2004 Audi S4: See what I am up against guys

Customer dropped this off today and will be sleeping over a day. What would be your plan of attack on this car. Here are some pics that I picked up the severity of the swirls. (I am really learning to use the camara finally:) I was thinking of claying, Optimum Compound via rotary with a orange pad (since Audi clear is hard), followed by Menzerna FP/ RMG 70-30 mix via rotary on a white pad, and topped with CMW. Please correct me if I am off here. Scott and Sean... Please feel free to chime in



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Some halograms thanks to the body shop that painted his rear quarter.

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Good luck, eh!



I'd definitely agree with OC/cutting pad and a rotary to start. You might want to follow with OP and a polishing pad before FP/RMG though.
 
please post what works for you...i have the same car in black and it is kicking my rear with dealer installed holograms
 
Well I cleaned the car last night, clayed, and began to polish. I have to try somthing else that the opt compound or Menzerna IP because they both did not remove the swirls using a rotary an orange pad or even a yellow pad. Plan of attack today will be a spot try with 3m compound which should do it even if it means that I have to complete and extra step to remove the hazing from that. This really has me in deep
 
I hear ya. I got this e-mail from a regular customer the other day:



I ended-up buying a nice '02 Audi A6 Quattro with 45K miles. It's in very good to excellent shape, but the (black) paint needs some polishing with your best stuff to remove light surface scratches over most of the car. They look to have been caused by the eternal enemy of all car finishes... the automatic car wash! Ar-r-r-g-g-h-h!!!



There are also some deeper surface scratches on the front hood and probably other places that I've not yet discovered.




I've already explained to him about how rock hard Audi paint is and that even light defects can be a real bear to remove and he should plan on the polishing to take at least 3 hours. Probably start with Hyper Compound and a polishing pad, although I fear a cutting pad will be required.



Let me know what you find works for you on the S4.
 
I will be working on it tonight. I will post up while I am working on it. I have worked on tons of Audi's but I guess the swirls were never this severe since I have been having so much trouble with this particular car.
 
topnotch said:
Plan of attack today will be a spot try with 3m compound which should do it even if it means that I have to complete and extra step to remove the hazing from that..



Which 3M compound? I sorta doubt that I've ever removed anything quite like *that* from an Audi, but I have removed scratches that were at the "pretty deep, should I leave it in?" level. Never needed anything harsher than 3M PI-III Extra Cut 05936 and that was some nasty stuff by my (conservative) standards. Left lots of marring of its own but the PI-III RC 05933 got it out with a few passes. I'd be very surprises if the current PI-3000 RC doesn't get them out but I'd try a few sorta-easy passes as opposed to one really aggressive one. And that stuff will leave pretty much micromarring too, it doesn't finish out very nicely. Do you have any of the old PI-III RC 05933?



ScottWax- FWIW it takes me hours to correct an Audi with the rotary, but I work pretty slowly. I'd absolutely get some 4" pads if you don't already have them. I spent around 12 hours (!) with 6" wool pads and 3M PI-II FCRC on a friend's A6 and I barely rounded the marring over, much less removed it. That was what convinced me to get the rotary...



hugj- Holograms shouldn't be all that tough to get out, but I'd use a rotary. Some old-time Autopians (including NeoPrufrock) who know their stuff have been unable to remove them from Audis with the PC no matter what they tried. With the rotary it's no biggie. I had some in the S8 after the deer-incident repairs and they came out easily with the PI-III RC 05933.
 
I forgot which compound I have but I know for sure it does not finish down all that well. I am going to spot try it and see how it works and I will take it from there. What puzzles me is that my 03 A4 which black was never this bad and yet I have had a few Audi's as of late that have been a killer.
 
Yeah, there seem to be some inexplicable differences in Audis. While mine have always been rock-hard, Mike Phillips recently did a S4 that was so soft he had to use #9 and #66!
 
The last Audi I did ended up needing PowerGloss on a wool pad, IP on orange foam, and OCP on white foam, and it didn't even come out marring free! It was in much worse shape than that one though, it looked like the owner's son had washed it with a brillo pad. I'd reccomend PowerGloss on a cutting pad followed by IP/polishing and finally a good finishing polish cut with RMG.
 
topnotch said:
sounds like the new VW clears. The Vw's are supersoft



Eh :think:



VW clears are rock hard after 6 months. But before that, they are soft. Just like Volvos. I go for the wool pad and SPP 1001 made by PPG. Made for new clears and the scratch resistant ones. Very good.



http://www.ppg.com/nexaautocolor/news/connect_jul 04.pdf page 3-4



Then follow up with PO85U and polishing pad if I have much haze, but SPP1001 don´t haze that much. If no haze then I go for a finishing waffle pad and PO85RD and high rpm(1800-1900). Works almost all the time.
 
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