Hi All,
I had this up on another forum, but just thought I would share it here on Autopia. A yellow Audi S3. The dirt on it made me think it was better than it was but it turned out to be a pretty tough bit of paint to work. I spent about 5 hours on the paint alone and it still needed a little more work, but I had to do the interior as well as running out of daylight.
Here are the before pics. Paint very dirty, lots of tar (especially the back, as usual on this style of car). I thought there was dark brown overspray on the car, as its own bumper had a rough yellow repair done on it. I thought a neighbouring brown car must have been repaired in a breeze, but clay wouldn't remove it. I think it was raildust in the end.
I didn't remember Audi having Charcoal grey wheels!! DIRTY!!
Anyhow... after washing and claying, I still wasn't happy with the contaminants on the paint. I used Auto Int'l ABC paint neutralising products.
Here it is after washing,claying and prepping, I cleaned the wheels with Bardahl Heavy Duty. It looks kind of nice and fresh...
But you know what? I tried to photograph the swirls on the car and as bad as they were, I couldn't get them in a picture!! Must be the yellow paint! You'll have to take my word for it... they weren't the worst I've seen, but the clearcoat was pretty dull.
Polishing: This was tough. I wanted to try my new PC so I started with Menzerna IP and an orange cutting pad. I gotta say this was getting me nowhere after two passes. Time to put junior away and out with big brother, my Flex rotary with a leather-backed natural lambswool pad, sticking with Menz IP.
This polished nicely, so I crossgraded to a soft black pad with Menz106ff and slowly polished the paint, with the polisher on 2000rpm. I was almost happy with this, but I could still see some faint marks in the paint. I went back to the PC and a Green Sonus pad with PO85rd with 1.5 grade cut and 5.0 gloss grade. Here it is only polished.
Next up, I had a sealant to try. I didn't have the name of it as I got it as a sample from Daragh on Smartcarcare.ie . I am very impressed with it. Applied with the PC and soft blue pad, it went on very sparingly and easily, and buffed off very nicely. On its own it has a gorgeous wet look that surprised me for a sealant. The name of the product is Langka Paint Sealant and I will DEFINITELY be buying a few bottles of it. Here's the car with the sealant only:
I let the sealant sit while I detailed the interior. This took me an hour as the owner keeps it real nice. Good vac, leather cleaned, dash, consoles & panels cleaned, carpet shampoo'd / extracted. Its getting late in the day. The polishing took a long time, so out with the polishing pal, soft blue pad and Swissol Onyx. Here's the result of the topper. Pics aren't fantastic, the sun was low and my camera is mediocre....
Remember how bad that wheel was. I forgot to take an up close After shot...this is the closest
Audi paint is so hard to polish, but its such a pleasure when it turns out right. I could have spent a little more time on this S3, but oh well! I was happy, and so was the owner. A good days work.:hifive:
Sweepy.
I had this up on another forum, but just thought I would share it here on Autopia. A yellow Audi S3. The dirt on it made me think it was better than it was but it turned out to be a pretty tough bit of paint to work. I spent about 5 hours on the paint alone and it still needed a little more work, but I had to do the interior as well as running out of daylight.
Here are the before pics. Paint very dirty, lots of tar (especially the back, as usual on this style of car). I thought there was dark brown overspray on the car, as its own bumper had a rough yellow repair done on it. I thought a neighbouring brown car must have been repaired in a breeze, but clay wouldn't remove it. I think it was raildust in the end.
I didn't remember Audi having Charcoal grey wheels!! DIRTY!!
Anyhow... after washing and claying, I still wasn't happy with the contaminants on the paint. I used Auto Int'l ABC paint neutralising products.
Here it is after washing,claying and prepping, I cleaned the wheels with Bardahl Heavy Duty. It looks kind of nice and fresh...
But you know what? I tried to photograph the swirls on the car and as bad as they were, I couldn't get them in a picture!! Must be the yellow paint! You'll have to take my word for it... they weren't the worst I've seen, but the clearcoat was pretty dull.
Polishing: This was tough. I wanted to try my new PC so I started with Menzerna IP and an orange cutting pad. I gotta say this was getting me nowhere after two passes. Time to put junior away and out with big brother, my Flex rotary with a leather-backed natural lambswool pad, sticking with Menz IP.
This polished nicely, so I crossgraded to a soft black pad with Menz106ff and slowly polished the paint, with the polisher on 2000rpm. I was almost happy with this, but I could still see some faint marks in the paint. I went back to the PC and a Green Sonus pad with PO85rd with 1.5 grade cut and 5.0 gloss grade. Here it is only polished.
Next up, I had a sealant to try. I didn't have the name of it as I got it as a sample from Daragh on Smartcarcare.ie . I am very impressed with it. Applied with the PC and soft blue pad, it went on very sparingly and easily, and buffed off very nicely. On its own it has a gorgeous wet look that surprised me for a sealant. The name of the product is Langka Paint Sealant and I will DEFINITELY be buying a few bottles of it. Here's the car with the sealant only:
I let the sealant sit while I detailed the interior. This took me an hour as the owner keeps it real nice. Good vac, leather cleaned, dash, consoles & panels cleaned, carpet shampoo'd / extracted. Its getting late in the day. The polishing took a long time, so out with the polishing pal, soft blue pad and Swissol Onyx. Here's the result of the topper. Pics aren't fantastic, the sun was low and my camera is mediocre....
Remember how bad that wheel was. I forgot to take an up close After shot...this is the closest
Audi paint is so hard to polish, but its such a pleasure when it turns out right. I could have spent a little more time on this S3, but oh well! I was happy, and so was the owner. A good days work.:hifive:
Sweepy.
:getdown :spot
Besides losing the sale of "C", that could come back to bite them in a huge way considering all the dealership/warranty work stuff that their business depends on...somebody might try something goofy and then cast blame.