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Wednesday saw a trip down to Glasgow for me for a detail on this Audi RS4...
This is the first full detail (and it wont be the last
) carried out as a team with Gordon (caledonia), an excellent day of detailing with a good friend who I regard as a skilled detailer 
The car itself in the befores was looking rather grey and dull rather than deep and black, and after the wash you could see why in the morning sunlight,
Dull and grey...
The car had been resprayed in places and had been in the bodyshop where the full car appeared to have been machine polished.... so we had our work cut out to deal with these marks, as the rest of this writeup will show.
Into the garage following the wash and clay procedure and using the Sun Gun we can begin to see the extent of the damage. Starting on the bonnet, under the gun the finish actually does not look to bad for swirls and holograms...
However, using the strip light we can see evidence of either heavy wool compounding or sanding - note the pigtails under the light...
You can also see an egg-shell effect to the paint. Removal of this, and the deep scratches would require compounding, and the compound and pad combo of choice was 3M Fast Cut Plus on a Meguiars W7006 cutting pad, applied as follows:
Two hits were sufficient for the removal of marks and on the outset looked to have dealt with the eggshell effect - but as the paint cooled after polishing, this effect returned. Two further hits were required to deal with this effect and restore the gloss and the paint was assessed when fully cold before moving on to the next polishing stage. The results following the compounding:
Menzerna PO85RD3.02 Intensive Polish was then used to remove any light hologramming and deaden the severe sanding pigtails which couldn't be fully removed with removing too much paint, and enhance the overall gloss of the finish:
Meguiars #205 Ultra Finishing Polish was then used to refine the finish and give the best possible gloss and clarity, applied using a Detailers Domain Blue Finishing pad as follows:
The end results...
Much better
Now, onto the wing which was baring deep looking marks in natural lighting...
And with the Brinkmann
Alas, one "small" issue with correction here - the paint thicknesses on this wing were very low:
Heavy compounding with Fast Cut was out of the question here. It would turn out under close inspection that this panel had not been painted, but had been sanded by the bodyshop - the sanding pigtails could be seen under the strip lighting. This would explain the suspiciously thin paint, and serves as a great reminder as to the importance of the PTG when detailing!!
So, softly softly approach was used, starting with Meguiars #205 as above which delivered the following...
Impressive for a finishing polish, I'm sure you'll agree ... But the pigtailing remained, so after assessing the thickness of paint removed and found to be only a couple of microns, Intensive Polish was used (avoiding the very thin spots on the front lower arch region) to try to deaded the pigtails and achieve better correction still. Refined using 205, and this leaves the following:
Meanwhile, Gordon set to work on he passenger side of the car where there was evidence of previous machine polishing as well as severe swirls and some deeper marks as well...
Using metal halide lights to assess the paint (assessment of various light sources in the pipeline soon)...
Gordon used Fast Cut and Meguiars #205 restoring the clarity and removing the marring from the paintwork... the 50/50 shows the extent of the correction achieved and the restoration of the beauty of the paintwork:
While Gordon was enjoying his 50/50 shots, I moved onto the bootlid, which had its fair share of swirls...
and scratches...
This region was standard Audi paint, and was actually pretty easy to correct - deeper RDS easily taken care of here by one pass of Fast Cut as above, followed by #205 to refine the finish and give the following...
Mmm, glossy
My turn to do some 50/50 shots, this time on the driver's side - you can see the marring and hologramming in the befores...
Using metal halide lights again...
Fast Cut followed by #205 as above to give the following... Grey to black
And using the Sun Gun...
More befores from the driver's side...
A-pillar before:
and after... (yes, I can reach the high up parts! :p)
The results of the correction and refining process on the driver's side...
And the afters from the passenger side...
Onto the tail end of the car...
After correction and refining using a long-hit of Intensive Polish applied by DA as follows (used owing to thinner paint on the rear of the car and the ability to control the level of paint removal with a bit more precision on this paint):
This gave the following results...
Yes - a DA can happily correct hard Audi paint And Intensive Polish can finish down LSP ready quite happily 
Tail light before:
After:
Gordon meanwhile worked Intensive Polish on the front of the car by rotary. Before:
After:
After polishing stages complete, the paint finish was back to looking mean, moodie and black!
Wheels were protected using Collinite 915 with tyres being dressed with Meguiars Endurance. Plastics were dressed using Chemical Guys New Look Trim Gel. Glass cleaned with Stoner Invisible Glass.
Post-polishing, the paintwork was cleansed using Lusso Revitalising Cream, in preparation for wax... Now, we have a great many waxes at our disposal from a variety of manufacturers. But for this car, it was time to revisit an old and very popular friend - a wax I have a lot of time and respect for, for its durability, ease of application and its ability to add to the finish in just the same way as far more expensive waxes... That wax - Meguiars #16. Look out for me using this far more often, its performance in terms of initial application and long term durability is very good indeed
The after shots:
One mean looking car
This is the first full detail (and it wont be the last
) carried out as a team with Gordon (caledonia), an excellent day of detailing with a good friend who I regard as a skilled detailer The car itself in the befores was looking rather grey and dull rather than deep and black, and after the wash you could see why in the morning sunlight,
Dull and grey...
