# Silver VW Polo - Girls are definitely messier than boys & rust repair...



## Breezy (Jun 24, 2006)

VW Polo - Girls are messier than boys & rust repair

With the mrs going away on a work trip for 2 weeks I was left with the task of sorting out her VW Polo, and the last time it had been detailed inside and out was about 9 months ago and since then it hasnt been cleaned inside or out with the dirt mainly accumilating on the inside...

I'll let the pics do the talking...














































And heres were it starts to get worse...























































Something had to be done about the interior purely because everytime i go in the car after about 5 mins I start to feel queezy and almost pass out from the smell!

Girls really are messier than boys!























































And she never beleived me when I said stuff must be growing in your car!










I decided to start with the interior first so first things first...










Once everything was sorted out this was all of the rubbish that was removed










The mats were removed and scrubbed with Autobrite fabric clean and then rinsed and left to dry










Some stains on the front seat










After cleaning Autobrite fabriclean










The interior carpets then required 2 hits of hoovering yes thats right 2 hits to remove all of the dirt and vast build up of crap over the last 9 months, all interior plastics were cleaned with a damp cloth and Autosmart G101 and then dressed with 303 Aerospace protectant.

Interior complete














































I then moved onto the exterior so first up the car was given a soak in some Autobrite orange zest cleaner via the foam lance




























Tar spots were removed with tardis










There was mould in various nooks, cranies and seals





































The engine bay was quite dirty










So this was sprayed with G101 and cleaned then rinsed off.










The hubcaps were also removed for easier cleaning



















I knew these would be easy to clean as last time i cleaned them it took a lot of claying and tar removing to get them clean but they were sealed with some chemical guys wheel guard.

The car was then washed using the 2BM and clayed with bilt hamber autoclay it was then dried with a waffle weave and it was then I noticed this




























Rust and quite a lot of it not good really but I knew that she had the rear quarter replaced a coupld of years ago after someone went into her and while the actual paint job was of a high standard they basically didnt seal the underside of where the new rear qaurter joined the body properly leaving bits of bare metal causing it to rust.










So it looks like some rust repair was in order, and there only one main contender when it comes to rust treatment










Por-15 Rust Preventative paint i've used this in the past and it really does work, this is the 3 step system which is marine clean, metal ready and the por-15 rust preventative paint.










Everything you need to sort out rust

So first things first I removed the arch liner and cleaned out all the dirt from the arch using marine clean and dried with the heat gun to prepare the areas for por-15.










Unfortunatley some of the rust had spready around the underside of the arch onto the surface area of the arch meaning a local repair would have to be done and paint needing to be blending in to the panel.










So the rust was rubbed down using 400 grit paper










The horrible orange colour beeing removed!










Sanded back ready for Por-15










The areas to be treated with por15 were cleaned with marine clean again to remove and dust from the sanding and then prepped with metal ready, por-15 was then applied using a small foam sponge as these can be easily discarded afterwards as anything you apply por15 to goes rock hard.

Por15 applied to the inner lip, rusted areas and also on the areas that had spread to the surface on the rear arch










I then masked up the car, luckily I ahd quite a big pile of old newspapers lying around!



















I then applied the primer to the areas on top of the por15.



















Once dry (aided with the heat gun) I sanded the primed area on the surface with some 2000 grit paper and also keyed the surrounding area sllightly










I then applied a good couple of coats of the silver basecoat 10 mins apart started with the immediate area and then misting it up into the panel lightly to blend it in.










Basecoat applied










After about 20 mins I did the same with the lacquer










Edges and lip sprayed too










Area looking better after spraying but a bit dull, not very smooth and quite orange peeled so once the paint was fully dry it would be flattend and polished




























Now onto the paintwork correction overall the car wasnt too bad and it was quite difficult to make out any swirls as under the brinkmann the paint looked defect free










however using standard lighting a bit further away than usual enabled me to see any defects in the paintwork and there were a few










So the lighter marks were corrected using 3M Fast cut Plus on a black polishing pad and the deeper RDS's which were on the bonnet and roof were corrected using Fast Cut Plus & a green compounding pad.

Bumpers were corrected using a black polishing pad & 3M fine cut compound.

Refining was done was 3M Ultrafina SE on a blue finishing pad and then dodo lime prime lite was applied using a finishing pad on the rotary @ 900rpm.

