Audi polishing tips

G

Goleafsgo

New member
I've been searching here for tips on polishing Audis with a PC and have came up with a few tips but I am looking for a few more. I'm going to be trying out some 4" pads most likely.



My Audi has been pretty frustrating so far with the paint. I've added some marring from washing I think. It is either from that or a snow brush from the pattern of the scratches. The weird thing is I haven't changed anything from how I washed my Ford Taurus and I never had any marring problems. I use sheepskin mitts and waffleweave towels to dry, yet I'm still getting marring on the Audi. I'm going to be ordering some new wash mitts and hopefully something that will make polishing much easier.



Any tips on a polish that will work the best with the PC? I have the full line of Optimum polishes which haven't worked all that well for me. I used Hyper Compound and a Propel cutting pad which worked OK but took forever.



Has anyone had any success with SSR 3 or SSR2.5?
 
Honestly, without at least a Cyclo or even better, a rotary, you are not going to remove defects easily. 4" pads will help if you prefer to stick with the PC. It is just going to take a while.
 
goleafsgo said:
Has anyone had any success with SSR 3 or SSR2.5?
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yes 2.5 is a good polish but you will not get much different results then the

Optimum stuff that you have





SSR 3 is like liquid sandpaper I would stay away from it if you can
 
IMHO "some" marring during washing is inevitiable as long as your using a process that involves moving a object across the panels.



I've used every type of wash mitt there is and am now using a Sea Sponge, two buckets, and a foam gun yet when I'm done and look at my Black painted A4 under bright artifical light (Flourescent or Halogen) I can see some light marring.



This place is like Alaska (6 months of darkness) once the Winter sets in so I won't be seeing any Sun till late spring so I can't say if the marring could be seen under natural light.



The point I'm trying to make is I've come to beleive that it's futile to keep the paint on a DD in Car Show condition.



To show you how obsessed we are, my Audi Dealership won't wash my car cause they are afraid of getting it "dirty" when I vring it in for scheduled maintenance and that's even in the middle of winter.



Over at the Detailing Forum's on Audiworld they swear by PC's and I've seen some pretty good work.



I however agree with Scott and only use a Rotary on my Audi. The PC just wasn't fast enough for me.



MorBiD
 
goleafsgo- PC combos that've worked for me on hard Audi clear (all with 4" pads):



orange/HT-EC with a little OCP mixed in, followed by white/OCP



orange/1Z Ultra, then orange/3M PI-III RC 05933, followed by white/3M PI-III MG 05937



If you don't mind concealing some stuff while removing most of the flaws, using orange or yellow/1Z Ultra, then orange/1Z PP, then white/1Z PP, then topping with a heavy wax like Collinite oughta work well.



But doing an Audi with a PC takes forever. Just wait until you try to remove fingernail scratches from behind the door handles, something you have to do by hand. Clear your calendar *that* weekend.



I've had great success using a foamgun shooting through the bristles of a BHB for the first passes, it dislodges/flushes away the more abrasive [stuff]. Then I use the foamgun spraying between a wash mitt and the panel. Filling the mitt with wash solution and holding it so it barely touches the panel helps a lot too. Keeping a flow of shampoo/suds/foam between the wash media and the panels makes a huge difference.
 
Accumulator said:
But doing an Audi with a PC takes forever. Just wait until you try to remove fingernail scratches from behind the door handles, something you have to do by hand. Clear your calendar *that* weekend.
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Poop. I forgot all about having to do those. And I was looking foreward to the challenge of my wife's Audi.
 
sixty7mustang22- Heh heh, guess it'll be more of a challenge than you were looking forward to :o



There are plastic, static-cling films you can put in there to protect those areas, might oughta look into them. We can't use them on ours because of all the paintwork (only recommended for factory paint :( ) but it might be a good idea for yours. We've learned to be very careful, but there's always the careless passenger to worry about.



The 1Z Ultra is my go-to product for the initial passes, about the strongest stuff you can use by hand.
 
Thanks for the suggestions. I'm probably going to order some 4" pads and see what I can do. I'm going to have to take a look into a rotary I guess, but it'll be a while before I take a rotary to my Audi.
 
Some time ago, when I was using the PC only, I tackled a badly swirled Audi A4 by PC... The car was a carwash regular and had severe tramline swirls on it from the carwash brushes leaving a badly marred finish that was dull and lifeless... I tackled it by PC using Menzerna Power Gloss (no lighter abrasive was having an effect), and followed with Menzerna Intensive Polish to refine the finish and remove micromarring. This was all applied using a 4" cutting pad for the PG and a 4" light cutting pad for the IP. I used the slow-cutting method for the PG to get the best from the compound, working on section 1' square at a time and the whole car took me three full days to complete!!



Here's the car in question...











Power Gloss (x2 hits) followed by Intensive Polish on half of the bonnet:







CG E~Z Glaze followed by spit-shined P21S to finish on this car:



















Can you deswirl an Audi using the PC? Yes, you can, but you will have to be very patient and be prepared to spend a lot of time on the car... Its a slow process by PC, but you can get there. :up
 
Accumulator said:
sixty7mustang22- Heh heh, guess it'll be more of a challenge than you were looking forward to :o



There are plastic, static-cling films you can put in there to protect those areas, might oughta look into them. We can't use them on ours because of all the paintwork (only recommended for factory paint :( ) but it might be a good idea for yours. We've learned to be very careful, but there's always the careless passenger to worry about.



