# Porsche 996 Turbo S: full Gloss-It treatment



## dsms (Feb 1, 2008)

*2005 atlas gray Turbo S 2 day full paint correction detail










The car is kept very clean, first thing I noticed was the lack of brake dust on the wheels. Even still a full cleaning had to be done to ensure everything was up to the standard.

Gloss it wheel gel was used at 5:1 :headbang: Yep even at 5:1 you still get solid cleaning ability. Me working the daytona brush on the inner barrels. This car had the porsche factory carbon ceramic brake kit as well.










Some brake dust settled in the calipers, after a little agitation with the SV brush and wheel gel it lifted very easily.










The inner barrels had some tar deposits which were lifted using AS tardis. The tires were cleaned with ARO at full strength to remove the old tire dressing which was fairly thick. After that didnt remove it all i followed up with tarminator and scrubbed for a minute or so and the tires finally came clean.

Tardis doin' work...










After the wheels the wash process began. The paint was pre reinsed at medium presure to remove as much surface dirt as possible, a lot of people like to quickly rinse and then foam but I like to rinse at pressure for a long time before foaming










Foamed with the camspray at CG maxi suds mixed with CG citrus wash clear



















After 5 minutes or so, one last rinse of the foam and then the 2 bucket wash. The car was wearing some sort of protection (spray wax) so again CG citrus wash clear was used to help remove it.










Before the 2 bucket wash all the crevices and emblems were agitated with APC 10:1. Trying to fully clean these areas after the car is dry is very difficult without marring the finish badly.



















The engine was lightly cleaned using DI water in a pressurized sprayer, not a pressure washer. P-car engines have a lot of exposed wiring, intake etc so I'd rather not drench everything with water.










Before the final rinse I cleaned the ragtop with, uh... Raggtop:thumb: and a SV brush










Before the rain came I pulled the car inside for claying. A very mild clay was needed for this one, Sonus fine green worked well using ONR 6:1 as lubrication










After 1/4 of the car










After claying I did 2 IPA wipedowns to prep the paint for polishing, just in case the citrus wash clear did not remove all the old wax protection. The I took my paint readings, a little inconsistent for a Porsche but nothing too bad

Just to show you the difference bewteen paint thickness and clearbra thickness...

Paint










Clearbra










All trim areas were then taped off










After a test spot I landed on a solid two step combo. The paint (as expected) was very sticky. First thing I grabbed for were my Gloss-It polishes and the Flex 3403... on the last 5 sticky paint porsches I have worked on the Gloss-it polishes have never failed me. I normally prefer to use the rotary but I was able to correct even the deeper defects on this one with the 3403 and a cutting pad, the rotary however was used for the finishing/jeweling stage in conjunction with EVP.

-Gloss-It Extreme cut w/ GI white fast cut foam pad (flex random)
-Gloss-It Evolution polish w/ DD blue finishing pad using Gloss-It EVP (makita/flex rotary)

The hood under halogens, not much fine swirling but a lot of RID clusters










The hood required 2 hits with the extreme cut to remove all the defects

Before










After



















Closer up










The entire front nose was protected with a clear bra. I started out with a very gentle polish and pad and moved up in aggressiveness as I found the deeper scratches were not being removed.

Here, using the makita, DD green med. polishing pad and evolution cut w/ a little extra GI EVP to keep the heat way down on the clear bra










Clear bra after polishing










Moving around the rest of the car, front fender before correction










After 2 hits with GI extreme cut










50/50










And after jeweling...



















The area by the convertible top had some more severe defects, I immediately broke out the Flex rotary and 3" GI BP... the flex 3401 would not have fit in this area at all



















rear wing/convertible area was also in bad shape, this required 2 hits with M105 (DA version on the rotary), followed by evolution cut, followed by evolution polish to fully correct

Before (taken with a point and shoot)










After










After










The final stage of jeweling helped refine out the last bit of fine holograms and bring up the gloss and calrity

Working the evo polish w/ the makita and GI EVP at 1500rpm before refining the finish at around 1000 for a few minutes










End result, captured with a proper camera this time










The taillights were corrected with Menzerna powerfinish ... before










After correction










Working the rear bumper with a GI cutting pad, 3" BP and extreme cut










After finishing










Worked my way around the rest of the car, back to the flex random machine for the larger flat areas










a 50/50, no more haziness










finished, under standing halogen and straight camera flash










Some jeweling shots...



















I finished all the correction work around 9:30pm on day 1, I wanted to leave the finishing stage for the next morning but had a feeling I would need the time to work on other areas.

I made the choice to stay in the garage for a little longer to at least get a START on the finishing polish stage... I ended up jeweling the entire car that night, I hate leaving a half polished car for the next morning. I finished up a little after 2am :wall:










Before I went to bed I snapped 2 shots after everything had been finished down a jewled, pics taken after IPA wipedown



















And one under my little light of truth, Fenix TK10










Start of day 2, even with the correction done there was still a lot of work ahead of me.

