Solid Black VW Golf GTi : Supernatural LSP!

Discussion in 'Professional Detailer's Studio' started by Dave KG, Mar 30, 2008.

  1. Dave KG

    Dave KG Jedi Nuba

    A weekend of entertainment in Dundee for Bryan, Stu and myself with a VW Golf GTi (MkIV) in what is in my humnble opinion, the best colour for detailing: Solid Black :cool:

    With the car washed and clayed, we could see in the garage why the owner was complaining of the finish not being as dark looking as it should be with swirls and marring evident:

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    Paint on the bonnet was of reasionable thickness, between 110 and 130um generally, so polishing with light to medium polishes or light compounds was deemed to be safe.

    First trial was Menzerna PO106FA Final Finish on a Meguiars W8006 polishing pad - this seemed to generate quite a bit of heat, as if it was on the verge of playing up, and for this reason it had to be worked as follows:

    • 1 pass at 600rpm to spread
    • 2 - 3 passes at 1200rpm to begin working
    • 4 - 5 passes at 1500rpm until the panel was getting warm (polish was starting to dry at this stage)
    • Switch off machine, allow a moment to cool
    • Repeat 1200 and 1500 rpm sets above
    • Refine finish at 900rpm for two passes

    The break allowed the panel to cool and for me stopped the Menzerna from playing up completely, though this situation was non-ideal... It needen't have mattered anyway, as correction from this combo was only arounf the 60% level and a lot more could be achieved as the paint thickness allowed it :)

    Next trial was Menzerna PO85RD3.02 Intensive Polish but on this paint (sticky paint? - seems some paints just dont get on with certain Menz polishes and this was one of them) it wasn't to be as it got hot pretty quickly at slow speeds and would not have broken down effectively to give any decent cut...

    So, it was out with a new product to my detailing and something I have been enjoyihng testing over the past wee while: MarkV Mystique. This fine compound varies its cut more notably than most when chaging pads, and given the RDS present, I decided to use this on a LakeCountry CCS Yellow Cutting Pad as follows:

    • Spread at 600rpm
    • 4 - 5 passes at 1200 rpm to begin working
    • Around 10 passes at 1800 rpm to thoroughly work
    • 1 pass at 1200rpm to refine

    This polish is designed to be worked quicker than this method, but I find myself getting more out of the abrasives by taking advantage of the work time, while at the same time getting a little sharper finish... This removed the arring and swirls, leaving only the odd RDS here and there that was much deeper.

    Being solid black, I went for the extra stage of a fine finishing polish and pad combination: Menzerna PO106FA Final Finish on a Meguiars W9006 tan finishing pad worked as follows:

    • 1 pass at 600rpm to spread
    • 2 passes at 900rpm to begin working
    • 4 - 5 passes at 1200rpm to work the cutting part of the abrasives with medium pressure
    • 5 or so passes at 1500rpm uintil the residue went clear to burnish the finish with absolutely no pressure, but instead liifting the machine every so slightly to give only very slight downward pressure
    • 2 - 3 passes at 900rpm to finally refine

    The above method for me seemed to get the best combinatiuon of rounding a little further the edges of RDS while also burnishing the finish to a high gloss to get crisp reflections and a deep gloss. Using light to no pressure for the 1500rpm stage seemed to just deliver that little more work time and a little more in the way of clarity to the finish on this paint, but not all paints would respond the same to this.

    Anyway, the result of this testing (which took an hour to get the right combo!!). Excuse the polish residue:

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    Pretty good - shame about the stone chips though. Note the odd RDS remaining, correction at about the 95% level here.

    Moving on to the front wing, we see the following marring:

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    The Mystique followed by Final Finish working to give again around 95% correction and to the pleasure of my eyes, the depth and gloss back to the black:

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    One region of the bonnet was slightly more badly marred than the rest of it for some reason...

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    Not to worry: two hits of Mystique as above with the cutting pad, and then follow with the Final Finish on a finishing pad to sharpen up the finish every so slightly more just to get the best out of the black and we get:

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    In the garage, after polishing and with no LSP applied, this was the finish achieved on the bonnet and wings:

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    Any LSP was going to have its work cut out to be noticeable I reckoned at this stage!

    Back to the correction, and we get to the driver's side rear 3/4... Thinner paint. Inside door read 75um, so I used this as my gauge. Reading of below 90um were treated with extreme caution. I didn't at this stage want to hit the panel with a compound on a cutting pad, but as you can see from the marring, it was going to need some serious work:

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    So, I decided to use a LakeCountry CCS White Polishing pad instead with the Mystique to reduce the rate at which is cut, and worked it only for as long as felt safe to keep the paint at a healthy thickness... worked as follows:

    • Spread at 600rpm
    • 2 - 3 passes at 1200rpm to begin working
    • Passes at 1800rpm until correction achieved or thickness reduced
    • Refine with one or two quick passes at 900rpm

    No real effort to refine the finish at this stage, and simply getting as much correction as I felt safe to on the panel to get the best result I could... But even with no finishing efforts, the Mystique compound did an admirable job of finishing down to a gloss with little or no compounding marring:

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    Impressive stuff in my eyes, and what has become for me a very desirable product :)

    Finishing though, was still going to happen!! Final Finish applied as above to sharpen the gloss a little more to get:

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    Note there are still some marks left in here - correction around the 80 - 85% level but a huge improvement made and the depth and gloss restored to the paint without risking its integrity.

