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2008 vw gti
With no major obligations and an empty schedule this weekend, I decided to spend Friday, Saturday, and Sunday detailing my 2008 VW GTI. The car’s paint (titled United Gray) is still, after a year and a half, in pretty prime condition with only some light swirls around the car. With my new G110, m105 and some m205, I decided to give it my best shot at polishing for the first time (aside from some practice on my old car—a 1986 Volvo 240).
Pictures of the car before the wash. There’s 2 construction sites on either side of my house so in the one week since its last wash its gotten quite dirty.
I don’t have a proper foam gun. But with some great ingenuity I came up with a highly complex solution.
After thoroughly rinsing the car, I sprayed/foamed the car with Dawn twice. Subsequent to the second application and rinse I was confident I had gotten all the wax off the car in preparation for polishing.
I then proceeded to wash the car with NXT soap and a 2-bucket-grit-guard method. I used a Meguiar’s microfiber wash mitt and was really surprised with how well I liked it compared to my usual lamb skin one. I highly recommend it! I also cleaned the rims with Meg's Hot Rims.
After claying the car (not too many contaminates), it was getting late. So I decided to polish only the hood and the B pillars that evening. The swirls in the hood were so fine that I couldn’t pick them up even with my new xenon flashlight. However, as you can see, the ones in the B pillar (which interesting was a single-step paint compared to the clear coat paint of the rest of the car) were highly apparent.
As someone learning to polish, I discovered quickly that VW pant (at least on my GTI) is very hard. With a 205 test spot, there was no improvement. I stepped it up to the 105-205 combination and while I saw some improvement on the hood, I couldn’t achieve the perfection I was looking for. Knowing that I still have plenty of learn, that I can improve my technique, and that many Meguair’s classes are coming up, I left the small hood swirls as they were. However, I was able to achieve better results on the rest of the car.
I followed up polishing by 2 coats of NXT 2.0 wax, about 15 hours (and a warm, warm night of curing) apart.This was in addition to applying Back-to-black to the plastic bits, cleaning the windows with Invisible glass, and using Meg’s tire foam.
And this is what I came up with—
Thanks for looking. Any and all comments and criticisms are welcome
-Adam
Pictures of the car before the wash. There’s 2 construction sites on either side of my house so in the one week since its last wash its gotten quite dirty.
I don’t have a proper foam gun. But with some great ingenuity I came up with a highly complex solution.
After thoroughly rinsing the car, I sprayed/foamed the car with Dawn twice. Subsequent to the second application and rinse I was confident I had gotten all the wax off the car in preparation for polishing.
I then proceeded to wash the car with NXT soap and a 2-bucket-grit-guard method. I used a Meguiar’s microfiber wash mitt and was really surprised with how well I liked it compared to my usual lamb skin one. I highly recommend it! I also cleaned the rims with Meg's Hot Rims.
After claying the car (not too many contaminates), it was getting late. So I decided to polish only the hood and the B pillars that evening. The swirls in the hood were so fine that I couldn’t pick them up even with my new xenon flashlight. However, as you can see, the ones in the B pillar (which interesting was a single-step paint compared to the clear coat paint of the rest of the car) were highly apparent.
As someone learning to polish, I discovered quickly that VW pant (at least on my GTI) is very hard. With a 205 test spot, there was no improvement. I stepped it up to the 105-205 combination and while I saw some improvement on the hood, I couldn’t achieve the perfection I was looking for. Knowing that I still have plenty of learn, that I can improve my technique, and that many Meguair’s classes are coming up, I left the small hood swirls as they were. However, I was able to achieve better results on the rest of the car.
I followed up polishing by 2 coats of NXT 2.0 wax, about 15 hours (and a warm, warm night of curing) apart.This was in addition to applying Back-to-black to the plastic bits, cleaning the windows with Invisible glass, and using Meg’s tire foam.
And this is what I came up with—
Thanks for looking. Any and all comments and criticisms are welcome
-Adam
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