The ragtop store area needed a good vaccum, I started with the shop vac but couldnt get the hose all the way in where I needed without touching the paint in some way so I used the "household" solution...










dust buster to the rescue










All the jambs were cleaned with APC 20:1, you dont really need a strong degreaser for unexposed jambs such as this. More water with a little cleaning agent works just fine










The engine was already pre-cleaned during the wash process, now just some touch up work. The entire engine was cleaned here with P & S express interior cleaner, leaves a very matte finish on plastics (and in this case intake hoses). Best part is that its 100% biodegradable too!










After



















All exterior plastic and rubber trim was first cleaned with IPA and then dressed with Gloss It TRV using a foam painters brush. The reason I laid down tape under the rubber window trim is so that no dressing gets on the paint










The cargo area was cleaned using the P & S express interior cleaner, APC 20:1 on the jambs and Folex on the carpets. All personal belongings were organized (some items were bagged in a ziploc) and all clothing was folded










The tires were treated with 2 coats of Gloss It signature tire dressing. This is by far the best tire dressing I have used. I have found (and Clark will agree with me) that if you leave on a coat of the dressing to soak into the rubber for about 10minutes BEFORE massaging it in that it makes a big difference in how it looks and lasts. I was able to get a very deep satin look on the tires which is just what I like as high shine never did anything for me.










The wheels were hand polished with JW acrylic prime and sealed with Rejex sealant










The leather was cleaned with Gloss it stain leather cleaner and then conditioned with the satin leather polish. Both left a nice matte finish and softened up the leather quite a bit after application.

The dash, plastic pieces, center console and gauges were cleaned with the P & S express interior cleaner as well.

Carpets were cleaned using folex and vacuumed out with a shop vac until dry














































The door jambs were cleaned with APC 20:1 and then wiped down with Gloss Enhancer QD for a bot of gloss and protection

The Turbo plastic door sills were treated with the Gloss It TRV dressing too










With the interior and all trim all finished I moved onto applying the LSP

Fist was 1 coat of Gloss It signature sealant applied by DA with a 100ppi pad at speed 3, I moved the top back to get to this area again so I wouldnt scratch the paint at all with a power cord or my leaning on it. Not often can you get a panel to come to "you" when you cant get to "it" :lol:










The signature gloss was left to cure for 1 hour before buffing off

Next up was 2 coats of the Gloss It concourso gloss, this was done by hand

The sun was starting to go behind the clouds so i pulled the porsche out to get as many sun pics as possible, please note the glass has not be cleaned yet at this point.























































Whenever the sun is around after a correction detail I take as many pics as I can in the direct light, I consider the sun the final "light of truth" 




























For the finishing tocuhes such as glass dusting the rag top I pulled the Turbo back inside



























































































Last shots before it was taken back...



















Speedart exhaust after polishing



















Thanks for looking :thumb:*


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## Jesse74 (Jul 19, 2008)

Excellence is a virtue my man... nice work, David .


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## HC1001 (May 27, 2007)

Epic write up and superb detail............:thumb:


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## Sonic (Jun 28, 2007)

wow.. very sharp finish :thumb:

Can you give a bit more detail on "jewelling"?


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## badly_dubbed (Dec 11, 2008)

excellent!


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## Mr Face (Jan 22, 2009)

*Wicked Detail*

Hi Dave,

Fantastic write up, thank you for taking the time and effort involved with documenting such a detail, a great read :thumb: (almost a data sheet for newbies like us to follow )

Some absolutely sensation paint correction and a finish that any one would be proud to own or deliver. Glad you too like the DD pads :thumb: you have made my little investment feel all the better now I know someone else is using them 

p.s. finishing pictures inside are simply sensational. Awesome reflection shots 
as well.

Thanks again, additional time and effort much appreciated.

Mike S


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## chris'svr6 (May 17, 2006)

:thumb: Awesome job.....lots of great pics


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## WHIZZER (Oct 25, 2005)

Nice job


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## ads2k (Jul 12, 2006)

Fantastic finish :thumb:


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## clcollins (Jul 30, 2007)

Great work and great finish, the car looks fantastic :thumb:


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## R32-Simon (May 27, 2009)

Mate that looks fantastic. I love reading these write ups. As above cheers for taking the time to write it and do pics :thumb:


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## MadOnVaux! (Jun 2, 2008)

Outstanding work and write up, superb


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## grayfox (Apr 15, 2008)

Truthly amazing!! :doublesho

there's a lot of terms there I dont yet understand but one thing particular stood out to me.. what jewelling?


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## phrozen (Apr 7, 2009)

some serious hard work went into this!


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## dsms (Feb 1, 2008)

Sonic said:


> wow.. very sharp finish :thumb:
> 
> Can you give a bit more detail on "jewelling"?


