# Polished Bliss®: 1972 911 RSR...



## Clark @ PB (Mar 1, 2006)

Being a little bit of a Porsche fan I'd looked forward to this one for a weeks!

While we have the privilege of working on many outstanding vehicles, this car was a true stand out experience, as it's the first classic race sport (RS) 911 we've seen in our studio. These models, which always quicken the pulses of connoisseurs and collectors alike, are considered by many to be the greatest classic 911s of all time. If you're in the mood to find out more about this superb replica, and for a little historic storytelling, read on to find out more…

The original car in the 911 RS series, the 1972 Porsche 911 Carrera RS 2.7, was built so that Porsche could enter the 1973 European GT Championship (to be homologated for the Group 4 class, a minimum of 500 road legal cars had to be constructed). Production of the RS 2.7 started in early 1972 and its stunning performance made it an immediate hit. More than enough cars were constructed, securing Porsche's entry to the championship. The rules allowed for some modifications to be made to the racing cars compared to the road cars. The most obvious difference between the RS 2.7 and its racing counterpart, the RSR 2.8, was the slight displacement increase (which, combined with a revised compression ratio, yielded an additional 100 bhp!) but other modifications included wider rear wheels, more strongly flared rear wheel arches and uprated brakes (to ensure that the fastest 911 to date stopped as quickly as it went).

At its racing debut at the 1973 Daytona 24 Hours, the RSR 2.8 immediately proved to be the car to beat; the example entrusted to the American private team Gregg/Haywood for this endurance test won unchallenged ahead of the 7 litre Corvettes and 4.4 litre Ferraris. Further success in endurance racing was had at the Sebring 12 Hours and the Targa Florio in the same year. In the European GT Championship, which the RSR 2.8 was originally designed for, it was almost unbeatable, winning six of the nine rounds and the championship. The values of original examples have soared in recent years, making them totally out of reach for many (think upwards of £400k!). The car we detailed in this case is a superb replica, built with the original cars in mind, but at the same time being refined and developed to make it even better. The car is based on a 1972 Porsche 911 2.4T, and mimics a Carrera 2.8 RSR, but with some subtle differences.

Brought to the UK in the 1980s, this car was campaigned in the Porsche historic championships as a Carrera 2.7 RS replica for a number of years with some notable success. From the late 1990s onwards it has been used mainly as a road car, but in 2008 a major rebuild was executed by a known specialist and at this time it evolved into its current specification. The bodywork has been modified using 2.8 RSR specification lightweight panels all round. It is fitted with a full but non-intrusive roll cage and comfortable bucket seats and four point harnesses. The engine was rebuilt in 2008 (to 3.2 litre specification) with new competition parts, and is thought to produce just shy of 300 bhp. The brakes and suspension have also been extensively upgraded and make the ideal balance for fast road or light track use. As a final note, the exhaust comprises an RSR style pair of cans that create an unbeatable and most pleasing soundtrack! :driver:

So here it is ready for the wash stage:



















In all honesty the car wasn't that dirty, just a bit of light road grime and some cobwebs:


















































































As always I began with the wheels, applying Auto Finesse Iron Out via a 1.5 Litre Mesto Sprayer:










Left for a couple of minutes...










Then agitated with the various brushes and rinsed:




























The tyres had some stubborn gunk and old dressings inbetween the lettering but some Autosmart Tardis soon fixed that:

















The door shuts were then cleaned with AF Citrus Power before the car was foamed with Avalanche:










Rinsing off after 5 minutes:










Washing with AF Lather and a lambs wool mitt:










After rinsing a few tar spots were taken care of and the car was then brought inside to be clayed and then dried off with a PB luxury drying towel and the metro vac:



















As this car is 40 years old perfection is never going to be realistically possible so my aim was to improve the overall appearance of the paintwork with a light machine polish.

Paint readings were taken just to make sure there were no thin spots:



















My polish of choice was to be Swissvax Cleaner Fluid Professional Finish with the Flex VRG machine:










This is generally my "go to" product for jobs where paint correction isn't really the main aim as it's nice and quick to use plus you can go straight to wax. It also works extremely well on sticky paints :thumb:










More often than not though, it does correct surprisingly well with minimal filling:

















































Once I'd been round the whole car I applied Auto Finesse Desire to a couple of panels at a time before removing:



















The wheels were protected with Swissvax Autobahn:



















Onto the engine bay now which was to be done by hand as wet washing would be too risky:




























A Combination of detailing brushes, damp microfibres and Auto Finesse Finale were used to get it looking how it should:




























Auto Finesse Tripple was used to brighten up the paintwork:










I did the door shuts while I was at it:




























Engine done:




























The chrome work was done with Werkstat Prime Strong:












































Exterior glass also done with the Prime Strong:










Seals/rubber trim done with Swissvax Seal Feed:










Onto the interior, first step was to dust out all the vents and crevices etc:










Then a thorough hoover:










The leather was then cleaned:



















Followed by AF Total for the vinyl and plastics:



















Glass done with Crystal:



















Out with the Finale again for a final wipe down:










And here's the end result 























































































































































































































































































































































Thanks for looking 

Clark


----------



## Clark @ PB (Mar 1, 2006)

And it would appear Photobucket has just sapped all the quality and sharpness out of my pictures. Trying to figure out how to sort it!....:wall:


----------



## slineclean (Dec 23, 2011)

Lovely car and lovely bit of works done there chap :thumb:


----------



## ABC Detailing (Jun 29, 2010)

Looks awesome, brilliant job!


