This detail was carried out by Gordon and I a couple of weeks ago to prepare an Audi A3 for the Ultimate Dubs show. We wer contacted by Kenzie, the owner, who was interested in a full paint correction detail to get the car looking as good as possible ready for the day of the show. Owing to a delay in the bodyshop where the car was receiving a new front end (updated 2009 front on a 2004 model year car…), the car only arrived with us on the Thursday night before the Saturday of the show. So this detail was carried out overnight on the Thursday night and through the day on Friday to get the car ready for leaving Friday night to head south! A long shift, but we reckon well worth it The car on arrival was looking pretty clean and a very tidily modified A3 TDi… After the washing and the claying stages were complete we started to investigate the condition of the paintwork – this car was going to be a “game of two halves” with the front end respray work, and you could see a clear difference in the level of defects that were present in the paintwork! We’ll start off with the front of the car – no real swirls or major defects here from washing or general wear, but there was evidence of machine hologramming and a subtle cloudiness to the finish that was robbing the appearance of a little gloss… Starting with the bonnet: After assessing the paint finish by starting with the lightest combination and working up through the grades of pad and polish we came to the conclusion that Menzerna PO85RD3.02 Intensive Polish was the required polish, applied using a rotary polisher and a Chemical Guys White Hexlogic polishing pad… 1) Spread the polish at 600rpm 2) Begin working the polish at 1200rpm to build a little heat in the panel and evenly spread the residue 3) Work at 1800rpm with steady machine movements and moderate pressure until the residue turns clear, then lightening the pressure for three or four final passes No refinement passes were carried out at this stage as this was saved for the dedicated finishing polish stage – which was carried out using Menzerna PO85RD Final Finish on a blue 3M Waffle Finishing Pad, applied as follows: 1) Spread the polish at 600rpm 2) Begin working the polish at 1200rpm to build a little heat in the panel and evenly spread the residue 3) Work at 1500rpm, light to moderate pressure until the residue goes clear 4) Refine at 1200rpm, three or four passes with light pressure 5) Burnish the finish at 900rpm, two or three slow passes with light pressure The end results of the correction and finishing stages in the unit lights… And checked for finish quality under the Sun Gun following a wipedown with panel wipe and a short pile microfiber (which I find better for wiping down without smearing with multiple passes)… The two sides at the front – wing and doors – were showing the equivalent levels of marring which is not surprising given all these areas were recently resprayed at the same time by the same bodyshop (who did a good job of the paint finish). Befores of the front end: And after the correction and refining process described above for the bonnet: Moving onto the rear of the car and we are now dealing with the original Audi paint which was showing a few more defects, deeper RDS. The combination of Intensive Polish on a white polishing pad was enough to remove a lot of the swirls and many deeper marks but still left a few marks behind as well… The unit strip lights did a good job of highlighting the deeper scratches in the finish on the rear… These marks were corrected by stepping up to using Intensive Polish on a green Hexlogic polishing pad and using a technique which “regenerated” the Intensive Polish to lengthen its work time yet further and maximise the cut from it… 1) Spread the polish at 600rpm 2) Begin working the polish at 1200rpm to build a little heat in the panel and evenly spread the residue 3) Work at 1800rpm with steady machine movements and moderate pressure until the residue turns clear 4) Redue speed to 1200rpm and make two or three light pressure and slow passes, and the residue will flash back slightly 5) Increase speed and pressure to 1800rpm and work again until residue clear 6) Repeat 4) and 5) This resulted in the following level of correction (before refinement): Some deeper marks required attention with Fast Cut Plus on a 3” 3M Green Compounding spot pad… for example, on the C-pilar: After spot correction: two hits of Fast Cut Plus resulting in an average removal of around 10um (which was deemed to be the maximum removal rate for the vehicle to still allow safe future polishing of the finish): End results on the rear of the car after refining with Final Finish as well as describe above: Once the paint correction was completed after a full night shift and a morning of polishing from both Gordon and I, we fell into our finishing routine: paint protected (Duragloss 105 – durablility), wheels protected (Finish Kare 1000P), tyres dressed (Espuma RD-50), arches dressed (Meguiars All Seasons Dressing where no carpets), glass cleaned (Stoner Invisible Glass), trim dressed (Chemical Guys New Look Trim Gel), exhaust tips polished (Briliant #1 Metal Restorer and steel wool, followed by #1 on a microfiber followed by Briliant #2 on microfiber). The end results of the detail, taken inside the unit… The beauty of doing a night shift is that the car is generally finished in daylight hours! … so outdoor after shots as well :thumb: : Overall a very enjoyable detail and good fun preparing a car for heading to a show … Our efforts were judged to be worth it, as the owner texted us on the Sunday after the detail to tell us the car had come second in the Best Audi, and will apparently be getting featured in Golf Plus mag in the future … so we’re pretty chuffed!
that is one sick car! Never even knew audi made a hatchback lol. Now are those rims off of a porsche? Nice work . . . . . . seems like working at night might be a little more fun and of course cooler. I can't get over how neat the car looks though especially with that updated front end on it. Excellent work fellas
Nicely done Dave and team...Lovely colour on the A3, I've never seen it before :thumb: PS, i dropped you a pm a week or 2 back, did you get it?
