MK4 Golf Detail

Thought I'd through up a write up I did of my old Golf, back when I could be bothered to take lots of pics during a detail!

Car was covered in swirls and scratches and also the paint was very rough and faded due to living the previous 3 years of its life next to the sea up in Northumberland.

First up I foamed the car with VP superfoam..




Whilst the foam was doing its thing I went round all the window edges, nooks&crannies and badges with a detail brush..




Car was then rinsed with the pressure washer from the bottom up. (no pics!)

Then it was onto the wash stage using 2BM with Dodo BTBM and a megs wash mitt..



Car was then rinsed again, this time with open hose to sheet the water..



No drying stage here, as needed to clay the whole car, weapons of choice where finepolyclay and megs clay with Megs Last touch as lube..



I knew the front half of the car wasnt as bad as the back so started here first..

Bonnet being clayed..


Clay after bonnet..


Then moved onto the rear, this is the rear bumper and you can see how bad the paint was here due the sand, it really was like sandpaper to touch..



Using megs clay here and 20mins and a few passes..



Its still not perfect but clay fails to remove anymore contamination so will sort it in the machining stage.

So this is the car completely clayed..




Then foamed again with Megs Hyperwash..



and washed down with washmitt and clean water in the rinse bucket to remove all clay marks.

Car was then dryed using Eurow towel and Last Touch as drying aide..



Once the car was dryed completly it was time to take some paint thickness readings..



Thickness was fairly consistant throughout but a couple of points worth noting..

Bonnet had obviously been painted at some point in its life..



And a couple of low spots on the rear passenger door..



A couple of readings then taken from under the bonnet and door shuts to find the average paint thickness so I know what sort of clearcoat is on the car..



Which leaves us with this..




The car was taped up prior to machine polishing.




Time for a few pics of some of the issues




and under the Brinkmann..

[imghttps://img.photobucket.com/albums/v477/poobug/DSCF3791.jpg[/img]



Did a few test spots and settled on Menzerna Intensive Polish on a Coolfoam Cutting pad..



a quick 50/50 of the bonnet..




and finished.. (still not happy with the correction here, but more of that later)




Moved onto the sides of the car.



Couple of heavy scratches on the drivers side doors..





and corrected as best I could without sanding



Condition of rear drivers door..



50/50



corrected..



one side done..



so time for this...



Then moved around to rear passenger door..



and corrected..



completed that side and moved onto the rear bumper, as I said in part 1, the car has lived by the sea and the rear of the car in particular was really faded..

so 50/50 of rear bumper..



corrected..



Top edge of rear bumper covered in scratches as expected due to stuff being loaded into boot..



Polish not really touching it, so decided to wetsand..

during


after..


Completed all both bumpers and roof and car looking something like this..





Then time for a final pass with the DODO Lime Prime on coolfoam finishing pad..



My twin daughters then arrived home from nursery and wanted to give daddy a hand!




Once the whole car Lime Primed, I still wasnt happy with the bonnet as some scratches still evident in the sun, so went back over with Megs #83 on a 3m Yellow pad..

before..



after..





Pretty much happy with that, as stated not after 100% correction at this stage..

Running out of time, so no time for a proper wax, so a quick going over with DODO Red Mist as a little protection..






I'll chuck up a few more photos of other cars I've done when I get a bit more time!

Comments welcomed.

cheers, Chris.

wow amazing job mate. got them swirls out very nicely. wish i had that kit u got!

like button needed haha



love it

a need this on me bora lol great write up m8

on this note, my rents have just bought me a cheap buffer from aldi and was wondering wht compound you use or anyone who has experience with machine polishing? anytips coz my car is a few shades of yellow so dont want to knacker the paint anymore with not having done this before ?

pacey90 wrote:

a need this on me bora lol great write up m8

drop me a PM, might be able to sort you something!

RDub wrote:

on this note, my rents have just bought me a cheap buffer from aldi and was wondering wht compound you use or anyone who has experience with machine polishing? anytips coz my car is a few shades of yellow so dont want to knacker the paint anymore with not having done this before ?

Not wanting to sound harsh, but the only thing the Aldi/Halfords/B&Q (delete as applicable) polishers are good for is the bin.

I certainly wouldnt be touching my cars paintwork with them, they will only induce more swirls and scratches than they would remove.

Good right up dude , more of an idea Into detailing now haha, desperately need a polisher

ne bother haha what a waste but or well better than burning my paint