# MK5 Golf GTI - Enhancement Detail



## JBirchy (Oct 9, 2010)

Hi Folks!

Well for the first time in a long time, this weekend was a bit of a detailing fest for me! Since I got married in September I've been incredibly busy with work and other things, so I've not had the chance to do much detailing. I was glad to get back into it for sure!

The car belongs to a mate of mine, and fellow detailing enthusiast Joe. He took delivery of this lovely MK5 Golf GTI a couple of months back. He's been pretty busy renovating a house he's just bought so asked me if I'd take a look at it, bringing it up to his (very high!) standards. As some of you know, I used to own a Tornado Red MK5 GTI and it's the best car I've owned, I loved every minute of ownership so I couldn't wait to get my hands on Joes. He's also had a nice little map done so it's running around 270bhp and approx 300Nm torque so I was also itching to go down the road in it! (Pretty damn quick it is too and very refined!)

Here are a few pictures from Saturday morning.

















Just under 65k miles on the clock, it was mechanically spot on (Joe has extensively serviced almost every mechanical component since taking delivery) but the paintwork was a little grey, dull and generally in need of improvement. When Joe took delivery, the drivers side had a huge deep scratch running all the way from front to back so he had the whole side of the car resprayed. We were fearing the worst with regard to bodyshop inflicted nightmares, and the initial signs weren't good...





Time to get cracking and decontaminate ready for polishing. First up, the wheels were liberally sprayed with AutoSmart Smart Wheels 10:1 and left to sit for a couple of minutes before pressure rinsing. No agitation at this stage, I like to do this with wheels in the same way we all use snow foam. It's a very effective way of removing any surface dirt before touching the wheels with any brushes.



Once rinsed, the wheels were sprayed with DWax's new product, Decon 88 iron removing gel and left to sit for 10 mins, then agitated with various brushes. Tyres and arches were also scrubbed at this point.













Whilst Decon 88 was dwelling, I cleaned the engine bay and all shuts/grills with Surfex HD and a VP brush.





After cleaning the wheels, I foamed the car using VP Advanced Neutral Snow Foam with a drop of TFR in the mix to aid removal of any previous protection.



After 5 mins I rinsed the foam, and washed the car using Hubikote Hubiwash shampoo and a Microfiber Madness Incredimitt. Warm water required at this time of year too! ( :lol: )





Whilst rinsing, the Nanolex Glass Treatment Joe had applied was showing off it's beading/sheeting abilities!



While the car was still wet, I clayed the paint using Auto Finesse Clay and a shampoo solution as lube. It was pulling quite a bit from the whole car except the drivers side (recently sprayed) which was perfectly clean.





It was at this point that DPD arrived at the workshop with a special parcel for me!!! Huge thanks to Polished Bliss for the quick delivery. (The DPD driver was supposed to deliver it Monday, but had another Saturday delivery in my area so used his initiative and took a chance on me being in! Very impressed!)



So perfect timing, the car was dried using it! What a brilliant tool! It makes a pretty noisy racket, but does a brilliant job. A little more difficult on paint with no protection but I can't wait to use it on a car with decent protection. No towels required!



So once dry, we could now see the true condition of the paint... Joe actually arrived at this point too and other than immediately wanting an Air Force Blaster, he was quite surprised at the condition of the paint!









The photos don't do it full justice, it was much worse than it looks here but I suppose that's what you get from an iPhone camera!

Biggest surprise... The recently painted side was in fantastic condition. No orange peel but more importantly, hardly any swirls scratches and no buffer trails to be seen! All it was going to need was a very light refine to remove some clay marring I'd inflicted, but other than that we were really impressed!

The passenger side had some pretty deep scratches so I decided to hit those with Scholl S2 Orange on a Green Dodo FIN pad (2 sets) to remove the most of them, followed by a long refining set with Scholl S40 on a black Dodo FIN pad.

Some before/after polishing shots...









Really stunning colour, the polishing was turning it back into a deep black with lovely metallic flake, rather than the dull grey we saw before!

In between polishing panels, I decided to dress the tyres to give it the longest possible curing time. Given we had perfectly dry tyres thanks to the Air Force Blaster, it seemed like a good idea! Joe is a fan of Dodo Basics Tyre and Trim and I have to say, it leaves a stunning natural finish. Joe reckons he's had 6-8 weeks durability so I may well pick up a bottle of this too.







While I was polishing, Joe got on with a few other jobs like dressing all trim and plastic grills with Dodo Supernatural Trim Sealant and polishing the exhausts with AF Mercury and some wire wool. Speaking from experience, it's incredibly difficult to get the pipes perfect, especially on a car that hasn't had much love in the past. Soot from the turbo cakes on and is tough to shift! In between all this, Joe managed to clay and seal the wheel faces using Dodo Supernatural Wheel Sealant.

50:50 on the exhaust:



Before:



50:50



Trim Sealant Beading:



Joe also hoovered the interior, then cleaned and conditioned the leather using Gliptone products.

A few more random polishing shots. You'll see that someone has tried to hack the GTI badge off in the past, there are some pretty bad scratches around the area! It's also in the wrong place!











A few deeper marks remained, but Joe was fine with that. We were quite pushed for time as it was. It was starting to look lovely and glossy!





I also polished the tail lights using a Megs Yellow spot pad and some Scholl S17+



So, after each panel was refined with Scholl S40 and a black pad, I wiped the paint with CarPro Eraser ready for Joe to follow me round with his choice of wax, Dodo Juice Supernatural. I've never used this wax before and I was nicely surprised with how nice it is to use. The pot looks superb and the wax is easy to spread. Left for 15 mins before effortlessly buffing to a mega gloss. We managed to get 2 coats on so it should be well protected for the winter. Here is a quick snap of the finishing products:



After dressing the engine bay and arches with 303 and Wax-Tec Mint Dress, cleaning all glass with Dodo Clearly Menthol, we're ready for some finished pictures. It was totally dark outside at this point so I'm afraid indoor shots are all we have.

















So back to its former glory! Now looks very smart indeed! I really enjoyed the day, and it was nice to spend some time with a car I used to love again! Got me even more excited for when mine turns up in March!

Joe also sent me some pictures he took of the car outside in the daylight, looks very good indeed!









Thanks for reading,

Jon


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## Jonny_R (Oct 23, 2012)

Amazing work as usual Jon and great write up

Bet you cant wait to take delivery of yours now


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## DW58 (Nov 27, 2010)

Excellent write-up, what a transformation :thumb:


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## SarahAnn (Apr 6, 2011)

Enjoyed reading that one Jon :wave:

You had some good 'foam action' going on 
It did look dull at the start compared to the finished paintwork 

It seems ages ago that you said you'd ordered a golf. Roll on March!! :thumb:


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## JBirchy (Oct 9, 2010)

Jonny_R said:


> Amazing work as usual Jon and great write up
> 
> Bet you cant wait to take delivery of yours now





SarahAnn said:


> Enjoyed reading that one Jon :wave:
> 
> You had some good 'foam action' going on
> It did look dull at the start compared to the finished paintwork
> ...


Tell me about it... I ordered it 28th October and was originally given a Build Week commencing 20th Jan. However the dealer rang me last week to inform me it had been bumped up in the queue and it was built last week! It should get to the dealers mid Jan but I'm still waiting until 1st March for collection. Main reason being I'd like most of the bad weather to be gone before I pick it up.


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## Rascal_69 (Sep 20, 2009)

Looks great. Really wet look to it :thumb:


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## CHRIS1985 (Nov 28, 2013)

Some good work here, especially with the removal of all swirls.

Car looks great done


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## Scottie23 (Dec 5, 2013)

Nice one mate. Great write up. My wife had a grey version like this and it went through the exact same transformation!!


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## tonyy (Jul 26, 2008)

Great work:thumb:


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## Jonny_R (Oct 23, 2012)

Will have to do a joint detail on mine one weekend when the weather picks up  haha


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## JBirchy (Oct 9, 2010)

Jonny_R said:


> Will have to do a joint detail on mine one weekend when the weather picks up  haha


Would love to mate, more than welcome to bring it to my place or I'll come to yours! :buffer:


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## Bill58 (Jul 5, 2010)

Excellent work!


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## Jonny_R (Oct 23, 2012)

JBirchy said:


> Would love to mate, more than welcome to bring it to my place or I'll come to yours! :buffer:


Will plan it when the weather picks up in spring then 

Could do with a few pointers and tips for my polishing i think, was abit dissapointed at some of the marks still in mine i spotted at the weekend lol


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## JBirchy (Oct 9, 2010)

Jonny_R said:


> Will plan it when the weather picks up in spring then
> 
> Could do with a few pointers and tips for my polishing i think, was abit dissapointed at some of the marks still in mine i spotted at the weekend lol


Are you using a DA or a rotary? If you're still on a DA we'll get you on a rotary. Providing you take your time and constantly measure the paint with a PTG, they're much quicker and can remove marks that a DA wont generate enough heat to. I only use a DA to apply glazes/paint cleansers, any correctional polishing is done by a rotary for me until I splash out on either a FLEX VRG3401 or Rupes Bigfoot next year.


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## Jonny_R (Oct 23, 2012)

JBirchy said:


> Are you using a DA or a rotary? If you're still on a DA we'll get you on a rotary. Providing you take your time and constantly measure the paint with a PTG, they're much quicker and can remove marks that a DA wont generate enough heat to. I only use a DA to apply glazes/paint cleansers, any correctional polishing is done by a rotary for me until I splash out on either a FLEX VRG3401 or Rupes Bigfoot next year.


Nope only using a DAS6 Pro at the min so that would be a learning curve haha


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## JBirchy (Oct 9, 2010)

Jonny_R said:


> Nope only using a DAS6 Pro at the min so that would be a learning curve haha


DAS6 PRO is a great bit of kit (that's the DA I use too) but they aren't a great correction tool IMO.

