Seat Leon TDi (Dark Blue)

I

imported_Dave KG

New member
This is another Krankies detail - both Bryan and me working on this one with Dave's (the owner) help too! :thumb:



The car on arrival was very clean:







Closer inspection of the paint however revealed swirling which was robbing the finish of a good gloss, so the task in hand was to remove the swirls and get this cracking colour looking as good as we could. :)



First off, after a rinse down with the Karcher, Bryan applied Autoglym Powermax3 through the foam gun on the Karcher...







Bryan also used APC on the arches to clean and dressed later in the process with Autoglym Vinyl & Rubber Care. Wheels were cleaned with APC, then Chemical Guys Blue Rim Cleaner.



After TFR and rinse, I set to washing the car with Meguiars #00 Hi Tech Wash using a sheepskin washmitt and the two bucket method to show the car owner the safe washing techniques. The car was then rinsed by Bryan using the Karcher and I dried the car using a Meguiars Water Magnet...



At this stage, the rain was threatening, so we moved the car into the garage for the claying. Using Meguiars Mirror Glaze Mild (blue) clay, both Dave and myself set to claying the car using Last Touch as a lube while Bryan masked the car up. There was only mild contamination on this car, but the clay ensured a glassy finish to the paint.



Once clayed, out with the Brinkmann to have a close look at the swirls...















 
Medium swirling, heavy in places - and this was Seat paint (VAG group) so I suspected that it would be hard. So I aimed to use the Makita rotary on this one - out with the PTG to measure the paint thickness. With a consistent 120um+ plus of paint over the entire car, with the lowest readings being patches of 115um, I decided the rotary would be a safe way to go to remove the defects...



My weapon of choice here was Menzerna Intensive Polish (PO85RD3.01) on a Meguiars W8006 Polishing pad. This was spread at 600rpm, then two or three passes at 900rpm then two or three passes at 1200rpm and a final couple of passes at 1500rpm. At this stage the polish bloomed nicely and began to go clear so I stopped and wiped off the residue. 95% of the defects had been removed: all of the swilrs, and some of the deeper marks, only isoltaed deeper scracthes remained. After discussion with Dave on the merits of full 100% defect removal and the merits of keeping a large quantity of clear, it was decided to run with the full swirl removal but leave the isolated deeper scratches that looked like cat clat claw marks. So Power Gloss and cutting pads were left in the box. :thumb:



The finish from the IP alone was very good, but I decided to refine this further using the PC and Menzerna Final Finish (PO85RD) on a Meguiars W8006 Polishing Pad and this brought up a great gloss and a swirl free finish:











So, after performing this on the test spot and agreeing with Dave that he was satisfied with the finish, I proceeded to remove the defects using IP on the Makita while Bryan followed with FF on the PC. Dave also had a shot of applying the Final Finish on the PC with Bryan, as Bry talked him through how to use the PC, and he soon became comfortable using the PC. :thumb: Small areas and plastic bumpers were cut in using a 4" pad on the PC.



Once the finish had had defects removed, it was then time to add some wettness and gloss to the shine. For this, I chose Chemical Guys E~Z Glaze applied by PC using a Sonus DAS Green pad - spread at speed 3, two passes at speed 3, and three passes at speed 5. Remove with Cobra Microfibre, and this brought out a nice wet gloss to the finish - some reflections after the EZ:











and Bryan working the PC:



 
To top off the finish, I opted for Chemical Guys Instawax followed by XXX. I spread the Instawax onto the paint using a Meguiars Ultimate Wipe and let it dry to a haze. Then sprayed with some last touch and applied XXX over the residue using the PC and a W9006 Meguiars Finishing pad. Residue buffed off with a Cobra microfibre.



This resulted in some nice tree refelctions.... pity the sun wasn't out to show the colour off at its best, but we can't have everything ;) :



















Bryan and Dave cleaned the glass inside and out using Meguiars Glass Concentrate to clean, followed by Autoglym Glass Polish to give a nice finish. The wheels were waxed with Chemical Guys Instawax, tyres with Optimum Tyre Shine and trim with Meguiars #38.
 
Excellent swirl removal! Between the before and after shots, you can definitely see a big improvement in the depth and wetness. :bow
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top