The car had been resprayed in places and had been in the bodyshop where the full car appeared to have been machine polished.... so we had our work cut out to deal with these marks, as the rest of this writeup will show.
Into the garage following the wash and clay procedure and using the Sun Gun we can begin to see the extent of the damage. Starting on the bonnet, under the gun the finish actually does not look to bad for swirls and holograms...
However, using the strip light we can see evidence of either heavy wool compounding or sanding - note the pigtails under the light...
You can also see an egg-shell effect to the paint. Removal of this, and the deep scratches would require compounding, and the compound and pad combo of choice was 3M Fast Cut Plus on a Meguiars W7006 cutting pad, applied as follows:
- Spread at 600rpm
- Begin working at 1200rpm
- Work at 1800 - 2000rpm with moderate pressure until residue goes clear
Two hits were sufficient for the removal of marks and on the outset looked to have dealt with the eggshell effect - but as the paint cooled after polishing, this effect returned. Two further hits were required to deal with this effect and restore the gloss and the paint was assessed when fully cold before moving on to the next polishing stage. The results following the compounding:
Menzerna PO85RD3.02 Intensive Polish was then used to remove any light hologramming and deaden the severe sanding pigtails which couldn't be fully removed with removing too much paint, and enhance the overall gloss of the finish:
Meguiars #205 Ultra Finishing Polish was then used to refine the finish and give the best possible gloss and clarity, applied using a Detailers Domain Blue Finishing pad as follows:
- Spread at 600rpm, light pressure
- Begin working at 1200rpm, light pressure
- Work at 1500rpm, moderate pressure for a couple of minutes
- Refine at 1200rpm, light pressure, slow machine movements
- Burnish at 900rpm, supporting the rotary weight for very light pressure, slow machine movements
The end results...
Much better
Now, onto the wing which was baring deep looking marks in natural lighting...
And with the Brinkmann
Alas, one "small" issue with correction here - the paint thicknesses on this wing were very low:
Heavy compounding with Fast Cut was out of the question here. It would turn out under close inspection that this panel had not been painted, but had been sanded by the bodyshop - the sanding pigtails could be seen under the strip lighting. This would explain the suspiciously thin paint, and serves as a great reminder as to the importance of the PTG when detailing!!
So, softly softly approach was used, starting with Meguiars #205 as above which delivered the following...
Impressive for a finishing polish, I'm sure you'll agree
... But the pigtailing remained, so after assessing the thickness of paint removed and found to be only a couple of microns, Intensive Polish was used (avoiding the very thin spots on the front lower arch region) to try to deaded the pigtails and achieve better correction still. Refined using 205, and this leaves the following:Meanwhile, Gordon set to work on he passenger side of the car where there was evidence of previous machine polishing as well as severe swirls and some deeper marks as well...
Using metal halide lights to assess the paint (assessment of various light sources in the pipeline soon
)...Gordon used Fast Cut and Meguiars #205 restoring the clarity and removing the marring from the paintwork... the 50/50 shows the extent of the correction achieved and the restoration of the beauty of the paintwork:
While Gordon was enjoying his 50/50 shots, I moved onto the bootlid, which had its fair share of swirls...
and scratches...
This region was standard Audi paint, and was actually pretty easy to correct - deeper RDS easily taken care of here by one pass of Fast Cut as above, followed by #205 to refine the finish and give the following...
Mmm, glossy
My turn to do some 50/50 shots, this time on the driver's side - you can see the marring and hologramming in the befores...
Using metal halide lights again...
Fast Cut followed by #205 as above to give the following... Grey to black
And using the Sun Gun...
More befores from the driver's side...
A-pillar before:
and after... (yes, I can reach the high up parts! :p)
The results of the correction and refining process on the driver's side...
And the afters from the passenger side...
Onto the tail end of the car...
After correction and refining using a long-hit of Intensive Polish applied by DA as follows (used owing to thinner paint on the rear of the car and the ability to control the level of paint removal with a bit more precision on this paint):
- Spread at speed 2, light pressire
- Work at speed 5, light to medium pressure, for four or five passes
- Work at speed 6, moderate pressure until residue went clear
- Reduce speed to 5, and pressure and make two or three passes until residue returns
- Repeat passes at speed 6 with moderate pressure, until residue clear again
- Repeat above three or four times, leading to a work time of around 8 or 9 mins
This gave the following results...
Yes - a DA can happily correct hard Audi paint
And Intensive Polish can finish down LSP ready quite happily Tail light before:
After:
Gordon meanwhile worked Intensive Polish on the front of the car by rotary. Before:
After:
After polishing stages complete, the paint finish was back to looking mean, moodie and black!
Wheels were protected using Collinite 915 with tyres being dressed with Meguiars Endurance. Plastics were dressed using Chemical Guys New Look Trim Gel. Glass cleaned with Stoner Invisible Glass.
Post-polishing, the paintwork was cleansed using Lusso Revitalising Cream, in preparation for wax... Now, we have a great many waxes at our disposal from a variety of manufacturers. But for this car, it was time to revisit an old and very popular friend - a wax I have a lot of time and respect for, for its durability, ease of application and its ability to add to the finish in just the same way as far more expensive waxes... That wax - Meguiars #16. Look out for me using this far more often, its performance in terms of initial application and long term durability is very good indeed
The after shots:
One mean looking car
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