# Shine On - Audi RS4 Avant



## Paul-T (Nov 2, 2006)

This car belongs to a top chap in my village who approached me after seeing the results of my work on another local car. Originally intending to buy an S4, Matt saw this car and it's potential, fell in love, and bought it. Immaculately maintained in terms of the mechanical parts, the exterior had been subjected to a life of motorway miles and automatic car washes. The very rare Denim Blue paintwork (1 or just 3 in the country in this colour) was dull, flat and badly scratched on every single panel. Understanding it wasn't going to be perfect again, a number of scratches were just too deep, Matt and I discussed what would be achievable and he booked it in with me.

Knowing I had some hard work ahead, with the paintwork correction to be done in addition to the interior and engine bay, I got cracking while I had some unexpected spare time in an afternoon. Here is the car at the start.



























The weather was very changeable, but a bit of sunshine showed that even under the layer of dirt the swirls were very evident.


















The interior was in desperate need of some TLC, a fine layer of cigarette ash everywhere!























































First job though would be the engine bay. Engine bay detailing is generally quite messy so wherever possible should be tackled before washing the car. There was nothing too bad in here, just a thick layer of dust and dirt that hadn't been touched in some time.



















After running the motor for a couple of minutes to slightly warm it, I doused the whole engine bay with a degreasing agent suitably diluted and worked my way around every nook and cranny with a variety of soft brushes to agitate the solution. Then, using a very gentle stream of water, I carefully rinsed the whole thing out making sure the water was not directed at any delicate or electrical items. Most problems with engine cleaning come from the use of steam cleaners or incorrectly used pressure washers forcing moisture into places not designed to deal with it. Using my method is much safer and just as effective.

Once cleaned, a microfibre towel was used to mop up any puddles or excess water and the whole area was then treated with a plastic dressing and protector. It came up like brand new!














































Bonnet shut, time for the outside to get a wash. First of all the wheels were visited using an acid free cleaner to make an impact on the brake dust before rinsing and washing with a microfibre mit. Then, I used the same diluted degreaser to soak all the door shuts before agitating with a Swissvax Detail brush. The whole car was covered with a citrus pre-wash to loosen the dirt, pressure rinsed, then washed with a lambswool mit to complete the process. Whilst still wet, the paintwork was clayed to remove contaminants bonded to it. A mild clay was fine for the bonnet and roof, but a more aggressive product was needed to really make an impact on the lower parts of the doors and bumpers. After another quick was the car was dried with a microfibre towel.

Moving to the interior now, I started by emptying out any loose rubbish. Next up was a major attack with the vacuum cleaner and a soft bristle brush to collect the layer of ash that had crept into every imaginable gap! This took some time to do, going around the car a couple of times to first pick up the majority of dirt, then again to address the stubborn bits. The over mats were removed from the car, sprayed with an upholstery cleaner and vacuumed with a wet extractor machine to try and revive them a little.

Loose bits gone I thoroughly wiped down every single non-fabric or leather surface with a diluted all purpose cleaner, then the dashboard and centre console again using Swissvax Plastic Wash. Whilst this dried I concentrated on the leather upholstery, first with Swissvax Leather Cleaner which does a great job of lifting ingrained dirt, then conditioning the seats using Gliptone, restoring a beautiful smell of new leather. Finally the interior glass was wiped down with Swissvax Crystal to remove the milky film from the front windows and finger prints from the back ones!

Now looking a lot better....























































This had taken me a little over 5 hours to complete, and with hindsight, it is a good job that time became spare to get it done!

**Day 2**










Having full prepared the car for polishing, having it sat dry in the garage meant I could get a nice early start. So at 07:00 I ventured out to get it taped up and assess the paintwork. Paint depth readings over the whole car were quite varied but apparently all original except for the front bumper, so great news. Starting on the offside front wing I carried out a test patch. And another, and another, each time selecting a more aggresive combination. My goodness the paint was hard! To get an acceptable improvement every section needed to be polished twice at high speed using the rotary polisher fitted with a very hard compounding pad and using a heavy cutting polish. This made an enormous amount of dust but was the only way forward and I knew that it would of course need polishing a third time to burnish the paint and remove the holograms and marring that the cutting compound would inevitably leave.

Here is a 50/50 picture of the correction being achieved on the door.










Using this method I slowly worked around the car, taking it outside occasionally when the sun poked through the clouds to get a different view. In the garage under the halogen light, the angry looking deep scratches from years of automatic car washes could clearly be seen. Just to note, in the first after shot below, the diagonal line is a reflection of the outer edge of the wing mirror, not a remaining scratch.




















































I was determined to get the heavy cutting done in one day, which I did, having taken me 14 hours start to finish! The car was completely covered in dust, mostly compromised of sharp little bits of polish residue. So, at 21:00 in the pitch dark, I rolled the car out onto the driveway to give it a quick wash and rinse before tucking it back in the garage for the night ready for a final polish the next day.

**Day 3**










Starting early again, very glad I did the wash the night before, I started to re-visit every panel to refine the finish left by the cutting compound. If you compare the pictures below you can see the one on the left has 'holograms'. These look like greasy marks that appear to float above the paint. It is a result of a polish that hasn't been broken down completely, thus leaving it's own super fine swirls in the paint that reflect the light in unusual ways, creating the hologram effect. To remove them I used a light finishing polish to burnish the paint and really bring out the gloss.



























