(5th) Candy White Golf 6 Gti - Detailed by Lawrence

[lawrenceSA]

I've done a few of these ....and for the most part, the paint defects looked just like your typical VW swirls... unfortunately, that's not how they behaved... but more on that later.

The wheels had at some point been refurbed, and there was some sort of thick plastic-y looking film type stuff over the wheels where there'd typically be the diamond cut finish, and as you will see in the the pics below, a section was flaking off. These therefore only received a basic wash using car shampoo and the owner was advised to get the finish seen to.

There would also be no engine bay work done on this detail and so the brief was to get everything clean, decon/correct/protect the paint, clean and protect the interior, and then all the other usually...well... details :lol:

So to start I pressure rinsed the arches, sprayed some Carchem APC on and left it to dwell, agitated and pressure rinsed that off. The same process was repeated on the tyres and brake calipers. The arches were dressed with Carpro Perl, the tyres with Carchem Tyre and Trim Gel and the calipers with Gyeon Cure.

Before

After

Some pics of the paint condition

I then turned my attention to the getting everything clean and decontaminated.

Equipment - Lambswool Wash Mitts, Karcher K7, Foam cannon, 2 Buckets each with grit guards, WW Drying Towels, Electric Blower
Foam - pressure rinse, Valet Pro ANSF via foam cannon, left to dwell, pressure rinsed
TFR - Valet Pro Citrus Prewash @ 1:8 via a pump sprayer, left to dwell pressure rinsed
Wash - Carchem Luxury Shampoo, pressure rinse
Dry - Flood rinse, ONR
Tar Removal - Valet Pro Citrus Tar and Glue Remover
Iron Removal - Carchem Revolt applied liberally, allowed to dwell, agitated, pressure rinsed
Remaining contaminants - Shield Heavy Duty Clay

The only pics I snapped in the process

With everything now free of above surface contaminants, it was time to start fixing the paint. So... I had quoted on a 2 step and was expecting a FG400/Orange (maybe foamed wool) followed
by SF4000/Black....

I did a few test spots and quickly realised that the 2-step had just turned into a 3-step correction - it almost like every 'swirl' was actually what we would normally call a RID (Random Isolated Deep Scratch). Perhaps it was the car wash the previous owner took it to, that washed the wheels first, and then used that same mit/sponge/old t-shirt to drag the iron particles in the brake dust all over the paint.

Here is the paint prepped for correction

The initial cut was done with Menzerna SHC300 on blue foamed wool Lake Country hybrid pad on a Flex 3401, speed 5.5, 8 passes, leaving the paint looking like this...

Hmmm...

OK let's try that again....

Now we are getting somewhere and most (but definitely not all) of the damage is now gone, and has been replaced with a more uniform haze to the paint (the 'sanding marks' left behind) and so for a little extra bite, I chose to use Menzerna PF2300 on a orange foam Lake Country pad to finish with, leaving the paint looking like this.

Correction on the softer B-Pillars was obviously a lot less aggressive. (the same process as below was used on the tail lights)

Prepped for polishing - if you look carefully I always try to run the tape ever so slightly over all the edges to protect them, especially on areas with soft paint like this. I see so many where these edges get over polished exposing the black base coat

After Menzerna PF2300 / Orange Lake Country Hybrid pad followed by SF4000 on a Black Lake Country Hybrid pad

I then protected the paint with 2 coats of Pinnacle White Christmas - it felt befitting as I imagined the car feeling like Christmas had come early :grin:
By this point I was pretty pressed for time so didn't get any other before / after pics except for this, of the exterior window rubbers being cleaned with Shield Heavy Duty Vinyl and Rubber Cleaner (they would later be protected with 303 Aerospace Protectant)

Before

After

The rest of the detail was then completed.

Exhaust Tips
Equipment - MF Towels, dedicated Daytona Jnr wheel brush, Mothers Powerball mini, Drill
Clean - Carchem Citrus APC @1:5, left to dwell, agitated, rinsed
Polish - Meguiars NXT All Metal Polish

Exterior plastics
Equipment - Foam applicators, MF towels, Q-tips
Clean - Shield Heavy Duty Vinyl and Rubber Cleaner
Protect - 303 Aerospace Protectant

Glass
Clean - Autoglym Fast Glass, MF towels

Badges & Emblems
Equipment - Q-tips, MF towels
Clean/polish/protect - Autofinesse Tripple

Interior Plastics
Equipment- Foam applicators, MF towels, Q-tips, Various brushes
Clean - Carchem APC @ 1:20
Protect - Optimum Optiseal

Interior Carpets
Equipment- Brushes, Flex VL35C Vacuum

Leather Surfaces
Equipment- Foam applicators, Flex VL35C Vacuum, MF towels, Brushes
Clean - Carchem APC @ 1:20, various brushes, MF towels
Protect - Collinite 855

Some pictures of the completed car

Total time spent 36 hours

Thanks for looking and as always, any questions or comments are welcome.