    With the car machined, it was time to choose an LSP... Today's choice for solid black was Clearkote Yellow Cream Wax as a glaze to add a little wettness to the finish (which it did do in the flesh), and top off with Dodo Supernatural just to put this new and well publicised wax to the test!

    The YCW was applied by hand, using a Meguiars foam applicator pad, spread around and then worked into the paint in straight lines for a few passes with medium pressure... The residue buffed off effortlessly and a subtle wettness was added to give a little extra to the black :)... Supernatural's job made harder still!!

    Now out with the wooden tub (no Stu, its not a candle!! :lol: :lol: ) and time to give Supernatural a damn good run out. Applied by hand using a foam applicator pad, allowed to sit for five or so minutes. The residue buffed off with great ease and the finish revealed needed a little to take in... Had it made a difference? The general consensus was yes, it had (and this was from me also, a bit of an LSP cynic of late!)... Indeed, it seemed to have got a little more out of the shine, making the panel a little more reflective and adding a little more gloss in much the same way as Victoria Concours does. So we admired the finish for an hour... and then applied a second layer of the Supernatural and this was when I noticed that it did make a very subtle effect... the reflections stood out just a tiny bit more, the gloss was a touck thikcker and deeper.

    The nuance left was extremely subtle, as with all LSPs, we are not taking breath taking. The wax did not transform the finish - no wax ever will. It didn't make the car massively different to look at - no wax ever will. But it did compliment nicely a lot of hard work and finished the detail off just perfectly for me.

    Finished pics in the garage of the paint finish:

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    Compare with the no LSP pics above for yourselves (yes yes, I know, pictures dont tell the whole story, or indeed very much of it at all fopr the tiny subtle nuances a wax adds - you'll have to take my word for the above I'm afriad...).

    To finish off this exterior detail, the alloys were sealed with Smartwax Rim Wax, plastics and trim with Meguiars All Seasons Dressing and the glass polished with Autoglym Glass Polish, plastic lights with Meguiars PlastX.

    The end results outside... apollogies for the lovely Scottish weather which rained on the end results (pioty the owner had a bit of a drive to get home...):

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    The rain then came on good and proper which allowed us and the owner to see the effects of the wax on the car... The water just fell off in the heavy rain, and after the shower we were left with this beading:

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    Not in any way indicative of protection level, but nice to look at! :thumb:
     
  2. richy

    richy Guest

    Great job!! I enjoyed reading about the MarkV Mystique; I have never heard of it. There seem to be some worthy new players in the game..system one comes to mind too. Luckily, Menz seems to work for the vast majority for me b/c i do enjoy it. The owner must have been blown away, you guys should be proud.:applause2:
     
  3. P1et

    P1et Official DB Moderator

    That is excellent work as usual Dave, gotta love the Mk4s...
     
  4. JLs Detailing

    JLs Detailing DB Pro Supporter

    Great work and I love the write up. Especially the indepth steps you used with the rotary and polishes. That is extremely helpful to people like me that are starting with the rotary. Most of the time when people post use with a rotary they are very vague about process and that doesn't really help out a newbie. Thanks again for being so detailed in the write up and I can't wait to use my Supernatural now! Oh yeah believe it or not I actually saw a black VW Golf GTi in my sleepy little southern town of NC yesterday!
     
  5. pirex

    pirex DB Certified Dealer

    Very good work! Love the finish. I had a GTI my self, same color! Nice car :D
     
  6. supercharged

    supercharged DB Forum Supporter

    Looks so supernatural! Superb!
     
  7. Nica

    Nica Banned

    Very nice work there dave and a superb write up well done :appluase: :applause:

    That vehicle had some wicked swirls :what: but you guys sure did a great job at turning them around.

    Question are Stu and Bryan good mates of yours? I'm assuming so, what was there process on the vehicle? I'm assuming they helped polish as well? Just wondering that's all.

    Really enjoyed your write up, very informative :thumb:
     
  8. Tonya

    Tonya Welcome to Detailing

    Great job and nice write up! Thanks for sharing!!
     
  9. Dave KG

    Dave KG Jedi Nuba

    Yes they are, we all "muck in" on the details :)

    Stu does a lot of work with the PC on details, Bryan is superb at fine details like wheels, arches but we all swap roles a lot - Bryan did most of the cleanse and wax stage on this one for example while Stu and I finished off this machine polishing... I am generally always on the rotary as thats my personal preference. But its a big team effort, which takes a lot of pressure off as we can individually spend a lot more time on separate things concentrating on getting them spot on. :)
     
  10. Nica

    Nica Banned

    Thank you for sharing Dave and yes I agree it's best to detail in a group, I used to detail by my self and one thing I noticed about detailing with Calgarydetail and Divine Detail is that not only do we get the job done faster but it makes the detail much more enjoyable oh and yes, it's best to split duties :thumb:

    Besides it's fun detailing with some good friends/mates :thumb:
     
  11. Dave KG

    Dave KG Jedi Nuba

    Completely agree!

    That, and Bryan whips up some good beans on toast mid detail too!! :D
     
  12. Nica

    Nica Banned

    Really, well I need to get my friends to start cooking for me :thinking: :thinking:

    Mind you Calgarydetail always brings some vegies as snaks, organic too :thumb: or maybe it's this :thumbdown: lol..just teasing.
     

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