Polished Bliss®: MK II Golf GTi...

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tuscan_thunder
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Polished Bliss®: MK II Golf GTi...

Post by tuscan_thunder » Tue Feb 15, 2011 11:04 am

Thought as this was something a little different for us, I'd post it here.

It shows a little more of the restorative side of detailing, and adding value back into a slightly older car, with another cost saving bonus too (read to the end.....) :thumbsup

You might notice an old friend in the background of some photos too - a write up will follow when I get time!


This was the latest one in for a full correction job, although it should have been an Audi Q7 and not a Golf! The owner sold the Q7 a couple of days previously and felt bad about having to cancel so he decided to bring the golf in and see what we could do with it :)

The car was actually booked in for a respray in a few months so if we did our job properly then at least that would be some money saved :thumb:

The car was fairly clean on arrival, although looking a bit pink in areas:

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As always, the wheels were given a thorough pre-rinse and then sprayed with R222 Wheel Cleaner...

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...Then agitated with a Raceglaze Detailing Brush...

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Then rinsed:

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The wheels were spotless after that so no need for any further cleaning treatments :)

Onto the tyres and arches:

Meguiars Superdegreaser was sprayed...

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Then agitated with a Raceglaze Detailing Brush for the tyres and a Wheel Woolie for the arches:

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Then rinsed:

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The engine was given a once over with Meguiars Superdegreaser but nothing too detailed as a 2.0 TSFI engine is getting dropped in shortly - should be fun :driver:

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The car was then foamed with Meguiars APC and left for a few minutes:

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Rinsed off at high pressure:

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Funny how a car can look in good conditon when wet :)

Again, using the APC and Raceglaze Brush all the exterior trim, badges, door shuts etc were cleaned:

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After another rinse the car was washed with Meguiars Shampoo Plus and Lambswool Wash Mitt before any tar spots were taken care of with Autosmart Tardis.


Now inside, the car was clayed with Meguiars Mild Detailing Clay and plain water for lube:

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Then dried off with a Poorboys Waffle Weave towel and the Black Baron:

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Paint readings were then taken:

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As to be expected with a car of this age, it had seen quite alot of paintwork in the past so correction was going to be interesting.

Defect wise, this is what we were up against:

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We've been gradually getting Alan up to speed on the correction side of things with the DA machine so he took care of the paintwork on this one. The paint was rock hard and needed several hits of Meguiars 105 and a Cyan Lake Country Hydro-tech pad to get the desired result:

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Before:

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After:

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Before:

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After:

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This lower section was really bad:

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After several hits it was much improved, the deeper marks couldn't be removed as there wasn't enough paint left to warrant going any further:

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Before:

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After:

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Once the desired level of correction was achieved the paint was refined with Meguiars 205 and a Crimson Hydro-tech Finishing Pad:

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While Alan was working away at the paintwork I'd been busy bringing some life back to the plastics using the heat gun, this pic is from the heat gun alone, no dressing applied:

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Some areas were worse than others and took a bit of patience to bring back but the difference was massive.

The other biggest difference was the further cleaning of the trim with Swissvax Plastic Wash:

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Considering the trims had been cleaned with APC and Tardis during the wash stage the amount of dirt and grime still pulled out by the Plastic Wash was unreal.

This then left the perfect base for applying Swissvax Protecton:

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Meanwhile, Alan had finished the polishing and had cleansed and prepped the paint with Swissvax Cleaner Fluid and applied a coat of Crystal Rock.

The badges which had been removed for polishing were then cleaned up and fitted back onto the car:

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Tailpipes were polished with Swissvax Metal Polish:

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I applied Swissvax Seal Feed to all window rubbers etc:

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The wheels were sealed with Swissvax Autobahn:

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And tyres dressed with Swissvax Pneu Glossy using the Pneu Brush:

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The glass was cleaned inside and out and the interior was also detailed, or what was left of it should I say - there was only the driver’s seat as the rest was away getting re-trimmed so not much to see I’m afraid :)


A final wipe down of the paint and trim followed by a final check left us with the following results:




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And here's a few taken on the Sunday morning:


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Needless to say the respray was cancelled :D

Thanks for looking!
Last edited by tuscan_thunder on Wed Feb 16, 2011 10:42 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Justin
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Re: Polished Bliss®: MK II Golf GTi...

Post by Justin » Tue Feb 15, 2011 11:18 am

Nice Elise in pic 1!

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Re: Polished Bliss®: MK II Golf GTi...

Post by vxc » Tue Feb 15, 2011 1:10 pm

awesomeo!
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j2 lot
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Re: Polished Bliss®: MK II Golf GTi...

Post by j2 lot » Tue Feb 15, 2011 1:50 pm

Once again great results -it is amazing what you can do with the right stuff :thumbsup

I have been busy the last 2 weekends with the cleaning goodies I got from you - Europa got the treatment first and was looking better than it has ever done :mrgreen:
Then I set about the Corsa, wasn't expecting much as its never really been looked after and has a few battle scars, few hours later and it looks superb, I really couldn't believe that a neglected 8 year old car could look so different after an afternoons work. I could turn into a polisher at this rate :lol:
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Re: Polished Bliss®: MK II Golf GTi...

Post by tuscan_thunder » Tue Feb 15, 2011 3:37 pm

j2 lot wrote:Once again great results -it is amazing what you can do with the right stuff :thumbsup

I have been busy the last 2 weekends with the cleaning goodies I got from you - Europa got the treatment first and was looking better than it has ever done :mrgreen:
Then I set about the Corsa, wasn't expecting much as its never really been looked after and has a few battle scars, few hours later and it looks superb, I really couldn't believe that a neglected 8 year old car could look so different after an afternoons work. I could turn into a polisher at this rate :lol:
That's great, really pleased to hear that you had great results.

I can't believe we might have polishers appearing on SE.....

:thumbsup
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Mr Momo
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Re: Polished Bliss®: MK II Golf GTi...

Post by Mr Momo » Tue Feb 15, 2011 7:42 pm

That is fantastic :thumbsup

Can you help me understand ? Between correction and polish (photo number 30-something), is the car washed again or is the polish simply applied on top after the correction ? I think the answer is the latter, but wondering is there any residue of the correction that has to be removed before the polish is applied ?

:cheers
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Re: Polished Bliss®: MK II Golf GTi...

Post by tuscan_thunder » Wed Feb 16, 2011 10:49 am

Mr Momo wrote:That is fantastic :thumbsup

Can you help me understand ? Between correction and polish (photo number 30-something), is the car washed again or is the polish simply applied on top after the correction ? I think the answer is the latter, but wondering is there any residue of the correction that has to be removed before the polish is applied ?

:cheers
Correction is actually polishing (a polish being a product containing abrasives which correct the surface). Our guide goes into depth describing polishing/correction: http://www.polishedbliss.co.uk/acatalog ... ng-do.html

After machine correction of a panel, the panel is wiped down with IPA http://www.polishedbliss.co.uk/acatalog ... l-ipa.html to remove all oils and residue leave the paint surface completely clean.

We then applied Swissvax Cleaner Fluid (a pre-wax cleaner) http://www.polishedbliss.co.uk/acatalog ... gular.html as this lays down an oil rich surface ready to the application of wax: it helps the wax to bond more effectively to the surface.

Swissvax Crystal Rock was then applied http://www.polishedbliss.co.uk/acatalog ... -rock.html (a wax - confusingly many people refer to a wax as a polish, saying they've polished their car when in fact, they've waxed it) and this gives protection and enhances the aesthetics of the surface.

Hopefully that makes sense! Let me know if it doesn't!

:)
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Re: Polished Bliss®: MK II Golf GTi...

Post by Gareth » Wed Feb 16, 2011 11:31 am

Ah the Mk2 Golf.
I had a 1.2 one like this with the GTI bumpers....
Then had a genuine GTi in silver.

Those were the days.....
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jen
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Re: Polished Bliss®: MK II Golf GTi...

Post by jen » Wed Feb 16, 2011 9:51 pm

Holy Moly!!! Between the orange Elise in pic one and the dude that looks like my Alan in pic 31, I was starting to worry that my husband had taken up a new hobby I knew nothing about!! :damnfunny

Is that your Elise? It looks identical to ours, no front reg plate included!! (it fell off-again :roll: )

I really like the Mk2 GTi. Alans had two, one in red and the other in grey. Fantastic cars. In fact, I'd have another tomorrow. :thumbsup

Jen

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Re: Polished Bliss®: MK II Golf GTi...

Post by douglasgdmw » Wed Feb 16, 2011 10:05 pm

jen wrote:Holy Moly!!! Between the orange Elise in pic one and the dude that looks like my Alan in pic 31, I was starting to worry that my husband had taken up a new hobby I knew nothing about!! :damnfunny

Is that your Elise? It looks identical to ours, no front reg plate included!! (it fell off-again :roll: )

I really like the Mk2 GTi. Alans had two, one in red and the other in grey. Fantastic cars. In fact, I'd have another tomorrow. :thumbsup

Jen
Jen,

I have a Mk1 Cabriolet for sale is interested, just being cheeky :thumbsup

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Re: Polished Bliss®: MK II Golf GTi...

Post by tuscan_thunder » Thu Feb 17, 2011 11:17 am

jen wrote:Holy Moly!!! Between the orange Elise in pic one and the dude that looks like my Alan in pic 31, I was starting to worry that my husband had taken up a new hobby I knew nothing about!! :damnfunny

Is that your Elise? It looks identical to ours, no front reg plate included!! (it fell off-again :roll: )

I really like the Mk2 GTi. Alans had two, one in red and the other in grey. Fantastic cars. In fact, I'd have another tomorrow. :thumbsup

Jen

The orange is mine (plate will actually be going back on when it comes back on the road - too much hassle not to put it on)

Spookily, the guy in the pic is also called Alan!

:)
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jen
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Re: Polished Bliss®: MK II Golf GTi...

Post by jen » Thu Feb 17, 2011 8:10 pm

Spooky indeed!! :shock:

Looking forward to seeing your Elise up and running! Is it chrome orange? Looks lovely and shiney in the background there!!

Jen

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Re: Polished Bliss®: MK II Golf GTi...

Post by Olivander » Fri Feb 18, 2011 2:41 am

a lot to learn in polishing..i just get difficulty in what part should i do first...? indeed the pics are learnable.

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Re: Polished Bliss®: MK II Golf GTi...

Post by tuscan_thunder » Fri Feb 18, 2011 10:15 am

jen wrote:Spooky indeed!! :shock:

Looking forward to seeing your Elise up and running! Is it chrome orange? Looks lovely and shiney in the background there!!

Jen
Yup, Chrome Orange: it's been in a bit of a bad way for the last couple of years but its pretty much sorted out now. Suspect it's rather slower than your's though.....

It's shinier now: it wasn't corrected when that photo was taken. I've done most of my write up, just a pile of photo processing to get through.

Olivander wrote:a lot to learn in polishing..i just get difficulty in what part should i do first...? indeed the pics are learnable.
Have a look at our guides: http://www.polishedbliss.co.uk/acatalog ... dvice.html
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gorrie
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Re: Polished Bliss®: MK II Golf GTi...

Post by gorrie » Fri Feb 18, 2011 12:31 pm

How does the heat gun thing manage to achieve that on the plastic bumper?
How does that work? Does the heat draw some chemicals out to the surface or something???
(excuse my ignorance).
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