Divine Detail - 2005 Audi A4 1.8 Quattro

This vehicle was booked for a full three day Ambassador Detail. The vehicle:

2005 Audi A4 1.8 Quattro

Now to see what I was up against:

This pictures says something about the vehicle, if you look at the bumper the colour doesn’t seem to match the rest of the vehicle properly..




Now right a way I knew the 3M protection was going require a good polish.

Now for the interior:














Last but not least the exhaust tips:




Ah yes, lets not forget the engine bay:






Well as you can see I have my work cut out and here is how day one went:

First all personal belongs were removed from the vehicle and put inside a large zip loc bag, after that all floor mats were removed:


Now it was time to give the entire vehicle a good vacuum:


The leather seats also received a good vacuum in between the stitching as they were far from clean:


Once the entire vehicle had been vacuumed and I was satisfied, it was time to move on to the wipe down. Wipe down was done with the help of Meg’s APC diluted 20:1. For all hard to reach areas a Swissvax brush is used:




Followed up with an air compressor:




Finally wiped down with a yellow micro fiber towel:


The entire interior was wiped down using this method, everything except the leather seats. For the leather seats, first a bucket of hot water was obtained. Then Zymol leather cleaner is applied directly to the leather seats:

Agitated with a damp yellow micro fiber towel and wiped off with another damp yellow micro fiber towel. This process is done to all leather seats.

Now to take care of all the carpet in the interior. First with the help of my Mytee HP-60 the carpet was given a quick rinse:


Followed up with Folex:


Left to dwell for several minutes and agitated with Meg’s carpet brush:


Last step is to extract the carpet again with the help of my Mytee HP-60

This process is done to all carpet, once satisfied with the results the entire vehicle is now ready to be dressed and leather re-conditioned.

First up, all vinyl trim is dressed with Zymol Vinyl applied with the help of a Zymol Schpritzer bottle and spread with a soft foam applicator:




This was done to all vinyl trim, next the leather seats were wormed up with the help of a 1000W lights:


Once leather was worm enough Zymol Treat is applied by hand:


Massaged into the leather:


Once all leather had been re-conditioned it was time to give all vinyl trims a final wipe down with a yellow micro fiber towel. The last step is to give the leather seats a final wipe down as well with another yellow micro fiber towel.

Well this concludes the interior and it was getting late, but decided it would be best to give the exterior the appropriate wash and clay. So moving along to the exterior.

First up the wheel wells received a healthy coat of P21S Total Auto Wash:


The rims received a coat of P21S Gel:


Making sure to get all the way inside the rims:


The rims received a good coat of ARO. Next it was time to agitate the wheel wells, unfortunately the Meg’s long hand brush would not fit in these wheel wells so with the help of my Black ShMITT the wheel wells were agitated:


Next the inside of the rims were agitated with my two inch wool brush:


The face of the rims were agitated with a Swissvax brush:


Finally the tires were given a good scrub with a Meg’s tire brush:


This is how all that scrubbing looks like:


All it needs now is a good rinse:


This process is done to all wheel wells, rims and tires.

Moving right along it was time to give the engine bay a good cleanse. First, all delicate parts that I felt needed to be protected were protected with several bags. Fist a quick rinse was given to the entire engine bay, followed up with a healthy coat of P21S Total Auto Wash:

P21S Total Auto Wash is agitated with yet another Swissvax brush, some areas required several application of P21S Total Auto Wash and again agitated. Once satisfied the engine bay was given a good rinse.

By now it was getting a tad late but since I’ve started the cleansing of the exterior might as well finish it, so next up the CR System is connected to obtain Deionized water, the entire vehicle is given a good rinse. The rinse showed that there was no protection what’s so ever on this vehicle, so no need to use the P21S Total Auto Wash as a shampoo, instead Meg’s Gold Class Shampoo is used with the two bucket method of course and the Zymol Sponge:


Through the wash of the vehicle, the vehicle was given a thorough rinse with Deionized water to insure no water spots.

The clay of choice is Riccardo:


Here is how Riccardo finished off:

Looks good doesn’t it, well the vehicle was in worse state then I expected it. All lower panels received, multiple coat of Tarminator and here is how much tar was on this vehicle:








Like I said all lower panels required multiple application of Tarminator. Wile Tarminator was left to works it’s magic. I took the opportunity to take care of the door jams, here is what greeted me:

Not to bad but definitely not to Divine Details standards.

