Ispeed

I am blessed with a BLACK car that shows every scratch and speck of dirt, so recently I spent some money at Griots garage.
Random orbital buffer, machine polish 1, 2, 3, best of show wax, and clay bar. My car was repainted in '05 and is single stage black. The paint is not that hard and scratches pretty easily, so just damage from washing and drying starts to add scratches. If only I had the original paint from the factory...

I watched the Griots dvd video that goes through using everything mentioned, and started with the clay bar. Griots says to use "speed shine" with the clay, but I found that a diluted car wash soap mix in a spray bottle worked much better. The clay stays sliding on the paint better with a soap mix.
Then I used the mild "machine polish 3" with the random orbital, easy to do and NO swirl marks.
I spent some time touching up the nose of the car that was literally sand blasted with small rock chips, and wet sanded smooth with 2000 grit wet/dry sand paper. Then I used machine polish 1, 2, and 3 to bring back to shiny.
Last was to use "best of show wax", and I tried applying with the buffer as recommended. It left a lot of wax on the paint and was a bear to buff off by hand, so I tried just using a microfiber cloth to apply the wax. MUCH easier and faster, and buffed off with some soft cotton cloths. DONE!!!
Anyways, the results are like a black mirror. Beautiful. Even the nose looks ridiculous.

I almost wish I had a bad finish on the car so that I could not have to deal with some of this cosmetic fussing. But with some patience, even an ex-racer like myself can calm down and do stuff like this.
sorry, no super close-ups. any flaws you might see are bugs from some driving.

RDS928S

Nice job!

What body of water is that in the background?

Rich

tomcat

Looks great Carl.

If want to another step, I would apply the 3M Hand Glaze between the polish and wax. You will notice the difference as soon as you wipe off the glaze. What you thought was dark black becomes even darker.

UKKid35

Stunning!

Ispeed

John: I have relied on 3M hand glaze up till now, and it is excellent for spot scratch removal. Just a lot of work to attempt the whole car by hand. The machine takes the hard work out of it and does large areas quickly. If you come up a day early for the Boston gtg, we could do your whole car.

That's the atlantic ocean at Horseneck beach (I think!). made for some cool pics anyways.

tomcat

Understood. That's why I only do the hood, fenders, and rear bumper.

What happened to the new wheels?

heinrich

Carl, I have owned black 928's and I know what a hell of a job it is to get them clean and swirl-free. Looks BAAAAD ***

Fogey1

tomcat wrote: "... What happened to the new wheels?"

Who cares? Those black ones look 1000X better. mmm ... Round!

ew928

What happened to the "new" custom wheels?

And when will you monochrome the Porsche badge on the nose?

I think some whitewall tires would look good.

wds928

Carl:

I too use the Griot Garage products, but also Zymol HD Cleanse after the Machine Polish. For wax, I use Zymol Carbon (for dark paint), applied by hand or with the applicator. I use a micro fiber cloth to remove the wax, before it dries, doing about 2 SF at a time.

I have two stage paint, so I'm not so sure the HD Cleanse does much, but it should work great on single stage paint. The randon orbital buffer works great. I really screwed up my paint a couple of years ago and switch to this system and no problems.

Ispeed

Hey Bill. I have wondered what you do, because you take good care of the black GTS.
I use more of the diluted car wash soap in a spray bottle to clean the machine polish as I go. It works very well.

The black wheels are back on because I went with stiffer 600/400 springs and have been adjusting ride height and toe in and don't want to have the new shoes on until it's all good. $900 for 18" Bridgestones vs. $400 for 17" Kumhos...

H: black is a difficult color to keep clean and shiny.

Anyways, I am psyched to be able to polish my own car, one less thing to need outside help for. If I can do it, anybody can. These cars are all DIY.

tomcat

I agree on the gratification of detailing your car. Here's a tip. I use Dawn when I detail, but get the soap that doesn't wash off wax for between full detailing. Then you can avoid going through the whole process every other week. Or use the detailing spray.

And if you really want to go crazy, a second coat of wax 24 hours after the first.

Panzer9

Got Wood?

Fogey1

928andRC51 wrote: "...The black wheels are back on because I went with stiffer 600/400 springs and have been adjusting ride height and toe in and don't want to have the new shoes on until it's all good. $900 for 18" Bridgestones vs. $400 for 17" Kumhos... "

Black Chrome powder paint the 18's and I might change my opinion. (Not that you need to care about pleasing anybody but yourself.)

BTW, I love the idea of a monochrome hood badge.