2008 Audi A8L - Big Black!

[001jigsaw]

Hey everyone!

Here is an Audi A8L (Yup, the even longer one) and to make it even better, it's black! But wait! Did I mention it hasn't been washed in at least 3 years? This is the car that nearly had my brain baking during a heat spell of around 95* with, what i could only guess was 9000% humidity. I digress, onto the car!

The customer opted for my standard exterior service (wash, decon, 1-step) as this is their daily driver, and as you can guess, it probably isn't going to get very well taken care of after it leaves. They also opted for an engine compartment and headlight restoration service.

Behold, 207 inches and 4600 pounds of rolling negligence!

Where the rear windshield meets the deck lid:

The driver's side headlight is the one to receive attention:

Now for the engine compartment:

A nice bath exposed the larger spots of tree sap:

These are really the only before pics I have of the interior because I started at night:


This is the back seat, so imagine how the driver's seat was. Shiny, huh?

This was the only problem spot inside, luckily. Since all the drains/water runoffs were filled with debris, the water probably found it's way elsewhere:

 

[001jigsaw]

Here it is a couple days later, all finished. I was fortunate enough to be able to take my time with this one - the heat and humidity slowed me down quite a bit. Hooray for low blood sugar!

The black spots on the intake manifold is actually where the coating had chipped off

This was a tedious one for sure. The owner was more than satisfied with how it turned out - I don't think he's seen it shine like that since new!

Lessons learned from this one - THOROUGHLY inspect the vehicle WITH the customer, and charge accordingly for heavily contaminated vehicles. Never again will I give my standard full-size vehicle price for a car that needs this much time! Oh, that and.. water. And gatorade. About a semi full of each. :laughing:

Thanks for looking!

 

[mike33175]

Very nice turnaround!

What did you use to clean up that headlight?

 

[WT Taggart]

What a transformation, thanks for sharing and great write up. How many hours did you have it it?



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[EXTJosh]

Awesome job! What was your procedure for the stained headliner?

 

[001jigsaw]

Very nice turnaround!

What did you use to clean up that headlight?

Thanks Mike! Since I have classic cars that I'm always toying with, I always have an arsenal of wet/dry sandpaper. I started with 1000 grit until the oxidation was removed, then 1500, then 2000. The finishing touch was Meguiars M105 using a rotary with a wool pad. If a rotary weren't an option, and all I had was a DA polisher, I would have went up to 3000 grit which would have made the job easier on the DA.

Funny enough, after I rolled the Audi out of the garage, I found my brother in law trying to restore his headlights with one of those kits from the auto parts store. Key word - trying! You have to be able to have enough grit to cut through the oxidation to fresh plastic, and the appropriate grits to follow up your initial grit to remove the coarser scratches it left behind. Then, the real champion was the rotary and wool pad. More heat, higher speed, heavy cut - it chuckled at those sanding scratches. My brother in law was trying to do it all by hand, and he didn't sand through to new plastic on the initial grit. Not gonna work! Wetsand until the yellow cloudy film running off the headlight lens turns to white. That is when you've reached fresh plastic.

What a transformation, thanks for sharing and great write up. How many hours did you have it it?



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Thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed it. It was a few weeks ago and I've had a couple jobs since then, so I don't quite remember. I think it was *somewhere* between 15-20 hours. I was so exhausted from the heat I barely knew who I was doing that car! I did more than meets the eye - I removed all of that plastic trim & weatherstripping in the engine bay near the windshield and vacuumed/degreased all underneath, blew out the cabin air filter, blew out the front end drains (they were clogged) and then some. A lot of time was spent just cleaning around all of the moldings, emblems, jambs, windshield edges, and every other crack and crevice. I've since bought Optimum Power Clean, and if I get a car this dirty again, I will probably add some OPC to the wash shampoo in the foam gun.

Awesome job! What was your procedure for the stained headliner?

Thanks Josh! I used Meguiars APC at 4:1 for the headliner. I've had a few cars with water stains in the fabric (including my friend's car which had the windows left open during a storm, you can imagine how that was) and the APC has always done the job. For this particular stain, I misted the headliner as well as a microfiber cloth, gently blotting the area of the stain with the APC in small, twisting like motions. Then I used a clean cloth to blot the area dry. It took 2 or 3 passes, but I'd rather approach that cautiously than to saturate the headliner and rush into it scrubbing.

 

[spazzz]

Huge WOW factor for a 1 step. I would love to see the full monty.

But honestly, your story telling is superb.

 

[LITUNDRA]

Looks Great nice job!

Looks like Nassau from the pics I'm out east and your a brave man for undertaking this project with the weather we had. At least it a little better now.

