awahl63 said:
My audi was pretty much perfect for awhile until I marred it up a little bit...I'll lightly polish it out next spring
Same here. I haven't polished the S8 for over two years, so it's, uhm a little the worse for wear
even with my careful washing. Same with my wife's A8 after more than a year since *it* was polished. Neither one's bad enough to redo though. I'm thinking next spring too. The minivan might be in the best shape of all my vehicles, but it's headed to the paintshop so you know what that probably means
Autobahn- But other than stuff like RIDS that I'm chicken to tackle and issues from the varous repaints, yeah, I've removed all the marring from those, and they're drivers. Basically, only stuff that's still there when I apply my LSP are the RIDS that I don't have enough clear to take out. Takes a *long* time to spot all the flaws on silver, but when I'm doing correction I search out all the flaws and correct them if I have enough clear for my peace of mind.
*BUT* you always have to take the individual case as a separate example. What can/can't be safely corrected varies with the job and no IMO you can't come close to perfection on a lot of cars. The 73K mile M3 I picked up would have clearcoat failure in no time if I did enough correction to really fix its issues. Gotta think long-term and that calls for thick clear.
On the Audis I have to use a rotary, just no way I can get them right with only the PC/Cyclo and goodness knows I tried. So I sure wouldn't feel bad about that A4. And even when you have the right tools and know enough to use them without issues, you really do have to consider the amount of clear you're taking off.
On the Minivan, I can get all the wash-induced marring and other such flaws out with the PC/4" combo. But it's a lot softer than the Audis are.
Note that as themightytimmah said, once you get something perfect it's a whole 'nother issue *keeping* it that way. I can't imagine anybody washing more gently/carefully than I do and I *still* pick up a little bit of marring here and there...nothing you notice for a long time, but then
it builds up to where you *do* see it (at least if you're looking for it in the right lighting).
For the Audi, if you want to try again by PC get some 4" pads. Try something like 1Z's Ultra/Extra and don't switch to the PP until it's looking *good*. A follow up with a milder product that gives a better gloss might help, even if you don't get *all* the marring out. PP just doesn't quite leave a nice enough finish for my taste.
PP/white is too fine for correction on an Audi, even with 4" pads I'd go more aggressive. Seems like the paint on those is either very hard (what I'd expect) or very *soft* (Mike P. had one that was so soft #80 micromarred it, and yeah it was factory paint :nixweiss ).
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