So first up a good coat of P21S Total Auto Wash is applied:


Then agitated with a Swissvax brush and once satisfied with the agitation a final wipe down was done with yet another yellow micro fiber towel and here is what I was left with:


A closer look reveals this:

Now these results are worthy and very satisfying.

Well all door jams were done in this manner once complete all door jams back to the tar, yet another applicator of Tarminator was applied and wiped off with a yellow micro fiber towel. Tarminoator worked extremely well on breaking down all the tar on the lower panels of this vehicle, but it sure took a wile :shrug:

Well once all tar had been removed all lower panels were given a good wash and the entire vehicle was once again rinsed off with Deionized water.

Now to dry the vehicle, first the vehicle is air dried with the help of an air compressor. Water that is left over is removed with the help of a waffle weaved micro fiber towel.

This completes the interior and the exterior and by now it was quite late and called it a night. This concludes day one and so far 10hrs have been accumulated.

Day two:

The day began nice and early and now comes the part I was looking forward to, the paint correction process but before the fun begins paint gauge readings were taken:




Now that I know how much paint/clear coat I had to play with it was time to see what I was up against, with the help of my 3M Sun Gun here is what I found:





Now these scratches were going to need some extra work, I felt the scratch and they didn’t feel so deep but time will tell.

After seeing what I was up against it was time to tape up the vehicle:








Now a test section is required so I taped off the trunk of the vehicle and started off with Menzerna 85RD 3.02, Black 3M UK Polishing pad, Metabo at 1500 RPM combined with the 3M UK Backing Plate. Here is the section before any polishing:


Here is the same section after the above mentioned combination:


Not bad but as you can see many deep scratches that were going to need something a bit stronger. That and the clear coat was quite hard, so stepped up the to a Orange 3M UK compounding pad with Menzerna 85RD 3.02, Metabo at 1500 RPM with 3M UK Backing Plate:


The results with this combo were quite satisfying but it required a bit of finessing, so the Black 3M UK Polishing pad was used combined with Menzerna 85RD, Metabo at 1800 RPM with 3M UK Backing Plate:


This gave the following results:




This combo removed all random scratches and the 85RD brought back an extremely nice gloss to the vehicle. Well this is the combo required for this vehicle. Now considering that it was going to take at least two stage process I figured it would be best to have two rotary’s set up as tag team so time to bring out the Makita to play and the tag team looked like this:


Metabo with 3M UK Orange Compounding pad and the Makita with the Black 3M UK Polishing pad, both rotary’s combined with the 3M UK Backing Plate :thumb:

Well let the fun begin. I made my way around the vehicle, plan of correction had been set but I took the correction process panel per panel. Here is how the vehicle was accepting this process:
Before




Before:


After:


Majority of the vehicle responded quite well to the paint correction process till I made my way to this section:

I hit this section with the same combo that was providing great results:

It made a difference but not good enough so next step was to go to a Menzerna Wool pad combined with Menzerna Power Gloss:

Followed up with Menzerna 85RD 3.02 with Orange 3M UK Compounding pad and finished off with Menzerna 85RD and Black 3M UK Polishing pad.
This effort provided the satisfying result and scratch had been completely removed.

The 3M protection was hit with one pass of Black 3M UK Polishing pad, Menznera 85RD 3.02 with Makita at 1500 RPM followed up with a Blue 3M UK Finishing pad, Menzerna 85RD with Metabo at 1500 RPM.

Day two resulted on yet another long day as the paint correction process took quite a significant amount of time, 14hrs with in between breaks for re-charging the batteries with good that is :thumb:. The paint correction process was quite challenging not to mention long but very rewarding. This concludes day 2.

Day three.

The third day didn’t start as early as day two but yet another enjoyable day as it was time to give the vehicle a final wipe down with a 50/50 alcohol wipe down. Followed up with Swissvax Cleaner Fluid:


Cleaner Fluid was removed with various Cookie Monsters. Next was the protection of all that hard work, the protection of choice is:

Swissvax Mystery.

Mystery is applied with a Swissvax foam applicator:


Wile Swissvax Mystery is left to bond with the vehicle the exhaust tips were next to deal with, once again the weapon of choice is Autosol:


Rims were protected with DG#105, tires were dressed with Zymol Tyre, all glass were cleansed with Zymol Glass and a glass micro fiber towel.

By now Mystery was ready to be buffed off and was removed with various Cookie Monsters:


Now for the end results, first up the interior:






















Now for the engine bay:






Now for the exterior:


































There was still some day light when I completed the vehicle and capture the following pictures:












To conclude, I was able to do a walk around video enjoy:



Well this concludes a very rewarding detail. A grand total of 34hrs were dedicated to this vehicle and the end results were well worth it. Hope you enjoy the long winded detail and as always feed back (good or bad) is always welcome.

