Volkswagen Mk 5 Golf. Ex Mobility Shocker Full Restoration Detail

This week’s detail is a 2008 VW Golf TDi 5 door. It was recently purchased from an auction by a good friend of mine as a family runabout. IT was an ex mobility car (Over in Northern Ireland if you can make a valid case the government will give you a new car every 3 years!! i have even seen top of the range 5 Series BMW's being given out for as little as $200 per month). Which normally means mechanically it has wanted for nothing but generally they are not well looked after on the outside and this was pretty much the case.
The car had been “valeted” prior to the auction but it was still pretty grubby and did not hide any of the defects. First on our list was to totally strip any filling polish that had been applied to see wxactly what was lurking underneath. Have you ever wished that you left it well alone lol!! The car was completely covered in dents, deep scrapes, accident damage from using walls etc to stop the car, I presume to save on wearing the brake pads down, random stains, bird etching, ring and jewellery damage around all handles, horrendous swirling the list goes on. To be honest give me this type of detail any day, Its easy to make a new car look good.
Wash process.
Orchard Autocare Citrus Preclean 50:1 dilution ratio and left to dwell for 10 mins.
Wheels treated with Orchard Autocare Iron cleanse again left to dwell for 10 mins, then adgitated and left to sit for a further 5 mins.
All rinsed off and Orchard Autocare Cotton Candy (after a bit of a mess about with a trial foam) and washed using a single bucket method as there is no way that I could inflict any more damage even if I tried..
Wheels were given a second go with Orchard Autocare Wheel Cleanse as originally the wheels were to be removed but eh locking wheel not was taken when it was in the auction yard so a new one had to be ordered and they will be refurbed in the spring time.
Engine bay:
Sound deadening removed so not to get it wet. Citrus Preclean sprayed over bay and washed with various brushes and a mitt. For stubborn I am using Orchard Autocare All Purpose Cleaner with various brushes. Finally everything is rinsed off and dried with a warm air blower.
Next it’s back to the body. The whole car is treated to Iron cleanse and left to dwell for 5 -10 mins as we do the door shuts. Then rinsed off.
Next the wheel arches are cleaned using Orchard Autocare All Purpose Cleaner with a brush rinsed then all arches wheels and body is treated to Tar Cleanse left to dwell for 10 mins as I scrub the arches then it is removed. Any remaining tar is sorted with spot cleaning.
Finally it’s time to clay the car with Bilt Hamber Autoclay and thankfully most of the bonded contamination has been removed and the clay picks up any that is still remaining.























Now we can move the car inside to dry her off and warm up. This is the end of the first evening, so she is ready for a date with “THE DUDE”.
Well top Gear has the Stig and here at OCD-ni we have “The Dude”. He was originally a sheet metal fabricator who restored old Aston Martins, Mercedes Benz, Daimlers, Porsche’s Ferrari’s etc etc. To say he is good would be an understatement and he has been doing paintless dent removal for close to 30 years now. You will be seeing more of him in some of our detail threads.
Some say he can remove a dent just by the power of thought, but all we know is he is called “The Dude”!






The front passenger side wing had received the most damage with two large dents and some quite bad scratching. Once the dents were removed the panel was machine polished initially using Meguiar’s microfiber system on the DA which removed the majority of the defects. We then followed up with Meguiar’s 105 on a yellow 3m waffle pad initially at 1500 rpm then reducing to 1000 rpm, then dropping back to Meguiar’s 205 again on a yellow 3m waffle pad until the desired finished was achieved.















Passenger side:


















Bonnet:











D/S Wing:











D/S Door:
This door suffered from heavy jewellery damage around the handle. To remove these, the panel was wet sanded using a DA and 3000 wet and dry then refined. A total of 8 microns was removed to achieve a decent finish. To ensure an even level of reflection and clarity, the panel was feathered out depth wise giving no visible evidence that any work had been carried out in this area.









Rear D/S Quarter:
AS well as the usual swirling, and deep marks around the filler cap, this panel had a large stain that would not come out for anything other than 3000 wet and dry then refined to the desired finish. A total of 6 microns of paint was removed during this process. Again the panel was feathered out to give a nice even finish and constant level of reflection.







Front Grill:










Once all the correction had been completed. The car was taken out and given a good wash down then brought back in and dried off using the air dryers. The engine bay was dressed using Orchard Autocare Interior Wizard and the sound deadening was reattached. The interior had been valeted but there were stickers on the windscreen that had to be removed and there were a lot of areas where dirt remained, however, there were no real stains on the interior bar one on the A pillar. This was removed and the interior was given a full steam clean and antibacterial wash down. All plastics were dressed with Orchard Autocare Interior Wizard as well as using it on the stain removal.
Oh well then we might as well go home lol!!

Engine bay dressed.



Only real interior stain removed with Orchard Autocare Interior Wizard.

Gone.

Interior plastics dressed with Orchard Autocare Interior Wizard

The sign that should read that this will be one long detail!!

Bits that were missed were cleaned and dressed.

Sticker needed some work to fully remove.


For the final protective coatings. Chemical Guys EZ Crème Glaze was used and then topped off with a new wax that we are trialling. Final wipe down as usual with Zaino Z8. Wheel arches were dressed with Autosmart finish, tyres dressed with Meguires Endurance Tyre Gel, all external plastics were dressed with our development plastic dressing and glass cleaned inside with Orchard Autocare Glass Cleaner and Dodo Juice Supernatural Glass Polish on exterior glass. Below are the final pictures. Many thanks for taking the time to read this and as usual all C&C welcome.
Afters:














































Thanks Rollo

 

wow, awesome. that engine bay has probably -never- looked that good. Always enjoy seeing the VWs

 

Nice work all around!

-Kody-

 

many thanks. She did come up a treat thats for sure.

 

Fantastic turn around, amazing how he got those dents out! Good work.

 

Very tidy work, this will make a perfect daily beater!

 

Another amazing work there mate!

I really enjoy your description of "the dude", i hope to see him more in the future and read more of your punchlines in introducing "the dude"

Cheers,
Bob

BSTP

 

stunning work!

 

many thanks for the Comments.. Yes "The Dude" is an absolute genius at removeing dents. What is more amazing is when he has one that stumps hin then he disappears into the back of his van and reappears about 20 minutes later with a new tool that he has either made or adapted to get it done! Many thanks for the great comments guys!

 

Very nice restoration

 

Well done on the Golf. I also like see clean and shiny VW's.
OT: What is a valid case for a free car from the government?

 

many thansk guys!

if you have a medical condition and need to have transprt can range from pretty much anything really normally it is if you cant afford a car. you pay about $100 a month and it includes all servicing and parts, insurance the lot. not a bad gig really.

 

Holy cow!

 

cheers....

 

Looks great, scratches were corrected of course but I really liked the engine bay plastic looking new with a satin matte finish.

 

great job!

 

I am in awe. Will be looking forward to those from you.

 

many thanks for the great comments. I have been working on some new products. this one is great and we are developing a water resistant version as well.

 

Always nice to see a clean volkswagen !!

 

great job!