Mobile-Image : VAGtastic detail

[Carn]

This weekend was the turn of yet another black magic Golf V GTI to be pampered. Having recently been 'detailed' I was shocked to see the condition the paint was in. Whilst the swirling wasn't too bad compared to some of the previous examples I have seen, the use of wool pads had left their fair share of hologramming in the rock hard paintwork!

This detail also gave me the opportunity to spend some time detailing with my old man while I had the pleasure of working at his place. Despite him being OCD and avid petrolhead who has always taken meticulous care of his motor cars, it was nice to show him some of the newer concepts and practices he had previously never looked into.


Right then onto the actual point of this post....the detailing

Saturday morning started of bright and early, well more like freezing and gloomy, but anyways. The sun eventually did come out and made the task at hand alot more bearable and enjoyable.

Once again very few before pics as my hands were frozen and I wanted to get cracking. Black cars always have a habit of taking alot longer than anticipated and this specimen would prove to be no different.

Dusty paintwork...Wonder whats lurking under there!


Filthy tailpipes


Dirty wheels and calipers







The wheels and arches were tackled 1st with the 5:1 APC, Sonax Extreme Rim Cleaner, my new Daytona wheel brush and various other small detail brushes. No photies of the wheels and calipers for now but needless to say they came out good as new as usual.


With the wheels and arches taken care of I set about giving the car a thorough rinse to remove as much loose dirt and dust as possible before attending to all the little details with my trusty detail brushes and a 10:1 solution of APC.

Emblems


Panel gaps


Fuel filler



With all the nooks and crannies taken care of the car was foamed with a Duragloss 901 sample I got from Ken (smells wonderfull mmm) and left to dwell for a few minutes before being rinsed again and then washed. With the wash complete the car was rinsed once more before being given a once over with Meguiars fine detail clay and some QD. The car was relatively free from bonded contaminants hence the lack of any worthwhile clay photies.

Post claying the car was rinsed a final time before being dried and pulled into the sun for a quick inspection.


As I mentioned the car wasn't too badly swirled but suffered from alot of hologramming and marring from it's previous 'detailing' experience. The sun was also almost directly behind the car so I struggled to snap any fantastic defect photo's but here are some of the ones that turned out ok











With the initial inspection completed the car was pulled into the garage and taped up before being inspected under the halogens. Not much to see under the lights apart from evidence of previous bodywork being done and the some nasty RIDS.

Hazy paint lacking depth an clarity




Some nasty plastics





With all the prep work out of the way I turned my attention to finding a polishing combo that would deliver the results. Being metallic black and a VAG product I expected the paint to be rock hard but maybe, just maybe this one would be different. I started off with a mild combo of Menz FA on a 3M polishing pad which, despite leaving a brilliant gloss, did very little in terms of knocking back the minor swirling let alone even touching the RIDS. Post FA on polishing pad I tried :

50/50 mix of FA and SIP on polishing pad...The swirls were laughing at me
SIP on polishing pad...nope, you gonna have to try harder son
SIP on 3M compounding pad...nearly but this is taking forever

With all of these combo's failing to deliver results it was time to haul out the big guns. 3 Drops of 3M Fast Cut Plus on a 3M compounding pad with 2 small drops of FA added for extra lubricity finally yielded some worthwhile results. Having to go as far as a compound and compounding pad on a dark colour meant the need for additional polishing steps prior to finishing....It was going to be a long weekend's detailing after all!

Undeterred and with a combo that was working I set about the paint correction phase in the following order:

FCP on compounding pad followed by SIP on a polishing pad followed by FA on polishing pad.

I didn't snap many pics of the correction phase as I knew I would be pressed for time. Having completed the bonnet however I couldn't resist grabbing a few reflection shots once I made the final finishing passes...





Flash shot (the small lines next to the centre of light are my fingers illuminated by the flash)



Under the lights







Out in the sun to double check the progress.


Close up



With the front end complete, the sun long gone and the temperature outdoors plummeting we called it a day and headed on inside for some of my mom's fantastic spaghetti bolognaise and some hot tea and biscuits.


Day 2 saw the need for yet another freezing early start so it was out of bed at 7am and off to the old mans place to get stuck in. After giving the uncompleted rear half a quick dusting it was full speed ahead to compete the correction phase.

Remember the trashed B-pillar plastics and dull lifeless C-pillar?




Thats better






True colour and flake starting to pop


Taillights glossed up and corrected


With the paint correction phase completed just after lunch time, it was back outside for a final rinse and wash before starting on all the finishing details.


LSP of choice was to be my new Jeff's Acrylic kit (Prime, Trigger and Glos) with trim being treated to 303 Aerospace protectant, tires receiving Meg's Endurance Gel and glass being given a once over with AG's Fast Glass.

With it now being a little before 4pm I snapped some final finished shots before the client arrived to fetch his spruced up ride.














Wheels and calipers good as new




Tailpipes in all their glory



And finally some random reflection shots I liked...















As always thanks for looking