Porsche Every Day
The title is perhaps a little misleading, it should read a week in the life of a detailer.
A week of Porsche. Well, it’s actually more than a week, as I’ve done four in a row which started last week with a Taycan Turbo-S; but this week it was one Taycan, one Cayman, and one 911, all back-to-back. This would be a fairly typical week for me, and two of my final four treatments of the year are also Porsche’s, including a very special GT4. You can see how I’ve worked on nearing 250 of Stuttgart’s finest over the last decade.
Lets take a look at them..
981 Cayman following a Paint Correction and Labocosmetica SAM ceramic coating.
The Cayman was first up this week, and it has to be said, it was arguably one of the cleanest cars I’ve seen all year. Other than a little road dirt, the paintwork when clean was actually in good condition, so only a gentle correction was needed to enhance the gloss and clarity, ahead of protecting with the latest Labocosmetica ceramic coatings. We also refurbished the calipers, as they were unpainted, and continuous washing using wheel cleaners had caused them to look unsightly.
Next came a Taycan 4S. This car first appeared on my social media a few weeks back when I fully prepared the car for a complete Paint Protection Film (PPF) install.
Taycan 4S following a full car PPF install, awaiting collection at Porsche Centre Preston.
PPF for those unaware, is a clear urethane film, which glues to your paintwork to form a barrier to protect against stone chips, rocks salt, scratches, and other damage generally caused by things hitting your paint (with a few exceptions, of course). It’s extremely flexible, and its construction allows it to self-heal at room temperature, or if its a really heavy mark, then with the use of warm air or water. Clever stuff, and as it’s clear, it doesn’t alter your cars’ appearance - so you don’t even know it’s there unless you really look for it. This is the best way to totally protect your paintwork. With this particular install, we did it directly for the Porsche Centre Preston, and were therefore given full access to their £10m facility - extended the courtesy of our own private handover bay to work in, fully lit, air conditioned. Dreamy conditions for installing PPF in, and a privilege to be asked to carry out this install on behalf of the OPC itself.
Last up this week was a brand new Porsche 911, in a rather standout colour - Lava Orange. This was a particular favorite, as I primarily work on black or very dark colour cars (this is because darker colours tend to lend themselves better to what I do), so it made a refreshing change to see something a bit more out there.
Porsche 911 (992) in the workshop at Porsche Centre Preston, following my Ultimate New Car Detail.
This Lava Orange 911 (with the quite apt OR70 NGE numberplate - permission to leave showing) was subjected to my Ultimate New Car Detail. This one was my 2021 spec treatment, with the Labocosmetica SAM & HPC multi-layer ceramic coating system to give us the so-called candy gloss. New cars are always a joy to work on, but it can sometimes be incredibly frustrating to see the paintwork neglected or mistreated at dealership level - I’m pleased to report this car was showing very little paint damage; owed to the fact OPC Preston were expecting me to work on the car prior to delivery, so didn’t need to get involved with its prep. I did however need to sort a few factory defects, but this is all fairly standard stuff which I see on a daily basis. The main emphasis of this treatment is protection, but also making improvements to the factory finish - is it really possible to make a new car look ‘better than new’? Well, yes, simply put. All machine work was carried out by the all-new LC Power Tools ‘UDOS’, which was also put to good use with a couple of what I call “can you just..” jobs on behalf of the dealership while I was there - which is the least I can do when being afforded full access to their amazing facility.
That concludes a week of Porsche. As you can see, some serious machinery passes through my doors. The addition of PPF services is new for the second half of this year, and not yet live on my website. I continue to see this growing, and am looking to expand these services in the new year - including having a brand new custom built PPF/detailing workshop constructed in February next year, which will be fully operational from March onwards, having outgrown my original detailing/mechanical workshop. More space, better lighting, all-new equipment.
I hope this article gives you a bit of an insight into the various types of work that I carry out weekly - and remember to keep on the lookout for that special GT4 I mentioned, in a couple of weeks!