(5th) Candy White Golf 6 Gti - Detailed by Lawrence

[lawrence]

I've done a few of these ....and for the most part, the paint defects looked just like your typical VW swirls... unfortunately, that's not how they behaved... but more on that later. The wheels had at some point been refurbed, and there was some sort of thick plastic-y looking film type stuff over the wheels where there'd typically be the diamond cut finish, and as you will see in the the pics below, a section was flaking off. These therefore only received a basic wash using car shampoo and the owner was advised to get the finish seen to.

There would also be no engine bay work done on this detail and so the brief was to get everything clean, decon/correct/protect the paint, clean and protect the interior, and then all the other usually...well... details

So to start I pressure rinsed the arches, sprayed some Carchem APC on and left it to dwell, agitated and pressure rinsed that off. The same process was repeated on the tyres and brake calipers. The arches were dressed with Carpro Perl, the tyres with Carchem Tyre and Trim Gel and the calipers with Gyeon Cure.

Before





After



Some pics of the paint condition





I then turned my attention to the getting everything clean and decontaminated.

Equipment - Lambswool Wash Mitts, Karcher K7, Foam cannon, 2 Buckets each with grit guards, WW Drying Towels, Electric Blower
Foam - pressure rinse, Valet Pro ANSF via foam cannon, left to dwell, pressure rinsed
TFR - Valet Pro Citrus Prewash @ 1:8 via a pump sprayer, left to dwell pressure rinsed
Wash - Carchem Luxury Shampoo, pressure rinse
Dry - Flood rinse, ONR
Tar Removal - Valet Pro Citrus Tar and Glue Remover
Iron Removal - Carchem Revolt applied liberally, allowed to dwell, agitated, pressure rinsed
Remaining contaminants - Shield Heavy Duty Clay

The only pics I snapped in the process







With everything now free of above surface contaminants, it was time to start fixing the paint. So... I had quoted on a 2 step and was expecting a FG400/Orange (maybe foamed wool) followed by SF4000/Black....

I did a few test spots and quickly realised that the 2-step had just turned into a 3-step correction - it almost like every 'swirl' was actually what we would normally call a RID (Random Isolated Deep Scratch). Perhaps it was the car wash the previous owner took it to, that washed the wheels first, and then used that same mit/sponge/old t-shirt to drag the iron particles in the brake dust all over the paint.

Here is the paint prepped for correction



The initial cut was done with Menzerna SHC300 on blue foamed wool Lake Country hybrid pad on a Flex 3401, speed 5.5, 8 passes, leaving the paint looking like this...



Hmmm...

OK let's try that again....



Now we are getting somewhere and most (but definitely not all) of the damage is now gone, and has been replaced with a more uniform haze to the paint (the 'sanding marks' left behind) and so for a little extra bite, I chose to use Menzerna PF2300 on a orange foam Lake Country pad to finish with, leaving the paint looking like this.





Correction on the softer B-Pillars was obviously a lot less aggressive. (the same process as below was used on the tail lights)

Prepped for polishing - if you look carefully I always try to run the tape ever so slightly over all the edges to protect them, especially on areas with soft paint like this. I see so many where these edges get over polished exposing the black base coat



After Menzerna PF2300 / Orange Lake Country Hybrid pad followed by SF4000 on a Black Lake Country Hybrid pad



I then protected the paint with 2 coats of Pinnacle White Christmas - it felt befitting as I imagined the car feeling like Christmas had come early

By this point I was pretty pressed for time so didn't get any other before / after pics except for this, of the exterior window rubbers being cleaned with Shield Heavy Duty Vinyl and Rubber Cleaner (they would later be protected with 303 Aerospace Protectant)

Before



After



The rest of the detail was then completed.

Exhaust Tips
Equipment - MF Towels, dedicated Daytona Jnr wheel brush, Mothers Powerball mini, Drill
Clean - Carchem Citrus APC @1:5, left to dwell, agitated, rinsed
Polish - Meguiars NXT All Metal Polish

Exterior plastics
Equipment - Foam applicators, MF towels, Q-tips
Clean - Shield Heavy Duty Vinyl and Rubber Cleaner
Protect - 303 Aerospace Protectant

Glass
Clean - Autoglym Fast Glass, MF towels

Badges & Emblems
Equipment - Q-tips, MF towels
Clean/polish/protect - Autofinesse Tripple

Interior Plastics
Equipment- Foam applicators, MF towels, Q-tips, Various brushes
Clean - Carchem APC @ 1:20
Protect - Optimum Optiseal

Interior Carpets
Equipment- Brushes, Flex VL35C Vacuum

Leather Surfaces
Equipment- Foam applicators, Flex VL35C Vacuum, MF towels, Brushes
Clean - Carchem APC @ 1:20, various brushes, MF towels
Protect - Collinite 855

Some pictures of the completed car

























Total time spent 36 hours

Thanks for looking and as always, any questions or comments are welcome.

