Congratulations to Glen Sheppard and Stuart Metcalfe for winning our April show n shine with our first ever winning joint entry. Despite promising himself he didn't need another time consuming potentially expensive hobby, Glen has recently found himself being gradually sucked into the world of detailing. With his three and a half year old Porsche 911 (996) C4S needing a good tidy up, Glen kitted himself up in our stockroom with a healthy dose of products and advice, and then set to for a mega three day detailing session.

On day one, Glen spent the day tackling the wheels. Whilst not in bad condition and actually looking pretty good from the front, they had never been taken off the car before, and as soon as they were, the poor state of the inner rims became apparent. The first step along the road to recovery involved a thorough scrub with Meguiars Super Degreaser cut 4:1, followed by a stiff brush with Autobrite Tar & Glue Remover. This combination worked pretty well, but with some baked on brake dust remaining, a final treatment with Bilberry Safe Wheel Cleaner cut 7:1 and a good claying with Griot's Garage Clay was required to get them spotless.

With the grime and tar fully banished, the rims were sealed with several coats of Poorboys Wheel Sealant. With the wheels still off the car, Glen then moved on to tackling the wheel arches and brake callipers, which were also suffering from heavy brake dust and tar spot contamination. A similar approach to that employed on the rims worked well enough, and Glen finished off the day by dressing the black plastic arch liners with an Armorall dressing before refitting the wheels.

On day two, Gland started out by tackling the luggage compartment and the interior. The luggage compartment needed little more than a good vacuum and dressing of the plastics with Poorboys Natural Look Dressing. The interior wasn't too bad either, and the final process followed went like this; carpets and matts vacuumed, leather surfaces cleansed with Autoglym Leather Cleaner and fed with Autoglym Leather Care Crème, plastics dressed with Poorboys Natural Look Dressing, glass cleaned - not easy on a 911 when you are 6'3" tall!

Glen then moved onto the exterior, with the aim of removing both loose and firmly bonded surface contaminants by the end of the day. An initial foaming session with Meguiars Hyper Wash and Super Snow Foam took care of almost all of the loose grime and durst, but hardly touched the bug splatter bonded to the front end or the tar spots covering the rear end. The subsequent hand wash with Meguiars Shampoo Plus eased the bug splatter situation, but the tar on the rear end necessitated the use of Autobrite Tar & Glue Remover again, along with another claying session using Griot's Garage Clay. After a quick rinse off, the car was now fully decontaminated and ready for polishing.

Day three dawned bright and warm, and Glen was joined by his friend Stuart Metcalfe, who just happens to be rather handy with a machine polisher. After the first of many cups of coffee, the number plates were removed and all of the exterior trims taped off to prevent damage and residue stains. The light defects in the paint were then gently machine out using a Porter cable 7424 fitted with Lake Country CCS Light Cut Spot Pads; the polish of choice for the correction work was Menzerna RD3.02. After correcting the main panels, Stuart moved on to the Defendall paint protection film covered areas, and corrected these areas as much as possible using a mix of Menzerna 106FA and Blackfire Gloss Enhancing Polish. The latter was then used to refine the finish over the whole car, using Lake Country CCS Polishing Spot Pads. The light clusters front and rear were also corrected as part of the polishing process.

With the bulk of the work done, the paint was then protected with a basecoat of Menzerna FMJ, and topped with 2 coats of Raceglaze '55', our new premium carnauba wax product. In his own words Glen reports, "I'm impressed… there are still a few abrasions visible on the Defendall film… and most probably one or two minor ones left on the bodywork… but in the sunlight we were struggling to find them! I'm staggered with how it's come out... the Meguiars G220 dual action machine polisher has just moved up my 'I need' list several places!". Our warm congratulations to both Glen and Stuart for a job very well done!