06 Black Audi S4 cabrio correction

[mikenap]

I had the pleasure this weekend of working on one of my all-time favorite cars, an Audi S4 in Brilliant Black. The owner has had the car since new, and while it is in great shape for its age, it needed a little attention here and there.



First off, I want to point out to anyone doing an Audi vert in the future, under no circumstances should you operate the top while on in incline or let go of the switch before the cycle is through. The top WILL get stuck, and you'll spend several hours hating life, hating Audi and hating Google before figuring out how to manually reset the top. :doh:



Anyway, on to the show.

Engine bay was in good shape.

Sprayed some Megs APC+ 4:1, flushed with ONR at QD dilution

Vacuumed the underhood heat guard

KAIO on the underhood paint

Opti-Bond 1:1 to dress plastics



Before

After

No good pics of the wheels, but they got Brown Royal 1:1 and an entire can of Tarminator. At some point, I'd like to remove them to get all the tar off the inside. Believe me, there was a LOT of it, and not all of it came off this time.



Spare tire had been used at some point, so I cleaned it off just like the other wheels. Much easier, plus it didn't have as much tar inside.

Exhaust cleaned with Brown Royal, polished with Megs UC and 0000 steel wool. Cleaning the inside of exhausts w/ wheel cleaner was an idea I got from Richy. Thanks man!

On to the paint. Nothing special, just the average swirled black car.

Compounded with GGDA and Surbufs with M105. In some of the following pics what look like swirls are actually the haze from the Surbuf pads.

Finding out how to finish the car was a challenge. I tried the usual 205 combos, 85rd, etc. After speaking to Michakaveli, I tried something Todd Helme had posted about a while ago, and I was beyond surprised to find it worked like a charm. Finishing was done w/ 105 on a crimson HT pad.

Final touches:

LSP was Wolfgang Deep Gloss Sealant 3.0

Collinite 845 on wheels and exhaust(never tried this, we'll see how it works)

Opti-Bond 1:1 on tires



Sorry for the lack of sunlight on the before and after pics, that kind of thing is out of my control! Thanks for looking, and as always comments and criticisms are welcome.

 

[Ch96067]

Nice work! My favourite Audi cabrio shape.

 

[Accumulator]

mikenap- Nice work!



I've discussed that "finishing with M105/finishing pad" with a few people, glad it worked out for you. I've only played around with it a little bit...how did you get the M105 residue off without instilling micromarring? I can get it to look OK *except* under the SunGun, which showed very light issues :think:

 

[imported_Ivan Rajic]

Nice work mikenap. Glad that combo worked for you. I have tried it a few times based on Todd's recommendation a while back. I find it finishes well on some very hard paints and needs nothing after, but I do use it somewhat regularly as a middle step on 3-step correction work.

mikenap- Nice work!



I've discussed that "finishing with M105/finishing pad" with a few people, glad it worked out for you. I've only played around with it a little bit...how did you get the M105 residue off without instilling micromarring? I can get it to look OK *except* under the SunGun, which showed very light issues :think:

Accum I find M105, if used a certain way, leaves only your simple polish residue that wipes off very easily and leaves nothing behind. No there's no hidden meaning to "certain way" as mentioned.. simply that if you use M105 the way that it leaves no hard residue behind, then it will leave no hard residue behind haha. Are you talking about the hard to wipe residue M105 sometimes leaves?

 

[Accumulator]

Accum I find M105, if used a certain way, leaves only your simple polish residue that wipes off very easily and leaves nothing behind. No there's no hidden meaning to "certain way" as mentioned.. simply that if you use M105 the way that it leaves no hard residue behind, then it will leave no hard residue behind haha. Are you talking about the hard to wipe residue M105 sometimes leaves?

Heh heh, guess what's obvious to one person can be "hidden" to another! Yeah, if I work the M105 it can be hard to buff off, but even if I don't run into that problem just wiping such abrasive stuff off seems prone to leaving micromarring for me :nixweiss Again, this isn't something I can see under "normal lighting" conditions.



Doing correction maybe a couple times a year, I guess I don't get a whole lot of experience to benefit from. And I'm kinda leaning towards Optimum's compound these days, so I might never get the hang of using M105 that way.

 

[imported_Ivan Rajic]

Heh heh, guess what's obvious to one person can be "hidden" to another! Yeah, if I work the M105 it can be hard to buff off, but even if I don't run into that problem just wiping such abrasive stuff off seems prone to leaving micromarring for me :nixweiss Again, this isn't something I can see under "normal lighting" conditions.



Doing correction maybe a couple times a year, I guess I don't get a whole lot of experience to benefit from. And I'm kinda leaning towards Optimum's compound these days, so I might never get the hang of using M105 that way.

I see where you're coming from and you're definitely right. I believe this can be done on some very hard paints, like many Audis for example, otherwise it'll leave very light swirls that are generally not seen under normal lighting or even extreme lighting except at certain angles, etc. This is the reason I never like to use M105 as my last step and follow it up with a finishing pad/polish combo. I was merely stating that it works great as a middle step in many cases and can serve as a great single step or finishing step on hard, non-black paints where you'll never see the micromarring, if any, by human eye.

 

[mikenap]

Thanks for the kind words guys. Accumulator, as Ivan stated, when used with the Crimson HT pad, the 105 residue was just as easy to remove as a normal finishing polish would be. It definitely is not as hard to remove as when a cutting pad is used. Unfortunately, I don't have a Sun Gun but I kept pulling the car out into what little sunlight there was. I also have a 190 lumen LED flashlight that works great for me in spotting any residual marring, and I couldn't see any.



I don't know if I'm allowed to do this, but here are a couple of links to articles Todd wrote that I believe Ivan mentioned. If it's against the rules, please delete them.



How to a achieve a flawless, mirror finish using Meguiar's M105 and a DA polisher - Truth In Detailing Auto Detailing Forum



The finishing ability of Meguiar's M105: Ferrari Scuderia and Bentley Flying Spur - Truth In Detailing Auto Detailing Forum

 

[Accumulator]

LUSTR & MikeNap- Yeah, I've been over the topic with guys who like it and I was doing just as Todd recommended (and I was trying it on *HARD* clear), but eh...I still get some issues :nixweiss Maybe I'm using the wrong amount of product, or the wrong finishing pad (LC black), or othewise botching it up...but part of it is undoubtedly just *ME* and the way I'm not gonna struggle too much to change my approach since I'm pretty dialed in. (Yeah, I do know how that sounds )



Now if I were doing three corrections a week instead of three a year then I'd probably change my tune I do think it can make for a very efficient approach.

 

[ManduMX6]

Looks great.