So how does my detailing plan look?

[HobbesA5]

First of all, please excuse my long introductory post.



I recently purchased a new Audi A5 in Brilliant Black (I'm a sucker for a black car). This replaced my former black Audi A4 which served me well for 12 years. I detailed the old A4 for many years using a Meguiar's branded PC and a collection of Meguiar's upper-end products. They served me well on the A4 and the paint looked great. The folks I sold it to couldn't believe it was 12 years old. Being garaged helped, of course.



With my new A5 I wanted to upgrade my materials and products a bit, so I just dropped a decent amount of coin for a new package of detailing supplies. I spent a ton of time here researching old threads to gain as much info as I could about the various products. I purchased some 5.5" LC CCS pads to use with my PC, and a host of new polish and wax products (see below).



The car is 3 months old with some minor marring from dealer wash and prep, as well as the effects of some sappy trees I have to park under at work. There are also some light scratches on the trunk by the license plate (inflicted by the dealership when installing plate) and on the front passenger side (likely from a parking lot). I wash with the two-bucket method using grit guards, sheepskin wash mitts and waffle-weave drying towels. I also just purchased a CR Spotless to help with the water spot problem that's such an issue for black cars.



I'm willing to put in the time for a proper detail, and have experience in polishing with the PC and Meguiar's products. So I'm not a total noob, but I'm far from an expert and I could use some guidance with modern products and technique. I've got a garage to work in and some halogen lights to assist in evaluating my progress. If you could look at my plan and tell me where I might want to make some changes or tweaks I would appreciate it.



Here is my planned approach:



Paint:

- Wash car with Dawn to strip old wax

- Clay car using Pinnacle Ultra Poly clay (green) with diluted ONR as a lube

- Wash again to remove claying residue

- Tape off emblems and trim with blue painter's tape

- Spot polish two scratched areas with Scratch-X

- Polish car with Menzerna SIP on a LC white pad, followed by IPA wipe

- Polish car with Menzerna 106fa on a LC green pad , followed by IPA wipe

- Apply Klasse AIO with a LC blue pad

- Apply Ultima PGP by hand - 2 coats with proper wait time.

- Apply Ultima Tire & Trim Guard Plus to black exterior trim





Tires/Wheels

- Remove wheels from car.

- Clean with PS12

- Treat rims with 2 coats of Rejex.

- Apply Ultima Tire & Trim Guard Plus to tires





Interior

- Treat dash and interior trim with 303 Aerospace Protectant

- Clean and treat leather with Leather Masters (Strong Cleaner, Vital, Protection)

- Clean glass with Stoner's Invisible Glass





Questions:



- Does this seem like a good plan? Any problems with my product selections? Anything important that I've forgotten? Any other tips or suggestions?

- I'm not familiar with polishes that break down. How can I tell that the Menzerna polishes have broken down sufficiently?

- Do I need or benefit from the KAIO step, or should I omit it?

 

[Accumulator]

HobbesA5- Welcome to Autopia. Fellow Audi nut here. Some sorta random thoughts follow:



IMO the Scratch-X won't be *NEARLY* aggressive enough to correct the Random Isolated Deep Scratches (RIDS), not by a long shot.



The SIP/white *might* be aggressive enough but I suspect it'll leave more marring than you're expecting.



The Menzerna polishes should be broken down when they're almost dry, but don't "dry buff". Any particular reason you're planning to use those?



If it were mine, I'd be leaning towards M105/M205 with maybe a final polish using something from Menzerna or even 1Z.



I have no idea whether you need/want KAIO before Ultima as I don't use the latter :nixweiss



I wouldn't bother taping off the emblems, but I'd absolutely keep abrasives off the silvery aluminum trim (but the chrome trim should be OK).

 

[HobbesA5]

HobbesA5- Welcome to Autopia. Fellow Audi nut here.

Thanks for the welcome, and the feedback.

IMO the Scratch-X won't be *NEARLY* aggressive enough to correct the Random Isolated Deep Scratches (RIDS), not by a long shot.

Okay. I knew it wasn't agressive, but I thought it might help. I already had it lying around, so no loss to skip using it.

The SIP/white *might* be aggressive enough but I suspect it'll leave more marring than you're expecting.

Are you just referring to the RIDS, or do you mean it will leave more marring overall than I can remove with the 106fa? I thought the lower-cut white pad and diminishing abrasives of the SIP would lead me nicely into the 106fa.

The Menzerna polishes should be broken down when they're almost dry, but don't "dry buff". Any particular reason you're planning to use those? If it were mine, I'd be leaning towards M105/M205 with maybe a final polish using something from Menzerna or even 1Z.

The Menzerna polishes have received universal praise and those two products are supposedly designed to work better for the hard clear coat of the Audi, so I thought they'd work great. My understanding was also that the 106fa would leave a finish ready for a LSP.

I wouldn't bother taping off the emblems, but I'd absolutely keep abrasives off the silvery aluminum trim (but the chrome trim should be OK).

