GENTLE RESTORATIONS

At CCCR we are great believers in doing as little as possible to keep a classic looking beautiful and original. Typically, trims and fixings do not lend themselves to being removed and refitted (especially with the passing of time) and how many times have you seen an older car with the odd trim sitting awkwardly because it has been distorted when being removed or its fixing base is not as the manufacturer intended. When I first viewed this customer’s Porsche 911 Carrera two things became very apparent. Firstly, the car was in extremely original condition, even the paper build stickers from the factory were in good condition, secondly, the car was showing some signs of deterioration that needed attention before they could become a real problem. The engine bay, passenger compartment and luggage compartment of the 911 were in beautiful condition as was the paintwork in the door shuts where they had not been exposed to sunlight. Our approach therefore was only to disturb the minimum of panels and fixtures necessary to achieve quality of paint finish or corrosion removal. We resprayed outer surfaces only, in order to leave the screens and their trims undisturbed, and employed finely detailed masking techniques so that no paint edges were showing. On reassembly we replaced only those items that were absolutely necessary such as the sunroof seals and we manufactured a new exhaust heat shield due to the original having more gaps in it than the government’s energy policy. I would like to think that if one of the original assembly workers viewed this car today he would find it difficult to detect the respray and that the originality of the detail would immediately bring back a vivid memory of the mid 1980s in Stuttgart.