:hi:

 

[Aaryn NZ]

Nice one Lawrence! :dblthumb2:

I do love a GTi in white, I remember an advertisement for the Mk5 & they said it was available in "knuckle white". Quite fitting for such a great car.

Geeze, thats some serious cutting work my friend, was it factory paint Lawrence? Or were the defects just that much deeper than the normal as you kinda said? I know the paint on Dubs is normally on the hard side but wow! That being said - all your hard work has paid off in bundles! Looking very very nice with its new shine Lawrence, superb workmanship mate, first class! Shame about the wheels, my favourite style for the GTi too.

Awesome post, trademark Wicked Reflections detailed write up, stunning pictures & simply brilliant workmanship! Thanks for sharing Lawrence!

Aaryn NZ. :xyxthumbs:

 

[emmjay]

Lovely work as always Lawrence!

So to understand a little, did the purple wool remove scratches but leave behind some? This was then cleaned up with PF2300, couldn't we have used this from the beginning? Just curious

 

[Aaryn NZ]

Lovely work as always Lawrence!

So to understand a little, did the purple wool remove scratches but leave behind some? This was then cleaned up with PF2300, couldn't we have used this from the beginning? Just curious

Fair question,

(Please correct me if I'm wrong Lawrence) The defects in the paint & the combination of hard VW paint required an aggressive compound/pad duo to remove but using such an aggressive combination usually leaves behind a haze or its own scratch pattern. This is common when using this approach but is an easy fix by following up with a polishing step, which I'm guessing Lawrence was likely to do anyhow. :xyxthumbs:

Aaryn NZ. :buffing:

 

[emmjay]

Fair question,

(Please correct me if I'm wrong Lawrence) The defects in the paint & the combination of hard VW paint required an aggressive compound/pad duo to remove but using such an aggressive combination usually leaves behind a haze or its own scratch pattern. This is common when using this approach but is an easy fix by following up with a polishing step, which I'm guessing Lawrence was likely to do anyhow. :xyxthumbs:

Aaryn NZ. :buffing:

Thanks Aaryn. I was looking at the pic after SHC300 and the scratch pattern looked similar to the before of the SHC300 (but a lot less), if you see the big semi circular scratch. But then the PF2300 cleaned that up, so I think I confused myself thinking PF2300 was a stronger cut product.

Thanks for the clarification

 

[WRAPT C5Z06]

Fantastic job as usual!!

So, it seems it took multiple passes on the same section with SCH300 to remove initial defects?

 

[lawrenceSA]

Thanks for the kind words guys.

To clarify....

Aaryn, it was OEM VW Paint (mostly around the 120µ mark) but for some reason the damage was just sooooo deep into the paint.

emmjaygti - I did an initial cut (SHC 300) which removed some of the damage. Then I had to hit it again with SHC 300 and even then there was still defects. Then I hit it again with PF2300 to finish off and only then had I cut in deep enough to remove most of the damage.

Obviously not all swirls are created equal and although most of us can get a feel for how swirled a car is by looking at the volume of swirls, I don't know how to look and see how DEEP they are... and this is what kinda caught me out on this one.... the damage just ran really deep into the paint.

 

[emmjay]

Thanks for the kind words guys.

To clarify....

Aaryn, it was OEM VW Paint (mostly around the 120µ mark) but for some reason the damage was just sooooo deep into the paint.

emmjaygti - I did an initial cut (SHC 300) which removed some of the damage. Then I had to hit it again with SHC 300 and even then there was still defects. Then I hit it again with PF2300 to finish off and only then had I cut in deep enough to remove most of the damage.

Obviously not all swirls are created equal and although most of us can get a feel for how swirled a car is by looking at the volume of swirls, I don't know how to look and see how DEEP they are... and this is what kinda caught me out on this one.... the damage just ran really deep into the paint.

Thanks Lawrence! That definitely makes sense!

Great turnaround nonetheless!

 

[Zubair]

Awesome work as always. Do you also find these G6 Candy White paints to be ridiculously hard paints? I know I do. Also after 300 I can clean up with SF4000 on an orange pad, any reason why 2300 was used instead?

 

[Zubair]

Aah ok just noticed you needed more cut from 2300 to not just clean up after 300 but to remove remaining defects too.

 

[WRAPT C5Z06]

Aah ok just noticed you needed more cut from 2300 to not just clean up after 300 but to remove remaining defects too.

That's strange, as 300 should have more cut.

 

[Desertnate]

The GTI looks great!

Did you do anything to the brake calipers? They seem to look darker and less faded in the post-detail pictures of the wheels. Have you found anything to put on them which will stop the fading? That single stage red paint just doesn't stay shiny very long for me.

 

[Zubair]

That's strange, as 300 should have more cut.

It does have more cut but he needed 2300 to do some additional less aggressive cutting to get the paint ideally corrected given the circumstances. Knowing Lawrence his religious about test spots and found this combination to be ideal.