 

Awesome detail guys! 34 hours is a lot of detailing! It sure shows!

 

Saaaweeet!

 

Wow Carlos great detail and write up as well. The paint correction looked like a lot of work but in the end was worth it!!! Mystery looks good and I love your interiors details also!!! :worship2::worship2:

 

I am always in AWE of your details and how you never ever miss anything. Truely a professional in every sense of the word! That Audi looks incredible...can't wait for pirex to see it.

 

Looks Great! Thanks for sharing ^_^

 

Thank you sneek, yes many hours went in to this vehicle but the end results were well worth it :thumb:

Thank you, glad you enjoyed it eace:

Thank you Smith glad you enjoyed the detail, I had a blast detailing this vehicle :gidiup: :gidiup:

Thank you for the kind words JLs very much appreciated my friend :hug: But I do miss things sometimes, but that's why I enjoy reading everyones details here, they always help me remember things :thumb:

Oh I can totally see why pirex is so hooked on these Audis, they are gorgeous, inside and outside. The AWD is a huge bonus :thumb:

I'm ready for more Audis :gidiup: :gidiup:

 

man thats a great detail!

 

so now that you got to try the mystery, how does it compare to Divine in terms of looks and wax harness. Also which is easier to apply and remove.

Great detail BTW. Love your write ups.

 

excellent job Nica...well done mate:thumb::thumb:

 

Thank you, glad you enjoyed it eace:

Thank you FMINUS, glad you enjoyed it buddy :hug:

Well in my opinion, Mystery is quite nice but Divine is way better in looks...not sure about durability, to be honest I don't pay attention to durability :shrug: But as far as looks go, I rather go with Divine. Divine ads more depth...but I'll have to use Mystery on a different colour vehicle to be fair. I've used Divine several times now, this is my first time using Mystery so just my first opinion...it may change within a week or so...but Divine ads more dept in my opinion...just my :2cents:

Thank you Jayplay, very much appreciated my friend eace:

 

wow wow wow Your first Audi huh, and what a start! The car came out great, the finish is superb! I love your interior job, looks so..so...GOOD! Can`t wait for the next audi. And I agree with you about myster vs divine. Its a big difference if you ask me.

 

Wow, that Audi paint must be truly hard! Of course, I'm experiencing the same thing with the '89 BMW 525i sitting in my driveway, hehe. Amazing results nonetheless!

I have loved your process in your Ambassador Details so much that I have sort of mimicked some of your methods, hehe. I hope you don't mind! :whistle:

 

Looks great Nica!

 

Thank you pirex, boy was I ever impressed with this Audi. I was fortunet enough that I had the opportunity to drive it back to the owner. Sure handles great, I really like the AWD. Wife hinted she would love to get rid of the Volvo for one of these...:thinking: :thinking:...I've been trying to convince her to let me sell the Volvo for a long time now, so maybe soon I'll have one of these vehicles sitting in my garage for the wife :thumb:

As for Divine Vs Mystery, I noticed the difference right a way but then again it's the first time I use Mystery so wasent too sure what to expect.

pirex, I can totaly see why you like these Audis. Looks like there is a black A6 coming my way, I'm looking forward to it and the clear coat was a bit of a challenge. I mean I haven't had to use a compounding pad for a wile, but it's always good to be chalenged. Besides, if I get stuck I got the Audi king to help me out :worship2:

Yes, the clar coat on this Audi was a bit tough. But it was good, I haen't had a tough vehicle for a wile, I needed the change of pace. Luckely I had no time limit, just the way I like it :gidiup:

Glad your liking the Ambassador Details, as for the process sure thing you can use it all you want. We all have our process that works for each other, if the way I do things helps others by all means use it eace:

Thank you for the feed back, very much appreciated :hippie:

 

Absolutely top notch work, 34 hours, that is crazy. BUT, the results entirely reflect the amount of time/effort put in.

 

wow that thing is perfect

 

Phenominal work as AWLAYS from Divine Detail!!:applause:

I enjoy your work and your write ups which take a fair amount of time to do to this level

 

WoW!!!! you spend every little detail. Great work man!:worship2::worship2::worship2::thumb:

 

Outstanding job Carlos. :headbang:

I really like the Detailing Bliss shirt. When will they be available for purchase??? :thumb: