Some Guidance - Restoring an Audi A8

[Donny_Dog]

Evening.

I had a search around and bought an A8 (1996) that was mechanically sound, with excellent interior, but a little tatty on the outside, to do up as a project.

The car is awesome, full history from new (inc original sales receipt of £57,000 - payable on finance too :S) and as solid as a rock. Even all the electrics work.

Anyway its a 4.2 V8 Sport in Silver and it needs some exterior TLC.

My first question is what to do with the bumpers. Here's a couple of shots

The back bumper looks like its peeling, its faded in places too. The front has a crack and is peeling and fading as well. How salvagable are they for a body shop???? easy or just replace with better items from Ebay?

In terms of the body panels, they just need a solid detail. There are some scars and marks around the door handles.
But my next question is, has anyone ever worked on one of these (body wise) as they're aluminium. I wondered if it was more difficult to spray or restore etc??? Or are there any specific detailing products recommended?

There are also some black trims at the bottom of the doors which have faded, what would you recommend to bring the 'black' back into the plastic???????????


Last but not least we have some metal contamination. As the body is ali and this replacment aerial is steel, it has caused this:

If anyone has any experience in resolving panels on these, I would appreciate input. The plan is to remove the aerial all together - but how easy is it to repair the contamination?

Any help greatly appreciated.

 

[JamesBryan]

Needs paint.

 

[subarufreak]

bumpers need paint
rear quarter also
redoing that is not that much of an issue

 

[.Andy.]

Re-spray :approve:

 

[-J-]

As above, will need paint, but it is a great looking car, have a bit of a soft spot for the A8.

 

[Donny_Dog]

Fair play, no issues with paying for it spraying. Shall I just take it in as it is?

 

[JCC]

Yup, don't bother trying to prep it yourself, any decent bodyshop will only re-do it anyway.

 

[Badgerman85]

as for the "black trim" get yourself some carplan "black trim wax" its well cheap and leaves black trim looking black, and covers up any wax/polish you may have got on there when doing the rest of the car, or any other black wax for trim, the sprays are useless and leave a nasty residue everywhere!

 

[Donny_Dog]

as for the "black trim" get yourself some carplan "black trim wax" its well cheap and leaves black trim looking black, and covers up any wax/polish you may have got on there when doing the rest of the car, or any other black wax for trim, the sprays are useless and leave a nasty residue everywhere!

Cheers pal, will purchase exactly that.

 

[richy22]

Don't cheat and use that which covers up polish/wax marks.

Do the job properly. Use some smooth peanut butter (seriously) to clean off the wax/polish residue from the trim then use any trim restorer. If you just use trim restorer the marks will come back

 

[Donny_Dog]

Don't cheat and use that which covers up polish/wax marks.

Do the job properly. Use some smooth peanut butter (seriously) to clean off the wax/polish residue from the trim then use any trim restorer. If you just use trim restorer the marks will come back

So spread the peanut butter on and then leave for a bit? Or rub it in?

 

[richy22]

Rub it in. It contains oils that remove the polish marks. Some trim restorers have these in them but they are not very strong.

So rub in the SMOOTH peanut butter to remove the marks then use the trim restorer to bring the colour back.

Some people like to also use WD40 but I think its too oily.