Candy White Golf 6Gti - Detailed By Lawrence

[lawrenceSA]

The owner booked this detail with me in December and the car was driven down to me from Richards Bay on Friday evening.

I got stuck straight in on the interior.

Removed rubber mats - Cleaned with Cyclo APC 5:1
Vacuum mats/carpets
Blow out entire interior with compressed air
Cleaned leather with Cyclo APC 20:1 and soft brush followed by damp MF followed by compressed air to dry
Conditioned with GlossWorx Leather Conditioner (first time I have used and like it so far :thumbup: )
Wiped down dash/plastics with damp MF and dressed with Smartwax SmartDressing

Saturday morning I got started at 06:00 with a few shots of the condition of the exterior









































So as always, wheels/tires and arches first.

Arches: - HP Rinse / Cyclo APC 5:1 + Mothers Fender Well brush / HP Rinse
Tires: - Meguiars All Wheel And Tire Cleaner + Mothers Tire Brush
Wheels: - AF Imperial + Daytona Jnr / HP Rinse / AF Iron Out + Daytona Jnr / Cyclo APC 5:1 / HP Rinse / AF Oblitarate / Cyclo APC 5:1 / HP Rinse / Autoglym Fine Grade Clay + ONR

I then moved onto cleaning up the boot and door shut, inside the petrol flap, in and around the emblems and badges using Cyclo APC 5:1 with a foaming trigger head to extend dwell time and then working the areas with various brushes, ending with a HP rinse.

The Engine Bay was then blown out with compressed air and wiped clean using various brushes and MF towels + Cyclo APC 5:1 and dressed using Chemical Guys Bare Bones

Cyclo APC 3:1 was then sprayed on all the areas with bugs and whatever those 'splatters' were on the bonnet and roof and left to dwell. I then used a mix of Chemical Guys Maxi Suds II and Cyclo APC as a pre-soak to soften things up a bit. The car was then HP rinsed and foamed/rinsed again.

I then washed using lambswool wash mitts and 2BM with periodic re-foaming and I then rinsed the car, sheet dried it - well I tried anyway (it doesn't work so great on paint with such a surface tension due to the contamination that was on there :roll: - and then dried using a couple of WW Drying Towels.

I then decontaminated the paint (including the boot shut, door shuts etc) and glass.

Tar: AF Oblitarate (At this point I also used a plastic razor to remove the sticker you will see in the pic below. Once removed, the residual glue was removed using AF Oblitarate)
Iron: AF Iron Out
Remainder: Autoglym Fine Grade Clay + ONR





The exhaust tip was polished using Mothers Mag and Aluminium Polish





During claying I had identified a few areas that has been re-painted, including the bonnet and front bumper and the paint reacted very differently to the remaining OEM Paint.

Here is a pic of the bonnet. Besides the swirls, notice the orange peel and general finish of the paint.


I landed up using a combination of Menzerna FG400 /Megs MF pad/Orange CCS pad to work the damage out the paint. I was working small sections (15" x 12") with a really slow arm speed and the going was slow and steady.

I struggled a bit with 50/50 shots. The sun was nowhere, and without it I have found that a dark room with a single source of light shows them up well.... but my basic camera/lens set up struggles in low light and I was using my cell phone flashlight as the light source. Managed 2 okay'ish ones though.





There was also a really nasty chip on the bonnet and so I laid in 2 coats of Candy White paint to at least cover the bare metal and make the chip a little less visible from a distance.



Correction continued well into the night and by 22:00 that night I had had enough

My neighbors were kindly awoken by the sounds of my compressor and the DA at 06:30 on Sunday morning - they must love me :lol: ).

After priming my pad, I primed myself with a Cappucino (actually it was 2 ok ops: ) and spent a few more hours correcting the paint.

I then sorted the following out:

Tail lights/A-pillars: Menzerna PF2500 + LC Orange / Menzerna SF4000 + LC Black.
Plastic trim: Shield Heavy Duty Vinyl and Rubber cleaner / Smartwax SmartDressing.
Door rubbers: Shield Heavy Duty Vinyl and Rubber cleaner Smartwax SmartDressing.
Glass : Autglym Fast Glass / Menzerna Powerlock (front windscreen C-thru used instead)
Wheels: Polished Meguiars Cleaner Wax + Mothers Power Ball Mini / Menzerna Powerlock

Lastly I laid down a coat of Menzerna Powerlock.

As you can see the weather was really terrible and with only a few minutes to capture the 'after' and my low-light-struggling camera, I landed up with these











Total time : 31 hours

Thanks for looking and as always and comment or questions are welcome.

[Jimbo187]

Well done and a great write up.

[vdevan]

Nicely done Lawrence this car sure had a lot of contamination!

[Pureshine]

Great work Lawrence and great wright up

[lawrenceSA]

Well done and a great write up.

Nicely done Lawrence this car sure had a lot of contamination!

Great work Lawrence and great wright up

Thanks very much guys

[Mike@DedicatedPerfection]

Outstanding work Lawrence! Looks great.

I always have to start my day primed with some coffee.

[shagnat]

Lawrence, I hope the owner was as astonished as I am. That's a remarkable job on that beater.

[lawrenceSA]

Outstanding work Lawrence! Looks great.

I always have to start my day primed with some coffee.

Thanks Mike

Lawrence, I hope the owner was as astonished as I am. That's a remarkable job on that beater.

Thanks. Yes he was. He sent me the most amazing text afterwards thanking me for transforming his car for him and said it looked better than the day he rolled it off the showroom floor. He has been following all my work (posted on our local car club forum) and so knew to expect a transformation in the car, but was still flabbergasted at just how much change their was.

Receiving positive feedback from a customer like that is such a humbling and rewarding feeling and is a large part of why I love detailing. Being able to make someone else experience some joy in their life and to fall in love with their vehicle all over again makes all the hard work well worth it.

There are just so many people out there who have no idea what their paint could (and should) look like.

[DevilsNDetails]

Such an amazing transformation, and I'm glad the customer was truly satisfied. Good Work!!

[lawrenceSA]

Such an amazing transformation, and I'm glad the customer was truly satisfied. Good Work!!

Thank you very much