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: 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. 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
very nice job. i agree that Audi clears tend to be very hard..... VW's also tend to have the same effect
Great work man on the detail. Concurso lately has been my go to wax for the same reasons because it so easy to use.:applause2:
Thanks! I have yet to do a Vdub. How do they stack up to Audi clearcoat? Yeah it's a fantastic car, very quick too! Thanks for the compliment! Thanks! The colour is truly amazing. Thanks!! Thanks! I was sad to see the car leave, they are awesome machines. Thanks! I will definitely be using this wax a lot more. It's fantastic! Thanks Brian!
Kaval..great job on that knarly beast!! A question for ya (not a criticism): did you consider using a foamed wool pad for your correction? I am in love with mine (cue the sheep jokes) and find they correct quickly and cleanly. If you haven't tried one, please do, you'll love it. You did a fabulous job anyway. The correction is obvious..good work!!:applause2:
Oooh well done there kaval, the vehicle looks great, just love the stance these vehicle have. Very nice turn around :worship: Oh and I like the rims the vehicle is wearing they look good :thumb: Thank you for sharing eace:
Nice work on a fantastic motor car. How did the yellow pads behave on the rotary with SIP ? Some people don't like the yellows to much saying they're a handfull...
VW and Audi are essentially the same company. i just cant remember which one is the parent company. the clearcoat is essentially the same as audi maybe slightly softer. they are very resilient
You should give me a holler some time, nice work, nothing better than a shiny car and a happy owner I am sure
Thanks! I'll reply back to your PM in the afternoon. Thanks for the compliments! Funny you mention it...I just ordered some PFW from eShine yesterday, hoping to receive it tomorrow as I may be doing a Vette soon, which has notoriously hard CC. Thanks! Thank you! Thanks Nica! I had no issues whatsoever on this paint with SIP. I believe that if the paint was soft, then I may have had a little harder time due to the tendency for the pad to sort of 'grab' the paint, but in this case the pad was just sliding nicely on the paint. It only gets a bit difficult when you approach curves. AH yes I completely forgot to make the relation, lol. Thanks for the info! Will do! Thanks Thanks dionnfr!
Nice detail! The car looks great. Audi clear coat really is hard. I have to agree with you there. How did they let the engine get that dirty? I am constantly at least wiping mine down to keep it presentable. The color is Daytona Gray...the BEST RS4 color by far! lol (Maybe I am biased). They should have kept the stock wheels... they are really hard to beat. I haven't really seen many that fit the car better.
