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Incredible Detail wrote: This car was booked in for a 2 day correction detail. This was donated as one of the prizes for raffle at the Audi Meet held at the Famous Grouse back March. Just over £600 was raised on the day for BLESMA (British Limbless Ex Service Men's Association) www.blesma.org, which is the national charity for limbless serving and ex service men and women and their dependants and widows.

Here's how the car looked on arrival.



Firstly the wheels were cleaned using Wolf's Deionizer. Tarids was used to remove any tar spots. The tyres and arches were also cleaned using Meguiars Super Degreaser. Cleaning the tyres properly allows the tyre dressing a better surface to adhere to and ensure the tyre dressing lasts.







The inside and behind the spokes were cleand thoroughly too





As were the callipers





Once the wheels and arches were cleaned I move on to the bodywork. Firstly it was foamed with Meguiars APC and left to dwell for a good 5 minutes to loosen the dirty build up and bugs on the front. Every inch of the car was then thoroughly rinsed to remove as much dirt as possible before being washed with the 2 bucket method and lambswool wash mitts.



I then moved on to cleaning all the grills, badges, rubbers and shuts

Moss build up - cleaned with Meguiar's APC









Shuts cleaned with Meguiar's Super Degreaser









Lastly tardis was used to remove any tar spots and tree sap





Every inch was throughly de-tarred, including inside the door shuts (strange how tar gets in there) and the inside of the side skirts.



The paintwork was then clayed with 3M clay and Meguiar's Last Touch as lubrication.



This didn't pick up too much



After the wash and contamination stages the car was dried using plush towels and the Air Force Blaster to get out of all areas it would usually drip from when working.

After masking the car up and taking paint depth reads I then started on the paintwork correction. The car was dropped off at 11am and picked up at 5pm the next day (as this was the only times suitable for the customer / winner )so this was by no means a full correction and quite a few marks were left in the paintwork. Overally the level of correction was pretty good though with all the swirls removed and just a few RDS (random deep scratches remaining).

Bonnet Before



After



The above pictures don't really show the extend of the damage very well. The 500w halogen light used here may make it look like the scratches and swirl marks are only in one area of the bonnet. This is due to the way the defects are captured. The whole bonnet was like this.

It was quite difficult to photograph the defects on this colour (although they were very obvious in the flesh). This picture of the bootlid gives a better representation of how all of the paintwork looked







Some more before and after picture during paintwork correction. All of these pictures are straight after compounding and the paintwork is still to undergo further polishing stages to refine the finish.





3M sun gun used as light source here









Fairly bad scratches above passenger side door handle





Wing









This side of the front bumper had been recently painted and showed buffer trails from poor machine polish (the strange lines shooting out from to the right from the light source). Overall though the paint finish was excellent.





Slight damage to the front bumper



Much better



After all of the compouding was complete the car was foamd and rinsed again to get rid of all of the dust.



Before being taken inside, dried and final polished.

Here is some after shots under the sun gun showing the finish after being wiped down with Isopropyl alcohol to ensure a true finish (making sure the polish isn't just filling in or hidding defect) and ensure the surface is perfectly clean before waxing.













The car was then waxed and all of the final details were taken care of



Exhausts polished and sealed with britemax twins.





Trim dress with 303 Aerospace Protectant and seals feed with Swissvax seal feed.



Tyres dress with Swissvax Pneu and wheel sealed with Blackfire All Metal Sealant





And lastly the glass was cleaned with 3M Glass cleaner

Sadly it was quite overcast and the sun didn't come out for the final pictures so I don't think these really do the finish justice (except from the shot of the wing as this shows the finish well). As with most cars that I detail, it looked loads better in the flesh!













Thanks for reading

Robert

JohnnerLad wrote:Hello Ima07

You say that you have booked it in for 5 days work? .........i'm sure Pie's car did not take 5 days to complete( Pie can confirm) i just wonder what else they are doing during the 5 days? Also at what cost?

PS Hope your doing well

Mark

lma07 wrote:

JohnnerLad wrote:Hello Ima07

You say that you have booked it in for 5 days work? .........i'm sure Pie's car did not take 5 days to complete( Pie can confirm) i just wonder what else they are doing during the 5 days? Also at what cost?

PS Hope your doing well

Mark

Hi Mark

As this RS4 was 2nd hand when I got it the paintwork is in a bit of a mess. I'm sure the previous owners washed the car using steel wool and swarfega. So, the 5 day detail is to correct major paint defects. The website shows in full what each of the service options are. The one I chose was 5 day Correction Detail. I have been using Clarke since 2007 when I got my new RS4. Its £1650 so its an early birthday/xmas present to myself

Ouch. Look forward to seeing the pics.
Laura