RS6 Detail by JiaB (Dial-up ... best put the kettle on!!!)
Posted: Fri Aug 17, 2007 6:35 pm
Guys,
After quite a few false starts due to crappy weather Dave (aka Jack-in-a-Box) finally made it down to detail my RS6.
I've been waiting for Dave to visit for quite a while as after purchasing my Porter Cable I've been consulting with him regarding its use and general car care advice … something I might add that he gave freely. I've recently had the cam belt change done so seen as the bumper was off I thought it would be a good idea to get the stone chips removed as well as getting the
So we were both up early in the morning only to be greeted by streaming rain - after numerous coffees and plenty of aimless staring out the window the rain gave way to drizzle so Dave made a start.
Dave made a start with cleaning the alloys with Virosol … I was very impressed with this product and I'm thinking of buying some even though I have a full 5l bottle of Meguiars wheel cleaner in the garage.
Next the car was washed down with some basic Halfords car wash and clayed. As you might expect with being freshly painted and polished there was very little contaminants on the car … in fact we got more grime off of the windows than anywhere else. Another wash followed including all the door sils and jams.
Dave dried the car off with his ancient auto glym chamois. He used an interesting technique where he held the chamois vertically and used the trailing edge to drive the water off the panels as if you would using a silicon blade. This then left a thin film of moisture that was easily mopped by the chamois.
Dave at my request gave the new paintwork a thorough inspection and thankfully the respray met with his approval - after hearing/reading about some nightmare stories of ropey resprays (Dave's seen quite a few in his time) I was quite relieved. Unfortunately he did highlight a few areas where the top lacquer coat was peeling implying the paintwork hadn't been properly keyed before the top coats which somewhat took the shine off glowing report.
All washed Dave moved onto treating the leather with Gliptone liquid leather. Having already been converted to this product (if you don't have any then you really need to buy some) the leather was in good nick - even still Dave was able to pull some more dirt out. As always the leather drank in the leather conditioner.
With the leather conditioner left to work its magic Dave turned his attention to the bodywork. Having resprayed and polished most of the body panels were pretty much swirl free so Dave was able to use some new Swissol professional cleaner fluid applied with a rotary polisher he was testing to get the most from the finish. The roof received special attention and a combination of Menzerna Intensive polish with a mild cutting pad followed by the Swissol professional cleaner fluid. The sils required slightly more work with a brief blast with some wet sanding followed by Menzerna IP followed by the cleaner fluid was able to improve if not remove the marks inflicted by shoe heels when getting in the car.
A coat of Swissol Best of Show then went on and was left for maybe 15 or 20 minutes before buffing off.
Dave recommends leaving the finish for a couple of hours ideally in sunshine to let the wax harden which gave him ample time to tackle the interior. A good hoover and wipe over is all that it took. A quick wipe over the leather to remove any excess conditioner and Dave was back out applying the second coat of BoS - whilst he was waiting for this to go off he tackled the boot.
A buff off the wax followed by a final wipe over of the bodywork and final touches to the exhausts, wheels, etc and Dave was done 11 hours after starting. Now for those people who know me will already appreciate that I like to keep my car clean and tidy - with working in an office environment most of the time I find it very therapeutic to get out and clean my car at the weekend.
So with having a porter cable in my possession some of you might be wondering why I got Dave down at all. Well the answer is quite simple … I've never had the confidence to push the porter cable too hard so being able to watch a pro at work and learn was worth the money alone. I can hardly complain in terms of value for money as Dave worked non stop for the full 11 hours on nothing more than bottles of lucozade ... I was knackered just watching him.
So here's a few shots of the final results ...
Rich.
After quite a few false starts due to crappy weather Dave (aka Jack-in-a-Box) finally made it down to detail my RS6.
I've been waiting for Dave to visit for quite a while as after purchasing my Porter Cable I've been consulting with him regarding its use and general car care advice … something I might add that he gave freely. I've recently had the cam belt change done so seen as the bumper was off I thought it would be a good idea to get the stone chips removed as well as getting the
So we were both up early in the morning only to be greeted by streaming rain - after numerous coffees and plenty of aimless staring out the window the rain gave way to drizzle so Dave made a start.
Dave made a start with cleaning the alloys with Virosol … I was very impressed with this product and I'm thinking of buying some even though I have a full 5l bottle of Meguiars wheel cleaner in the garage.
Next the car was washed down with some basic Halfords car wash and clayed. As you might expect with being freshly painted and polished there was very little contaminants on the car … in fact we got more grime off of the windows than anywhere else. Another wash followed including all the door sils and jams.
Dave dried the car off with his ancient auto glym chamois. He used an interesting technique where he held the chamois vertically and used the trailing edge to drive the water off the panels as if you would using a silicon blade. This then left a thin film of moisture that was easily mopped by the chamois.
Dave at my request gave the new paintwork a thorough inspection and thankfully the respray met with his approval - after hearing/reading about some nightmare stories of ropey resprays (Dave's seen quite a few in his time) I was quite relieved. Unfortunately he did highlight a few areas where the top lacquer coat was peeling implying the paintwork hadn't been properly keyed before the top coats which somewhat took the shine off glowing report.
All washed Dave moved onto treating the leather with Gliptone liquid leather. Having already been converted to this product (if you don't have any then you really need to buy some) the leather was in good nick - even still Dave was able to pull some more dirt out. As always the leather drank in the leather conditioner.
With the leather conditioner left to work its magic Dave turned his attention to the bodywork. Having resprayed and polished most of the body panels were pretty much swirl free so Dave was able to use some new Swissol professional cleaner fluid applied with a rotary polisher he was testing to get the most from the finish. The roof received special attention and a combination of Menzerna Intensive polish with a mild cutting pad followed by the Swissol professional cleaner fluid. The sils required slightly more work with a brief blast with some wet sanding followed by Menzerna IP followed by the cleaner fluid was able to improve if not remove the marks inflicted by shoe heels when getting in the car.
A coat of Swissol Best of Show then went on and was left for maybe 15 or 20 minutes before buffing off.
Dave recommends leaving the finish for a couple of hours ideally in sunshine to let the wax harden which gave him ample time to tackle the interior. A good hoover and wipe over is all that it took. A quick wipe over the leather to remove any excess conditioner and Dave was back out applying the second coat of BoS - whilst he was waiting for this to go off he tackled the boot.
A buff off the wax followed by a final wipe over of the bodywork and final touches to the exhausts, wheels, etc and Dave was done 11 hours after starting. Now for those people who know me will already appreciate that I like to keep my car clean and tidy - with working in an office environment most of the time I find it very therapeutic to get out and clean my car at the weekend.
So with having a porter cable in my possession some of you might be wondering why I got Dave down at all. Well the answer is quite simple … I've never had the confidence to push the porter cable too hard so being able to watch a pro at work and learn was worth the money alone. I can hardly complain in terms of value for money as Dave worked non stop for the full 11 hours on nothing more than bottles of lucozade ... I was knackered just watching him.
So here's a few shots of the final results ...
Rich.
To the detailing guru...... 
) but the write-up and pics. Didn't realise you were taking so many photos - worrying thinning of hair as hair 
