Happy New Year

2024...

The first full year of Porsche ownership. It's a long way from summer 2020 when the idea first came up, but now that it's here, I'll be making the most of it.

As you know, it starts with getting things properly prepped and protected for the upcoming driving season. I'm portioning that work out bit by bit so as to last the winter months, trying to time it so that I finish up as the birds start singing and the warmth of the sun returns.

The first proper winter storm is imminent here in Ottawa, Canada, but I consider us lucky that we are already a week into January without having any real cold or appreciable snowfall yet. Just that little bit closer to spring already, and I think the next three months will fly by. Certainly faster than in the last few years, which were rather 'torturous' in comparison.

The list of little upgrades is being nibbled away at, the latest being a nice, shallow trunk organizer that I can velcro to the carpet to keep items from flying around this summer. Frunk and trunk lid protectors are on the list for the first Ogdensburg spring drives into the Adirondacks.

In the meantime, Andrew is refining his chip repair process on the Cayman so that we can then try applying some paint protection film to a nice clean surface. We definitely determined that some front-end protection is a good idea - mostly for the hood (which is metal), which should be relatively easy to cover, and then also for the rocker panels which are exposed to some road-rashing - something we both already have a little bit of happening. I think I'll leave that to the pros though, as it's a complicated bit of bodywork and I do want it to look flawless. As for the rest of the front end - fenders, bumper, and mirrors - I'm not going to do them. They're mostly plastic, or less exposed (fenders) and wrapping all that would be pretty darn expensive as, again, they are complex bits that a pro would have to do for me.

I do have some hope that the rather annoying windshield 'bruises' can at least be reduced in severity. After some 'YouTubing' I've seen enough actual chip/crack repairs to show me that the final step of those repair processes may work for me. So I bought a kit that has a clear resin that can be wiped into the gouge and potentially will fill it up nicely. I can test it out in the (worse) passenger-side chips and see how well it works - won't be perfect, but even a 20% improvement would be worth it. I'll have to wait until later though, as it needs to be a bit warmer to allow the acrylic to set properly.

For now, it's keep up the 'paint perfection' process, and poring over future road trip destinations as the snow falls outside .

Happy (indeed) New Year!

~ Luke