Body In White

This October I bought an incredibly clean 1-owner 19K mile 6GT3 with PCCBs & some carbon interior bits. The car had an RS wing, GT3 Euro bucket and a tequipment roll bar added at the dealer soon after arrival. It is set up for track duty, but only attended a handful of days and was driven cautiously (~130 range 1 over revs). This car spent its entire life very well cared for.




I found a look for 911s that really resonates with me, and I’ve been fortunate enough to order most of the cars in my collection from new to get the specific CXX options to achieve that look. I’m also a big fan of “OEM+” cars, so I thought I’d try something new and document my journey taking this car from 95% to 99% (and selfishly hope I can draw off the wisdom in this forum along the way while adding some content.)

First things, first… the car needs a deep cleaning, decon, compound, and polishing to prep it for PPF and ceramic coating. I started in November and leisurely worked through pieces each Saturday.

The tires had 2005 date codes on them, so I pulled the wheels and sent them to be refinished in gloss black with a silver stripe around the edge (like the XD9 wheel option). While the wheels were off, I pulled the wheel liners and cleaned years of road debris with a high-pressure steamer. It works great to force dirt out of small tight areas, like brake calipers.






Then I moved to the rear bumper, pulled the taillights and bumper to clean the years of dirt that hides back there. I also cleaned up the exhaust with “Ospho” a mild phosphoric acid + steel wool — good stuff, but wear gloves and don’t get it on your paint or any aluminum parts.





While the bumper was off, I compounded out all the road debris marks to clean it up.





All of my cars are white and have black mirrors. I can’t tell you the amount of fighting I’ve had to do with Porsche to get them to CXX paint the mirrors black from the factory. They always do it, but not without a whole big back and forth. Since I missed the boat on the 6GT3 when it was new, I gotta fix the side mirror situation. New mirror caps were back-ordered in October, so I got a pair from a local salvage yard and had them painted.




When removing my stock white mirror caps, I noticed they have a foam seal at the lower edge, presumably to keep water ingress at a minimum. The seal was missing from the mirror caps I just had painted, so I fashioned a new seal out of adhesive-backed foam and installed them.





Remove the stock white mirror caps and installed the newly painted black ones, then wet sanded them with 2000 grit, then 3000 grit sandpaper to remove the remaining bit of “orange peel” in the new paint.





Compounded the sanding marks out with a microfiber cutting pad & Jescar Compound, then polished with a Rupes white finishing pad & Sonax Perfect Finish. Done. Ready for PPF.




The wheels came back from refinishing with a new set of Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires. They came out great. I always buy new tires when refinishing wheels, because you know who is not going to **** up your new wheels when installing tires? That’s right, the people that just refinished them. Brand new black OEM lugs from Porsche always look like they’ve been in a rock tumbler, so I splurged on a set of titanium lugs in black from Acer Racing. They are beautiful and completely overkill. I ceramic coated the wheels, calipers, and lugs (why not?) in 2 coats of Carpro DLUX and 1 coat of Carpro Gliss.





Up next was a decontamination wash, cleaned all the rubber seals then 2 stage paint correction with Ropes yellow pad + Jescar Compound then final polish with Rupes white pad + Sonax Perfect Finish. The original paint was in great condition given its age and a few track days. The original owner told me he used temporary track wrap on the front bumper for the handful of track days he attended. There are a few tiny rock chips in the front that I’ll deal with just before PPF. I spent a good portion of time on the lower rocker panels as it curves underneath the car, removing old rubber and road debris — I used an old microfiber cutting pad + compound on a Rupes DA polisher to mow the crap down. It worked like a charm, then polished out the panel. Done. Now the car is waiting for the PPF guys to fit me in, in January.










Next up, removing the cage, 6-point harness, etc. and refreshing some of the interior…

rodneyr

Wow! Great looking car.

keynes

Very nice. Great car to begin with, now you're taking it to the next level. Keep us posted!

