Detailing your Boxster
 

Greetings! Give me you favorite products and tools for detailing your Boxster.

Meguiars Ultimate Liquid Wax, Ultima Waterless Wash Plus, Turtle ICE Spray Wax, Porter Cable 7424XP, ... to name a few off the top of my head.

I have a shop and we do repairs as well as elite detailing.

First watch every video you can find on YouTube.

If working by hand I recommend Zaino.

If you know what you are doing with a machine then Chemical Guys

I recommend a random orbital over a simple rotary buffer. I have a Cyclo.

For decent product from the local parts store Griots is good as well as Mothers.

If you have a perfect finish and want to keep it that way and money is no object then Swissvax Zuffenhausen is the bomb.

That is like asking:
How long is a piece of string?

My hands.

..............

New first-time Porsche owner. Just washed my new baby for the first time last weekend (2000 Boxster S, 61K). I thought the lines were beautiful when I bought the car but after washing it I now really appreciate the wonderful flowing curves.

Working on brakes, filters, and plugs this weekend and if the engineering design is as good as the bodywork I think I'll be in love all over again.

Keep that thought, they get crappy when you have to put the top in service mode, remove the front and top engine covers, put the car on jack stands and pull half of the frunk apart just to diagnose an AC problem. They are great cars but an acquired taste to service.

Zaino for polish and leather care. Griots dual orbital, Invisible Glass, lots of high quality microfiber cloth, California duster.

I just got this for buffing wax:

Simoniz Orbital Polisher, 10-in.
Product #39-9055-6

Having never used any powered tool on my black metallic paint, I was wondering how would one properly learn how to use it?

I guess I would also need to learn to strip paint sealant, clay, etc to complete the process

Back To Black on the tires and exterior trim. 303 Fabric Guard for the top, use a micro paint roller and plastic pan for application - found in home improvement stores in the paint section. Distilled water and a microfiber cloth for touch up cleaning of paint and glass. Optima No Rinse for heavy glass and paint cleaning short of washing the car. Novus 1-2-3 for the plastic window, wind screen, tails and headlights. Lexol cleaner and conditioner for dash, console and seats. Mothers aluminum and mag polish for exhaust tip. California duster for dust removal.

Start by getting your clear coat back to spec. Dont forget to wash and clay the car before you begin paint correction. Invest in a DA and a cutting kit and then just re wax periodically. Depending on your clear coats' condition you may want to step up to the extra cut disks (sold separately) and M105 ultra cut compound but start with the mildest cut first (IE the kit linked below) and then step up the strength only if needed.

PORTER-CABLE 7424XP 6-Inch Variable-Speed Polisher - Power Polishing Tools - Amazon.com

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CJ69F2W?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailp age_o05_s00

I also recommend the polish after cut and before wax...

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00H5DOIC6?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailp age_o04_s00

Optimum No Rinse is the bomb

Harbor Freight has a DA polisher for around $50 on sale. Its a knock-off of the PortaCable

The Meguiars DA Microfiber system is about as fool proof as you can get

A few products I've come across when detailing the Porsche which I've been very impressed and happy with:

Full size Speed Master or E-Z detail brush, for cleaning all the way to the backs of the rims (even the big 8-9" deep rim barrels found on the Porsche 18" rims), bent a bit can easily get behind the wheel spokes, and not a problem cleaning around the brake calipers either. Also useful for scrubbing between the dual exhaust tips, wheel wells, under side skirts, etc.

1" round pastry brush(with plastic ferrule, not metal) to clean in various crevices and effortlessly in the wheel lug nut holes.

Meguiars gold class car wash soap for lasting suds.

Optimum power clean, diluted 3:1, for cleaning Porsche leather and interior surfaces seats, steering wheels, and gearshift knobs like crazy.

303 aerospace protectant for restoring old dirty brittle rubber parts to like-new.

16"x16" Microfiber towels that snag on your fingers like crazy (do the same thing when they come across a dirt particle - grab it and wrap around it and protect it from rubbing on the paint).

Aquapel for a hydrophobic windshield coating that lasts for months (not days).

Whatever the car wash on 3rd & 3rd runs through their wands works well.

Not sure how but I forgot to mention the most useful item...a swiffer duster. One stays in the storage compartment for interior touch ups and another hangs in the garage. These are excellent for getting brake dust off your rims. Youll go through a lot of the refills, as they fill up quick using them for this task, but they work so good you wont care.