----------



## Refined Detail (Nov 27, 2006)

Very nice too! Lovely car. Really enjoyed working on an RS-L myself at the beginning of the year too.


----------



## gibbo555 (May 3, 2011)

That is very cool, great work on a classic porky :thumb:


----------



## StamGreek (Oct 11, 2012)

Lovely work Clark..as always


----------



## 3dom (Oct 30, 2012)

Clark @ PB said:


> ****Write up removed for the time being due to Photobucket quality issues - will be fixed shortly!****
> 
> Clark


I switched to flickR for exactly these reasons. Never looked back :thumb:


----------



## paranoid73 (Aug 5, 2009)

as always :thumb:


----------



## Derek Mc (Jun 27, 2006)

Totally awesome car, wonderful correction and attention to detail.


----------



## ImDesigner (Jan 19, 2012)

Oh wow. That is a fantastic car and lovely photos too.


----------



## gally (May 25, 2008)

Indeed, left PB ages ago to use Flickr, just as easy once you're used to copy and pasting the image code etc.

Right click on image, choose size, right click again and copy image location. Don't copy the BBcode or whatever it is, utterly useless if like most do, use Tapatalk.


----------



## Clark @ PB (Mar 1, 2006)

3dom said:


> I switched to flickR for exactly these reasons. Never looked back :thumb:


All sorted now! :thumb:


----------



## stonejedi (Feb 2, 2008)

That is some superb work.SJ.


----------



## JBirchy (Oct 9, 2010)

A stunning car! Those final pictures are truly special and something I imagine the owner will cherish!

Thanks so much for taking the time to share.

Jon


----------



## Miglior (Feb 12, 2006)

Absolutely mindblowingly awesome guys! Looks fantastic!


----------



## gally (May 25, 2008)

Stunning work. Really miss the PB write ups.


----------



## Jack (May 14, 2007)

Great work as always and what a lovely car to be working on


----------



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

Fantastic work love the last shot.


----------



## UBRWGN (Nov 25, 2007)

Amazing. :argie:


----------



## zippo (Mar 26, 2008)

Fess up Clark which you want to keep, this one RSR or yours. 
What I think makes it stand out is the wheel and tyre combo. Its nice to see a car with a small wheel and by todays standards at least huge side walled tyres from a very different era.
Oh yeah nice job, Clark. One for the scrap book I think . I don't think you need to be told that though especially by a gob5hite who knows next to nothing about Porches. I can imagine Magnus Walker tooling around in a piece of rolling artwork like this
Daz






I'm not sure if this will work Clark. If I couldn't have your detailed one. This would hit the spot. Not as eye grabbing as the one you've worked on but it sounds ,well through my speakers it makes the hairs on the back of my neck _stand to attention _as well as erm,... you get the idea
Daz


----------



## CraigQQ (Jan 20, 2011)

Great work as always Clark, and a fantastic write up, love the finished photos in the darkened environment.

However, I got shot of photobucket, flickr and all other hosting sites to be honest.. they all seem to condense the images a little. and most of them claim ownership of your photos in the small print of the T&C.
I have my website hosted on a privately owned server, where all my photos are uploaded to, so what I see in lightroom/photoshop or whatever I'm using to watermark and resize is exactly what you get when you put the photos anywhere.

For a company PB's size, it's probably worth it for you too.


----------



## B&B Autostyle (Apr 4, 2010)

Not much to say here without sounding repetitive. 

Stunning sympathetic work on a legendary car. First class.


----------



## Luis (Sep 10, 2012)

amazing work ... :thumb: :thumb:


----------



## deni2 (May 4, 2011)

Great work, looks simply amazing :thumb:.


----------



## leemckenna (Oct 11, 2011)

Stunning work and photos well done


----------



## FabrizioTDI (May 6, 2011)

Amazing JOB, amazing CAR, amazing SHOTS.

Chapeax


----------



## TelTel (Aug 21, 2010)

flawless Clarky........... nice photos too!!! thanks for sharing


----------



## Soul Hudson (Jul 5, 2011)

Lovely work thanks for posting. It was a joy to read.


----------



## Ronnie (Nov 15, 2006)

stunning Can't beat a bit of classic 911 awesomeness...


----------



## Wout_RS (Jun 13, 2012)

:argie: What a dreamcar

nice work on this classic!


----------



## Gleammachine (Sep 8, 2007)

Lucky sod 

Looks great mate.