De Jeeper

If u want to sell the rs wing so u can fo back to stock, lmk. Im on the look out for a used one before i buy one from Getty in the spring.

spiller

Wow unbelievable. 130 range 1s? That’s unheard of. You wouldn’t think the back accents would work when you hear it but the finished product is outstanding!

Marv

You have done an absolutely amazing job with your new car!!!

Now, please do my car next.

ScottArizona

My new favorite thread! I love it when I see owners with means who don't mind getting their hands dirty! I derive immense amounts of satisfaction wrenching/detailing/cleaning/improving my cars. Its hard to explain, but I see you may be a kindred spirit in that regard! The car looks stellar. Easily my favorite white 6-3 I've seen. Everything just works together so well while not being over-the-top. I'd be interested to hear how you like the drive of the 996. My experience is well documented...I prefer them to the 997.1 3.6's and feel they hold their own very well in terms of excitement and fun even when compared to the 3.8 7.2's! They just feel so small and nimble and scoot around just enough when pushing it!

Body In White

Will do. There is a lot more in store!

I'm definitely keeping the RS wing. That plus the euro GT3 seats are 2 of the "OEM+" mods I would have done if the car didn't come that way.

I know, right? I was astonished when I hooked up my PIWIS to verify.

Mooty keeps threatening to drop his Orange 992 GT3 off for spa treatment while we both wait for the PPF guy in Jan. Thankfully I have no room!

Thanks for the kind words, we are in fact kindred spirits! I've really enjoyed your posts sorting out your GR car.

997.2 GT3 is still #1 for me. The power, ascetics, and rawness are all about perfect. It feels special every time I drive the car -- the only other car that did that for me was my 430 Scuderia.
991.2 GT3 is a video game. Fast as hell, but not that emotional.

I'm still forming my opinion on the 996 GT3, it's raw (already had a few "moments" that have engendered some healthy respect in the car from me), and Porsche was clearly lying about the power output. I'm looking forward to taking a few more drives with the new tires to see how close it will get to the 997.2 for me.

ScottArizona

Thanks for the comparison! Yup, I can’t see myself ever selling my scud for that reason!

The Duke

Beautiful car, made even better by the work you've done!

I'm looking forward to seeing how this develops.

brontosaurus

Oh man, this is the good content.

Welcome and thanks for taking the time to post this!

plpete84

Congrats and a beautiful example. If you haven't yet, Chris Harris had a great podcast with Andreas Preuninger talking about the entire GT car program and admits that those 996 GT3s had reported modest numbers to what the engines actually produced.

ScottArizona

One recommendation I just noticed. You need a cup front lip to balance the extra downforce of the rear rs wing. Should help stabilize things ALOT! They are NLA from porsche but there is a vendor currently working up the molds for a reproduction unit.

pfbz

You are definitely the kind of guy I like to buy a car from...
Seriously though, nice job, looks gorgeous.

Can you elaborate on what you used for this? It's the only tool/technique you used that I'm not familiar with. If you used it for brake calipers, i'm assuming something less aggressive than something like a big hotsy power washer?

Body In White

👍

Thanks for the recommendation -- I listened to it today. 'Funny to hear AP admit they sandbagged the power number, I guess that confirms my butt-dyno.

I actually got a brand new 996 cup spoiler all bubbled wrapped from the original owner in the sale, but it's painted body color -- which isn't going to work for me. Out of curiosity, where do you feel the difference? Over or under 70MPH?

That's exactly right... it's acts like a mini scalding hot pressure washer. The heat and pressure combined are effective enough to remove dirt, grease, tar, etc. without chemicals. A minimal amount of water is left over compared to a traditional high volume pressure washer that you'd use on the exterior of the car (most of the water evaporates away). It's also really effective for interiors to clean skin oils out of Alcantara arm rests or seat belts.

Here's one other use... I had some staining in a PCCB rotor hats on my 997 GT3 from god-knows-what-chemical. Nothing would get it out, not even mechanical abrasion. As a last ditch effort, the steamer worked.

Stained Aluminum Rotor Hat:


High Pressure Steamer:



After: