C-Quartz, GTechniq, and "the cleanest GTI" : Stepping up our game by AutoLavish

[MarcHarris]

Perfection. The best value in the small car market today, the GTi has world class build quality and materials, engine and drivetrain, performance, and appearance. The 4-door version of the GTi add even more value, with a clean non-4-door style and additional utility. This particular GTi was loaded: Leather, Nav, with a Manual 6-Speed. The owner contacted us awhile back, and we advised to wait until all the mods were done so we could "fix" any issues that happened along the way. After suspension work, window tint, and a few interior enhancements the owner dropped it off at our place. The goal: perfect paint and to not have to use a towel to dry the car. Our initial thoughts: Meg's MF followed by C-Quartz and Reload. The vehicle had under 4,500 miles. It had been washed a handful of times, including at the dealer at least twice.

Exhaust tip:

Swirly Wheels

Jacob began on the jambs first with cleaner followed by steam and a wipe to dry, then sealed.

As shiny as his head!

Engine bay started with the underside of the hood:

Got to get behind the seals and gaskets as well as these are the areas that accumulate hard core grime:

Engine was doused in degreaser, brushed and wiped, rinsed and dried. No dressings.

Notice the R8 oil cap

Plate comes off of course:

The best license plate mounting ever: Volvo piece fits Audi/VW with rubber feet the only thing touching paint. I wish my car had something similar!

And we are ready for wash. We get many inquiries asking how much shampoo to use in the foam gun. Here is our "secret ratio for maximum foam" for using a strong shampoo like Chemical Guys Citrus Wash. This is not the shampoo to use for maintenance washing, but works good for pre-polishing.



There were minimal suds left from using Optimum Car Wash on a previous car:

Here we add the soap first to make the quantity easier to see. It is best to add HOT water first, then add soap – this process helps reduce foam blowing out of the bottle as you fill it.

Enough soap:

 

[MarcHarris]

Now added water to top it off:

Ready to rock:

... and rocking!

Each foaming consumes about half our bottle. So each bottle is enough for washing once (as we foam, rinse, foam again and then wash).

Rinse:

Clay:

The lube is just a diluted soap solution:

“Hey wait! What about washing the wheels?” We usually do the wheels prior to the paint. But today was special.

Tim working his mechanical powers on the lugs:

Removal was completed by hand as to not scratch the barrels of the lugs. Notice the super cool sockets, lined inside and out to help keep the wheel's lug holes scratch and nick free. If you search for our wheels-off articles you will see a cool trick to do to your own sockets to make them less scratch-ing for the cheap. These sockets are from Griots, and are an insane value for just $75 IMO.

We will get into more on the wheels in a bit. Next up: Polish prep.



De-badging begins:

Flossing well between the molars:

Pop! goes the last one:

With the car up in the air and taped off adequately, we were ready for polishing.

Mirror, mirror on the hood...

There were significant paint defects for its age, and they were DEEP! Some were light, like this marring:

Others were medium like these swirls:

 

[MarcHarris]

And others were deep like these Random Isolated Deep Scratches. You’ll notice multiple scratches perfectly parallel to one another as a result from either a water blade / jelly blade, or the brushes of an automatic car wash:

Some more nastiness:

Paint was typical: very thin down low and building up as the robots worked their way up the panels. If you are working on soft and thin paint trying to correct deep defects, you better know your paint's health. Who do you trust your car to?





Three measurements on the same panel at the same longitude show paint growth caused by global warming! …or something like that

For polishing we decided, after trying a few combos, to use the good cutting power of the Meguiar's Microfiber pads but with M105 for additional cut. The defects in this paint were deep. The worst ones were long and straight, as if caused by a water blade or automatic car wash brushes. Others were somewhat more curved, either from drying or a dirty wash mitt. Dealers will never be able to wash correctly when they pay bottom dollar and put rookie guys in charge of tasks like touching your expensive car. The dealer/washer who put these marks into this paint was negligent in doing so, and should be held responsible for the damage. There is no way a car this new should be this thrashed.



Here I'm working the area around the door handles with the PC and the 6" mf cut pad:

This is one of those that will never come out and is large enough to be seen easily

We got a taste of what Bob Willis of Auto Concierge enjoys by having the car slightly raised; it makes for a less stressed and cramped back. Unlike us, Bob has a top of the line Snap-On scissors lift in his shop. We envy his set-up like you cannot imagine!

Paint and fans of paint:

Now we go back to the wheels. Since they were going to be removed for cleaning we left them dirty during the initial wash. We removed them, and laid them down on carpet to avoid scratching them while we hit them up with cleaners. Sticky Gel 3:1 worked well enough. The hard stuff would require much more than the gentle wheel cleaner could offer.

An early Michigan Spring day meant it was quite cold still:

 

[MarcHarris]

Looking good so far:

Next was to flip them and wash the faces:

Looking good after a wash, eh?

Lets look closer:

Some of these scratches were mind-boggling:

Improper tire mounting messes up the inner lip edge of the wheels. “Who cares, it is on the inside where nobody will ever see, right?” goes the thinking, but much like the type of people that bring us their cars; we certainly do care and would like to have seen such avoidable damage never occur.

The “Sledgehammer”:

Just a spray and a nail is all that is needed to remove most adhesive residue and tar:

But don't go crazy with it! Some areas will need a more careful application:

On the fronts, just a few improper washes with brushes caused severe swirls:

 

[MarcHarris]

Jacob grabbed the M105 and an applicator and worked it by hand:

This proved to not be enough. He next brought out the small backing plate and a flexible pad for the PC:

Ahh yes, working nicely:

Holding on tight!

Faces as well, and much easier:

Left side done, right side not done:

How about those barrels?

Just large enough to fit the PC:

Afterwards, Jacob brought them into his living room for the night:

Wheels would be coated with C5 Wheel Armor and CQuartz. Getechniq C5 on the faces as they will need all the armor they can get, and CQuartz on the barrels which will benefit more from the increased water sheeting capabilities.

Faces done:

 

[MarcHarris]

After a few hours of cure he flipped them over to do the barrels:

The barrels absorbed this stuff really fast!

More evened out:

Now done:

After a few more hours of cure, he added the Reload:

Much better than the swirled mess they once were. How about some sun shots!

We decided to try out Car Pro's PERL dressing neat on the tires. Starting with the inside walls, then the outside walls.

Let to dry:

OK, so done with the wheels and tires. That took a few hours per wheel. BUT WAIT! THERE IS MORE!



New spacers for a tighter stance:

Yes, even the spacers got coated with Gtechniq C1

 

[MarcHarris]

Before:

During:

One undone, one hazing:

Done!

Before remounting the wheels we had to wash the wells. Here Tim sprays the fender liners with high pressure water:

And the brakes:

Nice and rusty!

Another step before mounting was to coat the hub with anti-seize. This helps keep the different metals from becoming their own special alloy under wear, heat, and deflection. The trick is, similar to greasing door hinges, to apply light and just enough. Most mechanics will just slobber this stuff all over in a “the more the better” mentality. Jacob applied this as thin as possible, and as even as possible with a finger.

Wheels back on and car back on the floor:

Rechecking torque after a few hours of static set:

Disregard the leafs please. Warm weather prompted to leave the garage door open for awhile, and wind thought it would be cool to flood the floor with old brittle and sticky leafs

One large chip square in the middle of the hood was an eye sore. After filling in with touch up paint, I worked my magic:

Next grit:

Removing sanding marks:

Here I continue on the correcting stage:

And Jacob starts refining:

B-Pillars need love too!

We polished up the center caps with Menzerna 106fa.

 

[MarcHarris]

Not done…

Done:

After many hours of polishing, time for the final wash. Life is good.

Check out the wheels water sheeting properties even under the pressure washer!

