Bigpower

I've been fortunate enough to be asked to look afterRoad Magazine's fleet of cars, and after a quick clean of the S4 back in February (albeit with supplied Sonax test products), so I knew a little of what to expect. The brief given to me was that the paint was looking a bit flat, and it was covered in tree fallout but other than that; go for it!!

The plan was to get as much done as possible in 7-8 hours on the car as a whole, so the inspection process allowed me to highlight areas of intense work and also some quick wins!

Tree fallout

Brake dust, general road grime and dirt; not to mention a few of the dreaded swirls in the paint!

One very grubby Miltek exhaust

Battered S4 alloys, Dunlop Maxx Sport tyres all looking grubby and worn

Bird etchings, tree sap, more dirt.........ouch!

So with that assessed it was time for my usual deep clean followed by some tar removal from the lower panels, and a clay bar session for the roof, bonnet and boot where the vertical surfaces were all showing lots of bonded paint contamination
One clayed roof (with one pleased magazine owner)

Lots of tar coming off.......

So with the car re-washed including arches, tyres, all shuts for doors, boot, fuel flap and bonnet shuts it was time to get it dry before the water spots solidified in our glorious sunshine and start the polishing!

I tried a small area of paint on the lower part of the door to see how the paint reacted to a grade of polish that I expected would do the trick in terms of reducing swirls, improving the quality and clarity of the light reflected and so on. This was the first completed panel

FFirst stage of completed work on the roof (I had to keep working on different panels to avoid the heat affected panels)


The polishing process was largely successful but I would have preferred more time to work on the more severe areas of swirling and random deep scratches but time was against us. Due to the condition of the paint, I decided to use a durable polymer sealant that also acts to improve small imperfections in the top coat, so this was applied and then and then I still had lots of areas to finish off including (and these are finished photos)
Polishing and sealing all shuts

Polishing and sealing the exhaust (using a sample from Kleers Motorsport range)



Engine bay, rear bulkead, scuttle panel, inner arches and underside of bonnet


Door sills, door inlays, carpets and mats, seats and dashboard




Time to clean the glass inside and out and roll it out into the sunshine!

Camera envy

Miltek porn

Fuel flap.......just to be thorough

Done.......


Next up........classic shape Range Rover I think....and another bash at that gorgeous '57 Chevy too

Thanks for reading guys

Quite a difference for a days work, Phil must be well pleased!

Thanks Bro

A much better platform for future work too, much like yours. These S4's make amazing value for money!

Take a crudded up S4, add a Genie and *poof* (;)) A minty looking S4. I'd be mega chuffed with a clean as thorough as that. Awesome.

Had to read that twice Dan.......thought you were calling me a Genie poof!

Stuart wrote:Had to read that twice Dan.......thought you were calling me a Genie poof!

Not at all Stu.

Ha ha ha ha I read it like that also mate and just carried on reading...must say something.

Good work on the Audi though !!