Jeweling is taking finishing to another level, its a much longer process but the end results IMO are well worth it. When simply finishing with a finishing pad and polish most people use the standard Zenith method (900,1200,1500,1200,900rpm) and once the polish has done its job and fully broken down then you stop.

Jeweling extends the finishing process, when the polish is fully broken down I reduce the RPM to 900-1100prm depending on what machine im using as the Flex rotary has a minimum speed of 1100rpm and continue to polish for several minutes using very slow passes and almost no pressure. I let the pad do the work and keep the polisher moving as fluidly as possible. Jeweling can be a little hard to do with certain finishing polishes as they have a limited work time and may begin to dust, in this case I use a spritz of Gloss It EVP on my pad and then I can polish for virtually however long I need to.

Soemthing like 3M ultrafina or Megs 205 have the ability to be worked for a very very long time as well as the gloss it polishes because the GI polishes are water based and do not dust (still use EVP with them to get the full effect)

The only way to make something "glossier" is to make it essentially "flatter". The more leveled the paintwork is the glossier the finish will be. Sometimes even after extensive finishing the paint will not be 100% leveled, jeweling helps to further level the finish without removing excess clear coat...again little pressure, low speed and keeping the heat way down helps when polishing a fully broken down polish.

I used to find that when I pulled a fully corrected car in the sun I wouldnt see any swirls, but the sun shining on the paint didnt have the "burst" effect. I never could get that effect and wondered why... the reason I found was that the paint, although defect free was not as leveled and flat as it could be. So when I began jeweling I started to see the difference imediately in my sun pictures and how the sun looked on paint. When the paint is perfectly flat and level the sun has nowhere to go and thus gives the sun burst effect.

Heres what im talking about...

100% corrected paint that was not jeweled in direct sunlight...










Again on a different car the paint is about 100% but it was much further leveled and the sun gave the burst effect...












Mr Face said:


> Hi Dave,
> 
> Fantastic write up, thank you for taking the time and effort involved with documenting such a detail, a great read :thumb: (almost a data sheet for newbies like us to follow )
> 
> ...


Im glad you enjoyed it mike. Yea the DD pads are great too, my first real go with them on a correction detail and they work smooth, the center nicely on the BP as well.


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## Gloss-it (Nov 14, 2008)

David. Top notch work as always!:thumb:


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## GAZA62 (Jan 23, 2007)

Superb work and an interesting write up :thumb:


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## MK1Campaign (Mar 27, 2007)

Lack of brake dust is down to the car having ceramic brakes fitted.


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## PremierDetail (Aug 23, 2008)

Well done to local US guy, I am trying out the gloss it sealants next week. Happy to see the results.


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## mcspongy (May 26, 2008)

Awesome work.


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## Dream Machines (Mar 13, 2006)

awesome writeup and explanation of the jewelling step. 
Terrific finish sir. the sun burst effect is new to me. never heard of it before.

When using menzerna 85rd to finish, I do the zenith technique but only go up to 1250 as that gives me more time to jewel and going that high is really not needed as there are no marks to remove. the paint is flawless already. 
once broken down, I take the rotary speed back to 1000, 900, 700, 600 and spend two or more minutes at 600 rpm and even 300 rpm feathering the trigger on the makita 

I use glare zero though to make the working time longer and to bury the orange peel instead of always sanding it flat.


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## scooby73 (Mar 20, 2007)

fantastic work, write-up and photos too!:thumb:

Thanks for taking the time to do this post!


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## dsms (Feb 1, 2008)

Dream Machines said:


> awesome writeup and explanation of the jewelling step.
> Terrific finish sir. the sun burst effect is new to me. never heard of it before.
> 
> When using menzerna 85rd to finish, I do the zenith technique but only go up to 1250 as that gives me more time to jewel and going that high is really not needed as there are no marks to remove. the paint is flawless already.
> ...





scooby73 said:


> fantastic work, write-up and photos too!:thumb:
> 
> Thanks for taking the time to do this post!


Thank you both!


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## Jim W (Feb 3, 2007)

Awesome. Seriously awesomy.

A very thorough job there - enjoyed every second of the report. :thumb:


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## Leemack (Mar 6, 2009)

Absolutely superb work mate :thumb:

Alot of hard work and a great write up


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## amiller (Jan 1, 2009)

Top class write up and work young man. Top work!


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## dsms (Feb 1, 2008)

Jim W said:


> Awesome. Seriously awesomy.
> 
> A very thorough job there - enjoyed every second of the report. :thumb:


Thanks Jim! In the middle of working on another 996 turbo right now, this will be my third one in 3 weeks... lookin forward to getting my hands on the 997 soon:thumb:


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## dsms (Feb 1, 2008)

Sneak peak at the next Porsche detail....









:thumb:


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