Bare metal respray (and other stuff)

Cannop · 2 Feb 2025

I thought some of you may find the video at the bottom of this post interesting. I booked my 2007 C2S in to have a small paint blister on the offside wheelarch addressed, and all the wheelarches road rash sorted. I'd had the arches repainted by a local company about 5 and a half years ago and whilst they did a great colour blending match and actual paintwork, they didn't do anything about any corrosion that was present, hence it has reappeared. A lot more corrosion was found in the rear arches than either I or PCC thought would be there, initially the arches looked fine from the outside with no issues apart from the one paint blister on the offside rear. I've owned the car for 7 years and love it to bits so the job has morphed into an engine out, glass out, bare metal respray along with cutting out the wheel arch rot, fabricating new sections and welding in. The engine is having it's manifold bolts removed and replaced with stainless studs and nuts, new tubular manifolds, new FMS and RMS, AOS, oil pressure sender, new clutch and a few other smaller jobs doing whilst it's out. The engine was subject to a full fat Hartech rebuild 43k miles ago and is sweet as a nut, it's just daft not to address the common issues whilst it's out. The underside of the car is being completely stripped (rear suspension too) and prepared for a coating of Novol Raptor. Oh, and a new genuine Porsche windscreen whilst I'm at it, ouch, it's the first time I've had to pay full price for one from Porsche as opposed to an Insurance claim!

This is the car as it arrived at PCC, it looked really nice and I didn't expect it would need as much work it does, but it's a keeper - I can't ever see me letting it go.

If you see rear arch paintwork blisters on your car get them checked out, a galvanised bodyshell isn't a guarantee of no corrosion!

Engine out

This was the 'good' arch (the one with with no paint blisters) after grinding back and cutting the lip off!

PCC are featuring it in their vlogs, part one was released yesterday, enjoy!

AllatSea · 2 Feb 2025

OP, can I ask where you live (roughly not accurate address!), where has the car lived? Are you in Scotland or on the coast?

Purely interested as to how its got quite so bad, surely most 997s would last slightly longer before needing this?

Also interested as to how much you paid for a new windscreen, the one on my 996 could desperately do with replacing.

Cannop · 2 Feb 2025

I live in Oxfordshire but the previous owner had it for six years and travelled from Yorkshire to London a couple of times a week in it. Whilst he was meticulous with mechanical maintenance I don’t think he washed under the wheel arches at all and the British winters took their toll! The windscreen and foam surround was £1,074.78 delivered from Porsche Mid Sussex.

Neven · 2 Feb 2025

Wow, thanks for posting the link to the video. Was an interesting watch. Kinda shocking to see how bad the corrosion was. Something to keep an eye out for with all our 997s as you say. Please post photos and a video of the finished product. Exciting…

Luddite · 2 Feb 2025

Excellent post Cannop, Thanks for showing the reality of what on the surface looked like a few rusty spots on the wheelarch of an otherwise smart 997, which by your description has been well maintained mechanically even to the extent of a Hartech rebuild. Thus your 997 has had a lot of care attention and cash spent on it over the years. I would not like to begin to count up what the total maintenance cost might have been over those years, let alone the final bill for this recent task, but then it has long been said that there is no such thing as a cheap Porsche...?

I suspect it is ever worthwhile running a tooth or nailbrush round the inner lip of the wheel arch and perhaps giving it a protective spray from time to time..?
On cars where the lip has been bent back to provide clearance for wider wheels or where wheel spacers may have been fitted, this can create a moisture/crud trap which can accelerate corrosion....? While this mod may be necessary, I suspect I would perhaps fill the space created by the folding of the metal with some sort of goo as a precaution..

I hope you have many more years of enjoying your lovely blue 997 Cannop....You certainly deserve to do so...

AllatSea · 2 Feb 2025

Cannop said:
I live in Oxfordshire but the previous owner had it for six years and travelled from Yorkshire to London a couple of times a week in it. Whilst he was meticulous with mechanical maintenance I don’t think he washed under the wheel arches at all and the British winters took their toll! The windscreen and foam surround was £1,074.78 delivered from Porsche Mid Sussex.

Thank you, yes the wheels arches do look rather the worse for wear!

Think I might need to stretch for a new windscreen then, I thought they'd be much more expensive, thank you.

DRZ911 · 2 Feb 2025

Fine metalwork refurbishment by PCC.

Cannop · 15 Mar 2025

The second video of my 997 refresh is now posted for anyone who is interested!

Neven · 15 Mar 2025

Really enjoyed watching that video @Cannop

The guys look like they’ve done a brilliant job to get your car to it current state. Looking forward to seeing the next, and I presume final stage.

Redline88 · 16 Mar 2025

Watched part 2 earlier and I just wanted to say that it looks absolutely stunning op! I imagine it cost a fair bit but as your forever car it’s worth it - especially considering the engine work, hartech etc.

I notice that they didn’t mention the brakes, with everything else being done it seems a bit of a shame not to do them as well unless they just needed a good clean?

SMR · 18 Mar 2025

Really enjoyed these videos @Cannop - while I'm sorry you needed to incur the expenditure, I'm pleased the car is really well sorted now.

You mention in your original post that the engine has previously had a Hartech rebuild. Is your car a Gen 2? And if so, do you know why it needed a rebuild?

martin t · 18 Mar 2025

I certainly enjoyed those videos, and am sending my condolences re the cost, which i presume were comfortably astronomic....

But the finished product is exemplary and I love the colour!!!

A keeper without a doubt.

Daniel · 18 Mar 2025

Great watch

Cannop · 23 Mar 2025

@SMR My car is a Gen 1, it has the bigger IMS bearing but succumbed to bore scoring just as the previous owner was thinking of selling it. He picked up the £13k bill for that and kept the car for a further 3 years. Unfortunately whilst it was spared no expense mechanically I don't think he once cleaned underneath, the results of which you can see in the videos!

Cannop · 23 Mar 2025

Redline88 said:
Watched part 2 earlier and I just wanted to say that it looks absolutely stunning op! I imagine it cost a fair bit but as your forever car it’s worth it - especially considering the engine work, hartech etc.

I notice that they didn’t mention the brakes, with everything else being done it seems a bit of a shame not to do them as well unless they just needed a good clean?

I'm having all the calipers rebuilt and repainted once the car is back home, removing calipers and sending them off is a job I can do myself! I replaced the brake disks and pads about 10k miles ago so they have plenty of wear left for the time being.