Photography by Tim Suddard
We’d like to keep our Porsche 997 looking good. We also have some Lamin-x paint protection film on order for the car.
[When life imitates art: Lamin-x for our Miata]
But first, we needed to prep the paint.
Tim McNair, of Grand Prix Concours, our long-time buddy who specializes in high-end concours preparation, helped us with the project. (He was already in Florida helping customers win at The Amelia, and we were able to borrow him for a day.)
The first thing Tim does is clean the car with a quick detailing product. In most cases, he doesn’t bucket wash a car as it just makes a mess. (If a car is covered in gritty mud, obviously, that might warrant dragging out the hose.)
From there, he uses a Griot’s Garage synthetic clay bar pad to remove any dirt and impurities from the paint.
Next, he lightly polished the paint with Griot’s paint correction system. He applies this polish with a black pad and sets his buffer to the 3.5-4 speed setting.
Normally he would then apply Griot’s Ceramic 3-in-1 wax, but since the protection film doesn’t stick well to waxed surfaces, he could only do part of the car.
Even so, he created an incredible look on the whole car while skipping the surfaces that would later receive the film–the nose, hood and mirrors.
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