 

[TTQ B4U]

Nice job! Bet the owner was very happy person.

 

[001jigsaw]

Huge WOW factor for a 1 step. I would love to see the full monty.

But honestly, your story telling is superb.

Don't be too fooled, there were certainly swirls and some RIDS there, but it wasn't too bad. Since it's his daily we decided against any correction, but DANG did the clay bar and AIO clean it up a ton.

I used Blackfire Total Polish and Seal, if anyone is wondering. I got it during a deal they had going at AG. Love the stuff, but I might try another AIO next if anyone has some suggestions.

I'm going to assume the story telling comment is a reference to the first few paragraphs lol!

Looks Great nice job!

Looks like Nassau from the pics I'm out east and your a brave man for undertaking this project with the weather we had. At least it a little better now.

Thank you! Yes indeed it is Nassau. Right on the border of Franklin Square and Malverne. I actually made a thread on here before I had this car come in, asking if anyone has ever rescheduled due to the heat. Those three or four days in a row a few weeks ago were insane. Of course that's when I had the car! I stocked up on water and gatorade, kept a cooling towel around my neck and tried to work early in the morning or evening. Frequent breaks and plenty of food kept me alive. I've had 3 cars since this one, and each of them I kept overnight and worked on them from around midnight to 4AM just to stay out of this weather.

Nice job! Bet the owner was very happy person.

Thanks! Indeed he was. It was one of those times that the owner is so excited and happy that they can't stop smiling and even gave me a tip. Always a great way to end the job - having both parties walk around the finished vehicle smiling together.

Gorgeous S4 by the way, those are some impressive numbers. I had a Trans Am WS6 with many, many mods done (heads/cam/intake/full exhaust etc) to get into the low 11's. That's a quick car you got there.

 

[Mike@DedicatedPerfection]

Man oh man. Talk about neglect.

Nicely done!

Thanks for sharing.

 

[Justin at Final Inspection]

Nicely done sir! Boy was that poor Audi Neglected!

 

[briarpatch]

To do that vehicle in the heat and humidity we've had was brutal.....nice turnaround on that one

 

[EXTJosh]

Thanks Josh! I used Meguiars APC at 4:1 for the headliner. I've had a few cars with water stains in the fabric (including my friend's car which had the windows left open during a storm, you can imagine how that was) and the APC has always done the job. For this particular stain, I misted the headliner as well as a microfiber cloth, gently blotting the area of the stain with the APC in small, twisting like motions. Then I used a clean cloth to blot the area dry. It took 2 or 3 passes, but I'd rather approach that cautiously than to saturate the headliner and rush into it scrubbing.

Awesome, thanks!--will def try that one day soon! And again, great turnaround on this car...

 

[MartinQ]

Bros that looks absolutely awesome, I know what you mean about quoting correctly I told a BMW 335is convertable. 400.00 and ended up spending 16 hours cleaning the dam thing. Hadnt been washed or waxed since 2011. That looks great. Did you measure the paint?

 

[001jigsaw]

Man oh man. Talk about neglect.

Nicely done!

Thanks for sharing.

Thank you sir!

Nicely done sir! Boy was that poor Audi Neglected!

Indeed it was. I had been looking at so many threads in this section before the car came.. I got so inspired by everyone's great work, I wasn't going to settle for anything less than jaw-dropping for the owner. Busted my buns on it, but I'm glad I did.

To do that vehicle in the heat and humidity we've had was brutal.....nice turnaround on that one

It sure was. Even working at night the humidity was still awful. Thanks man!

Awesome, thanks!--will def try that one day soon! And again, great turnaround on this car...

Let me know how it works out for you! Thanks again!

Bros that looks absolutely awesome, I know what you mean about quoting correctly I told a BMW 335is convertable. 400.00 and ended up spending 16 hours cleaning the dam thing. Hadnt been washed or waxed since 2011. That looks great. Did you measure the paint?

Yup, you know how it is! Thanks for the compliment. I did not measure - had we decided to go for a more agressive approach, I would have. It appeared to pretty much be untouched paint with a mac truck full of dirt dumped onto it. :laughing: The owner had it since new and didn't wash it.

 

[jmikolich]

How did you address the dealer "decal" located below the 4.2 Quattro? i assume you taped off the area but then did you hand polish over the sticker? or was the wash sufficient over that area?

Looks awesome, quite the transformation.

 

[RaydiantDetail]

Awesome transformation!

 

[Chramiji]

awesome job, but would it be better to hide the owner's plate? Just wondering.

 

[Demonface]

Wow , You made it look like a new car .I gotta do something like that to my Audi .