2008 Audi A4 Dark Blue, lot's of swirls.

[julienjj]

I have recently bought a porter cable 7424xp with a variety of CCS pads to ease up my wax, polish & glaze application.

I want to remove the swirls on my dad Audi A4, the paint is a very dark blue (almost black in most lighting conditions). The car has been his daily driver for the last 7 years (He has a convertible for nice and sunny days), specially during the winter. He went to automatic car wash quite often, and it starts to show in the paint.
The cars is covered in swirls. I suspect the clearcoat has a very high hardness, as the swirl are impossible to feel due to not being deep.

I'll let the picture speak for itself:

I was wondering what product you guys had the most success with on these audi paint, as i want to remove the bare minimum of clearcoat to achieve a swirl free finish. Reading around I see that wolfgang swirl remover 3.0 appear to be a popular choice with either a white or an orange pad depending on how the paint respond to it.

Any comment or input would be appreciated

 

[Souldetailer]

I have recently bought a porter cable 7424xp with a variety of CCS pads to ease up my wax, polish & glaze application.

I want to remove the swirls on my dad Audi A4, the paint is a very dark blue (almost black in most lighting conditions). The car has been his daily driver for the last 7 years (He has a convertible for nice and sunny days), specially during the winter. He went to automatic car wash quite often, and it starts to show in the paint.
The cars is covered in swirls. I suspect the clearcoat has a very high hardness, as the swirl are impossible to feel due to not being deep.

I'll let the picture speak for itself:

I was wondering what product you guys had the most success with on these audi paint, as i want to remove the bare minimum of clearcoat to achieve a swirl free finish. Reading around I see that wolfgang swirl remover 3.0 appear to be a popular choice with either a white or an orange pad depending on how the paint respond to it.

Any comment or input would be appreciated

I think you've made good decisions in your choices. Yup, start with a test spot using the least aggressive pad. In this case, the white and adjust accordingly. You seem to know what to do. Good luck.

Peace,

Darrin

 

[tdekany]

I'll save your white pad, start with the orange, no reason to worry about removing "too much clear" with the PC. Go slow, don't rush, and not too much pressure, let the pad spin. Keep it flat. In general, Audi paint is very hard - seeing the damage, you will have your work cut out for you. Make sure to wipe the paint with 91% IPA so that the polishes you are using are not just 'hiding those imperfections. Good luck. Try getting some Meg's burgundy cutting pads for the PC. Really good pads.

 

[julienjj]

I finally got the time to mess around with the car... went with the orange pad and the swirl remover, tested on a ~2x2 section.

see the result by yourselves:

That after using the PC on speed5 for about 5 minutes, using the side handle to put a lof of weight on the pad.... Saying that this paint is hard is an understatement ! I totally need something that cut more or I will go insane doing this over a whole weekend. While the paint has improved, lot's of straight scratches are now visible, they where likely hidden by the light swirls.

 

[tdekany]

Nothing beats meguiar's 101.

 

[rookiez]

Wolfgang Twins? It worked on S550 with C040 (Ceramic Clear Coat), which is very tough to work on IMO.

 

[tdekany]

Wolfgang Twins? It worked on S550 with C040 (Ceramic Clear Coat), which is very tough to work on IMO.

I recently corrected an s65 Amg and the paint was easy to work on. Nothing like some of the Vw/Audi paint. If you haven't tried 101 you should.

 

[lawrenceSA]

Well I have done a fair number of Audis and they do indeed have paint that is on the harder side.

I reckon the first change you should make is to shrink your work area down - 2' x 2' is too big for a) the machine you are using and b) the type of defects you are trying to remove

Secondly, judging by the condition of the paint in your before pics, I think you have done an admirable job considering the tools/products you used.... what you are now seeing in terms of deeper scratches would have been there all along and now simply 'revealed' by removing all the other swirls.... I don't think it is realistic to expect to get those out in one hit, unless you were using maybe a rotary.

Gosh, I was using Menz FG400, a hybrid wool pad and a Flex 3401 and I still had to compound each section twice on this car, so it wouldn't surprise me if you need to do the same on the Audi

http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/show-n-shine/94930-3rd-tornado-red-golf-6-gti-detailed-lawrence.html

And from my experience the paint on the VW's is not as hard as the Audi's.

You did not indicate if you had taken any measurements of the paint thickness, but if there is sufficient paint to work with, I'd it it again, but this time with a smaller working area.

Also, make sure your arm speed is S L O W.... like maybe around 1" per second

Good luck and hopefully once your dad sees the change in the appearance of his car, he won't be visiting the swirl-o-matic any more. :dblthumb2:

 

[ZiggyPopp]

I have an '08 S5 with the same paint. I think it is deep sea blue. Beautiful IMO.

Anyhow, Meg's foam cut compound 101 is good. I am sold on the Menzerna line of polishes as they use diminishing abrasive which break down as you use them and finish very nice. My S5 looked just like your dad's car when I bought it and I had good luck with Menzerna FG400. They also sell a heavier compound SHC 300 but I have not used this.

Someone above suggests not using too much pressure. I suggest using pressure as long as the pad keeps spinning with the 7424.

Try to work as clean as possible. Use several fresh clean pads for each step. I clean my pads with a MF towel after each panel and use 1 pad for hood, roof, trunk 1 new pad for each side and 1 pad for front back. Very carefully clean all polish off the car and from seams and cracks between steps.
http://www.autogeek.net/menzerna-of-germany.html





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[apme123]

Mf pads, m101. Rotary with wool

 

[GSKR]

Uber.