----------



## GlynRS2 (Jan 21, 2006)

Stunning


----------



## muzzer (Feb 13, 2011)

Amazing work there Clark and i do love the old porsches, it's another reason why i would have a Singer porsche if i could afford one, all the classy lines with up to date performance.
:thumb:


----------



## tonyy (Jul 26, 2008)

Looks awesome:thumb:


----------



## Clark @ PB (Mar 1, 2006)

Thanks for all the feedback as always guys, much appreciated. We're extremely busy at the moment which has resulted in no time for forums or write ups but I'm trying to rectify that 



zippo said:


> Fess up Clark which you want to keep, this one RSR or yours?


As much as I loved the RSR (and I'd definitely have one in my dream garage) I'd still have my GT3 - as I slowly get used to it I find myself getting more and more addicted to it, it's 1000 times better than I thought it would be and I knew it would be good


----------



## Summit Detailing (Oct 9, 2006)

Nice little tidy up there chap

Love the look of the seats:thumb:


----------



## F1 CJE UK (Jul 25, 2010)

Love that car! 

Never thought of using tardis on tyres.


----------



## moono16v (Oct 12, 2010)

Great detail. That looks ace and the colour finishes it off!!


----------



## detailersdomain (Sep 13, 2006)

great job!


----------



## Naranto (Apr 5, 2007)

Fantastic results and those photos are worth building a wall just to hang them on, especially this one. :thumb:


----------



## Auto Detox (Dec 22, 2007)

Yes Clark we like that car a lot :thumb:


----------



## Spotless Detailing (Oct 17, 2011)

Love this great work 

Callum


----------



## gb270 (Aug 22, 2008)

Love it


----------



## Auto Finesse (Jan 10, 2007)

Wow, amazing work Clark. Feel very proud to have our products used on such vehicles


----------



## Wingnuts (Sep 3, 2012)

Looks amazing I'm not normally a fan of red cars but that looks fantastic


----------



## Perfection Detailing (Nov 3, 2007)

Top work Clark and some nice pics


----------



## Ongoing (Sep 3, 2012)

Top job :thumb:


----------



## SteveTDCi (Feb 8, 2006)

Yum yum


----------



## Ti22 (Mar 24, 2009)

Such lovely cars... nice work buddy.


----------



## -Jamie- (Nov 6, 2012)

Proper!


----------



## Fech (Jul 15, 2012)

Great job as always. Love the shine on that.:thumb:


----------



## Damien89 (May 13, 2007)

Excellent work! Really love this kind of work on old cars.


----------



## RefinedDetails (Dec 17, 2006)

This photograph is stunning










Awesome work!


----------



## Lloydy (Jan 13, 2009)

Amazing work! As always!

How did you do the pictures with black background??


----------



## Huw (Feb 16, 2007)

Motoring perfection. Looks stunning.


----------



## wojtek_pl (Apr 25, 2010)

Think that I saw that Porsche today, with more stickers on... Tyres were still looking good


----------



## MEH4N (Mar 15, 2012)

awesome motor and great work


----------



## the rich (Jul 20, 2011)

A fantastic job on an amazing car the finishing photos are quite something too cheers Rich


----------



## BIG_K (Jan 20, 2008)

Stunning car and great job.


----------



## Clark @ PB (Mar 1, 2006)

James B said:


> Wow, amazing work Clark. Feel very proud to have our products used on such vehicles


That reminds me, you still haven't sent me the cheque for this month :lol:

In all seriousness, your products speak for themselves mate 



Wingnuts said:


> Looks amazing I'm not normally a fan of red cars but that looks fantastic


That's because it's not red, it's orange :thumb:



Lloydy said:


> Amazing work! As always!
> 
> How did you do the pictures with black background??


Not sure really, it's way over my head so I'll get Rich to post in here shortly explaning how it was done 



wojtek_pl said:


> Think that I saw that Porsche today, with more stickers on... Tyres were still looking good


It was stickered up to go to Le Mans :thumb:










Once again, thanks for all the replies folks. Next write up will probably be on a Lamborghini Aventador that I'm currently working on, IF I ever get finished - the paintwork isn't exactly in the best of shapes...


----------



## James Bagguley (Jul 13, 2013)

Looks like you have your work cut out on the lambo! 
Lovely car that Porsche, amazing work too! Had a go at a friends late 70's (Carrera?) 3.0 litre, awkward how the vents on the tailgate issue directly into the engine bay.
Judicious use of a tarp saved the day anyway.
Look forward to your next write up, can only dream of achieving your standard of finish.

Ta!


----------



## Pidge (Mar 15, 2007)

Completely pornographic :doublesho


----------



## zippo (Mar 26, 2008)

I found this while trawling a Porsche section on flicker. A smart looking car The date states 08 .It looks like the Gent takes good care of his cars 
Daz


----------



## V3nom (Oct 31, 2012)

what a stunning motor! top work


----------



## w0rf (Jun 25, 2008)

Lovely car indeed, colors like that need to shine


----------

