Black VW Sportline Polo - Detailed by Lawrence

[lawrenceSA]

Last weekend I had the pleasure of detailing this Black VW Polo

First a list of all the products used on the detail, which took me 15 hours to complete :yawn:
-CM30 cyclonic cleaner
-Turtle Wax - Platinum Series Performance Wheel Cleaner
-Turtle Wax - Platinum Series Revitalising Tyre Dressing
-Smarwax Rimwax
-Autofiness Oblitarate
-Carpro Iron-X
-Cyclo – polymer hand car wash
-Autofiness Citrus Power
-Chemical guys Maxi Suds II
-Clay Magic (Purple)
-ONR
-Menzerna PF2500
-Chemical Guys - Body Shine and Speed Wipe
-Black Light Hybrid Radiant Finish
-Chemical Guys - Extreme Top-coat Paint sealant
-Smartwax Smart Dressing
-Smartwaz SmartLeather - Leather Cleaner & Conditioner
-Autoglym Fast Glass
-Meguiars Cleaner wax
-Various brushes
-Various MF cloths/wash mitt's/drying towels etc.
-HP washer
-CD Foam Cannnon
-2 Buckets
-DA polisher
-Various Lake Country CCS pads

When the car arrived it was covered in surface dirt as can be seen by these pics:

So the first order of business, as usual, was to clean up the wheels. The car was placed on jack stands and the wheels removed to ensure a thorough cleaning.

Once removed it was clear just how dirty the wheels were. Years of built up brake dust left the barrels looking black (they are in fact silver)

The wheels were washed with a dedicated wheel cleaner, and were then treated to a full chemical decontamination. Here you can see the product reacting with the ferrous particles (such as embedded brake dust) and 'bleeding' them away.

Once all the ferrous particles were removed, the wheels were treated with a dedicated tar remover

Resulting in perfectly clean wheels that were then polished up and sealed.

The wheel arches, brake calipers and springs/dampers were then cleaned up

I then moved onto the engine bay.
Before

After

The car wash then pre-washed using a foam cannon with Maxi Suds and bug and tar remover along with Autofinese Citrus Power were used. This was followed with a full wash using the 2 bucket method.

Before

After

At this point the entire vehicle (including the windows) was clayed. As you can see there was a massive amount of contamination.
Working on this small section

Turned this

Into this

 

[lawrenceSA]

I was then able to assess the true condition of the paint, which was filled with swirl marks, RIDS and as can be seen in the last picture, what looks like buffer trails (from a previous attempt at polishing the vehicle by someone who clearly never took the time to finish off the job correctly)

These buffer trails are usually inflicted through the use of a rotary machine in the hands of an inexperienced detailer (or an experienced one in a hurry), and as such it raised the alarm bells as it was quite possible that said detailer had performed an 'aggressive cut', removing a lot of the clear coat in the process, and then use fillers/glazes to mask the true condition of the paint below - this is very typical of a bodyshop/dealer type polish as they are required to turn over high volume work and therefore invariably compromise on quality - this is obviously a very generalized statement and certainly does not apply to all bodyshop/dealers....

After an initial test spot, and taking the above and the fact that this is Lee's daily drive, I decided on a less aggressive approach which yielded around 85% correction without removing too much clear coat.

From this

To this (after 1 pass)

The entire vehicle was then polished out and then sealed.

Here are some reflection shots and other afters

 

[mwoolfso]

Awesome job.

 

[lawrenceSA]

Awesome job.

Thank you very much - appreciate the feedback:xyxthumbs:

 

[Sludge]

Fantastic turnaround, now it looks like black should look. Nice job.:xyxthumbs:

 

[Eandras]

Looks sweet. Real nice job. A lot of good products used and good technique.

Ed

 

[rider9195]

Very nice work! Thanks for the detailed write up. Car cleaned up well.

 

[Bunky]

Looks great.

 

[Mike@DedicatedPerfection]

Wow. Very thorough cleaning. It not often we see wheels removed for a detail.

Thanks for a dedicated description of your write up.

 

[beckler]

What was your method for cleaning the engine bay? Which products did you use and in what order?

Also, what was your method and order for the paint? I see a few different sealants and waxes in your description.

Thanks!

 

[NIS240SHU]

I always really appreciate before and after engine shots. And whatever you did there made it look better than new.

Nice job!

 

[lawrenceSA]

Firstly, thank you for all the great feedback - it is appreciated.

What was your method for cleaning the engine bay? Which products did you use and in what order?

Also, what was your method and order for the paint? I see a few different sealants and waxes in your description.

Thanks!

Well given that this is a diesel it is obviously less prone to water damage than it's petrol counterparts, so my process was to firstly cover the alternator with some tinfoil. I then sprayed on the CM30 Cyclonic cleaner (APC for all intents and purposes), let it dwell a bit, agitated with various brushed and rinsed off with low pressure water.

I then dried it through a combination of running the motor and using MF cloths (I still need to invest in a blower!) and then treated all the plastic panels with Smartwax Smart Dressing. I used Megs Cleaner Wax on all the painted sections within the engine bay and under the hood.

Paint method was

Pre-wash - Foam cannon/Chemical guys Maxi Suds II, Autofiness Citrus Power/Autofiness Oblitarate
Wash - Cyclo – polymer hand car wash + 2BM
Clay - ONR and Clay Magic (Purple)
Polish - Menzerna PF2500 on a LC Orange CCS pad
LSP - Black Light Hybrid Radiant Finish/Chemical Guys - Extreme Top-coat Paint sealant

 

[vet]

Looks great!

 

[lawrenceSA]

Thank you Vet