Hi everyone!
I present a 2007 Audi RS4 sedan, in Dolphin Grey with roughly 11,000kms.
A previous client of mine referred one of his clients to me and thought it would be a great idea to get his car detailed as a birthday gift. A quick call and I was able to schedule the RS4 in promptly for the next morning as I had a client reschedule the day before.
As most of us know, Audi's clearcoat is rock hard, some say 'hard as diamonds!' When I heard what car was being delivered, I kept remembering an A4 I did a while back that was probably as soft as Porsche clear. Bearing in mind that the first, and last (up till that point) Audi I did was the A4, I was expecting slightly harder clear this time around, but not as hard as I experienced. I admit, I was a little worried, especially since the
Menzernas haven't been working with me too well lately. Regardless, I was ready to correct this 420HP beast to it's fullest potential and set out with my A-game;
Menzerna or not, lol.
Inspection
The vehicle was delivered in the morning and looked fairly clean, except for the rims, which were in dire need of some attention. Unfortunately I was somewhat pressed for time, so removing each rim was out of the question for this detail.
My initial inspection of the RS4 revealed obvious signs of improper washing and drying techniques, coupled with some heavy marring, as you will see in the pictures below. Furthmore, some buffer trails & holograms were present, as apparently the installer of the 3M clear bra gave a 'complimentary buff' to the hood.
Large amounts of swirling:
Buffer trails:
Lots of fine swirling, consistent to the direction in which washing and drying would take place:
Further inspection was carried out after washing the car and claying.
- CWG @ Paint cleanser dilution, prepared in warm water.
- Sheet dry, blot dry w/ WW MFs
- Clay with Riccardo Clay & ONR lube.
Contamination was very light. After claying, the piece of clay looked very close to it's new state.
Rims
The rims of this vehicle are forged, and as such required cleaning in every crevice to pull dirt out. Each rim was meticulously cleaned with a variety of brushes and citrus cleaner to ensure the surface of the rims were cleaned with no damage inflicted.
Tires were cleaned with Grime Reaper @ 4:1. You will notice in the polishing pictures that the tires are still brown. They were cleaned again after polishing was completed.
Rim pics:
Following a very thorough wash, the RS4 was pulled into the garage for touch up drying in crevices, taping, and pre-polishing inspection.
Taped up and ready to go:
After taping, the car was looked over again and I discovered some sanding marks that would have to be taken care of:
Paint Correction
The paint had quite a bit of fine swirling, but was not my main concern. The bonnet, along with the rest of the RS4 had tons of deep swirling and RIDS, many of which did not pass the fingernail test.
I opted to try a relatively mild combination for this hard paint, which was SIP, on a LC orange pad on the rotary at 1600rpm. After two sets, it made a minor difference, so I tried an LC yellow pad. This is where the results started to come through. 2 polishing sets on a yellow pad at 1800rpm with SIP would be the combo used for the rest of the car. This ensured that the deeper defects were removed, as well as the lighter ones.
Driver's Side Fender
Before:
After:
Driver's Side Front Door
Before:
After:
Make It Shine: Swissvax Concorso meets Dolphin Grey Audi RS4 - 56K no no!
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Linear Mode