When I work on hard paints like G6/7 I cut with rotary and wool and finish with long throw and polish. With the advent of Rupes MKII I can hit it with the MKII and MF or hard foam and finish with softer foam and polish. Many different ways to skin a cat.

 

[Sicoupe]

Another outstanding job my friend! always look forward to your posts.

 

[RaydiantDetail]

Nice work! I enjoy your write ups!
Oh boy, I am going to be correcting a 2012 Metallic Black GTI in the coming weeks.
I quoted for a two step as well, hope it works out that way! lol

 

[lawrenceSA]

Firstly, thank you all so much for your kind words

That's strange, as 300 should have more cut.

Believe me, the SHC300 was cutting.... but just not deep enough...

I find it unlikely, but obviously not impossible, that the paint on this, the 5th candy white golf 6 gti (but the 13th vw in candy white) I have corrected, was harder than the others.. I encountered the same sort of levels of marring I would with the compounds and the same level of cut from the finishing polishes I have encountered on this specific VW color and on the other 40 odd VW's in various colors I've done.... leading me to believe it is the depth of the defects that make it appear that the polish isn't cutting as much....

Zubair knows me well enough that he got it spot on below.

It does have more cut but he needed 2300 to do some additional less aggressive cutting to get the paint ideally corrected given the circumstances. Knowing Lawrence his religious about test spots and found this combination to be ideal.

My test spot started with SF4000 and on white pad.... obviously there was a bit of gloss but no real correction..
Stepped up to PF2300 / white, then
FG400 / orange
FG400/ foamed wool
SHC300 / foamed wool (at this point I realised I need more cut still as you can see from the 2nd pic in the paint correction sequence on the door.)
I stepped back to FG400 / orange but it still wasnt enough
So landed up choosing SHC300 / foamed wool x 2 but as you can see from the 3rd pic, there is still a fair amount of deeper scratches left.
I did a spot with SF4000/black which pulled out all the hazing in from the initial cutting, but those deeper scratches still remained.

So I switched from SF4000 to PF2300 which has a little more cut (think it was 5/10 compared to SF4000 at 4/10 on the old, different, before the other one, but not the new labelling system chart they had on the their website). The choice of orange pad over say a white or black was again based on the finding a little more cut.

The paint just looked better with slightly less clarity in the paint from the PF2300/orange than it did with SF4000/black, but that lack of clarity was waaaay more difficult to see than spotting the additional swirls left behind by the SF4000.... so that's what I went with....

 

[lawrenceSA]

The GTI looks great!

Did you do anything to the brake calipers? They seem to look darker and less faded in the post-detail pictures of the wheels. Have you found anything to put on them which will stop the fading? That single stage red paint just doesn't stay shiny very long for me.

Yes, when I was cleaning the wheels I hit them with some APC and a bit of the shampoo I was using to clean the wheels, agitated it and pressure rinsed off. Then once dry I applied some Gyeon Cure to them. As for a winner in terms of longevity.... I'm really not sure to be honest.... perhaps you could look into a coating?

 

[WRAPT C5Z06]

It does have more cut but he needed 2300 to do some additional less aggressive cutting to get the paint ideally corrected given the circumstances.

300 should be able to take out every original defect that 2300 could. Those deeper scratches that still remained after 300 must have been deeper haze left behind, so it took 2300 to "clean up" those instead of 4000. Your statement above, "2300 to not just clean up after 300 but to remove remaining defects too" would be saying that 2300 removed original defects that 300 couldn't remove. If tht's the case, that's very odd.

 

[lawrenceSA]

300 should be able to take out every original defect that 2300 could. Those deeper scratches that still remained after 300 must have been deeper haze left behind, so it took 2300 to "clean up" those instead of 4000. Your statement above, "2300 to not just clean up after 300 but to remove remaining defects too" would be saying that 2300 removed original defects that 300 couldn't remove. If tht's the case, that's very odd.

I'd like to try and clarify this some more. There is no way that PF2300 cut more than SHC300. Nor is it that the scratches left behind after the initial cut with SHC300 were just haze from the initial cut...

Let's say hypothetically that on this paint, the Menzerna polishes removed x 'layers' of paint, based on their aggressiveness.... so for example, let's say:

SHC 300 removes 10 layers - I know paint isn't in layers, but for the purpose of this explanation, just bear with me
FG400 removes 8
PF2300 removes 5
SF4000 removes 4

Now, let's assume that the scratches in the paint run 25 layers deep into the paint.

What will happen when you cut the paint with SHC300? 10 layers of paint will be removed and you will have scratches that are now 15 additional layers deep.
Hit it again with SHC300 and now your scratches are only 5 layers deep into the remaining paint.
Had I hit it with SF4000 there would be scratches still 1 layer deep, so hitting it with PF2300 meant they were all gone.

I hope that makes sense?

 

[VISITOR]

top notch work as always, thanks for sharing!