Mike Musto's Porsche 911 Detail - 2002 996 C4S
AMMO is at the WCCS facility in California working on my good friend Mike Musto’s 2002 Porsche 911 C4S. My detailing buddies Kevin Brown (Buff Daddy) and Derek Bemiss (Detailwerks) are lending a hand as the 996 generation is known to have tricky paint. Mike is a big fan of the AMMO 964 so we made a deal that when he finally got a Porsche, I would give it the works. Well that day is finally here, and with Kevin’s truck filled to brim with detailing supplies, it’s time to deliver!
We started by inspecting the C4S in the WCCS detail bay and immediately noticed some burn through marks on the edges of many panels. After taking additional measurements of the paint’s thickness, we concluded there wasn’t much paint to work with for the correction phase. Since the paint correction couldn’t be as rigorous, we settled on Kevin’s suggestion of “framing” which is to detail the minutiae (trim, rubber, lights, doorjambs, wheel wells, etc) for a grander overall rejuvenation.
First step was to fill the paint and wheel buckets with Foam and Brute Wheel Soap respectively. With the wash buckets ready to go, we started on the wheels using Brute in tandem with Plum Wheel Cleaner to remove the accumulated grime. Meanwhile, Kevin diluted Brute with water in a spray bottle to work on the trim with his brushes. Kevin meticulously scrubbed the rubber with a toothbrush as this little detail would add to the final result of our framing method.
We continued the framing detail with a thorough clean of the doorjambs, wheel wells, lights, side mirrors, and exhausts. Plum came in handy again as Kevin scrubbed the exhaust pipes with a toothbrush to remove the grime. A bath with Foam Soap and additional power washing of the panel seams removed a ton of dirt. Afterwards Kevin returned to the rubber trim again with the toothbrush, using a water based compound to further remove any oxidized old rubber.
After the rubber restoration, I removed the old clear bra with hot water and it fought me the entire way. Now, because the PPF was so old…tons of glue residue remained on the paint so we sent Clinton from WCCS to pick up 3M glue remover. While I waited for the adhesive solvent to arrive, Kevin had started polishing a test panel which proved troublesome. After several tests including adding water as a supplemental wetting agent, the paint continued to defy the polishing abrasive.
While Kevin worked on a polishing solution, Clinton returned with the 3M solvent and Tom Palancia from Simoniz stopped by shortly after. We put him to work removing the old glue of the PPF while I cleaned compound residue off the front grill with a tooth brush. We regrouped and Kevin had determined the hot detailing lights were actually heating up the paint disrupting the effectiveness of the polish. Once he moved the lights away from the panels, they cooled down and the polish worked like a charm.
The black paint of the 911 really popped after the careful polish but we didn’t want to push our luck so we continued with the framing method. The team from WCCS helped me apply Reflex Pro to protect the paint and Gelee Pro for the wheels. After Gelee was buffed off, I added Mud Tire Gel to the black tires to contrast the silver rims. Kevin buffed the windows and exhaust pipes with Meguiar’s 210 to remove the years of oxidation. With only a few hours to go before I hopped on a plane back to the East Coast, we finished the 911 detail with astounding results.
The Porsche looked absolutely stunning and the success of the framing method completely outweighed the minor imperfections of the paint. All that was left was to reveal to Mike his beautiful 911 and have him rebadge the Porsche crest on the hood. Mike’s beaming smile lit up WCCS when he saw how far the 911 had come after the two day detail. The five hour journey back to San Francisco had suddenly become appealing and with the Porsche rebadged, he was ready for the drive…. Huge thanks to Derek, Kevin, and the WCCS team for their contributions to the detail. Stay tuned next week for more exciting AMMO Details!
