Euro Mk3 Golf Detail

[MarkE]

Cav from Detailing World wanted to have a go with the Porter Cable polisher prior to investing in one so made the drive up from Preston this morning. The car is a recent acquisition and is undergoing a Euro makeover. There are a couple of badly dented panels that are due for replacement in the next couple of weeks.

We set to with the Karcher to rinse, then used the foam attachment with Meguiar's Hyper Wash to get some suds going. A couple of wash mitts and some clean water and we had a clean car :

...or so it appeared. Breaking out the clay revealed a different story (this was taken after claying a 12" square section of the bonnet, and bear in mind that the car had just been washed) :

Claying took a little longer than expected but it was worth putting the prep time in to make things easier later on. After finishing with the clay, we gave it another quick wash and then dried it off with a couple of towels.

With everything clean and dry, we could see what we were dealing with - some very deep scratches which we would not be able to remove, some lighter ones which we hoped to reduce and plenty of swirling :

 

[MarkE]

Having heard about the legendary hardness of VAG paint, I jumped straight to Meguiar's #83 Dual Action Cleaner Polish with a yellow Meg's pad to see what results we could get :

While this method brought out some depth to the shine, as expected it wasn't really having any impact on the rock-hard paintwork so we swapped to a Sonus Swirlbuster pad and continued, using multiple passes where necessary to remove the swirls and reduce the scratches as much as possible :

After the best part of 6 hours' work, with Johnny getting plenty of practice on the PC and me following up with Wolfgang Deep Gloss Sealant and Natty's Blue, I was fairly happy with the results :

Still some deeper swirls to address at a later date but for now it certainly looks a lot better and we have another convert to the PC cause.

 

[Empi5]

Mark thats a fantastic effort, makes me even more determined, to actually unpack my PC, ( still in orginal packaging) and actually use it.

 

[MarkE]

Mark thats a fantastic effort, makes me even more determined, to actually unpack my PC, ( still in orginal packaging) and actually use it.

Cheers, Phil.

Can't believe you still haven't used your PC yet - not the best time of year to start now, either.

 

[Knigh]

Good transformation / results must be well pleased.

 

[YerMother]

Fair play mate, lookings stunning!!

 

[FinerDetails]

well done Mark, de-swirling VAG paint is no mean feat!

Can I just clarify, did you go:
83 and swirl buster
wolfgang
natty's blue?

 

[MarkE]

well done Mark, de-swirling VAG paint is no mean feat!

Can I just clarify, did you go:
83 and swirl buster
wolfgang
natty's blue?

Cheers, Iain. Have to say it was satisfying after doing a few newish cars with relatively few defects to attack something that we could make a real difference with.

Yep, #83 with the swirlbuster pad on everything, repeating where necessary for the more resilient areas, followed by the Wolfgang which was left to cure before being wiped off (which gives me special happy feelings every time because it's so damned easy to remove this product, as you know), followed by the Natty's.

I was apprehensive about the swirlbuster pad as :

1) I hadn't used it before
2) If you push hard enough on the PC the panel moves before the pad compresses, but #83 on a softer pad was doing nada so I figured we had little to lose by giving it a go.

I want to have another go at it to get everything as close to perfect as possible (says the "happy with an 80% finish" bloke ). Got some Menzerna Power Gloss on the way which I'm keen to try out (could be a good idea to get the PTG out first, though...)

 

[FinerDetails]

Cheers, Iain. Have to say it was satisfying after doing a few newish cars with relatively few defects to attack something that we could make a real difference with.

Yep, #83 with the swirlbuster pad on everything, repeating where necessary for the more resilient areas, followed by the Wolfgang which was left to cure before being wiped off (which gives me special happy feelings every time because it's so damned easy to remove this product, as you know), followed by the Natty's.

I was apprehensive about the swirlbuster pad as :

1) I hadn't used it before
2) If you push hard enough on the PC the panel moves before the pad compresses, but #83 on a softer pad was doing nada so I figured we had little to lose by giving it a go.

I want to have another go at it to get everything as close to perfect as possible (says the "happy with an 80% finish" bloke ). Got some Menzerna Power Gloss on the way which I'm keen to try out (could be a good idea to get the PTG out first, though...)

good man, you have PM.