Once this stage had been completed the car had taken on a whole new look. The once flat paintwork was now glossy and wet looking, the various curves really highlighted. Before I could apply wax, I first treated every panel with Swissvax Cleaner Fluid to prepare the surface and leave the best possible finish for the wax to adhere to. Swissvax Best Of Show was the wax of selected so I applied it carefully to the whole car and left it to cure while I attended to other areas.

The wheels were also gone over with Cleaner Fluid before having Autobahn wheel wax applied and the tyres dressed with Swissvax Pneu. The windows were cleaned using Crystal, the wiper blades too. One area of concern was the exhaust tips which had a hardened black crust baked onto them. A quick attempted with metal polish made no difference whatsoever, so using a Dremel fitted with a wire brush tool, I very delicately removed as much of the black residue as possible. This was then followed up with some metal polish and elbow grease to leave a much healthier looking set of pipes.


















With the wax buffed off and panel gaps dusted down, all that remained was for me to try and get some finished pictures in between the heavy downpours of rain.

The result of 29 hours very hard, but very satisfying work:













































































































http://www.shineondetail.com/news/audi-rs4-avant

Thanks for reading.


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## drive 'n' shine (Apr 22, 2006)

Very nice Reggie :thumb:


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## Mirror Finish Details (Aug 21, 2008)

Awsome I love that colour. A really good detail.


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## Detail My Ride (Apr 19, 2006)

Fantastic work Paul :thumb:


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## Frothey (Apr 30, 2007)

cracking stuff Paul :thumb:

always amazes me that car washes can instantly destroy paint that then needs a Dremmel to correct


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## Auto Finesse (Jan 10, 2007)

Proper job on a proper motor that Paul, nice one:thumb:


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## Rowan83 (Aug 21, 2007)

Awesome turn around mate, i bet Matt was very pleased with the results!! :thumb:


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## Envy Car Care (Aug 17, 2006)

Very nice work Paul, paint definately needed your touch.


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## Trist (Jun 23, 2006)

Great job mate :thumb:


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## rfmatt (Aug 9, 2008)

Great job mate that looks great now, no iidea how people can smoke in there cars though, it's beyond me!


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## CupraRcleanR (Sep 2, 2007)

Great write-up and job. Thanks for taking the time to share.


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## Offyourmarks (Jan 4, 2006)

top work paul - great write up too mate. 29 hours of graft and it shows mate. top shelf


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## Buck (Jan 16, 2008)

Excellent finish - love the first "afters" photo - really shows off the quality result!


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## Johnnyopolis (Oct 25, 2005)

Top work Paul :thumb: 

I really like that colour  Wish I had come down now the other day  

Johnny


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## chr15barn3s (Apr 10, 2007)

Top job Paul!


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## Brisa (Aug 9, 2006)

Lovely car and colour, definately one saved! Great work on paint and the interior. Bet the owner was extremely pleased!


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## ahaydock (Jan 4, 2007)

Very nice indeed :thumb:


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## Paul-T (Nov 2, 2006)

Thanks for the kind comments. I should also add, the engine has been lightly breathed upon, by way of a de-cat and remap with the result being a very healthy 450bhp. Matt took me for a drive once I'd finished and struth, is it ever quick! Traction control off it will happily spin all 4 wheels at once!


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## Auto Detox (Dec 22, 2007)

Very nice mate ! 

Baz


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## hardhitter (Aug 28, 2008)

I love these cars ! A rare colour indeed. A mate of mine had an S4 we were going to get upto RS4 power, shame he had to sell it. Excellent work on the detail and write up.


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## CK888 (Apr 23, 2006)

Fantastic 29hr work and a top write-up:thumb:


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## djcromie (Mar 22, 2007)

love these cars, deadly work, looks great after


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## ROB WOODHOUSE (Nov 13, 2005)

Very nice mate although not too sure on the colour


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## chris l (Mar 5, 2007)

Fantastic work


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## dubnut71 (Jul 25, 2006)

Brilliant Work Paul, I am always very impressed at your prep and care and attention you put into these jobs / write ups, well done!:wave:


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## Janitor (Feb 14, 2006)

Great work as ever Paul :thumb:

Yeah I'm biased, but loving your work


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## MikeA-P1 (Aug 14, 2008)

One of my favourite cars and I can't believe the previous owner didn't take much care of the car apart from servicing it!

The final results are superb, all that hard work and time was worth it!

Cheers Mike


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## Buzzsaw (Nov 4, 2007)

Lovely job


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## Frothey (Apr 30, 2007)

Janitor said:


> Great work as ever Paul :thumb:
> 
> Yeah I'm biased, but loving your work


you changed already Clive?


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## olliecampbell (Jan 30, 2007)

Lovely car, absolute pleasure to look at now


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## David (Apr 6, 2006)

nice to see another RS4 being restored back to new.

cant imagine why people spend £50k on one and then make a midden inside them, baffles me


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## Refined Detail (Nov 27, 2006)

Brilliant work - how careful do you have to be with the dremel to acheive results like that? I've had a couple of cars now that wire wool by hand will just not clean up!


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## wrx man (Apr 18, 2008)

Stunning work on a stunning car :thumb:


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## Sandro (Mar 16, 2008)

awesome work man! looks great now!


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## M7 ATW (May 21, 2008)

David said:


> nice to see another RS4 being restored back to new.
> 
> cant imagine why people spend £50k on one and then make a midden inside them, baffles me


I know... it's so unfair that people own such beautiful cars and let them get into such a state.

Great work though.


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## parklife (Apr 24, 2006)

Brilliant turnaround. Most impressive work


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