Today saw me nervously travel to a not very sunny Wolverhampton, with my fingers firmly crossed that the rain would stay away, so that I could spend the day giving this beautiful GTI a bit of love.
As ever with lighter cars, the difference isn't as obvious as a swirly black car, especially without any decent sunlight, but I think it's turned out very well, and the paintwork is certainly a lot cleaner than it was.
A couple of before shots...
P1050198 by RussZS, on Flickr
P1050200 by RussZS, on Flickr
As ever, I started off with the wheels, tyres and arches with G101 and various brushes. *This followed with G101 on shuts, sills, petrol cap, grille, etc. *I then washed the car with Optimum Car Shampoo and rinsed off.
I followed this up with Tardis (which removed very little!), then Wolf's Decon Gel, which did a great job of removing the additional contaminants:
P1050202 by RussZS, on Flickr
I then followed this up with Elite Polyclay and Citrus Bling lube. *The roof in particular was quite bad. *This pic is from just one quarter of the roof!
P1050201 by RussZS, on Flickr
Next up I decided to tackle the deeper scratches in isolation, as most of the paintwork was only suffering from relatively light swirling, aside from a few key areas which needed heavier compounding.
First up, the door handles, which were pretty bad:
P1050204 by RussZS, on Flickr
and after...
P1050206 by RussZS, on Flickr
RDS on the roof:
P1050211 by RussZS, on Flickr
and after (you can just make it out, but largely removed)
P1050213 by RussZS, on Flickr
I then set about cleansing the paintwork with Auto Finesse's Rejuvenate, stepping up to Menzerna 3.02 in place, where needed.
Rejuvenate is a very impressive paint cleanser, with a great level of cut if used with the right technique. *This is my polishing pad after half of a panel...
P1050207 by RussZS, on Flickr
and after half of the roof.........!!
P1050224 by RussZS, on Flickr
Unfortunately a lot of the correction shots didn't come out too well, but here is an example of a 50/50 on the passenger door:
P1050237 by RussZS, on Flickr
A few quick pics after polishing:
P1050218 by RussZS, on Flickr
P1050221 by RussZS, on Flickr
P1050223 by RussZS, on Flickr
P1050225 by RussZS, on Flickr
P1050229 by RussZS, on Flickr
There's a lovely gloss and glow to the paintwork, but also a nice sharpness to it.
I followed this up with Wolf's Body Wrap Nano Sealant (which I also used on the wheels). *I used 3M Tyre Restorer on the tyres, 20/20 on the glass and Optimum on the exhaust.
Some 'afters':
P1050239 by RussZS, on Flickr
P1050241 by RussZS, on Flickr
P1050242 by RussZS, on Flickr
P1050243 by RussZS, on Flickr
P1050244 by RussZS, on Flickr
P1050245 by RussZS, on Flickr
P1050246 by RussZS, on Flickr
P1050250 by RussZS, on Flickr
and down looooooooow (Air is so cool!)
P1050252 by RussZS, on Flickr
P1050253 by RussZS, on Flickr
P1050255 by RussZS, on Flickr
P1050256 by RussZS, on Flickr
P1050257 by RussZS, on Flickr
Some better SLR pics will follow when we have a brighter day
Thanks for reading!
Russ.
As ever with lighter cars, the difference isn't as obvious as a swirly black car, especially without any decent sunlight, but I think it's turned out very well, and the paintwork is certainly a lot cleaner than it was.
A couple of before shots...
P1050198 by RussZS, on Flickr
P1050200 by RussZS, on Flickr
As ever, I started off with the wheels, tyres and arches with G101 and various brushes. *This followed with G101 on shuts, sills, petrol cap, grille, etc. *I then washed the car with Optimum Car Shampoo and rinsed off.
I followed this up with Tardis (which removed very little!), then Wolf's Decon Gel, which did a great job of removing the additional contaminants:
P1050202 by RussZS, on Flickr
I then followed this up with Elite Polyclay and Citrus Bling lube. *The roof in particular was quite bad. *This pic is from just one quarter of the roof!
P1050201 by RussZS, on Flickr
Next up I decided to tackle the deeper scratches in isolation, as most of the paintwork was only suffering from relatively light swirling, aside from a few key areas which needed heavier compounding.
First up, the door handles, which were pretty bad:
P1050204 by RussZS, on Flickr
and after...
P1050206 by RussZS, on Flickr
RDS on the roof:
P1050211 by RussZS, on Flickr
and after (you can just make it out, but largely removed)
P1050213 by RussZS, on Flickr
I then set about cleansing the paintwork with Auto Finesse's Rejuvenate, stepping up to Menzerna 3.02 in place, where needed.
Rejuvenate is a very impressive paint cleanser, with a great level of cut if used with the right technique. *This is my polishing pad after half of a panel...
P1050207 by RussZS, on Flickr
and after half of the roof.........!!
P1050224 by RussZS, on Flickr
Unfortunately a lot of the correction shots didn't come out too well, but here is an example of a 50/50 on the passenger door:
P1050237 by RussZS, on Flickr
A few quick pics after polishing:
P1050218 by RussZS, on Flickr
P1050221 by RussZS, on Flickr
P1050223 by RussZS, on Flickr
P1050225 by RussZS, on Flickr
P1050229 by RussZS, on Flickr
There's a lovely gloss and glow to the paintwork, but also a nice sharpness to it.
I followed this up with Wolf's Body Wrap Nano Sealant (which I also used on the wheels). *I used 3M Tyre Restorer on the tyres, 20/20 on the glass and Optimum on the exhaust.
Some 'afters':
P1050239 by RussZS, on Flickr
P1050241 by RussZS, on Flickr
P1050242 by RussZS, on Flickr
P1050243 by RussZS, on Flickr
P1050244 by RussZS, on Flickr
P1050245 by RussZS, on Flickr
P1050246 by RussZS, on Flickr
P1050250 by RussZS, on Flickr
and down looooooooow (Air is so cool!)
P1050252 by RussZS, on Flickr
P1050253 by RussZS, on Flickr
P1050255 by RussZS, on Flickr
P1050256 by RussZS, on Flickr
P1050257 by RussZS, on Flickr
Some better SLR pics will follow when we have a brighter day
Thanks for reading!
Russ.
Last edited:
