2006 Audi A4 Avant - Deep Sea Blue Pearl (pic heavy)

[OCDinPDX]

This car belongs to a neighbor down the street and they approached me to detail this car. I quoted them my usual cost for a vehicle like this (dark vehicle - wagon or SUV). I charged them extra simply because the car was in such bad shape. He didn't seem to mind paying extra but he said it looked better than new when I was done.

The paint had horrible swirls and tons of contaminants that required numerous passes with clay to remove. The stainless steel exhaust tips also required a good bit of attention with very fine grade steel wool. Each tip took about 15 minutes to perfect. Enjoy the pics.

Before:

Check out that surface scratch. Thankfully that was easily buffed out.

Dirty logo...

Some swirls and light surface scratches.

The interior was totally trashed. For a car with only 30,000 miles, this Audi has had it rough.

Despite rubber mats, dirt has become ground into the carpet.

Progress Photos:

The tips side-by-side. The left one has been cleaned, the other has not.

The closeup of the clean tip.

The clay was just wrecked after working on this bad boy.

After Shots

Those aren't holograms. Just some wax residue.

The interior turned out much better than I hoped. :dnaughty

 

[Bunky]

Nice job. How did it take you? For me, it is the finishing details that seem to really stretch out the time like cleaning wheels. protecting/dressing trim, polishing chrome, door jambs wipedowns, etc.

 

[Pats300zx]

Great job. I have one of these lined up for a detail as well.

What products did you use on it??

 

[Reddwarf]

Great job! I'm surprised the exhaust tips only took 15 minutes each!

What products & equipment did you use? :bigups

:dcrules

 

[OCDinPDX]

Thanks for the compliments, gents.

The car was probably the biggest bear I've ever had to work with. Anybody who's worked with an Audi knows their clearcoat is among the hardest in the business. It's like granite. I have never been so sore as I was after I completed this beast. assout: Total turn-around time was 8.5 hours with help on the wheels.

Please take into account that I'm still figuring out the correction process of my detailing and don't yet have a rotary or any SIP. I do have a Griot's random orbital in addition to many of their products so that's what I used for this job.

Process:

Wash with Dawn dish soap to strip any remaining wax or glazes (fat chance on this one....)
Pre-soak wheels with Griot's Wheel Cleaner
Dry with waffle weave MF towel

Clay bar entire car (lower rocker panels were a train wreck) with Griot's clay and speed shine.

Polished body with Griot's Polish #2 (second most abrasive polish) and random orbital with orange pad

Used stage #1 on the rear bumper due to heavy scratches and scuffs.

Applied Griot's Best of Show wax with red wax pad and random orbital. Allowed to set for an hour and a half.

Used steel wool grade #00 to clean and perfect stainless exhaust tips.

Used Griot's long-lasting tire dressing on all tires.

Interior Process

Real good vacuum and deep-clean trashed rubber mats.

Used air compressor to blast all the gunk and dust out of the cracks in the dash and leather seats.

Sprayaway non-ammoniated glass cleaner on all glass surfaces.

Meg's APC 4:1 on carpet stains and stains on rear seat backs. Also used it on the pedals. Did a great job getting gunk out of the grooves.

Lexol leather cleaner and conditioner on seating surfaces, steering wheel and shift knob.


This one was a doozie...:surrender

 

[Reddwarf]

Thanks for the details! I looked over the pictures again and man did you do a stellar job! I've never used any Griots products. Clearly from your results they aren't bad! But then I think detailing cars is akin to photography. The skills of the person make up 90% of the results.

Cheers to you on a job well done! :cheers:

 

[Redwings97]

You did a great job! Those swirls looked nasty. Using the orange pad and #2 - were you able to remove most of them with one pass and had it ready for LSP?

 

[WuNgUn]

I hope you charged him accordingly...and raked him about letting it get in such a bad condition!

 

[Old Pirate]

Great job on the Audi OCDinPDX!:bigups

 

[OCDinPDX]

Thanks for the compliments everybody. :cheers:

 

[jaybs02]

Great turn around :bigups