The LSP of choice was Collinite 476s as I knew it would probably be quite some time before it would get cleansed again so maximum durability would be best and collinite also looks very nice on silver

Here are some shots just after applying dod lime prime lite it really does leave a slick glossy finish




























And the repaired arch after flattening and polishing



















The hub caps were polished with lime prime and sealed with jetseal 109



















All exterior plastics and tyres were dressed with chemical guys new look trim gel and car given a final wipe down with chemical guys synthetic qd.

The Afters...






























































































































































































Total worktime = around a week 

Time until it goes back to its usual state = around a week :roll:


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## ericgtisuffolk (Apr 26, 2007)

Great job,but why waste your time when it's going to look like it did in a week?


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## Breezy (Jun 24, 2006)

ericgtisuffolk said:


> Great job,but why waste your time when it's going to look like it did in a week?


Thats a good question! although in fairness i dont think it will go back to beeing quite as bad ash shes changed jobs now meaning she doesnt have to actually use her car for work so no more "lunch on the move"

Plus it makes it more pleasant for me when I have to sit in it!


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## mouthyman (May 1, 2006)

looks great, especially the rust repair, it looks spot on.

bet the mrs will be pleased when shes back


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## Epoch (Jul 30, 2006)

Cracking post mate

Love the gloves and spray shot proper funny (unless you found the gloves in the boot?)

The wing came up really well impressed with that


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## barrett (Jun 25, 2006)

my guess would be to keep the missus sweet!

looks like a great job, any more info on the rust treatment, could do with using some of that on my arch aswell


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## Miglior (Feb 12, 2006)

fantastic work! looks so much better! i cant believe the state of that car to start! hope you were thanked big time!


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## Breezy (Jun 24, 2006)

Well i spoke to her about the rust and she did say do what you can to sort it and i did figure if it went horribly wrong I could just take it to a bodyshop but luckily it turned ouut quite nicely...

P.S. the rubber gloves were mine I have a box for such jobs...!



barrett said:


> my guess would be to keep the missus sweet!
> 
> looks like a great job, any more info on the rust treatment, could do with using some of that on my arch aswell


What kind of info were you after mate?


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## Vail3r (May 19, 2008)

What exactly were the steps involved for doing that rust repair. I was planning on booking mine into the body shop in a few weeks but It might be worth my having ago myself, as you said above I can always take it the body shop after I have messed it up.


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## PugIain (Jun 28, 2006)

Nice job on the rust there fella.
That interior though,holy jesus christ.
Never seen one like it,although my mates mrs is a dirty cow (she wont be reading this I hope),300 empty drinks bottles,baby wipes,food.Allsorts.
I get told off by mr Mrs for "treating my car interior like a museum",silly woman.


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## VIPER (May 30, 2007)

me!! How bad was that interior? :doublesho Worst I've ever seen on here (how much was actually genuinely in there, and how much did you plant in there for effect?  :lol.

Seriously though, great post and a superb turnaround - excellent work!! :thumb:

Also got to say, super impressed with the arch repair. You've done a superb job there 10/10 :thumb:


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## ashm (Jul 5, 2008)

Loving your work dude :thumb:

I'd also be interested in the steps involved with the rust repair as I've recently found rust in a similar place on my car.


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## VIPER (May 30, 2007)

How far up the wing did you blend the base coat and laquer and how did you prepare that section for accepting the paint (the section above where you've sanded and repaired the rust)?


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## andyteg (Mar 5, 2007)

Pit Viper said:


> me!! How bad was that interior? :doublesho Worst I've ever seen on here (how much was actually genuinely in there, and how much did you plant in there for effect?  :lol.
> 
> Seriously though, great post and a superb turnaround - excellent work!! :thumb:
> 
> Also got to say, super impressed with the arch repair. You've done a superb job there 10/10 :thumb:


Trust me, I've seen this car and had the mispleasure of sitting in it. There was no need for Pav to plant anything!

Fantastic job! Particularly as I have seen the before in real life to see the mess, I mean nuclear disaster it is.


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## Rowan83 (Aug 21, 2007)

Excellent job mate, the rust repair is cracking! :thumb:


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## ahaydock (Jan 4, 2007)

Excellent work there - that interior was shocking thumb:


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## MickCTR (Mar 4, 2006)

Cracking work. You need to sit down with your missus and have words i think. That car was ditched. Cracking transformation bro!


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## Trist (Jun 23, 2006)

Great job! :thumb:


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## shadbor (Aug 14, 2006)

quality write up and work there dude, i like the cavity search pose too.


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## Breezy (Jun 24, 2006)

They key to a sucessfull local paint repair is obviously a near on perfect colour match and this can be quite difficult if the area has been re-sprayed as I found out with my m3 when i first attempted one on the bootlid it didnt go to well as the bodyshop I used after an accident did an excellent job but used a slightly darker shade of paint.

So usually paint from the dealers should be a near on match.

first off you need to remove the rust i so using anything between 280-400 grit paper depending on how much there is, I highly recommend using the por15 rust system as the rust preventative paint gets into the pits of the metal where it has rusted to prevent it spreading further.

once the rust has been removed and sanded back I would then sand the area with some 1200 grit paper to remove any deeper scratches.

Then mask the areas where bare metal has been exposed as this needs to be primed, the surrounding areas with good paint dont need priming.

I find UPOL products very good so either their high build primer or standard primer a good couple of coats 10 mins apart.

once dry (this can be aided with a heat gun / hair dryer) lightly sand the primed area with 200 grit paper to smooth it out and make sure its level with the sourrounding area.

then also sand / key the surrounding areas to be painted with 2000 grit to accept the new paint...

then obviously make sure the surface is clean so an ipa wipedown always helps and then lightly mist the basecoat over the areas to be repaired first as you want more paint on that area once this has been covered lightly mist around the area to blend it in.

I find masking everything around the panel a good idea so the whole wing was exposed as this prevents any blend lines if you just mask a small area although these can be removed with some fade out thinners.

after about 20 mins and two good coats of the base coat do the same with the lacquer and concentrate on getting more paint / lacquer over the repaired area rather than the surrounding and misting it out lightly to blend.

I would then leave it to dry for 24 hours and once dry I found the mirka abralon 4000 grit discs very good for flattening the area and removing the orange peel. this canbe done by hand or machine so meguiars 3000 grit unigrit.

acrylic / aerosol paints are a lot softer than standard factory or bodyshop sprayed 2k paints so dont require as much abrassiveness, any overspray can be removed using clay.


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## Breezy (Jun 24, 2006)

oh and the interior really was that bad as Teg (aka 2 bucket terry) rightfully pointed out a nuclear disaster!


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## Neil_S (Oct 26, 2005)

Quality job, loving the POR15 action, great little kits those, my god that was one messy car!

Love this shot too :lol:


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## Andyuk911 (Sep 10, 2006)

I take my hat off to you for the work you did, excellent result


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## swiftshine (Apr 17, 2008)

Excellent write up, and cracking work too:thumb:

Not surprised you wore the gloves. That interior was *DISGUSTING*.

Your missus doesn't deserve you:lol:


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## Pad (Jun 27, 2006)

Breezy, your work consistently impresses... well done mate 

(not going to comment on the interior as ours is as bad and I need to tackle it soon  )


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## monzablue16v (Jan 24, 2008)

:thumb: get her told, that's worse than mine and I have mine full of bits from my golf at the minute :lol:


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## mattjonescardiff (Dec 12, 2006)

Superb correction on the rust, and great post in general!

Thanks for taking the time to write it up.


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## Wheelie_Clean (Jun 16, 2007)

Another top thread Breezy, I always enjoy your write ups:thumb:


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## Robbieben (Feb 19, 2006)

Great work, interior reminds me so much of the wife's Polo.


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## S-X-I (Sep 6, 2006)

Excellent work, the state of it at the start is similar to my girlfriends car lol


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## scrapchallenge (Jul 17, 2007)

Pit Viper said:


> me!! How bad was that interior? :doublesho Worst I've ever seen on here


lol not the worst one I've ever had to do though 

Fantastic work there hun, I can't believe what started out as a clean ended up as bodywork repair :thumb: must say you're very dedicated lol.

worst one I've had to do so far was this:









This 187,000+ mileage vehicle was bought by my local garage from a customer with the intention of being a courtesy car/garage runabout. It is undoubtedly my filthiest car to date! To be honest it was verging on being a biohazard! I've seen cleaner cars in the scrapyard. The interior had housed multiple very hairy and very muddy unwashed dogs, the roof lining was almost black, the door cards were covered in thick accumulations of animal grease and hair, the seats we actually had to remove and dispose of altogether, as not only were they possibly too filthy to clean, but were also torn, otherwise I would have had a good go at cleaning them! We installed slightly newer seats from another corsa in their place after I had cleaned the rest of the interior and the carpets.

I had to empty the dry dirt out of my vacuum cleaner 2 or 3 times, and about the same for the filthy water when I used the wet&dry vac to shampoo the interior. It took a day just to restore the interior, and I had to go back for a second day to attack the outside.

(interior with rubbish and seats removed) :










one of the seats we threw away!










door card during cleaning - you can see in the middle where I had begun scraping the accumulation of grease in the centre of the blackened area of the door card










afters :thumb: :



























although at least I got paid for that one (I'm guessing your other half didn't have to!) it was only £40 mates rates :lol: I did it just to see if I could lol!


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## Streeto (Apr 3, 2008)

good turnaround that was nasty...


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## CK888 (Apr 23, 2006)

That was a mingin interior! Strange that most women that I know love to keep their homes uber clean but never bother with the cars.

Excellent results with the repair:thumb:


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## wozza-vrs (Apr 8, 2008)

CK888 said:


> That was a mingin interior! Strange that most women that I know love to keep their homes uber clean but never bother with the cars.
> 
> Excellent results with the repair:thumb:


My girl friend is a cleaning freak, she is always hoovering or cleaning something in the house BUT when it comes to her car she lets get in such a mess that I refuse to clean it. I cleaned it once when we first met and 1 week later it was back to normal!


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## CzechRich (Jul 25, 2008)

No excuse for letting a good car get like that, suprised the wheel trims weren't kerbed to pieces also.

My missus is the same, no respect for the car, she says 'oh, its only a car!', well yes it is only a car, but its the second most expensive thing we own!!

Cracking job on the rust repair. I'd advise spraying some Waxoyl behind the wheel arch liner and around the arch lip to stop it rusting again.


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## Multipla Mick (Feb 5, 2006)

Great post, and an awesome job all round, especially on the rust. But that interior... what a state that was in :lol: it does seem to be a thing with ladies cars though, they're often right tips... Great work :thumb:


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## swiftshine (Apr 17, 2008)

CK888 said:


> That was a mingin interior! Strange that most women that I know love to keep their homes uber clean but never bother with the cars.


Maybe not that strange. I am the exact opposite


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## Dave KG (Feb 23, 2006)

Fantastic turnaroud there, on the rust and on that interior which was shocking in the befores!!


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## ade33 (Jun 4, 2008)

:doublesho Mate that was *MINGING* in there - your place in heaven is well sorted after that sort-out. Jeez - what a mess.

Good work fella :thumb: looks lovely now.


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## Jesse74 (Jul 19, 2008)

The whole car looks fabulous but I'm most impressed with the rust repair. Useful thread!


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## 1996a6v6 (Feb 8, 2008)

Excellent transformation, well done :thumb:


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## taffy (Nov 10, 2005)

Great job you have done there. That interior was minging!!


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## Deanoecosse (Mar 15, 2007)

Impressive rust repair there, but I'm surprised to see rust on what must just be a few years old car, maybe VW have borrowed some of the crap steel that Mercedes use to build their last shape E Class


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## Mr OCD (Apr 18, 2006)

Great work - loving the rust repair


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## magpieV6 (Jul 29, 2008)

wow,uv done an excellent job! great work bud....

As for women being messier than boys,i beg to differ!

old & new,see were not all bad! 


















rellay good thread matie :thumb:


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## srmtor (Jul 12, 2008)

Fantastic job there mate, that interior was disgusting...


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## tromppost (Jan 12, 2008)

Great job on cleaning the inside, also rust repair was well writen up.


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## perks (Aug 13, 2008)

AN awesome job mate. Can't help but think if she was happy to let it get to that mess before it may have been in vein. Oh and the matching work you did on the arch is by far the best I've seen from an aerosol. Well done.


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## chris l (Mar 5, 2007)

ouch that was nasty nice turn around tho i bet shes pleased with that


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## Breezy (Jun 24, 2006)

im happy to report that 12 years later after 2 kids the car is still no where near as bad as the polo was


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## Hunter (Oct 23, 2010)

Fantastic write up!... enjoyed seeing the progress and great rust-repair job! Can't believe this was 12 years ago! :doublesho


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