What RWB actually is
RWB — Rauh-Welt Begriff — is the work of one man: Akira Nakai-san. Out of a small workshop in Japan he turned aggressively widened, hand-built Porsches into a global phenomenon. Every RWB is built on-site, by Nakai-san himself, with the body kit cut, fitted and riveted to the individual car. No two are identical, and each one is given a name. This one is Kinshu, and it's the first RWB 997 in Canberra.
Love it or not, watching an RWB come together in person really is a form of art. Seeing the panels offered up, trimmed and committed to permanently is equal parts nerve-wracking and mesmerising.
Why wet sanding after a fresh repaint matters
Kinshu was repainted by the team at J Racing before it reached its final form, and a fresh repaint is never the finish line. New paint almost always carries some orange peel — that subtle, uneven texture in the clear coat — along with the occasional piece of dust or minor imperfection. The boys put in the hours wet sanding, cutting and polishing to flatten that texture and bring the surface to a true, glass-flat finish.
This step is critical and it has to happen before any protection goes on. Once you apply PPF or ceramic, you lock the paint in exactly as it is. Skip the refinement and you've permanently sealed in the texture and defects. Do it properly and the gloss you create is the gloss you keep.
How PPF and ceramic work together
With the paint perfected, we built the protection up in layers:
- PPF on the front end and other high-impact areas, applied in house
- Ceramic coating over the PPF for added slickness and easier cleaning
- Ceramic across the rest of the car — paint, glass, wheels and interior
PPF is the physical shield, taking stone chips and road debris on the panels most exposed to them. Ceramic coating is the chemical shield, adding hydrophobics, UV resistance and gloss — and it goes over the film as well as the bare panels, so the entire car cleans and behaves consistently. Coating the wheels and glass means brake dust releases more easily and wet-weather visibility improves too.
The significance of being Canberra's first
Being trusted with the city's first RWB 997, from raw repaint refinement through to final protection, isn't something we take lightly. It was a genuine privilege to be part of Kinshu's journey, and it definitely won't be the last time it's in the shop.
Big thanks to @101perform, @jracingmotorsports and @rwb_sfm for having us involved. Builds like this only happen when good people work together.