2006 Audi A3 in Lava Gray meets Blackfire

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About a month ago I took a huge risk and bought a car sight unseen on the internet. The experience was a bit nerve racking and I?m not sure I would do it again. For a while there I began to wonder if my car was going to show. It turns out the driver picked up my car and it sat on the back of a car hauler for a week in NJ waiting for his truck to fill up. Then the transit time took 10 days. During that time my car adopted a very lovely film of road grime and who knows what else. I guess I could send the clay I used to clean the car to a lab for analysis, (picture to follow). Anyway my little Audi was rescued from the urban jungle of NYC and it showed a few signs of wear. Overall it was in good shape though. I?ve had it for a few weeks now and this is the first weekend I have had to clean her up thoroughly. I started at 6AM so the heat wouldn?t get me before I got moving. Now keep in mind that I have washed it a few times before today, even once at a hand wash establishment, and you will see that it was still quite dirty.

I began with a soak and wash with Dawn.

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I then clayed the paint with Clay Magic. I actually clayed the paint twice. As you can see in the pics it needed it. On the second pass I was still picking up junk but the claying ended when I dropped the clay. %&@*&!!!!!

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Yes, I did fold the clay. That was one door.

Second pass

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After claying I washed the car again with 1Z einszett Perls Shampoo. The wash/clay process took about three hours, including degreasing and cleaning the tires/wheels and the second wash/dry.

Next up, polishing. At the advice of Phil at PAC I decided to go with Menzerna PO203. Phil said this polish would allow extra work time for the hotter conditions in AZ. I used a 6.5? Lake country flat pad and a 4? Detailer Domain polish pad. This 4? pad is one that I previously said not so nice things about, bit I thought I would give it another whirl with the rotary. Very nice. I like the flat pads with the rotary because the CCS pads tend to hold onto little pockets of polish and fling it all over my car. I had a very nice assistant today who followed me with a towel and cleaned up the polish, but I didn?t want to make her work too hard so I switched to flat and the results were great.

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After machine polishing I decided to try something new. I went over the entire car with Klasse AIO applied with a PC and a black pad. I wanted to use the Klasse as a cleaner to remove the polish remnants and I thought the acrylic base would serve as a foundation for the Blackfire Wet Diamond.

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After Klasse I applied Blackfire to the entire car and went for a swim. After the nice dip in the pool I applied Klasse to all of the glass surfaces, including two moonroofs. Wow, talk about clean glass.

Here is my lovely assistant applying 303 Protectant to the rubber seals in my hood, doors and trunk.

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I also convinced her to shine the tires and clean my wheels.

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As if she hadn?t done enough, she used a foam paint brush to apply Stoner Trim Shine to my fog light inserts and grille.

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OK, so here is the pay-off. I think it turned out pretty good. Next week I am going to apply a second coat of Blackfire. You know, we did not make it to the interior today. Hmmmm! I had previously cleaned the seats and dash. The carpet and headliner still need some work. Next week! Enjoy, thanks for looking.

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:White Horse:
 
Very nice, I've always been a huge fan of Audi's. I think your car shipping experience is VERY common. If you're buying the car off the net and having it shipped, you need to get a delivery date commitment because that's exactly what happens, it'll sit on a hauler until that driver gets a full load, some people have waited months for their cars.

I bought my S60 R sight unseen too, it's VERY nerve racking. I called the dealer and asked every single question I could think of and told them that if I got there and it wasn't EXACTLY like they said or if they hid something I expected a flight home and they agreed. All in all, it was the smoothest car buying transaction I've ever had. My flight left Kansas City at 8:00 and I was in the car headed out of Dallas at 10:20, I was at the dealer less than 7 minutes, it was awesome. I was back in KC with my Blue Volvo by 6:30 that night, it was a fun day, I would recommend that kind of car buying to everyone.
 
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