Livingthe Legend
Our contributing enthusiasts from around the world share their real-life experiences with their Porsche 911s
With the primer having hardened for a month, the colour coat beckoned. I’d had a few sprays of Platinum Metallic done to the sunroof panel and new front wings, one shade of which was based on a spectrographic analysis of the original paint. Science eventually had to bow before the human eye as the computer mix of Porsche Platinum came out too dark and lifeless, but one choice out of a bewildering selection of Mipa paint chip samples screamed out as ‘the One’.
Steffi the SC’S birthdate on her C.O.A. is 15 January 1982, so it was quite the fitting coincidence that her colour coats were applied on 15 January 2018. What a 36th birthday present! Once more, Tyrone Fuller, proprietor of Riviera Autobody, was his usual accommodating self in letting me into the spray booth to record the event. Kudos to him – I didn’t put him off, and it was a pleasure to watch the colour go on.
Being a former graphic designer and airbrush illustrator, it intrigued me to watch the Platinum Metallic paint being mixed up for the gun, the main difference being the scale of things. You might think platinum is a simple mix of silver and gold, but no; like any tasty recipe it’s the carefully portioned extra little herbs and spices that lift the dish. Porsche’s Platinum Metallic is a six-way mix: silver is the largest by volume, then a splash of gold, two separate shades of black, a little dark ochre and finally, a spill of retina-busting bright orange… all to 1/10th percentage point accuracy.
In all, five coats of Mipa water-based paint were applied to the body shell, the first being just a light dusting of colour, then three heavier layers, all sprayed at 2 bar pressure. The final layer is the ‘drop coat’, so-called as the gun pressure is halved to 1 bar which enables the maximum amount of paint to contact the surfaces and flow. It’s a strange process to observe as the paint lays on the surface in different densities looking like soft tiger stripes, but these disappear in a few seconds as the paint shifts and settles. This is topped off with three layers of Lesonal HS Premium clear lacquer. The first is a ‘semi-wet’ 3/4 coat, followed by two heavy applications which, when dry, receive a good polish. The smaller panels followed the same process over the next few weeks.
Meanwhile, Classic FX’S Garry Hall had received the headliner material and turned my job around pronto. I collected it from him and took it straight to Riviera where the multi-talented Jason, their ace metalworker, expertly fitted the headliner. All the glass is in and the Southboundsupplied carpet set is beginning to dress the interior as I write this up. I’m bursting with excitement! More next month!