010)

Utterly fantastic Rich, I can only imagine the pleasure of working on such a rare work of art. You must feel very privileged.
Level of workmanship is superb too mate :thumb:


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## nick.s (Dec 21, 2009)

Love it!


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## Refined Detail (Nov 27, 2006)

Thanks for all taking the time to read it and comment guys, much appreciated :thumb:



MK1Campaign said:


> Awesome. Good to see the real article for once!
> One quick query. I was under the impression Tripple and Tough coat aren't compatible due to Tripple having wax content?


It's a combination I've used for quite a while now without any issue (several of the cars I maintain regularly so get to see how long LSP's last for) - I'd imagine the solvents in Tough Coat help it to bond without any issues - I find it'll sit quite happily over most things tbh.



richtea78 said:


> Love it Richard and your attention to detail is at almost OCDish levels
> 
> I especially liked the fact you took the care to look up the jacking points on a forum.
> 
> Did you check the date on the crisp packet to work out how long it had been there?


Cheers Chris!  The underside of these classic Porsches have next to no suitable points so felt it a better idea to be safe rather than sorry!

Have to admit I completely forgot to look at the date on the crisp packet :lol:



kk1966 said:


> Superb result......been looking forward to seeing the outcome of this since seeing it on Twitter...worth the wait ;-)


Cheers chap 



Alex L said:


> Very, very nice
> 
> Although I think you should've left the blue tape on as it really suited the car lol


Ha, I did think that myself at one point!!



JBirchy said:


> Really enjoyed this write up Rich, great pictures and goes without saying that the work is incredible!
> 
> Jon


Thanks John, much appreciated :thumb:



888-Dave said:


> Utterly fantastic Rich, I can only imagine the pleasure of working on such a rare work of art. You must feel very privileged.
> Level of workmanship is superb too mate :thumb:


Cheers Dave, certainly been an enjoyable detail that's for sure! I do love getting stuck into a rare beast


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## Z4-35i (Jun 12, 2012)

Great results and a fantastic car. Definitely one for the dream garage list, especially in that colour combination.


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## dooka (Aug 1, 2006)

Grat work, lovely car and a fantastic finish ..


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## Auto Finesse (Jan 10, 2007)

Nice work and a great write up too, took me back to the old days of DW that


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## NornIron (May 12, 2007)

:argie:

Fantastic work...


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## Auto Detox (Dec 22, 2007)

Nice job on a classic motor with a good selection of photo's Rich :thumb:


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## GrantB5 (Nov 6, 2011)

lovely job!


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## cfherd (Jan 14, 2010)

The ultimate Porsche? Well, that's up for debate but cetainly looking its best now. :thumb:


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## gibbo555 (May 3, 2011)

Great job on a classic porsche, these just get better with age!


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## AaronGTi (Nov 2, 2010)

Stunning work and excellent write up!


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## Beau Technique (Jun 21, 2010)

Lovely Rich. A rare sight but then, I wouldnt expect anything else from the man that gain's the biggest array of random rarities on the road. Great level of detail and kudos for all teh hard work put in mate:thumb:


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## cossienuts (Oct 14, 2008)

what a beautiful car


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## twitchDC5 (Mar 4, 2012)

Great work, really amazing results!


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## Luis (Sep 10, 2012)

Stunning work , amazing car


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## Charge Chris (Dec 16, 2009)

Superb results! Absolutely lovely car!


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## Refined Detail (Nov 27, 2006)

Thanks for all the positive comments everybody, glad you all enjoyed the write up too


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## tonyy (Jul 26, 2008)

Amazing:thumb:


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## ernest (Nov 14, 2012)

Great job !! i like oldie cars, specialy porches !!

How many time "spend" to make the complete Detail, maybe 4 days ??


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## 20vKarlos (Aug 8, 2009)

well done Rich, i was one of many viewing the Instagram photos. they were all great and seeing them on my desktop is even better.

All the best mate and great work.


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## DJ X-Ray (Sep 2, 2012)

What a great car.Fantastic work


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## Jochen (May 21, 2007)

Looks amazing. Very nice job done! :thumb:


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## Refined Detail (Nov 27, 2006)

ernest said:


> Great job !! i like oldie cars, specialy porches !!
> 
> How many time "spend" to make the complete Detail, maybe 4 days ??


