Need Help Detailing my Silver Audi

[Jrunr]

I have a 2005 Audi S4 in light silver and i am trying to figure out what is the best way to make my car "stand out in a crowd" after she is detailed. I have been using the NXT Tech Spray wax only, but I am looking for a deep, wet look that won't tint the color.

Here are the products i am tryng to decide between:

Klasse Twins,
Monzerna, polish, fmj, etc...
Blackfire
Zaino

Which is going to give me that "show quality" look?

Any help would be great!

[tdekany]

I think this was a 2002 - hope it helps somehow. There are many great products out there that will give you these result.

Preparation is almost everything.

Out of what you have listed I use Klesse & Menzerna. Good luck!

process:

NXT wash
clay
PwC
Pink wax

[O4cobra]

Hi Jrunr,

First off, very jealous of the car you have. I'm a big fan odf the S4's.

Anyways, I am not a big Zaino guy myself, but on silver it's stunning. I had zaino on my Altima for a while due to not being able to work on my car a lot. Especially now that I detail on the side and clean up friends/family member cars. I have not used the new Z2 pro, but it appears to be a pretty good product. I hope the ease of use is a little bit better than the old stuff. Zaino gives a great look to silver and has great durability

Funny thing is, tomorrow I am going to polish my Altima with either Menzerna FP II, or Menzerna PO85RD. Then I am going to seal it with FMJ. I have found the line of Menzerna polishes to truly be in a league of their own. They have the finest materials in the world. I only have Menzerna polishes in my arsenal, with the exception of DACP. I will post pics tomorrow or saturday after I am done and I will ike you guys to it!!

Here is a pic with Zaino Z2, topped with Poorboy's EX-P


As the above mentioned post, FK1 Pink Wax is excellent on silver as well. That is currently the only thing I have on my paint. Here are some shots 6 weeks after the initial application.

[Jrunr]

Well, Please keep me informed here. I am really lookng to do something that will set my car apart from any other that s out there. Please e-mail me at jrunr@hotmail.com and keep me updated since you have already used the Zaino and are going to use the menzerna I would LOVE to find out your results. Thanks again!

Jason

[BenP]

I was looking for information on silver cars last night as I am detailing a friend's Silver Grey BMW at the weekend and figured what works well on silver should work well on Silver Grey. In my search I found these threads that you may find useful:

Making Silver Metallic cars.. deep, wet, and shiny

What's your favourite thing on silver?

It seems that VM+EX-p is a popular choice.

Hope this helps,
Ben.

[Accumulator]

Jrunr- Welcome to Autopia!

As you can see, everybody has their favorite approach and it's not like anybody's wrong.

FWIW, I've had about a dozen silver Audis and I always have at least two on hand for side-by-side comparisons. So I know a little about how to make them look special

First, get the prep right. The silver Spies Hecker paint can sorta "hide" marring like light swirls, but removing these imperfections is very important to your final result. Inspect under incandescent lighting, the brighter the better (try an old-fashioned "trouble light"). Don't expect to see much under fluorescents, and even halogens can be tricky when it comes to seeing the finer flaws.

Best look I've ever achieved on this paint was from careful prep (literally days) using PI-III RC/MG then 1Z Paint Polish. At that point the paint was free of marring under all the light sources I tried. I then polished it repeatedly with 1Z (Pro version) MP. After numerous passes I finally topped ith with several applications of UPP spaced about 24 hours apart. Then another coat after each of the next few washes.

The above treatment gave a look I've never seen before on this paint. Both deep *and* reflective. The metallic has such a "pop" that it can be literally blinding in bright sun, yet it doesn't look "plastic". When parked beside other silver Audis you'd swear it was a different paint.

[the other pc]

Originally posted by Jrunr
I have a 2005 Audi S4 in light silver and i am trying to figure out what is the best way to make my car "stand out in a crowd...

That's easy Jrunr, paint it yellow.

Sorry about that, it was a cheap shot. The reality is that silver is so bloody common these days and it's such a fundamentally neutral, blend into the background color to begin with that it's incredibly difficult to make a silver car stand out.

Besides making the paint "pop" (pay attention to Accumulator, he's da Man on silver Audis) you have to make sure the rest of the car is perfect, the trim, wheels, glass, tires, etc. That's why they call it detailing.

Oh, and to Autopia. With a lot of work and a little help from these crazies, you will succeed.


PC.

[Winston Wolf]

I noticed this TSB For Audi on the Finish Kare Site. May be a good prep step.


http://www.fk1usa.com/TSB/Audi%20TSB%2050-94-01.pdf

http://www.fk1usa.com/tsb.htm#

[Accumulator]

Winston Wolf- Good spotting on the Audi tsb

Something like the FK decontamination system is always a good idea, especially on light colors that really show rust-blooms.

I use the ABC system from AutoInt myself, and I clay during the "B" step, while it's dwelling. I used it on the S8, and I'm rather careful/particular about what I do with that one If you use it correctly (i.e., don't let it dry on the car), which is pretty easy on something the size of an S4 it won't hurt anything (except the contamination). I use ABC on *all* our new vehicles.

Since I started using the ABC, I've noticed a great decrease in the recurring rust-blooms. In the past I just used clay, and before clay I used paint cleaners. But with those methods some of the blooms always came back. It's hard enough to keep up with *fresh* ferrous contamination so I don't want any lingering, long-term effects from whatever the vehicles went through before I even took delivery. And note that I almost always take them "in the plastic". They're still contaminated.

[Winston Wolf]

Accumulator.

Wouldn't it make sense to stick with the product Audi recomends. It looks like they have required its use for 10-15 years

[Accumulator]

Originally posted by Winston Wolf
Accumulator.

Wouldn't it make sense to stick with the product Audi recomends. It looks like they have required its use for 10-15 years

I sure won't argue against that, but I'm willing to go by my personal experience with ABC. Also, over the years I've noticed that Audi's recommendations seem to have a bit to do with, uhm, "business" as opposed to being strictly a matter of what's best for the cars. E.g., at one time they would *only* use 3M products to prep new cars. Nothing at all special about the 3M stuff, they just worked out a mutually agreeable arrangement between the two companies.

Again, I'm not gonna say that somebody should listen to me instead of going by Audi's decision. But the ABC has worked fine on all the Audis I've used it on, and I'm as particular as people get about this stuff.

The only criticisms I've heard about either system *from users not affiliated with either company* were directed at the FK stuff. I hear it's a bit milder than the ABC and that some people found it *too* mild. That might be a true benefit when used at dealerships where the expertise of the people doing the work is questionable (to say the least). In my case, I don't want to go through the whole procedure only to find out that the acidic stuff I used was too mild (when the rust blooms start showing up).

All in all, IMO the two systems are so similar that there's probably no real diff between them and I'm probably just wasting bandwidth discussing them at such length

[05Sleeper]

I too am looking for the holy grail for a silver Audi.

I have the following:

Klasse AIO
4* Wash
4* UPP
4* UGE

Will this give me a good, deep, wet looking shine?

Also, I do have a PC, so I plan on using that.

Is there anything else I should throw into the mix here? Some FP, or VM maybe?

Please help, I am a noob!