[mikhail117]

brilliant, thanks for sharing bud

[Belix]

Top marks as always.

[Ahmed.Syed]

Excellent Lawrence !!!

[lawrence]

Thank guys

[DINODENASH]

Looks like you had your work cut out on this one hey !
what a difference !
Looking new again!

[lawrence]

Looks like you had your work cut out on this one hey !
what a difference !
Looking new again!

Yeah man I did..... the paint was so hammered and the additional required step meant I was under serious pressure to get all the rest of the details done... but.... when you stand back and see the transformation it really makes all the hard work worth it...

[Kam19]

WOW!!!

[Djin]

Nice work bud.

[Rsi huntered]

Nicely Done Lawrence that pic of the FG400 and then after 8 passes and the rids were still there paint was really finished

I see you adding some humour into your chats or you really had a nice time with this one

Nicely Done as always Lawrence.....

just one question :
did this one have a Sun Roof, if yes how is the best and easiest way to cleaning without FFFing up your paint around the sun roof...

[lawrence]

WOW!!!

Thank you

Nice work bud.

Thanks Pravin

Nicely Done Lawrence that pic of the FG400 and then after 8 passes and the rids were still there paint was really finished

I see you adding some humour into your chats or you really had a nice time with this one

Nicely Done as always Lawrence.....

just one question :
did this one have a Sun Roof, if yes how is the best and easiest way to cleaning without FFFing up your paint around the sun roof...

It wasn't FG400 bud, it was SHC300 - it's their new more aggressive compound ..

Yes, this had a sunroof... are you talking about the thin rubber strip where the sunroof meets the painted section of the roof? If so, that part gets washed over when you are washing the car, but if it was really dirty you could pre-spray some APC there and agitate it with a quality soft bristled brush.

Periodically you should still give them a decent clean with a dedicated rubber cleaning product that will remove any remaining dressings or protections along with oxidised rubber.

If I have misunderstood where you are talking about lemme know

[Rsi huntered]

Taught I read Fg400

More stoner and still did so little damage...... paint was really hammered.

I meant .... when you tilt open the sunroof. ..... The underneath portion that you can slide from the inside (if that makes sense )

So if the tilt is open .... and you peep from the outside in that slight space in the tilt...In there

[Mbuzi]

Nicely done L

[Uvy]

nice one LA.. looks like this one gave you a bit of stick..

Question please.
When you wash the ca with carchem, are you using warm water ?
Also after you flood rinse do you dry it with a microfibre first then use tar cleaner and ironout ?
or do you just flood rinse and then apply tar cleaner

[lawrence]

Taught I read Fg400

More stoner and still did so little damage...... paint was really hammered.

I meant .... when you tilt open the sunroof. ..... The underneath portion that you can slide from the inside (if that makes sense )

So if the tilt is open .... and you peep from the outside in that slight space in the tilt...In there

Microfiber towels, q-tips, air blower, all purpose cleaner and lots of patience

Nicely done L

Thanks bud

nice one LA.. looks like this one gave you a bit of stick..

Question please.
When you wash the ca with carchem, are you using warm water ?
Also after you flood rinse do you dry it with a microfibre first then use tar cleaner and ironout ?
or do you just flood rinse and then apply tar cleaner

Thanks UV - yeah it was certainly one of the more hammered ones I've done.

Yes I always use warm water when washing - both in my car shampoo bucket, and the wheels bucket (I try soak all the brushes in the warm water for 15 minutes or so prior to starting to wash)

You should always spray either an iron remover or tar remover onto a dry surface, IMO. Firstly, if it is wet the iron remover will dilute, reducing its effectiveness and secondly, water and tar removers don't mix so if the surface is wet, the tar remover sits on the water, turns milky and really doesn't do much to dissolve the tar.

[Uvy]

thanks man. makes sense now.

[TDISmoker]

Blixem, well done, again!

[GaVeN]

Nice save there guy

[lawrence]

Blixem, well done, again!

Nice save there guy

Thanks guys

[N3mo]

Nicely done

some of these cars either have weird paint or the damage is so bad that the RIDS look like swirls under a light.