Roscoes Black Audi A3 1.8T - 2 Stage Correction

First and foremost big thanks the Liam “lm_gauci” for recommending me to Roscoe for a full Paint Correction Detail on his Black Audi A3 1.8T. This has been on the cards since last year however a combination of bad weather and time constraints delayed this detail until now. This wasn’t a problem as we have had lovely weather this weekend and the car would be setup for summer.

Arriving bright and early on a Saturday morning I was greeted with Bacon sarnies and Tea – I was off to a flyer! Upon inspection of the car I was shocked to see the condition it was in. Roscoe purchased the car over a year ago and it was clear the previous owner didn’t look after the cars paintwork. There was orange peel on panels and scratches littered everywhere on the car. The paint was lifeless but I was confident that a good machine polish would correct a majority of the defects.


Morning
Here are the before pictures.
















Products

Wash n Dry
Meguairs NXT Tech Shampoo
Car-Lack 68 Shampoo
Meguairs All Purpose Cleaner
Chemical Guys Orange Degreaser
Super Snow Foam
Sonus Drying Towels

Body Work
Cleanyourcar fine polyclay
Meguairs Last Touch quick detailer
Menzerna Power Gloss (S34A)
Menzerna Intensive Polish 85RD3.02
Menzerna Final Finish (PO 85 RD)

Sealants and Waxes
Z-2 Pro Show Car Sealant
Chemical Guys - Blitz Spray Sealant

Plastics, Rubbers and Glass
Autoglym Vinyl & Rubber Care
Turtlewax -Tyre Gel

Tools
Meguiars G220 mk2 machine polisher
Karcher Pressure washer
Snow foam Lance
Vikan Brushes
Myriad of foam and microfibre applicators
Menzerna Compound Pad (White) & Menzerna Polish Pad (Orange)
Swissvax Detail Brushes
Meguiars Wheel Spoke Brush
3M 3434 Masking Tape


Wheels

RS6 wheels are a joy to clean and the usual weapon of choice is Megs APC at a dilution 4:1. Once the APC was worked in with Swissvax brushes I proceeded to wash wheel sheep wool mitt. Inside of the wheels were de- tarred with Autoglym Tar Remover to good effect.

Lately I have not been getting those good results with snow foam on my own car. Always came out too “thin” and didn’t really take off much dirt. I finally figured out why this was – I was putting too much shampoo in the mix. This time I just used ¾ of an inch of super snow foam and a dab of Megs APC. I think I got it spot on as the foam stayed on the car for a good 6-7 minutes and pulled off plenty of dirt.



Once washed off there was evidence of the Turtlewax product used 2 weeks before the detail.




Rubber seals were cleaned with Megs APC. They were surprisingly clean to be fair.





Car was then washed with Meguairs NXT Gen shampoo. I been using this consistently now for last 5 details and on my own car every week. It’s a pretty good product however comparing this to gold class I would have to say it isn’t as good in its final finish. There isn’t much in it overall.



Clayed and needless to say after one wipe the amount of dirt that came off amazed me. ONE SWIPE!



The car was showing signs of improvement after the clay and wash.



I was shocked when I saw the driver’s side door.

I explained to Roscoe that the door could not be saved and it needed a respray. There was slight improvement to be had with a good polish which you will see later in the write-up.

Car was all taped up and ready to be corrected. Halogen lights where setup (one bulb eventually blew) and upon inspection the swirls were many as well as the scratches. Camera unfortunately hasn’t picked these up, I assure you there was a lot. I agreed with Roscoe at this point the car needed a two stage detail. Polishes that were used were Menzerna Intensive Polish 85RD3.02 and Menzerna Final Finish (PO 85RD). On some panels that had a lot of deep scratches I went over them with Menzerna Power Gloss where the Intensive polish wasn’t enough being careful not to apply to much pressure.





Before Bonnet


After bonnet





Remember the “ORANGE PEEL” door? Here is after.



Rear Wing Before


Rear Wing After


Front Wing Before


Front Wing After

At this point the car was already looking a world apart before I started this morning. I was eager to see what the Menzerna 85RD could do. It didn’t disappoint.




Here is Zaino applied. This is my first time using Ziano – my initial impressions is that it goes on quite easy. Only “problems” I found was that it was hard to see where you applied and I had a hard time removing it. I wouldn’t say I have used loads of sealants but I have used half a dozen popular ones and I struggled taking the Ziano off. ALTHOUGH the results from the Z2 Pro speak for themselves, real wet.



I then applied one of my favourite products. I was introduced to this product by another very well known detailer. Superb sealant and wax product, real easy to apply and wipe off. It also goes a long way!



18:00 and the car was finally ready to have its show pictures taken.


Results














Big thank you to Roscoe for keeping me watered and fed throughout the day. Big thanks to Liam again for keeping me company whilst I was detailing Roscoes car. Hoped you enjoyed the read!

Thanks for the comments people

Olaf - cheaky sod!

slick said:

Looks good Maz!

You just cant beat Blitz for wet look shine! I used it on mine friday after pre-treat, wax, sealant, and then Blitz, just finishes it off, and it still looks good this morning, 3 days after, Sunday in the sunshine it was amazing!!

Gotta do mine soon Maz anyways, then the blitz really will look wet!

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Just let me know what weekend you want to do it

CupraR210 said:

Cracking results again, you seem to be getting better and better results each time.

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Thanks. Different cars give different experiences each time so I always try to learn from that and take that experience to the next car I do.

CupraLee K1 said:

Good work and amazing results

Reminds me when i had to clean my old Black Ibiza .. a right pain.. but worth it from the results

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Cheers Lee.

Right pain but the satisfaction aftwards is great