2013 VW GOLF Sportline - 'Revival' + Pinnacle Black Label Coatings

[Tato]

Dear Friends,

This week I had the pleasure to work on a 2013 VW Golf Sportline. The car was very neglected but during evaluation I could see huge potential for a full refinishing work.

I'll let the pictures do the talk, and I hope you enjoy watching!


START

Car arrived, let's take a look:


Getting closer so you can see the real condition of the vehicle


Embedded contaminants made the car look much older than it actually is






Inside and out,


Mostly everywhere


Let's start looking at some results.

BEFORE


AFTER


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More on this subject:


Tacky!


The lack of proper rubber cleaning and care was causing that ugly staining on painted metal in contact with it:




After cleaning the rubber seals, I degreased interior of doors using a tar remover, then hand polished every inch of it:


I've worked Menzerna PF2500 with a Microfiber Applicator to achieve acceptable results.


Put some passion under that pad, and move it at speed of light... The literal definition of 'Elbow Grease!'


Sweat, but worth it


Finished results on driver's side:


Passenger's side
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AFTER



ENGINE / BAY Detailing


This part wasn't very dirty because customer had already cleaned it recently


However, he used improper cleaning material, causing a lot of scratches under the hood.


To improve this part I've polished under the hood both by machine and by hand. Here are some pictures of the process which consisted of a 2 step polishing (PF2500@orange pad / by hand, SF4000@white pad / by hand).



Finishing by machine


Improving the results by hand polishing


BEFORE


AFTER


A microfiber towel was also used to polish some parts


After polishing, I've wiped everything with Eraser then coated using Pinnacle Black Label Surface Coating


Although customer cleaned engine recently, it still could get some improvement.

BEFORE




DURING - Giving it a shine


AFTER Cleansing Step


AFTER Conditioning Step (Sonus Trim&Motor Kote)


Closer:


Exhaust tips in need of some love:


Done:

[Tato]

WHEEL WORK

Wheels looked dirty but I wasn't expecting what I've found after washing.

BEFORE




AFTER Washing


To proceed, I've used the trusty Iron-X approach


It was clearly needed to get rid of this kind of contamination


After some dwell time, I gently agitate surface using many brushes


Slowly rinsing to get the most of my product until it's totally neutralized - but still works great as a 'strong soap'


Even after Iron decontamination, I decided to proceed with a tar removal process and also hand polish each wheel by hand using D300 and a MF towel / glove.


Not perfect, but much improved!


More on Prep.

Preparing this car for polishing took longer than the polishing (which was also intensive) itself. One important step of this preparation was getting rid of grime and tar attached to the whole under / side of the car.



Mother's R3 remover was very useful in the process:


However, my trusty 3M Citrus remover was better suited for more contaminated areas:


3M Citrus in action (it may show white when in contact with water


WASHING

After getting rid of all tar I could I detailed emblems, used brushes everywhere they fitted for a detailed wash then foamed the car using a mixture of Meguiar's Hyper Wash added with CG Bug / Tar Wash.



Definitively one of the easiest ways of making any car 'Dripping Wet' looking, no!?


No time to waste, after conventional washing, it was time for decontaminating the paint.

PAINT DECONTAMINATION

After washing it was clear most of dirt on this car was embedded, heavily attached to the finish.



Without thinking twice, an Iron-X shoot to help me clearing the path for the polishing step:



Product started reacting immediately after application


After some dwell time, it's easier to spot the degree of contamination I was facing:


On the Hood:




After removing Iron contamination, I did a tar removal step followed by Claying. For the claying step, I relied on CarPro Towel.


Overspray:


50/50 of claying for overspray removal (traced tape line for better visualization)


CarPro Spotless was also used both on glass and mirrors to get rid of water spots.

BEFORE


AFTER



POLISHING PROCEDURE

Some pictures shown for before are from the initial inspection (the car as it arrives)


Deep Swirls and Scratches






Take a look how scratched the paint was:



TEST SPOT

After detailing, cleaning and decontaminating the car, I was ready to start the polishing step. Like any 'conventional work day' I've grabbed first the 3401s, Menzernas and Foam Pads.



And even knowing it wouldn't be enough, I've started as low as a white pad and SF4000, a finishing polish. This approach helps me understanding better the paint I'll be working.



Spread the polish:


Work it to a thin film:


Remove residue using a quality MF Towel


And this is what I mean by quality MF Towel!


Inspect your results - few to no improvement:


After my test the first thing that came to my mind was 'WOOL + Heavy Cutting Polish'. However, I decided to step up slowly to meet the paint a bit more. FG400 + Orange Cutting Foam Pad


As expected, few to no improvement again.


One more step up, now to a Microfiber Pad and FG400:


Which showed not sufficient as well. That fact gave me enough confidence to grab Meguiar's M100 compound to achieve the results I was willing to get.

Rupes System is all about 'color matching' compounds and pads, right? hehe

[Tato]

And that did the trick!




The results shown above are right after the compounding step. M100 truly lives the hype of cutting fast without hazing or dulling the finish. However, everything was polished via Flex afterwards to get an even finish - some parts received FG400@orange + SF4000@white, while other parts received just SF4000@white after the compounding step.


Only the strongest remained (after 1 compounding step):


After my 3-step approach, those RIDS ended up like this:


And we kept moving!

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HOOD

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This defect was concerning my customer so I did my best to at least hide it to the extent I could.

BEFORE


AFTER Garage Lighting


AFTER Sunlight




MORE DETAILS

All handles worked by hand using a MF applicator and M100, followed by SF4000

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Front Grille was also dulled and thrashed, my best will was to make it look improved. I've used PF2500@white pad followed by SF4000@gray finishing pad

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AFTER



LAMPS

Sorry for the headlamp pictures, before (pass. side), after (driv. side). I couldn't find the correspondent pictures so they are here just to tell I've also worked improvements on headlamps.

BEFORE Pass. Side


AFTER Driver's Side


The tail lamps were also thrashed and although achieving much improvement I couldn't get rid of all defects and holograms. After correction via polishing they were finished as fine as a LC red finishing pad.

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Finally I got the whole car polished, washed again and coated with Pinnacle Black Label Surface, Paint, Glass and Wheel coatings, whetter they fitted.

[Tato]

INTERIOR

Interior work was performed using vacuum, dedicated and safe chemicals and cleaners followed by Steam Cleansing of whole interior. Parts were then conditioned using either 303 aerospace or leather protectant, whetter they fitted.

BEFORE


AFTERs




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Customer guaranteed me to not worry with this part since it was clean.
BEFORE - Not what this bug thinks, right?!


AFTER Now he can brag!


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Here I'm waiting customer to arrive for pick up while staring at my hard work:


Leaving, another shiny very happy customer!


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That's it! I wish you enjoyed watching as much I've enjoyed working on this one.

If you have any question, comment, critics, suggestions, you're ALWAYS welcome.

Thank you very much in advance,

Kind Regards.

[Moldavite]

Wow...very Impressive work and detail!!!
That silver lady turn out to be the most elegance at show!!!
I wouldn't hesitate to roll in there

[jarred767]

That is some extremely nice work there. Excellent results and amazing work with putting it all together. Very impressive!!

How many hours did it take you overall to complete that transformation?

[SonOfOC]

Fantastic job! Very detailed. How long did interior and exterior take to do?

[zckid]

[haris300]

Your work is incredible. You really put the "detail" in detailing

[java]

Great work! Excellent attention to the details and you show some great passion into your work, keep it up.