This past weekend saw the arrival of yet another Audi S3, this time a metallic black one :headbang: The client had elected for our full service detail which meant it would be a 2 day affair getting intimate with the wheel arches and giving the paintwork some extra TLC Having had our asses handed to us by Sven's blue S3 only weeks prior we were ready to kick this Audi's clear coat's ass. We decided to try our usual combo of SIP and a yellow 3M pad and should it not deliver, we would step right up to 3M FCP on purple foamed wool refined with Menz 106FA on the yellow pad. Needless to say we wound up using the latter :headbang: Initial Inspection Right onto the nitty gritty. The car which greeted us had only recently come up from a trip down to KZN so it was pretty filthy. Despite all the dirt it was quite easy to see that the paintwork was riddled with swirls along with a healthy dose of bird and bug etchings to boot! The car as she arrived Wheels Wash & Clay After some quick snaps we pulled the car under the carports and gave it a thorough rinsing before washing and rinsing again in preperation for the claying. Meg's Gold Class shampoo along with 4:1 APC and various brushes were used to get everything cleaned up. Meg's Fine Clay was chosen as we didn't want to inflict any further marring if possible. No pics of the washing unfortunately but a quick snap of the clay :hammerhead: With all of that out of the way the car was washed and rinsed once again before being dried and taped up and then moved out into the light to see what were up against. A collection of some of the defects we were dealing with starting with etchings Swirling and some feint buffer trails Paint Correction With all the inspection and prep work out of the way we set about on the polishing. We decided I would get cracking with the compounding and Grant would follow me with the FA and we would work our way around the car. All in all the paint correction went smoothly with no hiccups and we managed to almost completely wrap the correction work up by the end of day 1. My weapon of choice....Makita armed with purple foamed wool and 3M FCP Grant getting stuck in with the FA and 3M yellow pad Some post correction snaps before we called it a day With all that done we hit the showers and set off to grab some pizza's before flopping in front of the TV to watch some DVD's Day 2 Day 2 required the removal of all the wheels and some final polishing along with the interior and final touches. While Grant finished up with the 106FA and tackled the arches in between I set about getting started on the wheels. Arches were scrubbed with APC while the wheels were cleaned 1st with Sonax Xtreme Rim cleaner, followed by 4:1 APC followed by Sonax tar remover and finally topped with Smartwax Rimwax. I have never in my life seen so much tar stuck to the inside of a mag wheel...It was crazy :shakehead: Wheels off to reveal the arches The sad state of the wheels Tar deposits after scrubbing Sonax Tar remover doing it's thing Finished wheels after Smartwax Rimwax Arches were treated to 303 and calipers sealed with Smartwax Rimwax as well Interior all cleaned up and treated to 303 Final touches With the wheels and interior completed we set about washing the car one final time before applying the LSP and attending to all the small odds and ends. LSP of choice today was CG;s XXX Paste Wax applied with Meg's foam applicators and buffed with DD Uber MF's. With everything completed we pulled the car out into the light again where I proceeded to snap hordes of photies :applause2: And some final reflection shots under the carports :angel: Overall another enjoyable detail and the perfect preperation for another black S3 we doing this coming weekend :applause: Thanks for looking :thumb:
You really do excellent work...in all of your posts i see the same backdrop of location...do you have your own shop or do this from your home??
Superb finish all around:worship2: I know this may sound crazy but I wish my own black Audi had a hard clear as well, mine is butter soft and makes every wipedown a PITA. Again though just outstanding work~
Great job again Carn. Beginning to fall in love with all these S3's you been doing. Wish I could get the Sonax wheel cleaner and tar remover here. The wheels on my suv are worse, and I haven't been able to detail it yet, due to the cold weather where I live.
Well done :applause: Man I love how those rims finished off :druling: :druling: Another job well done :thumb:
yet another bang up job on an S3. now i'm even more jealous that you guys get to have those and we dont. if i could get one in the states id be driving an S3 instead of my MKV GTI. nice write up as well.
Oh I got a question, what is this contraption here: I mean I see the jack where it's supposed to be but is that a spare tire under the rotors? If so what's it doing there? Sorry curiosity got the best of me. Oh and the wheel wells looks very good :thumb:
Thanks for the comments guys Thank you, we work from home on the weekends. More of a hobby than a business at the moment but we getting there @ Nica my father always told me to leave the spare wheel under the wheel you working on while it is jacked up. Should the car fall off the jack the spare wheel will stop the brake rotor from hitting the ground. Not as good as using axle stands (which we still need to buy) but the best we have at our disposal for the time being
