Audi RS4 b7 saloon in Mugello Blue
Major Paint Correction, engine-bay and interior.
Vehicle booked on the back of the Bentley Continental GTC that had Minor Paint Correction work over two days in March.
Product
• 3M Glass Cleaner
• 3M Extra Fine (yellow)
• 3M Ultra Fina (blue)
• AutoSmart Hazsafe
• AutoSmart G101
• AutoSmart Tardis
• AutoGlym Vinyl & Rubber Care
• Belgom ALU
• CarPro IronX
• California Scents – New Car Smell
• Chemical Guys New Look Trim Gel
• Chemical Guys JetSEAL109
• Dodo Juice Born To Be Mild (BTBM)
• Dodo Juice Supernatural wax
• Elite Mild grade clay bar
• Jeffs Werkstat Acrylic Prime
• Menzerna 203s
• Menzerna 85RD 3.02
• Meguiars Last Touch
• Meguiars Super Degreaser
• Meguiars Wheel Brightener
• Meguiars 105 ultra cut compound
• Zaino Z6
Inspection.
Nice etchings (possibly bird-bomb) present on the bootlid:
Polish residues from previous sessions:
A nasty spotted N/S/R lower door:
General swirling on the bonnet:
The wheels were caked!
With the wheels ‘clean’, the tyres degreased and arches flushed, it was time to tackle the brake dust.
Step up CarPro IronX.
Before:
After 10 seconds:
After a minute:
Word of warning, if you use this product, do so in a well ventilated area! (Although the formulation has recently been changed, and, a new fragrance added, it still stinks and will haunt you for the best part of the day!)
The rest of the vehicle was washed – pre-wash, pre-rinse, foam, two bucket system etc.
The start of the decontamination process: tar removal with AutoSmart Tardis.
Shortly after, IronX used to remove embedded filings and other inorganic contaminants.
The RS4 was quite heavily contaminated. At the time of drop-off, the owner did mention how the car is (unfortunately) parked under two large trees and cannot escape in doing so…
Clay bar after half the roof and N/S glass:
The N/S doors and bonnet:
Finally, after the rear-end (bumper, boot and rear window)
Car looking much smarter already:
Once rinsed, inside and blown dry, it was time to check what we were up against…
These aren’t just light ‘wash swirls’, these are deep scratches!
The owner admitted that the car has been through the odd handwash station from time to time… (Much like the Bentley seen above)
Starting my polishing set on the bonnet, to show the difference between a Minor Paint Correction detail and a Major Correction (benefit of the owner at this point), here’s two shots of the bonnet with the defects:
Going on my usual VAG paint approach with a single hit (Minor), these were the results:
As you can see, the combination of random deep scratches and rock hard paint left lots of room for improvement.
Bumping things up a notch, Megs 105 ultra cut compound on a Lake Country foamed wool pad, 50/50:
Kind of expected, but, this paint was solid! Minimum of two hits in each section required to give the results we were after…
Panel worked on at a time. X2 cutting followed by a long drawn out polishing set to refine.
Refined on a 3M yellow polishing pad and Menz 85RD 3.02:
Before/After:
O/S/F wing before:
O/S/F wing after:
Mugello blue really shining through now…
Before working my way down the sides, I aimed high and ticked off the roofline/A-C pillars.
Before/After:
(Did you spot the solar-panelled sunroof??!)
Refined with Menz 3.02 and the yellow 3m polishing pad:
Now, you may have already spotted it the background on previous reports but that tickle-stick (duster…) you see doesn’t half come in handy; a vital bit of kit for heavy correction work.
There isn’t a single pass that I make with the machine polisher where I don’t follow with a quick wipe to remove debris… Picking up tiny pieces of the brittle pad or clumped polish with your microfibre cloth will lead to tough times ahead; marring the finish or even reintroducing some scratches.
With the O/S roofline complete, I worked from the ‘C’ to the ‘A’ Pillar. Correction with a 3M green spot pad and polished back with the white Hexlogic self-centred jobbie.
O/S/F door.
Those bump-strips can prove a tad annoying (difficult/time consuming)
The majority of the correction done on the door (minus the door handle area) would be done with a large pad of some kind… With said large pad though, you’re never going to be able to get in close to the bump-strips.. An inch or so above and below the strip would be left a little ‘unfinished’. In my eyes, the only way to get around this is by correcting the surrounding area beforehand with a spot pad (and then moving on to the big pad work)
Example.
Before:
And after: (correction nice and tight to the bump-strip)
The foamed wool pad then taking over for the rest of the work:
O/S/F door finished:
A slight fail on my behalf though; going back to the bump-strip, that was still swirled and hazy. I should have fixed this prior to taping up and moving on to the surrounding paintwork.
A bit of a nuisance and lesson learnt - after:
With the O/S/R door, the strip was corrected and THEN taped up... Eh, eh. See what I did there?
Before/After:
50/50 on the boot lid:
Before/After:
Had to leave a few RDS behind (random deep scratches); losing count of how many cutting passes I was making to chase 90%+ correction.
Boot facing dealt with:
Light clusters – before/after:
(Spot the clumped polish on the after photo – some ‘toothpickery’ work for later!)
Rear bumper had been quite badly caught (as with most cars to be honest)
Going steady, it was corrected as safely as possible and then refined down:
Catching some sun whilst spinning the car round:
The 50/50 on the bootlid once in the right light…
And then artificial lighting:
N/S/F door before/after:
N/S/F wing after refining – again, Mugello Blue really starting to come to life:
Exhausts tidied at this point. Cleaned and polished as far back as possible (Belgom ALU)
Before/After:
With the machine work complete (~20 hours over the first two days) it was time to dust the car down.
Doors shuts and engine bay attended to at this point.
Boot shut:
Engine before:
Jetted down, water sheeted to aid the drying and then blown/patted dry fully.
Engine dressing - AG Vinyl & Rubber Care and Jeffs Prime on the metalwork/carbon-fibre
Thorough IPA (isopropyl alcohol) wipedown given to remove any remaining polishing oils.
With the wax curing (Dodo Juice Supernatural), the glass was cleaned inside and out.
Windows dropped to access that ‘top bit’:
Boot also lifted as an inch or so of the rear screen is tucked under the lid when closed:
A quick fix to the interior - Hoovered, leather wiped down, plastics and console cleansed.
Toothpickery work:
Pedals cleansed with G101:
Muck lifted off of the steering wheel:
Outside into the sun:
Remember this?
A few final touches…
50/50, heh…
Before/After:
Fini. 27 hours over three days.
Partnering up with an e60 BMW… (Watch this space)
Thanks for reading – still love the RS4.
Jim.
Cheers Dunc.