Ian Harris

Shoreham, UK @harrisclassics

Model 3.2 CARRERA COMMEMORATIVE EDITION Year 1988 Acquired DEC 2020 Model 911 SC Year 1980 Acquired JUNE 2020 Model 964 CARRERA Year 1993 Acquired JULY 2021 Model 991.2 GT3 Year 2019 Acquired MARCH 2021

I’ve really been enjoying the 964, making sure to get to lots of shows to meet friends that I haven’t been able to see for a while due to COVID, with plenty of Sunday morning drives. The list of jobs to do on the 964 keep growing, but if I’m honest that’s half the fun for me.

The first job on the list is to get the car fully paint corrected with a ceramic coating; being a jet black non-metallic car it shows every mark and imperfection. I always thought it was a waste of money spending a fairly large amount on paint correction, until I had my Carrera T done at Refined Detail. The car was like new, if not better, as they repair imperfections that are there from the factory. The added bonus of the ceramic coating is that it really seals the paintwork and makes cleaning it in the future a lot easier.

This time Refined Detail was booked up, so I used a local company called Touch of Gloss; Lucas the owner was very helpful in answering my questions and fitting me around other jobs, I dropped the car to him and was updated with images almost daily. A week later I collected the car and it looks great: all the swirls from bad cleaning over the years are gone and the jet black paintwork has a deep shine to it. Lucas has also cleaned the front tub and engine bay as well as the backs of the alloys, wheel arches and brakes and a good-quality ceramic coat applied. The car looks great and will make it easier for me to maintain.

The second major job I want to do also involves blasting – some of you might think I’m mad to get the car professionally detailed and then do some blasting! Well it’s not your average blasting, I’ve seen a new trend from America coming over to the UK called dry ice blasting, which is virtually mess free; it uses a very powerful air compressor and dry ice pellets to gently take away years of stained-on oil, tar and dirt from the roads. The process is used in the food and manufacturing industry to clean machinery without a lot of mess, as the dry ice evaporates into the air and is non abrasive so doesn’t damage paintwork if used correctly.

I found a company online called Blast Smith who was mobile so he could come to my work and do the car there. He had bought with him 100kg of dry ice, the blaster itself with various attachments and a very large air compressor that was towed behind his van.

Tom started on the underside and straight away the alloy trailing arms that were black started to come up in the factory silver again, which was very rewarding to see. The process took half a day and in that time Tom from Blast Smith had cleaned the arches, underside of the engine, gear box, all the suspension components and also the plastic trim.

The car’s underside now looks lovely and clean. Items that are rusty like exhausts and areas that are damaged clean up a little bit but ultimately will look the same.

Now the car is looking superb I will apply a thin layer of clear under-seal to protect the car and keep it looking new. It’s been a great year of getting the 964 to be 100 per cent how I like it and also making it my own car, that for me is half the fun of car ownership…