Personal 964- Running Report 10

C o m p l e t e 9 6 4

RUNNING REPORT 10

BACKGROUND:

I had been fully aware of the fact that my car had been repainted at least once before. This was based on the colour code within my service manual data, and a check with the local Porsche distributor that had first delivered the car, and subsequently repainted it.
The car had originally been delivered in a light shade of metallic purple/grey, known peculiarly as Diamond Blue Metallic (L697 as per my options sticker in my service manual). This colour had first appeared on the 1989 Carrera 3.2 Anniversary Edition, and is an exceptionally rare colour for the 964 in Singapore (I believe my particular car may have been the only 964 C4 to have originally been delivered to Singapore in this colour). Somewhere in 1994, the car had been repainted to the then in vogue Polar Silver (colour code 92E). Whilst this colour made its first appearance in 1990, it only became popular with the introduction of the 993 Twin Turbo.
Given the rarity of the original colour, and the fact that the quality of the previous repaint had left a lot to be desired (even though it had been done by the official distributor), the decision was made to return the car to its original colour.
Rather than skimp on the work, it was decided that a bare metal respray would be done (this would also give me a chance to finally confirm whether the car's sheet metal had seen better days), with all parts of the car being repainted (including the sheet metal under the fuel tank and in the engine bay.

WORK DONE:

The first step involved the dismantling of the car. Unfortunately, due to a lack of planning on my part, the dismantling was a feat in itself, requiring the car to be towed between the painters and the mechanic no fewer than six times. This in turn cost me a small fortune. Total dismantling required the removal of all windows, the engine, doors, sunroof, fuel tank, air conditioner system, oil tank, bonnet, hood and all seals.

Left: ancilliaries are being removed from the car

Centre: paint being heated and peeled off using a spatula.

Right: car stripped back to bare metal, note the "jacked up" rear- a result of the missing engine!

The removal of the external body paint involved the heating of the paint and the subsequent scraping of all the original paint using a spatula (no chemicals were used as these could leave residue within the crevices of the sheet metal that could in turn lead to unnecessary damage to the body shell).