Exterior
Rupes 21 with Meg's microfiber pads and Rupes polish or optimum. Seal it with Opticoat 2.0.
Raggtop cleaner and sealer for the top.
Sonax wheel cleaner for the rims, big woolie brush
Adam's tire shine or optimum dressing for the tires
Adams under carriage spray for the wheel wells
Adams In & Out Spray for plastic trim

Interior
Leatherique once or twice a year - depends on how much i use the car
G3 leather sealant for the seats, dash and door
as long as it looks matte i am happy, i can't stand shiny leather.

We keep a swiffer in the Touareg just for the interior. Works great.

Unscented, alcohol-free baby wipes (I prefer Huggies) work well for interior cleaning. Nothing harsh in terms of chemicals, no residue, but sometimes just lint depending on how dry the wipes get or how rough the surface is.

YouTube is your friend for teaching about paint correction.

The hard part is learning not to correct your paint to death. Remember correction is a repair of the surface which removes part of the clear coat. If you have all the tools and cut your paint all the time you will be on your way to the body shop in a few months.

So practice on other people's car and learn the craft before you do your Porsche, get it right the first time!

Thanks I definitely agree ........Right now I want to stay far away from paint correction but know how to do everything else. Paint correction would be something I would leave to experts...

Paint correction is only best left to the "experts" if you are using a rotary. If you stick to a DA, a mild cutting compound and do the least possible cutting to get results then you will save yourself a fortune over what an expert will charge and get 95% of the results. If you stick to the recommendations I linked to earlier there is no chance of burning your paint or leaving swirls and the results are excellent. You tube search the name of the kit I linked and watch the instructional/demo videos before you write off paint correction as beyond your abilities.

Nice.... I will have a look at your links...much appreciated. If I am safe from burning through with my cheap Simonize machine then I might give it a go in problem areas that warrant attention....otherwise I like to keep as much film as possible

ZYMOL ROUGE WAX 8 oz

http://986forum.com/forums/uploads01...1440019481.jpg

$77 wax... Wow!

I see your cheap rouge wax and raise you with this... Swissvax USA: Zuffenhausen - Premium Wax for Porsche paint systems, 200 ml

All that extra money for 2% more carnauba?

I actually thought Swissvax was silly until I recently had a 993 in my shop that had not run since 2010. It was filthy with cat prints, dust, grime, spider webs and other detritus. I got it running and then backed it out of the shop and got ready to detail it. I rinsed it with a hose to knock the big dirt off and the finish was the most hydrophobic thing I have seen yet. A simple squirt with the hose and a dry and it was sparkling. I became a fan from my experience of seeing it for myself. I am going to buy some for my car.

Buy some for mine too!

I have an entire garage full of every brand of detailing product. I have tried little expensive brands and big brands sold over the counter. It's all largely baloney. Some companies try to sell you their 8 step product line, all over-priced, and people are amazed at the result because their only experience was using Meguiars or Simoniz with inadequate prep and not very thorough follow through. Save your money, expensive product A has virtually the same ingredients as over the counter product A. The difference is in concentration, but all that means is you have to use a little more of the cheap stuff, perhaps a second layer. But an expensive product is not going to make up for mediocre prep work. Two equally prep'd cars with one using expensive boutique brand where nothing is less than $20 and inexpensive over the counter product for 1/3 the price will be virtually impossible to distinguish by anyone other than a very well-trained eye. Then you have people who get into arguments about how product A is SUPERIOR!!! LOL.

That being said in trying dozens of products I have come across a few that either because of some in-house mixed ingredient or some other manufacturing have been pretty good choices.

Klasse All in One (red bottle). I really haven't come across a similar product. I would skip their sealant, there are much easier to use options that produce the same result like Werkstat

The other product is FinishKare #425 polymer anti-static (aka dust repelling) spray. This is the only product I buy by the gallon jug. Its the very last thing to go on the paint. Once you run your finger over it you'll see why it's an anti-static. No other product has that result.

The third is 1Z leather cleaner/moisturizer that works very well on Porsche leather. With a terry cloth towel this product has bite like no other and leaves it with a new looking matte finish. Problem is its often out of stock from Germany. In the meantime I use Griot's leather cleaner, very close.

And if you want to avoid swirls, stop using microfiber towels sold in big packs. Those are okay on first application but they're a royal PITA to get clean again in the wash. They harpoon dirt and debris and then are stubborn at letting it go, it's like velcro. All you need is a long nap towel that can simply guide the dirt off the paint without scratching. That means you don't need a prickly side to the microfiber towel at all on a well-maintained paint surface. These typical auto store towels sold in big packs are great for interiors though. Instead of using those on paint I use the long nap towels from Griot's, look out for their email coupon sales and sometimes Advanced Auto online will run a big sale too on these. I'm sure there are others that are very similar like from ChemicalGuys, I just haven't tried them.

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Shop Nextzett now or browse the rest of our car care products section!