The Audi R8 is such a brilliant car in so many ways. Looks, ergonomics, performance, balance, design, production quality to name a few. When this customer called to inquire about options for cleaning up his R8, I could barely contain my excitement in a professional manner. We quickly defined some goals for the process, with economical paint correction being at the top. A secondary goal was protection, and the customer selected Aquartz to provide a durable, rock hard and extremely glossy finish. Upon arrival, I had to commend the owner on his wash technique and overall care of the car as there was virtually no swirling present. This was partially due to the rock hard Audi clear, but proper wash technique and detailing go a long way as well. The car did have its share of RDS that I was able to focus in on and eliminate due to not having to hassle with swirling and marring. First, let's rewind a bit, the car was decontaminated in preparation for paint correction in the following way: *Wheels, arches and tires degreased and deironed *Tight bits, plastic trim and exhaust tips degreased and polished *Pressure wash of all exterior surfaces *2-bucket method hand wash *Iron Cut applied to all exterior surfaces *Clay decontamination From there, the car was pulled back into the garage to begin testing polish/pad combos I used SIP, a yellow uber, and the new Flex rotary for all cutting, except for the clear bra which received 106fa/green uber/Flex DA. 95% correction was achieved on all surfaces. The R8's clear was hard enough, and SIP finished down well enough that I could have stopped there. However, I went for the extra gloss with 85rd, a blue uber, and Flex rotary. As you will see, the paint was extremely glossing after the jeweling phase. Protection is as follows: 2 coats Aquartz Premium 1 coat Aquartz Titanium 1 coat Aquartz Reload 3 coats Gtechniq G1 (windshield) I hope you enjoy this write up as much as I enjoyed working on it; do forgive me for posting so many 'after' pictures. I was having too much fun photographing this beautiful specimen. I have 50 more after shots alone that I did not include. Well, let's get started, here is the car to start Wheels were in good shape overall with some iron/brake dust deposits present Working previous tire dressings and dirt off of the sidewalls And the arches And working the wheels and calipers clean with AG CWC Here is Sonax FE lifting off the dead iron No more embedded brake dust here Working some of the tight areas on the vehicle Exhaust before and after Iron Cut removing embedded iron particulates, 'bleeding purple' Iron Cut found a bit more iron on the wheels after initial work with Sonax No more embedded brake dust on the wheels Claying the car produced almost no contaminants, but there was a bit of burnt rubber it pulled off behind both rear wheels :applause2: The Air Wand in action, completely eliminating the chance of drying induced paint defects. Don't forget the rear diffuser! Doors jambs were cleaned and sealed with Optimum poli-seal. This is a great polish for chemically removing light defects and sealing. An example of the defects present. The dark coloring made them stand out more. On the silver areas of the car, it was next to impossible to fully expose all defects with the camera. Scratch cluster in between the window reflections After correction Carbon fiber door blade with scratches After initial cutting stages (horizontal line in first shot is just polish residue) Driver side door before After correction Above door pull, driver side, nasty cluster of scratches After correction Driver side rear wheel arch before After correction 50/50 taillight Rear wing before After correction Trunk hatch, before After correction Other side taillight before After correction Carbon fiber engine bits, notice the nasty cluster of scratches to the right of the halogen light reflection After initial cutting Other CF engine bits before After correction A little package arrived from Phil @ Detailer's Domain mid-correction!!! Scratch on the clear bra After correction Did I mention what a badass setup of a garage this was? Wired for sound, all controlled through the iPad! More garage pics to come. Front plastic bit 50/50. Not 100% but much better. Onto the jeweling with the new Flex. This machine is awesome. Much lighter than a Makita, quieter than the Flex DA, and very well balanced. Artsy-fartsy shot I applied the first two coats of Aquartz Premium and pulled the car out to admire my work. Engine all shined up Gtechniq G1 curing on the glass, coat 1 of 3 OK, here are some shots of the garage I was working in, what a treat. Oh, and yes, the owner has a DeLorean too. Runs and everything. I returned two days later to apply a coat of Aquartz Titanium and Reload. Here are the finals, sunshots were hard to get as the sunlight was so intense and paint popped so much. Hope you enjoy the massive reflections and glossy body lines of this beautiful car, now appearing as it should.
beautiful work shane. i too love the new flex, in fact i dont think i ever want to use another. should sell all my others. these cars are magnificent and you did it justice. fun finding scratches on silver eh? hey, i sold my amg and got a cts coupe caddy in black. love it and more practical. drove it to mt hood and showed your house to my wife. what a great drive. well off to sleep doing a damn ski boat tomorrow.
Thanks Dave! Wow, switch to the Caddy, didn't see that one coming. And black too, you've got your work cut out for you now. G/L on the boat Thanks Ken! Thank you Kody! Thanks I like Aquartz, am curious to see what the durability is really like.
How do you like the air wand, a quick searched reveals it's at a pretty nice price, and I'm in the market for something I can use to blow excess water off cars, right now it's this or a toro leaf blower. Also nice write up, but I can't see the pics because my school has blocked them right now
Beautiful car! Is that color called something special? My MK4 is silver and has that cool glow to it that I just don't see on a lot of other Golf's/Jetta's. Could be bc I keep it so clean and its polished out. Bad ass garage too man! Lucky guy to have such nice toys.
Killer work, those carbon blades get hacked and you got them perfect! Owner must have been thrilled with the result, most silver cars dont have a gloss like that ever!
Excellent work. Is the iron cut the new go to product for cleaning? Seems everyones using it, now I gotta get some.
Awesome work. I was working on a m3 a couple months ago and the neighbour accross the street had a deloren. Weird car. Way before its time.
The Airwand is great, I have been touting it for a while now as it is superior to a regular leaf blower, or Metro Vac blower, or the little mobile blowers like you can get at ChemGuys. The superiority lies in the attachment because it spreads the air out over a much wider area than the more concentrated pinpoint of leaf blowers and other devices. I think you can get just the attachment from their website too and it will fit into that type of leaf blower. PM if you want the dimensions on the opening, I will measure mine. Thanks Phil! Thanks! It is a standard R8 factory color as far as I know. I don't think it is offered standard in the VW line. Thanks Dave, yes the owner was excited, and yes, those blades really make you earn your keep! Thanks for the kind words Joe!! Yes IronCut is definitely a go to for me, although I really only use it on details where the customer is having me go to the nth degree. It is a luxury use product for me. Thanks Bryan. The DL is a funky car, love the doors and how they open, the SS finish is cool too. Too bad it didn't perform a bit better, short of having a flux capacitor installed.:applause2: