Volkswagen Golf mkiv - ‘Ultimate Dubs’ 2011 show prep
The Golf was dropped off on the Tuesday afternoon and collected Friday in readiness for Sundays Ultimate Dubs show in Telford.
My plan? A wheels-off & Major Paint Correction Detail.
Inspection:
Buffertrials on freshly painted panels:
Car was ridded in deep scratches and swirls. It’s going to be a tough one…
First up, wheels off, arches scrubbed , brake assembly cleaned and rims protected.
Before/after:
Tar deposits removed from inner rim with AutoSmart Tardis:
Finally sealed with Chemical Guys JetSEAL109
Wheel bolts correctly torqued – time to wash and decontaminate.
Washed via the two-bucket system and Dodo’s Born To Be Mild pH neutral shampoo.
Again, AS Tardis used to remove tar deposits.
Clayed with AMDetails’ mild clay bar and Megs Last Touch as lube.
Contaminant free and ready to go inside for drying.
Resprayed areas: both bumpers, B-pillar and the boot lid.. The rest of the car is original VW paint and has suffered quite badly recently from regular trips to the local handwash station.
Vinyl black roof scratched, oxidised and dull.
After messing around with various polish/pad combinations, it was clear this wasn’t going to be easy. As the defects were as bad as they were and with the paint being as hard as nails, I had to go aggressive. Settled with a Lake Country wool pad, FastCut+ and a blob of Ultrafina.
Most areas requiring 2-3 hits with wool to deliver the results I was after. Polished with Menz 85RD 3.02 on a yellow polishing pad and then later refined with 3M Ultrafina on a blue finishing pad.
Before/after:
All four wheel arches suffered in one way or another – slightly scabby so had to take care when machining.
The finish around the arches wasn’t perfect; it was either this, or, risk catching the affected area with the machine pad and making things 10x worse.
O/S front wing complete.
50/50 against the driver’s door:
Once defect free, this ‘Jazz blue’ is a stunning colour!
Before/Afters:
Getting inside the door handle was a little tricky; obviously a machine pad wouldn’t fit in here so it was polished by hand.
Continuing to chase deeper defects out with wool:
50/50:
Under the bumpstrips after:
So far, we’re pushing for 95% defect correction. I was lucky that the original paint had healthy thickness readings. However, some marks were just too deep and had to remain behind.
B-pillars 50/50:
High up on the O/S rear quarter, some nasty scratches:
Checking thickness levels:
After two more passes with wool and FastCut+:
Still not perfect; under normal lighting conditions however they would be barely noticeable.
Reflection before/after:
O/S rear quarter complete:
Paint overspray on the b-pillar rubbers removed..
Another area that wasn’t to satisfactory correction after the first two hits.
Pad loaded and given its third and final…
Again, compromise coming into play here – not perfect but still much improved.
50/50 between the two O/S doors:
Vinyl roof lightly polished to lift oxidation:
Bringing day 2 to an end, the O/S was completed by finalising the sills.
Freshly painted bootlid, before:
After:
50/50 between bootlid and N/S rear quarter:
A few sun shots whilst spinning the car round…
Rear N/S arch, another area of caution:
Rear N/S quarter complete:
Before/During/After:
Switching to a small foam spot pad to correct the panel edges:
More b-pillar action:
N/S wing before/after:
N/S half of the bonnet completed:
N/S sills:
Bodyshop buffertrails removed from the two week old sprayed front bumper:
Clusters before/after:
Rear bumper 50/50s and afters after some wool action.
We’re now on Friday, Day 4 (or 3.5, as, the car wasn’t delivered until late on Day 1)
Straight outside to jet off the splatter and polishing dust.
Rinsed with open hose to aid drying.
Back inside to give the paintwork a wipedown and start to finalise the detail…
Protected with RaceGlaze Black Label wax.
Lots of trapped residues to shift from panel gaps and hinges..
Glass cleaned inside and out. Exhaust polished with autosol. Tyres dressed and a final wipedown an hour or so after the wax was first removed.
And a few of the car at Ultimate Dubs 2011:
Although challenging at the time, looking back, I thoroughly enjoyed transforming this one!
Total worktime was ~29 hours over the 4 days.
Thanks for reading,
Jim
The Golf was dropped off on the Tuesday afternoon and collected Friday in readiness for Sundays Ultimate Dubs show in Telford.
My plan? A wheels-off & Major Paint Correction Detail.
Inspection:
Buffertrials on freshly painted panels:
Car was ridded in deep scratches and swirls. It’s going to be a tough one…
First up, wheels off, arches scrubbed , brake assembly cleaned and rims protected.
Before/after:
Tar deposits removed from inner rim with AutoSmart Tardis:
Finally sealed with Chemical Guys JetSEAL109
Wheel bolts correctly torqued – time to wash and decontaminate.
Washed via the two-bucket system and Dodo’s Born To Be Mild pH neutral shampoo.
Again, AS Tardis used to remove tar deposits.
Clayed with AMDetails’ mild clay bar and Megs Last Touch as lube.
Contaminant free and ready to go inside for drying.
Resprayed areas: both bumpers, B-pillar and the boot lid.. The rest of the car is original VW paint and has suffered quite badly recently from regular trips to the local handwash station.
Vinyl black roof scratched, oxidised and dull.
After messing around with various polish/pad combinations, it was clear this wasn’t going to be easy. As the defects were as bad as they were and with the paint being as hard as nails, I had to go aggressive. Settled with a Lake Country wool pad, FastCut+ and a blob of Ultrafina.
Most areas requiring 2-3 hits with wool to deliver the results I was after. Polished with Menz 85RD 3.02 on a yellow polishing pad and then later refined with 3M Ultrafina on a blue finishing pad.
Before/after:
All four wheel arches suffered in one way or another – slightly scabby so had to take care when machining.
The finish around the arches wasn’t perfect; it was either this, or, risk catching the affected area with the machine pad and making things 10x worse.
O/S front wing complete.
50/50 against the driver’s door:
Once defect free, this ‘Jazz blue’ is a stunning colour!
Before/Afters:
Getting inside the door handle was a little tricky; obviously a machine pad wouldn’t fit in here so it was polished by hand.
Continuing to chase deeper defects out with wool:
50/50:
Under the bumpstrips after:
So far, we’re pushing for 95% defect correction. I was lucky that the original paint had healthy thickness readings. However, some marks were just too deep and had to remain behind.
B-pillars 50/50:
High up on the O/S rear quarter, some nasty scratches:
Checking thickness levels:
After two more passes with wool and FastCut+:
Still not perfect; under normal lighting conditions however they would be barely noticeable.
Reflection before/after:
O/S rear quarter complete:
Paint overspray on the b-pillar rubbers removed..
Another area that wasn’t to satisfactory correction after the first two hits.
Pad loaded and given its third and final…
Again, compromise coming into play here – not perfect but still much improved.
50/50 between the two O/S doors:
Vinyl roof lightly polished to lift oxidation:
Bringing day 2 to an end, the O/S was completed by finalising the sills.
Freshly painted bootlid, before:
After:
50/50 between bootlid and N/S rear quarter:
A few sun shots whilst spinning the car round…
Rear N/S arch, another area of caution:
Rear N/S quarter complete:
Before/During/After:
Switching to a small foam spot pad to correct the panel edges:
More b-pillar action:
N/S wing before/after:
N/S half of the bonnet completed:
N/S sills:
Bodyshop buffertrails removed from the two week old sprayed front bumper:
Clusters before/after:
Rear bumper 50/50s and afters after some wool action.
We’re now on Friday, Day 4 (or 3.5, as, the car wasn’t delivered until late on Day 1)
Straight outside to jet off the splatter and polishing dust.
Rinsed with open hose to aid drying.
Back inside to give the paintwork a wipedown and start to finalise the detail…
Protected with RaceGlaze Black Label wax.
Lots of trapped residues to shift from panel gaps and hinges..
Glass cleaned inside and out. Exhaust polished with autosol. Tyres dressed and a final wipedown an hour or so after the wax was first removed.
And a few of the car at Ultimate Dubs 2011:
Although challenging at the time, looking back, I thoroughly enjoyed transforming this one!
Total worktime was ~29 hours over the 4 days.
Thanks for reading,
Jim
