Hi Folks! Although a member on here, I've not posted much in this section as I'm normally hanging about in the MK7 Section. I've got a new GTI on order which I will be collecting in March. I thought I'd post this write up here as the owner is also a member on this forum. Any questions, please give me a shout!
The car has 65k Miles under it's wheels and although it's mechanically sound, it looks a bit dull and tired so the owner asked me to take a look at it.
Here are a few pictures from Saturday morning.
When Joe took delivery, the drivers side had a huge deep scratch running all the way from front to back so he had the whole side of the car resprayed. We were fearing the worst with regard to bodyshop inflicted nightmares, and the initial signs weren't good...
Time to get cracking and decontaminate ready for polishing. First up, the wheels were liberally sprayed with AutoSmart Smart Wheels 10:1 and left to sit for a couple of minutes before pressure rinsing. No agitation at this stage, I like to do this with wheels in the same way we all use snow foam. It's a very effective way of removing any surface dirt before touching the wheels with any brushes.
Once rinsed, the wheels were sprayed with DWax's new product, Decon 88 iron removing gel and left to sit for 10 mins, then agitated with various brushes. Tyres and arches were also scrubbed at this point.
Whilst Decon 88 was dwelling, I cleaned the engine bay and all shuts/grills with Surfex HD and a VP brush.
After cleaning the wheels, I foamed the car using VP Advanced Neutral Snow Foam with a drop of TFR in the mix to aid removal of any previous protection.
After 5 mins I rinsed the foam, and washed the car using Hubikote Hubiwash shampoo and a Microfiber Madness Incredimitt. Warm water required at this time of year too! ( :lol: )
Whilst rinsing, the Nanolex Glass Treatment Joe had applied was showing off it's beading/sheeting abilities!
While the car was still wet, I clayed the paint using Auto Finesse Clay and a shampoo solution as lube. It was pulling quite a bit from the whole car except the drivers side (recently sprayed) which was perfectly clean.
It was at this point that DPD arrived at the workshop with a special parcel for me!!! Huge thanks to Polished Bliss for the quick delivery. (The DPD driver was supposed to deliver it Monday, but had another Saturday delivery in my area so used his initiative and took a chance on me being in! Very impressed!)
So perfect timing, the car was dried using it! What a brilliant tool! It makes a pretty noisy racket, but does a brilliant job. A little more difficult on paint with no protection but I can't wait to use it on a car with decent protection. No towels required!
So once dry, we could now see the true condition of the paint... Joe actually arrived at this point too and other than immediately wanting an Air Force Blaster, he was quite surprised at the condition of the paint!
The photos don't do it full justice, it was much worse than it looks here but I suppose that's what you get from an iPhone camera!
Biggest surprise... The recently painted side was in fantastic condition. No orange peel but more importantly, hardly any swirls scratches and no buffer trails to be seen! All it was going to need was a very light refine to remove some clay marring I'd inflicted, but other than that we were really impressed!
The passenger side had some pretty deep scratches so I decided to hit those with Scholl S2 Orange on a Green Dodo FIN pad (2 sets) to remove the most of them, followed by a long refining set with Scholl S40 on a black Dodo FIN pad.
Some before/after polishing shots...
Really stunning colour, the polishing was turning it back into a deep black with lovely metallic flake, rather than the dull grey we saw before!
In between polishing panels, I decided to dress the tyres to give it the longest possible curing time. Given we had perfectly dry tyres thanks to the Air Force Blaster, it seemed like a good idea! Joe is a fan of Dodo Basics Tyre and Trim and I have to say, it leaves a stunning natural finish. Joe reckons he's had 6-8 weeks durability so I may well pick up a bottle of this too.
While I was polishing, Joe got on with a few other jobs like dressing all trim and plastic grills with Dodo Supernatural Trim Sealant and polishing the exhausts with AF Mercury and some wire wool. Speaking from experience, it's incredibly difficult to get the pipes perfect, especially on a car that hasn't had much love in the past. Soot from the turbo cakes on and is tough to shift! In between all this, Joe managed to clay and seal the wheel faces using Dodo Supernatural Wheel Sealant.
50:50 on the exhaust:
Before:
50:50
Trim Sealant Beading:
Joe also hoovered the interior, then cleaned and conditioned the leather using Gliptone products.
A few more random polishing shots. You'll see that someone has tried to hack the GTI badge off in the past, there are some pretty bad scratches around the area! It's also in the wrong place!
A few deeper marks remained, but Joe was fine with that. We were quite pushed for time as it was. It was starting to look lovely and glossy!
I also polished the tail lights using a Megs Yellow spot pad and some Scholl S17+
So, after each panel was refined with Scholl S40 and a black pad, I wiped the paint with CarPro Eraser ready for Joe to follow me round with his choice of wax, Dodo Juice Supernatural. I've never used this wax before and I was nicely surprised with how nice it is to use. The pot looks superb and the wax is easy to spread. Left for 15 mins before effortlessly buffing to a mega gloss. We managed to get 2 coats on so it should be well protected for the winter. Here is a quick snap of the finishing products:
After dressing the engine bay and arches with 303 and Wax-Tec Mint Dress, cleaning all glass with Dodo Clearly Menthol, we're ready for some finished pictures. It was totally dark outside at this point so I'm afraid indoor shots are all we have.
So back to its former glory! Now looks very smart indeed! I really enjoyed the day, and it was nice to spend some time with a car I used to love again! Got me even more excited for when mine turns up in March!
Joe also sent me some pictures he took of the car outside in the daylight, looks very good indeed!
Thanks for reading,
Jon