Thank you! I spent approximately 40 hours on the car - which would make it ~4 days yes. However in reality it was spread over around 7 days due to other bookings and indeed the weather.



20vKarlos said:


> well done Rich, i was one of many viewing the Instagram photos. they were all great and seeing them on my desktop is even better.
> 
> All the best mate and great work.


Cheers mate, glad you enjoyed it!  Thanks for following on instagram too! :thumb:


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## Dave KG (Feb 23, 2006)

Stunning car to work on, and a very nice looking job as well


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## Deeper Detail (Oct 31, 2010)

Looking spot on Rich and an enjoyable read mate, lovely vehicle. :thumb:

It's great to see pics of the overall process, lacking of late in the studio sometimes. (Not by you)


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## RefinedDetails (Dec 17, 2006)

That's really quite stunning... lovely motor! Good work.


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## 3dom (Oct 30, 2012)

Wonderful job on a wonderful car. Who fitted the wheel balance weights to the polished part of the rims though? 








Just surprised that it wasn't decided to put these on the inside where they'd be unseen.........


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## Refined Detail (Nov 27, 2006)

Thank you 

Re. wheel weights - don't forget it's been an all out rally / racing car so pretty sure it was function over form / aesthetics up until recently :lol:


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## D.Taylor R26 (Feb 5, 2012)

amazing restoration on a real classic


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## Refined Detail (Nov 27, 2006)

D.Taylor R26 said:


> amazing restoration on a real classic


Thank you :thumb:


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## ChrisEG6 (Dec 26, 2012)

Looks Amazing  Feel sorry for the owner having to drive it home now in that snow haha ! Great Work !


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## Refined Detail (Nov 27, 2006)

Chris_GlanzaV98 said:


> Looks Amazing  Feel sorry for the owner having to drive it home now in that snow haha ! Great Work !


He hasn't had to :lol: it's still tucked up in my unit nice and clean! :thumb:


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## Kiwiteam (Nov 17, 2012)

Looks amazing


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## unique detail (Jan 26, 2012)

Superb work Richard as normal.


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## Olly1 (Feb 21, 2010)

Gorgeous car. I would just love to see one up close, let alone have the chance to seat in one (while detailing of course)...

Top work!


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## carfix (May 28, 2010)

Lovely sympathetic job there. 
This takes me back to the Red/White one that Tony Lanfranchi dominated in during the mid seventies. I remember seeing it at Oulton Park with its sister car. Josh Sadler prepared the team. Noticed the Autofarm sticker. There wern't many made, It couldnt be the same car could it. ?


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## Jdudley90 (Mar 13, 2011)

Possibly my all time favourite Porsche. Stunning job!


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## Refined Detail (Nov 27, 2006)

Thanks for the kind words guys! :thumb:



carfix said:


> Lovely sympathetic job there.
> This takes me back to the Red/White one that Tony Lanfranchi dominated in during the mid seventies. I remember seeing it at Oulton Park with its sister car. Josh Sadler prepared the team. Noticed the Autofarm sticker. There wern't many made, It couldnt be the same car could it. ?


Thank you - and well spotted with the Autofarm sticker  It isn't the same one that I'm aware of, I'm not obliged to divulge exact details regarding it's racing history, but it's drivers were pretty famous and it was a very well known car back in its day.

With the roads finally almost dry (until tonight's rain!) the car was collected this evening by a delighted owner :driver: :thumb:


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## organisys (Jan 3, 2012)

WANT!!

Great Work!


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## id_doug (Apr 6, 2011)

Great write and results on a stunning car.

The only thing that spoils it which inst of your doing is them bloody stick on weights on the outside of the wheels. Just looks so bad!


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## Bowler (Jan 23, 2011)

Like that a lot. Great job good write up


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## Refined Detail (Nov 27, 2006)

Thanks all!



id_doug said:


> Great write and results on a stunning car.
> 
> The only thing that spoils it which inst of your doing is them bloody stick on weights on the outside of the wheels. Just looks so bad!


Cheers

You and several others who have commented on them will be glad to know that during a chat with the owner last night, I learnt that the car will be receiving a set of new wheels (still Fuchs) imminently, so the wheel weights will be gone :lol:


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