When I was about 12 years old I had a collection of hand-built 1/24th scale model cars which reflected the exact motorcars I wished I could own for real when I grew up. I had quite a few of them and I even built a 1/24th scale garage to put them in. Crazy, I know.
I had various marques represented, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Mercedes, Triumph and of course, Porsche. The Porsche's had their own segment of the garage complete with the Porsche Emblem emblazoned on the scale garage floor. There were two 928's, a standard one and a custom targa by a German tuner called "B+B", two 924's a standard and a turbo, and two 911's, a 1978 930 Turbo, and the Martini & Rossi 935 Lemans' racer which I painted black (like an idiot). I really liked the 930 Turbo which I painted a really subtle mocha brown. I worked really hard on that Porsche, trying to make it look perfect. I had know idea when I was putting that car together that later in life I would be doing the same thing to real 911's.
I have probably detailed and semi-restored a dozen or so 80's era, air-cooled 911's. I've driven several of them as well. I've done lots of repairs to the 80's Targa's which often suffered from cracking around the front seam. When Porsche designed these cars they intended them to be summer cars, driven in relatively mild weather. The removable targa top was not like the one used on the Ferrari 308 GTS. The Ferrari top was made of fiberglass, was rigid, and had a vinyl overlay. The Porsche version is not rigid (it's full of foam) and is covered in a German vinyl. If it splits (and it will) rain water will seep into the foam and stay there for a very long time. Before you can repair it, you will need to get it completely dry.
I've repaired half a dozen of these Targas' and the damage has always been along the front seam. Once dry they can be glued so that the area is sealed. You can even reproduce the dimple effect in the vinyl by using a mini-dremmel tool to shape the repair glue. Once you do this and are happy with the results, you can cover the entire area with a flat or semi-flat black vinyl dye and it will do a pretty good job of hiding the repair. Since these cars are now 30+ years old you might as well re-dye the whole top while you are at it.
There are other ways to repair these and you can even make a mold of the vinyl texture for a perfect looking repair however some of these methods result in a weaker repair area that can be breached again.
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| Porsche's Iconic 911 Targa |
Detailing a small Porsche 911 would seem at the outset to not be too difficult a task. They are tiny cars after all. In reality, though, it's one of the more difficult small cars to do. As an example, the 1980's 911's have as much carpet in them as a modern full-size sedan. The entire front bonnet housing is carpeted and must be taken out to be properly shampooed. Porsche did not use molded carpeting in the 911 so literally each piece of carpet can be pulled out (they are attached by velcro). This does make it easier to clean everything but you often find two full sets of mattes which need to be done.
The engine bay is difficult simply because it is so cramped. It's so cramped that we are fashioning special tools to be able to clean some of the most difficult to reach areas safely. A nagging problem with all the engine bays I have worked on is the factory heat shielding which was basically a sheet of heavy vinyl with a 1/2 inch thick foam backing. This is held in place with L-shaped brackets at the top perimeter of the engine lid. After 30 years of being heated up and cooled down, I've never seen an original one that wasn't disintegrating all over the engine. These were glued to the bonnet in addition to the brackets but even industrial automotive trim glue doesn't work on them any more. I am working on a solution to this problem that will look like factory original equipment when installed but will benefit from more modern materials and heat shielding capabilities. Stay tuned.
The 911 is one of the more difficult cars to buff primarily because of those iconic headlight rails that have now been around for some 50 years. Also, it's especially difficult to properly buff around those versions with the turbo whale tale. Take your time and use a three stage process after washing and claying. 3M makes a great pro-level 3-stage buffing kit (spendy).
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| 911 Headlight Rails can be hard to buff |
All of the 80's 911's have a small tail pipe on the driver's side of the car. These have a tendency to be a bit rusted after 30 years so we sand them down and respray them with Rustoleum flat black paint. About 5-6 light coats results in a tail pipe that looks factory new and it takes all of 15 minutes to do it.
The great thing about the 911 is that outside of a few areas, the materials used to put the car together were top notch. This includes the interior where the carpets, leather and plastics are among the best you will ever experience. Modern 911's use a vat dyed or pure-through dyed leather, just like that used by Rolls Royce and Bentley but 1980's era 911's used topically dyed leathers. The leather was still very high quality but the dye can crack over time and give an eggshell look. We're bringing together some great German products that can fill these cracks and repair small tears as well. We've also had some success using hand applied balms (the 911 leather will absorb balms readily) and SEM topical dyes.
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| Porsche's Awesome 993 |
Another point about the engines on th
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| 17" Sport Wheels & Brembo Brakes |
See all kinds of information about detailing exotic cars at http://www.blacklabelmmotoring.net
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