Correction/coating complete on my 2016 Golf R

O

Odrapnew1

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Long time lurker, first time poster.
Lots of words below. Feel free to skip to the pictures.

I picked up a 2016 Tornado Red Golf R in early March of this year.
Certified with 20k miles on it.
It looked good, quick and is fun to drive (all maybe 1k miles since I picked it up 3 months ago). AWD should be good for the MN winters (winter wheels/tires to be used).

I noticed it had some scratches on the hood, roof, rear bumper and after some light reading on paint correction I started to look more closely at the paint.
I really looked at the paint, I realized it was a scratched and swirled mess. Looked like the previous owner washed it with shop broom with all the swirls.
In addition, it has general scratches all over it.
From 10 feet away (out of direct sun) it looked good, but once you got it in the sun or with a light source and looked close up, it was 'rough'.

So, after about 2 months of research (a lot on this forum) I decided I wanted to correct the paint myself and DIY ceramic coat it.

Wash, iron remover, clay, correct, polish, coat.
GG6 DA
Lake Country pads (MF, orange and white CCS)
Meguiars UC and UP
Gtechniq Crystal Serum Light and EXOv4.


I had to make 2 passes with MF and UC in each section to get the correction I wanted.
I did a few test spots and the orange pad with UC barely touched it. White pad was a joke.
After completing the full MF/UC correction, I went back and did another test spot to see what polish combination I wanted.
I tried both orange pad and white pad. The orange seems to give it just a touch more 'pop' so that's what I went with.
I did hit the headlights, tail lights and piano black trim lightly with the white pad and polish.
There were a few scratches that were just too deep to correct, but I'd say I got about 90-95% correction.

After all that, I went forward with the ceramic coating. This was easy, just time consuming waiting for the product to flash.
1 coat of CSL followed by 2x coats of EXO.

I did the 3 towel method as suggested in a video I saw. First towel is to remove most of the product, 2nd towel is to remove about 99% of the product and the last towel is to get any remaining product that may have been missed or pushed onto other sections. I took my time making sure I removed all the excess coating because I didn't want to deal with high spots.

I'd say it took me 20+ hours to complete. I had never picked up a DA before, so it was risky to start with my 'new to me' car, but it went well, just took longer than expected.

Overall, I'm very pleased with the results. Here are a few before/after pictures. I'm hoping the coating lasts a few years so I don't have to go through the correction for a while. :D

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:)
 
Welcome to AGO. Nice car and good job bringing it back to the way it was supposed to be.
 
Welcome to AutogeekOnline! :welcome:


Looks great!

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:)
 
Dang! Not much to say other than, you nailed it! Car looks great! and welcome to the forum.
 
Nice job! Now make sure you use proper washing techniques and you’ll be gtg.
 
Nice work, it seriously looks like it's glowing. I remember a friend's son bought one a while back, when he said sit in it to try it out, I couldn't fit in the driver's seat. The side bolsters just pushed in to my back. There not made for us "wider" people. Seriously fast though.

Sent from my F8331 using Tapatalk
 
Very nice work.

Something to be proud of for sure. :)
 
Looks great! Way to go all out your first time with the DA. The hours you spent getting to know the machine, the pads and the polished will make your future endeavors easier and even more enjoyable (less stress comes with more experience, for me anyways).
 
Looks really good, and I see you were smiling in the reflections in the after shots....you've seen, and experienced the light. Welcome!
 
Thanks for all the replies and compliments.
I do want to thank Mike for all his info. I didn't get any help directly, but all the tutorials, feedback to other members, and just general information helped me have the guts to tackle this. I can't tell you how many threads and tutorials of his I read, but it was a lot.

I think this should have gone in the Show N' Shine section, so mods, feel free to move it.

I have an 89 Mustang 5.0 coupe that will likely be next....should have started with that car. It won't get the 'love' that the Golf got because it is nowhere near as nice, but a good cleanup will do nicely. I'm fairly certain it was repainted at one point. It's white, so it doesn't show the scratches and swirls as much, but they are definitely there.
I thought about correcting it and adding a layer of EXO or some other topper, not going to ceramic it, that's for sure. I might just try some of the 'quick spray ceramic' stuff or just stick to regular ole' wax. Guess we'll see how ambitious I get.
 
If you have Collinite 845, I'd use that. It looks killer on white paint.
 
JDGolden said:
If you have Collinite 845, I'd use that. It looks killer on white paint.
Click to expand...

Nope, don't have any Collinite. Maybe I'll pick some up. I just have Mothers paste wax. I have really done much for detailing besides the periodic wash and wax and never really 'looked' at paint in detail until this year.
 
A bottle of 845 is under $20 and will last you for years.

I highly recommend it.
 
Odrapnew said:
Thanks for all the replies and compliments.

I do want to thank Mike for all his info. I didn't get any help directly, but all the tutorials, feedback to other members, and just general information helped me have the guts to tackle this.

I can't tell you how many threads and tutorials of his I read, but it was a lot.
Click to expand...


Thanks for your trust and thanks for sharing the above. Over the years I've generated a LOT of info that is now accepted practices in the enthusiast and professional car detailing world.

But of course - a person has to use their eyeballs to read the info in order to use the info.


I also sent you a PM about working with pictures on forums.



:)
 
Thanks for the PM about the pictures.
so, I realized I could have made picture sharing much easier.
If I was smart, I would have just copied the links from the Golf R forum where I first posted the results.:bash:
Linked to flickr host.

Test below, oh look, it works.:idea:

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