Polished Bliss & One very neglected Audi RS6......

[cupra_clark]

This detail on an Audi RS6 was booked in a couple of weeks ago after the owner attended our open day and to be honest i was dreading it coming but at the same time looking forward to the challenge!



Doesnt look to bad from a distance:

Even in the sun the defects didnt look that bad but sometimes even sunlight can be forgiving and from viewing it a fortnight ago i knew it would be worse once inside and under the halogens.



The previous owner/s had seriously neglected the car, more than likely just using it for a workhorse as every panel had a scuff or deep scratch (some going from the wing all the way to the back 1/4 on the nearside!), swirls etc etc....

It was a shame to see such an awesome car in such a state and I knew i wasnt going to get some of these defects out but i was confident of improving them a good bit and hopefully doing the car some justice





There were also several areas where someone had attempted to touch in some scratches but made an ar$e of it in all honesty:

Providing there was enough paint to play with (and time) i planned to wet sand these areas to reduce these "eye sores".





The bonnet, although not looking that bad in the pics was pretty badly swirled and rotary holograms were evident too:

 

[cupra_clark]

Holograms can be seen on the top of the tailgate also:

Knowing that the owner wanted Z ymol as the LSP i knew i had my work cut out to get the car machine polished in a decent amount of time to allow for the Z ymol process, which takes that little bit longer than most to get the full potential out of the finish.



Wash:



The car was firstly foamed with APC through the foam gun after i had treated the arches and various other bits to safe de-greaser. It was then pressure washed at high pressure and then washed with the 2 bucket method and lambswool mitts. The wheels were cleaned with a non-acidic tyre and wheel gel as they weren't too bad for brake dust, only some areas of the inner rims needed an acidic cleaner and an MF mitt to fully remove them, along with a tar and glue remover also. The car was then rinsed and treated to tar and glue remover on the lower panels and then the entire car including the glass was clayed with Z ymol Lehm Clay and QD before being given a final rinse and dried off with a waffle weave and the leaf blower



Total wash process time: 2 1/2 hours







Polish:



The car was taped up and i then took detailed paint readings. These showed that several areas had been re-sprayed including the bonnet,both bumpers and a couple of areas on the back 1/4's that had been blended in. The car was reading from anything as low as 49 to 115 microns, although on average it was around the 80-90 microns area, sometimes going slightly higher but not by much. The area's that were reading below 55/60 microns were taped off just in case!



I played about with several polishes before deciding to go with a cerami-clear compound with a polishing pad on the rotary @1800rpm's - this provided complete swirl removal first time and a mega improvement on the deeper scratches after a second hit.



Nearside front wing before:

Nearside front wing after:

Nearside front door before (note the long scratch):

Nearside front door after:

(scratch not completely gone but if you'd seen just how deep it was you'd understand!)





Another before:

after:

 

[cupra_clark]

The sideskirts were also pretty much fecked....

10 minutes with the Rotary made a good improvement:

Rear bumper before:

after:

Aaaaaand finally, a before and after on the tailgate:



before:

after:

Unfortunately with the couple of areas where there was dodgy paint touch ups there wasnt enough paint to safely wet sand, so i turned the speed up of the rotary to approx 2,000rpm's and luckily this flattened them back a bit, the touch up paint obviously being a good bit softer than the original.



As with all our details, the headlight and rear light lenses were also de-swirled, with the rears being done with the Rotary and the fronts with a 4" spot pad with the PC.





Total machine polishing time: 8 1/2 hours.





LSP:



LSP of choice for the owner was Z ymol, this time Carbon instead of the usual Vintage that many go for, as he wants to maintain the finish himself and obviously Carbon is a good bit cheaper!



Before that could be applied though i had to HD Cleanse the paintwork, using a MF pad and a touch of QD to keep the pad damp. I then followed this up with the Carbon, applied with a foam applicator to a whole panel at a time and then buffed off.



Even though you shouldnt see many oils rise from the Carbon i left it a while before giving it a final wipe down so that i could move onto the interior.



It wasnt too bad to begin with so i wiped down any grubby bits with APC, HD Cleansed the glass, fed the leather with Z ymol Treat and applied Z ymol Vinyl to the door rubbers etc.

 

[cupra_clark]

Here's a couple of pics of the interior:

I then sealed the wheels and dressed the tyres, the arches were dressed after the wash stage.



As usual, the exhaust tips were polished:



before:

after:

LSP/finishing touches stage total work time: 3 hours





I then gave the car a quick final wipe down and the owner arrived just as i was taking the after pics, perfect timing!

 

[cupra_clark]

 

[cupra_clark]

Total work time: 14 hours





The owner was over the moon with the finished results, which made it a very satisfying detail and i was pretty pleased with it too, knowing that any defects left in the paint were never going to fully come out in a month of sundays



I was also pretty worn out after this particular detail, there is ALOT of paint on these cars! :lol:



Thanks for looking as always :wave:

 

[imported_DieselMDX]

very impressive love that color blue

 

[cherryspeed]

Very nice turn around, great car.

That must be the owner in the background in the black shirt and the HUGE smile.

Hopefully he will take care of it now.

 

[dubbedup]

Sweet..



RS6 avant is my dream car, and the detail really done it justice.

 

[kaval]

superb turnaround!!!!!

questions though:

- what compound did you use?

- what tire shine did you use? I love the finish it leaves

 

[Accumulator]

cupra_clark- As an Audi nut who wishes they'd import the RS6 wagon to the US, I found this one especially interesting.



Interesting that your aggressive product did so much correction on the Audi clear in only two passes, and with a foam polishing pad too... Perhaps I need to try some stronger stuff than I've been using on mine :think:



Great job, both with the detail itself and your posted presentation. Both continue to impress me with every job you post, you truly deserve a :bow

 

[ZaneO]

Always look forward to opening these threads...with the stellar work and wonderful write-ups, it's always a treat!



What dressing for the tires? Menzerna polishes?

 

[Deviant]

Another amazing detail! Great work on another trashed car

 

[kkreit01]

Very nice. Very cool wagon.

 

[David703]

Superb results!! You are very talented!!! 14hours?? damn. Hope you got lots of $$$

 

[NavindraLR]

beautiful work... that's a very nice color on the audi. what paint meter to you use?

 

[Scottwax]

:drool: Incredible depth!



As always, superb swirl removal too.

 

[gmblack3]

We can all see why the client is so happy!

 

[CHAOS]

good lord, i strive to get to that level of knowledge and skil... PM'd you clark... beautiful work.

 

[ManiZ]

Fantastic work!



+1 on what was used on tires? Also, which metal polish do you use?