Thanks for looking….

Here’s the car before work was started.

The car was then thoroughly cleaned before claying

The car was then clayed

Once this was done the car was then machine polished using a fine finishing polish & soft pad using the rotary polisher. This removed 95% + of the swirl marks as well as enhancing the gloss and colour of the paint ready for the wax.

This process took 5 hours and once done the glass was also polished

Once this was done the wax (Dodo juice ‘Supernatural’) was applied panel by panel

Once cured this was then buffed away

Here is the final result after 8 hours of work

And a final before/after comparison shot

Thanks for reading. If you have any questions please feel free to give us a call

Firstly some before pictures of an already very tidy 15 year old car….

Engine & Interior before…

The more difficult areas on the engine bay would make a big overall difference

Onto the wash process firstly with the wheels

The arches were also thoroughly cleaned at this stage. Once this was done it was time to clean all the door / boot shuts, badges, rubber trims and other areas where dirt is prone to collect before the vehicle is washed

Then dried…

With the car dried off it was time to clay the entire car to get the paint as smooth & flat as possible. Before & after of a part of the clay used

The car was then taken inside and inspected before polishing. Here’s what we were up against!

Under the halogens…

and again under a more direct light source…

With a good idea of what was needed a test area was then done to determine which combination of pad & polish produce the best results and safely remove the swirls while removing minimal clearcoat. In this case 3M Extra fine was used with a heavy cut ‘white’ Gloss it pad. Two ‘hits’ with this combination revealed this….

Polishing up to a line of masking tape clearly shows up the difference that is being made before continuing this process around the whole car. The difference was certainly amazing visually with 95%+ correction.

Panel by panel the quality of the paint and overall gloss was returning as each one was polished. Time on each panel on this car was approx 1 hour.

Here’s how it started looking!

Under the direct light source (metered camera flash) things were looking promising

Once all the correction work was completed the car was in need of a good rinse as it was rather dusty!

The next stage was the smaller areas not reachable by machine and the metal trim

Also while outside, the interior was cleaned and special attention paid to cleaning and protecting the leather

Wheel arch linings, exterior plastics & tyres were then protected before pre-wax polishing & waxing

Final polishing was done using a very soft polishing pad and 3M Ultrafina polish. This ensures the best possible finish after the use of harsher polish & pad combinations.

Fast becoming a favourite of ours, Blackfire AFPP sealant was chosen to protect the finish and applied everywhere!

Finally this is buffed off to reveal the finished article. If you have read this far WELL DONE!

Here are the final pictures…

Thanks for looking.

First up the before pictures

First up during the wash process were the wheels & arches…

Being fairly new these came up very well

Next to be done were the door, boot shuts engine bay and other exterior trims which are pre cleaned before the actual wash stage. Around badges and trims is where dirt can really bond on as a normal wash routine doesn’t pay these any attention.

With this all done it was time for the wash stagethen the claying stage…

This stage takes some time on big cars like this Audi but the preparation is vital!

Next job was the interior which was fully vacuumed, all trim cleaned, leather deep cleaned and all interior woodwork cleaned & waxed. The mats were thoroughly washed to remove engrained dirt, stains and the odd tar spots…

With the car inside and dry the next job was the preparation and painting of the callipers and hubs.

The final result including the hubs can be seen in the final shots…

Once this was done the polishing stage was started. This involved a 2-stage process starting with a medium abrasive polish & pad combination to remove as many of the paint defects as possible, followed by a very fine polish & pad combination to enhance the look of the paint adding depth and clarity.

The paintwork before’s under critical lighting

The first stage of polishing produced this difference.

You can clearly see the difference the polishing has made on the right hand side of the image, greatly reducing the swirl marks and increasing the clarity of the paint especially the metallic properties in the paint.

This process was carried on around all the paintwork including the door pillars and lowers panels & sills. The reduction in defects was clearly visible…

This was then followed by this polish…

and we are getting somewhere…

With the car ready for protection the wax was applied

and curing…

While the wax was curing the spare wheel was cleaned including the storage area. Is there anything worse than handling a dirty spare wheel in your best clothes!?

With the wax buffed, 23 hours later we get to the finished article. Enjoy!

Thanks for looking! Please contact us if you have any questions about any of our services.

]]> http://www.ukcarvaleting.co.uk/http:/www.ukcarvaleting.co.uk/services/feed 5