Against the clock: Yellow S3

[Sweepy]

Hi All,

I had this up on another forum, but just thought I would share it here on Autopia. A yellow Audi S3. The dirt on it made me think it was better than it was but it turned out to be a pretty tough bit of paint to work. I spent about 5 hours on the paint alone and it still needed a little more work, but I had to do the interior as well as running out of daylight.



Here are the before pics. Paint very dirty, lots of tar (especially the back, as usual on this style of car). I thought there was dark brown overspray on the car, as its own bumper had a rough yellow repair done on it. I thought a neighbouring brown car must have been repaired in a breeze, but clay wouldn`t remove it. I think it was raildust in the end.













I didn`t remember Audi having Charcoal grey wheels!! DIRTY!!







Anyhow... after washing and claying, I still wasn`t happy with the contaminants on the paint. I used Auto Int`l ABC paint neutralising products.

Here it is after washing,claying and prepping, I cleaned the wheels with Bardahl Heavy Duty. It looks kind of nice and fresh...





But you know what? I tried to photograph the swirls on the car and as bad as they were, I couldn`t get them in a picture!! Must be the yellow paint! You`ll have to take my word for it... they weren`t the worst I`ve seen, but the clearcoat was pretty dull.

Polishing: This was tough. I wanted to try my new PC so I started with Menzerna IP and an orange cutting pad. I gotta say this was getting me nowhere after two passes. Time to put junior away and out with big brother, my Flex rotary with a leather-backed natural lambswool pad, sticking with Menz IP.



This polished nicely, so I crossgraded to a soft black pad with Menz106ff and slowly polished the paint, with the polisher on 2000rpm. I was almost happy with this, but I could still see some faint marks in the paint. I went back to the PC and a Green Sonus pad with PO85rd with 1.5 grade cut and 5.0 gloss grade. Here it is only polished.







Next up, I had a sealant to try. I didn`t have the name of it as I got it as a sample from Daragh on Smartcarcare.ie . I am very impressed with it. Applied with the PC and soft blue pad, it went on very sparingly and easily, and buffed off very nicely. On its own it has a gorgeous wet look that surprised me for a sealant. The name of the product is Langka Paint Sealant and I will DEFINITELY be buying a few bottles of it. Here`s the car with the sealant only:





I let the sealant sit while I detailed the interior. This took me an hour as the owner keeps it real nice. Good vac, leather cleaned, dash, consoles & panels cleaned, carpet shampoo`d / extracted. Its getting late in the day. The polishing took a long time, so out with the polishing pal, soft blue pad and Swissol Onyx. Here`s the result of the topper. Pics aren`t fantastic, the sun was low and my camera is mediocre....

















Remember how bad that wheel was. I forgot to take an up close After shot...this is the closest







Audi paint is so hard to polish, but its such a pleasure when it turns out right. I could have spent a little more time on this S3, but oh well! I was happy, and so was the owner. A good days work.:hifive:



Sweepy.

[Greg Nichols]

I love the color and what a transformation. Owner should be very happy.

[Thomas Dekany]

Very wet for yellow paint.



Excellent work!!

[Scottwax]

Oustanding work! The paint has a really wet glow, very remarkable for yellow!

[ttsoca]

Very nice bright yellow! He must have been very happy with it. Good job!

[DaGonz]

Sweet! You changed it from "meh yellow" to "Stevie Wonder Yellow"*



*so bright ansd shiny even Stevie Wonder can see it! :getdown :spot

[Sweepy]

I have to write that one down.... ROFLMAO



Thanks a lot.

[davekt]

Looks great well done with the Audi.

Dave

[Accumulator]

Sweepy- Great transformation on a nice car :xyxthumbs



As you discovered, the PC quickly meets its match with Audi clear!



How did the ABC work for you? Nice to see somebody across the pond using that stuff.



Oh, and I sympathize with how hard it can be to take decent "before" pictures, sometimes defects just don`t look as bad as they were in person.