I've seen that many folks around here tape off the emblems, so I figured it was considered "best practice". I gather it is more for ease of cleanup than to protect the emblem from abrasives.

 

[DM101]

For awesome looks I'd finish it off with a nuba as Pinnacle Souveran

 

[Bert]

I agree with Accumulator, the Scratch X may not be enough to get rid of the paint marring. Other than that, your process looks OK for the most part. A few points though:



-after you finish with SIP on the white pad and go to 106, you may want a pad softer than Green. White and green seem pretty close so you may want to go down to black.



-if you have any Ultima Paint Protection Plus, I would probably use than reather than the Klasse AIO. KAIO is a fine product but I think UPPP may work a little better with UPGP. If you don't have UPPP, than KAIO should work OK.

 

[Accumulator]

..Are you just referring to the RIDS, or do you mean it will leave more marring overall than I can remove with the 106fa? I thought the lower-cut white pad and diminishing abrasives of the SIP would lead me nicely into the 106fa..

Sorry to be unclear. What I meant was that I'm uncertain whether the SIP/white combo will do adequate correction on the Audi clear. Eh...what do I know, I've never used SIP. But the general experience is that people are astounded how hard it is to remove even light marring from that paint.



Yeah, the SIP-106FA *will* be a good progression. It's the (adequate)aggressiveness of the SIP that I question.

The Menzerna polishes have received universal praise and those two products are supposedly designed to work better for the hard clear coat of the Audi, so I thought they'd work great. My understanding was also that the 106fa would leave a finish ready for a LSP.

I wouldn't go so far as to say Menzerna has received universal praise, but that's a flame-fest waiting to happen and not really relevant here



But yeah, the 106FA will leave things *very* nice, certainly ready-to-wax. Just make sure you get everything corrected before switching to that as it'll be too mild to do much of any correction beyond sprucing up with the preceding product leaves.

I've seen that many folks around here tape off the emblems, so I figured it was considered "best practice". I gather it is more for ease of cleanup than to protect the emblem from abrasives.

OK, roger that, makes sense and I sometimes do it too during aggressive/messy work. Heh heh, I tend to debadge our Audis and thus sidestep the whole issue, so maybe this is *another* case of "what do I know?". I left the rings on the trunklid of my wife's A8, and I do like using the polisher to do the larger areas inside them though.

 

[HobbesA5]

-after you finish with SIP on the white pad and go to 106, you may want a pad softer than Green. White and green seem pretty close so you may want to go down to black.

Good to know. I thought I might need a pad with a bit less cut for the 106 and I do have them. Pad selection is one area in which I'm still not clear.

-if you have any Ultima Paint Protection Plus, I would probably use than reather than the Klasse AIO. KAIO is a fine product but I think UPPP may work a little better with UPGP. If you don't have UPPP, than KAIO should work OK.

I already had the KAIO, so I didn't spring for the UPPP. Given that, is there a benefit to the KAIO step, or does it not add much value?

Sorry to be unclear. What I meant was that I'm uncertain whether the SIP/white combo will do adequate correction on the Audi clear. Eh...what do I know, I've never used SIP. But the general experience is that people are astounded how hard it is to remove even light marring from that paint.



Yeah, the SIP-106FA *will* be a good progression. It's the (adequate)aggressiveness of the SIP that I question.

Okay, I get it. Since it's a new car with only minor problems, I figured I'd start with the white, then progress to the orange if the white wasn't doing the job.

I wouldn't go so far as to say Menzerna has received universal praise, but that's a flame-fest waiting to happen and not really relevant here

Fair enough, but it's received enough praise for my comfort.

But yeah, the 106FA will leave things *very* nice, certainly ready-to-wax. Just make sure you get everything corrected before switching to that as it'll be too mild to do much of any correction beyond sprucing up with the preceding product leaves.

Understood, and thanks to you both.

 

[Bert]

I already had the KAIO, so I didn't spring for the UPPP. Given that, is there a benefit to the KAIO step, or does it not add much value?

I would probably use the KAIO. I like the idea of putting my sealant on really clean paint with a nice base on it.

 

[HobbesA5]

I would probably use the KAIO. I like the idea of putting my sealant on really clean paint with a nice base on it.

Thanks Bert. I'll go ahead and use it then.

 

[rza170]

after the clay do you really need to wash the car again?

wouldnt the polish take off the residue?

 

[Accumulator]

after the clay do you really need to wash the car again?

wouldnt the polish take off the residue?

That's one of those "it just depends" things.



If there's considerable *clay* in the residue I would't want it gumming up my pad and getting smeared across the paint at whatever-opms. If it's just a barely-there-light film of clay lube then I might not worry about it.



But since it only takes a moment to clean off the clay-process residue, I'd rather do that and start polishing on a nice clean surface.



It's kinda like polishing throuh an existing LSP; often it works just fine, but there are cases where it's best to compromise/strip the LSP before you start polishing.