Audi A4 in Deep Sea Blue- Premier Shine

Hello all,
This past weekend I had the pleasure of working with a very lovely couple who contacted me after seeing some of my other work here on DB. Their vehicle is an 08 Audi A4 S-line that has never been detailed before. After discussing the various options we chose to go with a correction focus of around 50-65%. The main goal was to perform a simple correction and proper protection with a solid paint sealant application.

In recent Audi details I have had much success with performing a simple one step correction however the paint on this job was much harder and after closer inspection underneath the halogens I came to discover a simple one-step would not be sufficient.

Chosen correctional process:
Flex DA 6.5 in. pad
PC 4 in. pad
Orange/ Green/ White Uber foam
Orange LC foam
Menz SIP
Menz Super Finish
Menz P085rd

Exterior:
Zep Citrus 3:1, 5:1
OPT Power Clean
Sonax Full Effect Wheel Cleaner
Aquartz Iron Cut
0000 steel wool on the tips, followed up with Eagle One Nevr Dull wadding
Uber spoke brush
Swissvax Pneu Brush
Swissvax Wheel Brush
Chemical Guys Citrus Wash
Various other brushes
303 Aerospace Protectant
Uber Blue Clay
Designate Wheel Clay
Chemical guys Luber

Interior:
ShopVac
Compressed Air
Pre-spray with Folex
All interior carpets and mats extracted
Zep high traffic carpet cleaner
Leatherique Rejuvenator Oil
Lexol pH cleaner
Zep citrus 3:1 / Simple Green 3:1
Swissvax Pneu & Leather brush

Motor:
Zep Citrus 1:1
Various brushes
Dressed with 303 protectant

LSP: Menzerna Powerlock

Befores:


Carpet was well taken care of, only various light soiling spots, coffee stains here and there.....






Light soiling on the instrument cluster/ other areas

Obvious soiling on leather steering wheel

Jams Before:









Exhaust tips before:


Front bumper, bug splatter etc.


RDS evident all around the vehicle:

Motor Before:







The owner uses their all-weather mats year round, keeping the carpet mats in the trunk. These were of course extracted as well!
There were obvious soil stains which I knew would be easy to take care of!
Befores:



After a light cleansing, agitation and extraction:


Interior carpet afters:




While I was vacuuming, extracting and working on the interior carpet and all-weather mats Leatherique had been working its magic:


After the oil had been sitting for close to 2 hours (a coating was also put on the previous night upon taking delivery of the car) I wiped off the oil with a steaming hot MF towel and wiped dry with a dry MF towel.
After wiping off oil, pre-Lexol cleaning:


Next came a gentle cleaning with my SV leather brush, hot water and Lexol pH:



Steering wheel after- back to a healthy beautiful matte condition


Then came cleaning all plastic, trim, door panels and instrument cluster
Some various pics:
Before:
Nice little gaps leaves a great deal of room for crumbs and fine pieces of garbage to become trapped:



Luckily I can satisfy my OCD with my dentists tool (one of my clients is a dentist) and some help with a lot of compressed air.








Various motor cleaning shots:



The motor was agitated with my designated motor brush, rinsed and blown dry with a leaf blower, all electric connections were then further blown out with the help of compressed air.

On to the wash process:
Opt. Power Clean applied to sidewalls and wheel wells:


Sonax working:







Aquartz FE cut applied to the inner drums to further help with loosening some heavily baked on brake dust:


Jams all degreased and agitated with my designated SV Pneu trim brush



2- bucket method ( CG Citrus wash )

- Following came a full clay treatment including claying of the wheels
Not bad at all:

- Following the clay treatment came stripping of the previous LSP:

- Following this came another 2-bucket method wash
- The car was then blown dry and taken into my garage to be put underneath the lights for some pre-correction inspection.

Correctional Process:

Some of the tools:


As stated up above I found the clear to be hard and in order to get 50- 65% correction I had to jump to a 2-step method. You will also see that I discovered some pretty nice holograms and light to moderate buffer trails left by someone else :shakehead: along with some nice RDS. I then ended by jeweling with P085rd slow and low to finish it out.

Note* remember this is not a full correctional detail

Hood Before: (see beginning for correction steps)



50/50:



Pulled outside.....notice the area before and after:


After area in the sun:


Some noticeable holograms and tails:


After dialing in the combo that would work well I popped in my noise-cancelling buds and got to work


50/50:



After






After:



Depth and clarity to right of door handle, pre-correction on left:











After:








After:




The drivers side was by far the worst, much heavier defects






After two passes with SIP, pre- 106 and 85RD


Both doors After





Rear panel 50/50:



Trunk deck lid:



50/50 after:








After:



The B pillars were taped off and corrected as well:
After:



Finals:
- The weather was supposed to hold out in time for pick up however due to uncontrollable circumstances regarding time restrictions and the stupid forecast the vehicle was picked up while it was damp out :shakehead: If only us detailers could control the weather.....

I was only able to capture several pictures while in my garage.



















One of my favorite shots:






















Thanks for looking!
Dan K.

 

That is detailing done right! Every surface, inside and out...including paint finish, done right!

Awesome job, very much enjoyed this writeup!

 

great job!

 

Much appreciated man! Thank you!

 

Great job as usual!!

 

Really good write-up. Job well done!

Too bad about the damp roads - oh well...a dirty corrected car usually still looks better than a clean un-corrected car.

 

I know but it was corrected and protected....... and its going to take ALOT to replicate the damage that was previously left

 

Thanks Phil!

 

Nicely done. I enjoyed looking through all the pictures.

 

That was one of the best write-ups of one of the best detailing jobs I've ever seen. Your attention to detail, inside and out, is incredible.
I really enjoyed that. Great job.
Joe D.

 

Pretty damn amazing for what you do not consider a full correction detail! Awesome job. Out of curiosity, what would you have done additionally/differently for a full correction? Start with Megs 105 on PFW?

 

Yupp- I would've gone straight to 105 with an orange pad (least aggressive first) and then stepped up to a yellow if need be, i've been happy with the results I've gotten with M105 and an orange pad!
Thanks for looking!
-Dan

 

Great write-up and awesome detail! Thanks for sharing!

 

great work inside and out. I really like how matte the leather seats turned out. I can't stand shiny interior surfaces.

 

Great write up! That paint looked superb afterwards.

 

Great detail grite up, the photos and the explanation process was great

How do you clean the steering wheel? same process and tools like the seats?

 

very nice documentation man!

i like how you showed some "deeper" shots of the engine bay when cleaning it. lots of engine detailing pics are only showing the top of the engine bay and not deep down inside...nicely done.

 

great job!!

 

That's superb. Terrific job!

 

Yes- I usually will take a good plush MF towel that has been soaking in hot water for some time, wring it out so that it is damp and wrap around the wheel for close to a minute. Sort of like a steam bath for the leather if you will. I follow up with my normal Lexol scrub with my SV leather brush. Note- I'm always extremely gentle and cautious as not every wheel was in as good as shape as this A4's happen to be. If there is noticeable damage to the leather I will not even use the brush but instead use several gentle wipedowns!

Thanks for looking and commenting everyone!