[Sweepy]

I always like the ABC results. Its good for deep cleaning the paint. I shipped a few pallets of Auto Int stuff across to Ireland a few yrs ago, but then had to quit detailing full time, unfortunately. My problem is that I am running out of pH7 shampoo but still have a bucket and a half of A & B!! I will have to give them a shout for advice.... Its the shipping costs that kill me from the US!



I`ve done a lot of Audi`s now. The paint is pretty hard alright. This is the first yellow Audi though, and I was pleased with the progression. The result was in the 106ff and the PO85RD, but I was very surpised at how well the Langka Sealant glossed up. I`m going to do my own car this weekend and see how it looks with Langka alone. It should be interesting.... though I can never resist the Swissol Topper!

[Accumulator]

Sweepy- Yeah, I bet those shipping charges *are* pretty high. IMO if you`re gonna run out of some part of ABC it might as well be the "C". I didn`t find it anything special, and I`ve used regular shampoos after the "B" step with no problems at all. Note that the "C" doesn`t really *neutralize* the acids from the "B" (that`d take a more alkaline product) so AFAIK any shampoo that`s not acidic oughta work just as well. I felt the "C" lacked lubricity anyhow..*it`s* the part of *my* original ABC order that was left over!

[Woob]

Sweepy- Yeah, I bet those shipping charges *are* pretty high. IMO if you`re gonna run out of some part of ABC it might as well be the "C". I didn`t find it anything special, and I`ve used regular shampoos after the "B" step with no problems at all. Note that the "C" doesn`t really *neutralize* the acids from the "B" (that`d take a more alkaline product) so AFAIK any shampoo that`s not acidic oughta work just as well. I felt the "C" lacked lubricity anyhow..*it`s* the part of *my* original ABC order that was left over!

Really Accumulator? I`ll have to ask the AutoInt people if they recommend that. Otherwise from what I hear the ABC System is extremely useful is done correctly, takes out the usual need for clay & deep cleans the paint issues.



Looking good!

[Sweepy]

You still need to clay. Some dirt bonds too well to the paint for ABC alone, but while washing time increases, claying time decreases.



Accumulator, do you clay between B & C? That`s when I do it. I did hear mention of claying, using B as the slickener though. I didn`t want to leave it on the car for so long though....



Thanks all.

Sweepy

[Accumulator]

Really Accumulator? I`ll have to ask the AutoInt people if they recommend [using any neutral/alkaline shampoo instead of "C"]...

Heh heh, I`d bet my life they will *NOT* recommend it; they`re generally not in the habit of saying "sure, use a competitor`s product instead of ours" Besides losing the sale of "C", that could come back to bite them in a huge way considering all the dealership/warranty work stuff that their business depends on...somebody might try something goofy and then cast blame.



The whole point is that "C" is ph-neutral, nothing more/less than that...it`s their "regular" shampoo. No reason I can think of why it`s better worse than anything else that won`t contribute acidity...the rinsing of the "B" removes almost all of it, the neutral "C" doesn`t even do the base-cancels-acid thing, it`s just another way of washing the "B" off the surface.



I really wanted to like the "C", if only for its cool green color, but it lacks lubricity IMO and if I`m gonna deal with shipping costs/etc. over a shampoo I`ll take Griot`s instead. Not that lubricity is a big deal after the "A" and "B" anyhow...



Sweepy- I clay while the "B" is dwelling. This requires either claying fast or doing the "B" in sections, but I was able to do my minivan OK with the "B" dwelling on the whole thing. And, heh heh, I`m not exactly known for doing things fast IMO they err on the side of caution with regard to how long the "B" can safely dwell, but I still kept the overall time within their general guidelines. And I keep "B" off of things that won`t benefit from it, at least as best I can (easier said than done).



The "B" does dissolve clay pretty fast but overall it works great for me. I`ve discussed this with Ron K. at AutoInt and he wasn`t surprised that I like doing it that way. Dunno if they actually *recommend* it, but he didn`t :nono me over it either.

[Woob]

Interesting. Claying in B stage is really only for overspray, which was originally one of the main purposes of Clay. Otherwise if Ron K. says it`s fine to. Otherwise the AutoInt products are cheap, but are extremely well designed.