Make It Shine: Swissvax Concorso meets Dolphin Grey Audi RS4 - 56K no no!

[kaval]

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:

[kaval]

Driver`s Side Rear Door



Before:













During first set:





After:







Trunk Lid



Before:









After:











Tail Light



Before:





Half & Half







Passenger Rear Quarter



Before:











Passenger Front Door



Before:





After:







Roof



Before:









After:





Unfortunately due to time constraints, I had to cut the picture taking down as time was of the essence.



After correcting the car with SIP, it looked great, but there was still a lot of gloss to be desired. Prior to rinsing the car down, the engine bay was detailed. This wasn`t done before paint correction because the engine was still far too warm to use any chemicals and risk damaging the finish of any components inside the bay. The carbon fiber pieces were carefully removed, cleaned and sealed with Opti-Seal to help seal out dirt and bring back a beautiful shine.



Engine Bay



Before:













After:



















The bay was pre-rinsed with a light stream of water, and sprayed with Grime Reaper @ 8:1. The solution was left to sit for approximately 5 minutes before being agitated with various brushes to loosen dirt and reveal a clean surface. After rinsing the engine down, the engine was started and the hood was closed. During this time, the car was rinsed down to remove the polishing dust that had accumulated. By this time, the water had evaporated so the engine was turned off after driving the car back into the garage to prepare for final polishing. For this, I polished the paint with PO106ff at 1600rpm on a white LC CCS pad.



The entire car was then carefully, and thoroughly wiped down with IPA to remove the remaining oils from SIP and 106ff that would interfere with the bonding process of the LSP.

[Holden_C04]

Looking good. :goodjob:

[kaval]

Finals



For the LSP, I decided to pull out my brand new un-touched jar of Swissvax Concorso. I was blown away with how easy it was to apply, both by applicator and bare hand, and how easy it was to remove. The smell was truly rewarding for all the hard work put into the car!



And without further delay, here are the afters. Please note that the interior was cleaned after the pictures, hence the dirty windows











































































I can definitely say one thing - I will be using Concorso a lot more!



Thanks for taking the time to look!



Kaval

[ajnavo61490]

nice work on the exterior!



windshield looks a little dirty tho... =/

[mixxer]

love that color,really pops now! You did a nice job with that!

[kaval]

Looking good. :goodjob:

nice work on the exterior!



windshield looks a little dirty tho... =/

Thanks for the comments!



As stated in the write up, the pictures were taken before the interior was done, hence the dirty windows.

love that color,really pops now! You did a nice job with that!

Thanks a lot!

[Todd@RUPES]

OMG what an amazing detail. IMO, this is one of the top threads that I have seen posted in a long time, great documentation as the work was done. It is a shame that posts like this fall by the way side while posts of cool cars getting nothing done recieve crazy attention.



Great work Kaval, what an amazing birthday gift to get. Top notch work.

[SpoiledMan]

OMG what an amazing detail. IMO, this is one of the top threads that I have seen posted in a long time, great documentation as the work was done. It is a shame that posts like this fall by the way side while posts of cool cars getting nothing done recieve crazy attention.



Great work Kaval, what an amazing birthday gift to get. Top notch work.

I agree completely! I was brought to my knees by a black S4 and can totally respect what you`ve done here.

[kaval]

OMG what an amazing detail. IMO, this is one of the top threads that I have seen posted in a long time, great documentation as the work was done. It is a shame that posts like this fall by the way side while posts of cool cars getting nothing done recieve crazy attention.



Great work Kaval, what an amazing birthday gift to get. Top notch work.

Todd, thanks very much! I appreciate the compliments. Coming from a detailer of your caliber, that means a lot!

I agree completely! I was brought to my knees by a black S4 and can totally respect what you`ve done here.

Thanks! These cars should be on a breed of their own with how they bring people to their knees. lol!

[imported_shine]

Awesome job and writeup. :up

[kaval]

Awesome job and writeup. :up

Thanks a lot shine!

[porta]

Nice job and I love the photos and the write up :goodjob

[kaval]

Thanks very much! My photos are starting to come out better now that I`m getting used to my DSLR.

[imported_Picus]

I`ll say, they look great. The car looks very nice too. That paint can be a real back breaker!