Ferdinand Porsche Magazine’s Project 924 Turbo restoration was finally covered in fresh paint yesterday. I might be slightly biased, but the finished product really floats my boat.

You remember I bought the silver 924 Turbo on eBay last year from a Porsche barn up in Norfolk. I had the car delivered to best mate Robert Campbell at Racing Restorations in Pershore, Worcestershire, where Rob’s guys started picking through the mechanical work.

This included some rewiring, an alternator rebuild, steering rack overhaul and other works. I still have some bits to do before it can go to MOT, but the focus recently turned to bodywork when an unexpected slot opened up in the Racing Restorations paint schedule. While vintage sportscar specialist Rob is normally booked up six months in advance, delays on an Alfa Romeo restoration meant the 924 could claim a week and slip in.

Car guys talk lots about paint and how long it takes, but painting takes next to no time: just four hours on the 924. The preparation for paint took a full five days! Thanks to a rust-free chassis and (some) good panels, bare-metalling the 924 and getting it in primer took from Monday to Wednesday. Rob primered it on Wednesday night, and left it to bake for a day.

Flatting the primer took another day, so on Saturday this weekend, we drove it into the paint booth just vacated by a custom-painted McLaren MP12-4C, then spent a couple of hours degreasing the bodywork and wiping it off with tack rags before the painter did his thing.

The 924 Turbo now has four coats of the most expensive two-pack primer I could buy. The body has three coats of paint – Porsche code L97A – and three coats of lacquer. It looks pretty good and won’t need much polishing: a quick mop, pick out a few flecks of dust and that’s it.

I’ll start putting this back together next week – should be some fun getting it done. No doubt I’ll spend much more on new body trim bits than originally intended. Let me know if you’ve got a NOS rear bumper rubber lying around!