The 1Z Ultra is my go-to product for the initial passes, about the strongest stuff you can use by hand.
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lol, well, it will be a fun challenge none the less.



Hmm. Yeah, I might look into those if I can get the paint looking good under the handles.



I'm not sure how I am going to tackle mine yet. I have a few products that will work by hand.



Question though...would it be easier to sand the scratches/swirls smooth with maybe 2000 and then try a polish that out, or would it be better to just polish the scratches/swirls level.
 
sixty7mustang22 said:
Question though...would it be easier to sand the scratches/swirls smooth with maybe 2000 and then try a polish that out, or would it be better to just polish the scratches/swirls level.
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I dunno. That's what my painter says I oughta do, but I'm just not that comfortable wetsanding, in part due to my limited experience. I'd use Meguiar's Unigrit paper and probably 3000. 3K scratches can be removed via PC without all *that* much trouble and I've done OK with 2500 ones too.



But all-in-all, I'd probably do it with 1Z stuff, top with Collinite, and not worry if some of the marring is hidden rather than truly removed. This is your wife's daily driver, right? I have different standards for my wife's Audi than I do for my own ;) And BTW she's fine with that.



goleafsgo- I don't blame you for wanting to do it by PC. But I *will* say I hadn't used a rotary in over 20 years, don't think I'd *ever* used one on b/c paint, but I got the new Makita right out of the box and used it on the S8 without any problems. Not saying that's a good idea, but anyhow..



Dave KG- I just *love* looking at that A4!
 
Accumulator said:
I dunno. That's what my painter says I oughta do, but I'm just not that comfortable wetsanding, in part due to my limited experience. I'd use Meguiar's Unigrit paper and probably 3000. 3K scratches can be removed via PC without all *that* much trouble and I've done OK with 2500 ones too.



But all-in-all, I'd probably do it with 1Z stuff, top with Collinite, and not worry if some of the marring is hidden rather than truly removed. This is your wife's daily driver, right? I have different standards for my wife's Audi than I do for my own ;) And BTW she's fine with that.
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I am very comfortable wetsanding, I just didn't know which would be harder to remove in this area. Sandpaper marring or the scratches themselves.



I have effectively removed 2000 scratches with a PC with no problem. But, we are talking about hand removal here. So, I am really not sure what I will do. I might just try removing 2000 grit by hand on an area I need to wetsand and rotary anyway and see how it comes out. If it works OK, I will let you know for future reference.



Yeah, in this area, I am not all that much worried about hiding rather than removing, but I would like to try and remove. I have a can of Collinite on the way. That clear protective thing should help hide also. Yeah, it is her DD...but, I have the same standards with it as I have with all cars. I try to achieve perfection. I can't help myself.lol
 
When I had my Audi, I had good luck with Menzerna polishes and a PC. I had a 99.5 Brilliant Black A4. If I had bad swirls, I used menzerna Intensive Polish with a Griot's orange pad. Then I would follow it up with Menzerna Final Polish and a white pad. Usually I would be good to go with a coat of One Grand Blitz, but most of the time I would give it a coat of 3M Imperial machine Glaze with a black pad before the Blitz.

This combination was a knock out.
 
GDA4 said:
When I had my Audi, I had good luck with Menzerna polishes and a PC. I had a 99.5 Brilliant Black A4. If I had bad swirls, I used menzerna Intensive Polish with a Griot's orange pad..
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That's an interesting combo, I always found the Griot's orange pad mighty gentle.



sixty7mustang22- I just remembered this: when a painter at Stoddard Imports and I were trying to improve one of my touchups (without much success, but anyhow..) he hit it with a Meg's Unigrit block, which was, IIRC, 2000 grit. He then took most of the scratches out by hand with 3M PI-III RC 05933. Later, back at my shop, I further improved things with more 05933 and then a milder product, but he had removed the worst of the sanding scratches by hand. The scratches were a lot easier on the touchup paint of course, but they weren't that tough on the factory paint either. I *think* you'll be OK but it'd sure be a lot of work.
 
Last Audi I worked on took 4 steps with a rotary and 8 hours to polish out right - I wouldn't want to know how long a PC would have taken. Consider going the hiding route - 1Z or 3M polishes, followed by a good glaze (CG's EZ Creme is a winner) and a carnuba (the heavier the better, I like CG 50/50).



On the other hand, if your marring is light, you might be able to get away with a PC. I had *this* to deal with:

tn_DSC00021.jpg




PG/Wool, PG/Orange, OP/Orange, PO85RD/White turned it into this:



37.jpg
 
Accumulator said:
sixty7mustang22- I just remembered this: when a painter at Stoddard Imports and I were trying to improve one of my touchups (without much success, but anyhow..) he hit it with a Meg's Unigrit block, which was, IIRC, 2000 grit. He then took most of the scratches out by hand with 3M PI-III RC 05933. Later, back at my shop, I further improved things with more 05933 and then a milder product, but he had removed the worst of the sanding scratches by hand. The scratches were a lot easier on the touchup paint of course, but they weren't that tough on the factory paint either. I *think* you'll be OK but it'd sure be a lot of work.
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Cool. Either way, it is going to take some elbow grease. Thanks for all the help.
 
themightytimmah said:
Last Audi I worked on took 4 steps with a rotary and 8 hours to polish out right...
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Looking at the "befores", I'm impressed that it didn't take more steps than that! Nice job. I'm gonna *have* to try some wool pads one of these days...
 
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