Next was to remove the crappy film the fogs had on them, to replace with better film and a better install. Key to a proper install is light removal. Since we had the wheels off getting to the fogs was easy.

OK, maybe not quite that easy...

Victorious:

Crappy film:

They had some defects, so Tim and Jacob hit them with the MF pads:

The key to not breaking off tabs is to have someone to hold the light. A vise or a table will not work, and will exert excessive force on tabs and features, not to mention it is difficult to keep stable enough to polish.

We slapped the 12% tinted film on there and reinstalled the fogs:

Windows need special care too! We like to polish the inside surface with Klasse AIO. We find it helps keep the windows clear of fingerprints and dust, and even makes them more quiet during rolling up or down. So far we have not had any issues with tinted film. We don't rub hard, though, and we only apply after a good cleaning with Meg's Glass Cleaner.

Lets start by working the edges, but not into the rubber. This rubber would be coated with CQuartz, and I did not want the Klasse interfering:

Leave to haze slightly. Leave on too long and it becomes hard to remove:

Per the owners request, C-Quartz would be applied to all exterior surfaces except the windshield, which would get Aquapel:

Applying:

 

[MarcHarris]

Trim would get C4 Permanent Trim Restorer:

Wow!

I began inspected the CQuartz looking for areas in need of further working:

Looks OK:

At this point the vehicle had been polished with Meguair’s 105 on the Meguiar’s microfiber cutting pad, Meguiar’s 205 on a white Lake Country pad, Menzerna 106FA on a black Lake Country pad, and 3M Ultrafina on a blue Lake Country pad, some wetsanding, chips filled and sanded flat, wheels polished with Meguiar’s 105 on an orange Griot’s pad then followed up with Meguiar’s 205 on a white 4 inch Lake Country pad, coated, paint coated, trim coated, interior cleaned with 1Z, windows polished inside, and windscreen coated with Aquapel:

Time for sun shots! Just a few cloud in the sky and a beautiful day!

My neighbor's yard is so much nicer than mine!

 

[MarcHarris]

Pham rolling deep, makes his intro:

(his pics will follow)





The owner arrives to pick up the vehicle and was surprised to see what color the paint actually was once the clarity had been properly restored. A happy owner

GTI leaving, RS4 waiting in line for her own special treatment.

 

[MarcHarris]

Steven Pham’s pics now:

Thank you very much for reading through!!!

-Marc, Tim, and Jacob from AutoLavish, and Steve from Steven Pham Photography

 

[C. Charles Hahn]

Very awesome work as always, guys!



Marc, I can't resist: "BOO BLUE!!" "GO GREEN!!" :flame::argue:

 

[Accumulator]

[Insert usual :bow regarding MarcHarris's work here...]



MarcHarris- Hey, great attention to detail :xyxthumbs And a good example of using the right products and approaches for each job.



And that's some *great* documentation! You guys must really have your [stuff] sorted out to be able to take such good work-in-progress pix without it interfering with the workflow! Great job, thanks for sharing it.



Oh, and I have those same sockets...heh heh, not often that Griot's gets credit for something like that being worth the money, but yeah, those are super.



Oh#2, nice to see my pals at ECS got some business too (the wheel spacers)!

 

[Barry Theal]

Crisp, clean, and perfect another Autolavish stunner! Looking perfect gentleman!

 

[Thomas Dekany]

Awesome thread! The car looks fantastic.

 

[Morgan_W1]

Excellent write up and job well perfected guys!

 

[DaGonz]

You guys have raised the bar yet again.... outstanding work!

 

[Concourswanna b]

Wow, this write up is right there with the best of them.

This kind of stuff is why I love this site.

 

[Greg Nichols]

from a guy that always has a comment.............speechless..........just speechless. The documentation is awesome! Steven P photowork.....stunning!



Cheers,

GREG

 

[Junebug]

I'm just in awe - that was one amazing detail! Whatever you charged, it was worth every penny. Truely show car ready.