Halcyon

Finally made it back home from spending a year in Los Angeles.

This should be an exciting summer as I will try to learn about her a bit more.

1. First of all though, I must give her a car wash she deserves.
After numerous car wash with just two bucket of water, a bottle of ONR waterless washing solution thing and two towel (don't have a parking spot near a hose ><) ,she basically acquired a new texture on the paint(swirl marks -_-). The 400 miles drive back up to norcal adds a new coat of fresh road stuff. Got a whole line of Meguiars products from autozone. ( I heard 3M stuff is better but I couldn't find it anywhere local..)








2. Align the exhaust tip somehow since the right one had been sticking out more than the left one and it bothers me. No idea what tools are needed or how I can do it.

3. Find out what is rattling ( metallic panel hitting something sound coming from left back corner near the muffler i think..)

4. Get permission to attempt a diy suspension upgrade from my parents ( afterall it is their car...) . Shouldn't be too hard if i follow exactly the diy instruction on pcar website and other diy writeups . with 94k miles on the clock on stock suspension, i think that explains the condition... I've been cruising around LA downtown potholes and experiencing bumpsteer everywhere ( or at least thats what i think bumpsteer means..) . I think it should be safer if I do swap in some fresh suspension so when I roll over a pothole ( when there is no way to avoid it..) , I won't get thrown off track and slam into the bus next to me or something. bilstein hd + mo30 ? or pss10 ...

5. get another set of HID as the $30 one from ebay didn't last. It died on the way drive up to norcal and I had to swap the stock bulbs back on.
there was a nice older carrera at the Chevron that I was swapping the bulbs at though. and while I'll be dealing with lights, I'll do the LED parking lights upgrade as well as the LED engine hood and trunk hood light.


6. get the aftermarket stereo fixed... probably just a tiny fuse popped somewhere . Not that I ever listen to it when it was working earlier. But just in case I need to turn on the radio for any road news or something. Anyone know of a good 993 stereo place in bay area?

7. make the a/c blow cold again like it did couple months ago. Don't think I can diy this as the coolant stuff is messy right? does anyone know of a 993 a/c place in bay area? ...

thats about it. should be a fun summer. How about you guys? Just wondering what you guys are doing this summer. Or if you are nearby, I'd love to drop by and watch and learn or help ( not that I know much...)

Halcyon

car be cleaned! swirl removed , glazed , and waxed. I find glazing is the hardest part to get it evenly on the car... but overall, the result looks better than that one time that I took to a professional detailer .
got to finish detailing the wheels and the interior today

Renaud Bizet

Nicely done she cleaned up nice

John D.

Oh - just shoot me......

That looks AWESOME!!!

Let me know when you want me to drop my 993 by, OK??? And....

If you were a real buddy - you'd clean up my 993s wheelwells, underside, suspension, repaint the calipers, wheels.. And - about the interior..?? You do have a shovel and a vacuum, right???

Pics like yours kill me...

Nicely done!

John

JPP

^^^ You should check out Fister-DiPietro Motorsports (sponsor here) .. not far for you .. give Darin a call and talk about suspension options and costs based on what you use the car for i.e. just street .. street with occasional auto cross or track use .. very knowledgeable folks. Can also help with the other bits as well.
http://www.fdmotorsports.net/

Halcyon

haha I wouldn't trust myself to operate on others' beloved 993. Mine accumulated so much swirl marks in LA, even though the swirl mark remover did reduce quite a bit of swirl marks. I would not dare to compare to some of the really experienced detailers out there that can get rid of all swirl marks completely.

for sure. If I remember right, I met Darin at Santana Row one time last summer when a whole bunch of us rennlister gathered there. Will definitely get in touch with him later on ...

ble2011

Before and after pics are incredible. Did you use a power buffer? All I see are hand polishing pads in the pic. If you did it by hand, that's unbelievable.

John D.

I don't care if "you trust you" - the point is - I trust you!!!!



So - shall we say next Thursday? I need a bit of time to drive cross country to deliver it

Again - nicely done..!!!!

John

Pags993

Very Nice job! I have the exact same colour combo and can only hope I can get mine to look the same LOL

FisterD

Wow, great job! The "after" looks amazing!

Mike J

That car cleaned up nice - but its hard to tell on the shots if the micro-scratches have been removed. It looks like the after shots were taken in the evening, and usually not flat to the paint - so the angles and lighting hide a lot of stuff. Unless he used a orbital or rotary polisher a lot of the haze/scratches will not come out, just be diminished a bit by the fillers in the detailing products.

Put the car undercover and use a bright light 90 degrees to the paint, and then look at the spot from all angles - the will uncover defects. Also, in the sunshine, see how the sun reflects off the paint - any micro-scratches will show up as haze.

How did the fender come out (the one with the scuff marks?). That would be interesting to see!

This raises an interesting point (which has been discussed before - what hasn't?) - waterless cleaning solutions. I would not let a bottle of that stuff near my car, nevermind use it. Maybe i am just old school, but a good flush with water is needed to get a lot of the surface crap off, and as a way to taking away any of the dirt that has been lifted off the surface.

Beautiful color as well!

Cheers

Mike

Halcyon

you sure we have the same colour combo? It isn't cashmere inside

anyway Thanks guys

Mike is right though, i doubt i actually got most of the micro scratches out since I did everything by hand. I was afraid a machine would do more damage than anything if not done the right way. The products do cover it pretty good though so it appears as if i did get most of the scratches out.

those photos were taken at like 8pm right after i finish waxing the car. I took some more photos just now in brighter lights. you can still see some swirls but its already much much better than before i waxed it. I wouldn't say it is hazy but I must admit I could have done a better job glazing it. The scuff mark is completely gone!





as for the ONR waterless cleaning solution. I would agree a good flush of water is better but when that is not an option without a hose around and pollen and dust and dirt cakes the car every week from mostly sitting in a parking structure surrounded by pine trees, got to use whatever waterless method i can to protect the paint. I doesn't look great under sunlight as it is really really hazy. it looks fine and buttery waxy smooth when wet or at night. I doubt it does any harm to the paint. My theory is that, whatever hazy coating it leaves, it'll at least be a barrier against dirt and pollen. So when I have time like now, I can take the time to remove that stuff and put on better wax and stuff to clean it all up.

Lucille89Hall

How did the fender come out (the one with the scuff marks?). That would be interesting to see!






This raises an interesting point (which has been discussed before - what hasn't?) - waterless cleaning solutions. I would not let a bottle of that stuff near my car, nevermind use it. Maybe i am just old school, but a good flush with water is needed to get a lot of the surface crap off, and as a way to taking away any of the dirt that has been lifted off the surface.