We'll sort something out in the new year and get you on a rotary! :buffer:


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## dekerf1996 (Sep 9, 2008)

Great write up thanks  nice turn around 

quick question on the microfibre madness mit, how do you find it? Just i am thinking of getting one as i keep on killing my lambswool mits :-(


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## ArcticVXR (Apr 10, 2007)

Lovely work


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## suspal (Dec 29, 2011)

Nice job JB :thumb:


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## JBirchy (Oct 9, 2010)

dekerf1996 said:


> Great write up thanks  nice turn around
> 
> quick question on the microfibre madness mit, how do you find it? Just i am thinking of getting one as i keep on killing my lambswool mits :-(


Thanks bud. It's superb actually. Really easy to clean and just keeps on giving suds out. I'll certainly buy another one but this has lasted 3-4 months so far (can't remember exactly when I got it) and there is no sign of degredation at all.

JB


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## Jonny_R (Oct 23, 2012)

dekerf1996 said:


> Great write up thanks  nice turn around
> 
> quick question on the microfibre madness mit, how do you find it? Just i am thinking of getting one as i keep on killing my lambswool mits :-(


Brilliant mitt

Had mine a few months now too, doesnt need all the maintenence and brushing a lambswool one needs either 

Just a good rinse out after use and air dry


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## CoOkIeMoNsTeR (Mar 6, 2011)

Looks spot on in the afters, what a difference! I'm glad you mentioned the GTI badge, it was the first thing I noticed, and as these things do, it caught my eye every time I saw it; were you not tempted to take it off? 

Also, 65k miles? That drivers seat looks awful for that, my Dad's Alfa has 93k on it, and not even a crease on its red leather seats, neither my Merc with 73k  Not taking away anything you've done, I was just taken aback slightly by the level of wear and that deep crease; is it normal on GTI leather?

Still a top job though :thumb:


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## GarveyVW (Jun 28, 2013)

Top gloss and top work!


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## MAXI-MILAN (Oct 26, 2008)

Great work


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## RobA3 (Jun 14, 2007)

Lovely car and a nice write up, I am picking up a GT sport and can't wait


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## Wout_RS (Jun 13, 2012)

Nice write-up Jon!

Great detail as always! Very nice gloss!

I don't know how you guys manage to have 6 weeks from a tyre dressing.
I know have Supernatural tyre dressing and I only manage 1 week.
Tyres were cleaned with APC!


Great to see you find always new products you like!


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## joelee (Nov 28, 2009)

CoOkIeMoNsTeR said:


> Looks spot on in the afters, what a difference! I'm glad you mentioned the GTI badge, it was the first thing I noticed, and as these things do, it caught my eye every time I saw it; were you not tempted to take it off?
> 
> Also, 65k miles? That drivers seat looks awful for that, my Dad's Alfa has 93k on it, and not even a crease on its red leather seats, neither my Merc with 73k  Not taking away anything you've done, I was just taken aback slightly by the level of wear and that deep crease; is it normal on GTI leather?
> 
> Still a top job though :thumb:


That drivers seat looks worse on that pic and all that has happened is the foam has gone a a bit very normal for a golf this is my 5th gti and the seats are mint apart from that and yer 65k genuine mileage with one owner from new Ok


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## The Beer Hunter (Aug 11, 2013)

Jon, what's the advantage of the Air Force Blaster over a compressed air line?
I use an air line to dry the mountain bike off & may bring my compressor over to my 'town house' for when I'm detailing the VW. 
Great write up once again.


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## CoOkIeMoNsTeR (Mar 6, 2011)

joelee said:


> That drivers seat looks worse on that pic and all that has happened is the foam has gone a a bit very normal for a golf this is my 5th gti and the seats are mint apart from that and yer 65k genuine mileage with one owner from new Ok


Don't doubt it mate, just didn't expect it to look like that after such a small mileage, but I've never had a Golf so can only compare to my cars :thumb:

Looks a nice car in any case


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## norfolk_msd (Nov 18, 2013)

Nice to see a neglected car brought back to life, nice job :thumb:


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## Clyde (Feb 15, 2012)

Good write up and quite a transformation!


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## JBirchy (Oct 9, 2010)

CoOkIeMoNsTeR said:


> Looks spot on in the afters, what a difference! I'm glad you mentioned the GTI badge, it was the first thing I noticed, and as these things do, it caught my eye every time I saw it; were you not tempted to take it off?
> 
> Also, 65k miles? That drivers seat looks awful for that, my Dad's Alfa has 93k on it, and not even a crease on its red leather seats, neither my Merc with 73k  Not taking away anything you've done, I was just taken aback slightly by the level of wear and that deep crease; is it normal on GTI leather?
> 
> Still a top job though :thumb:


Thanks for the comments guys. I think the seats look like that down to the dodgy lighting in the warehouse. That said, VW leather is known for going a little saggy over time. I know exactly what you're talking about with Alfa leather though, I had a 156 Saloon a few years back with the black 'Momo' leather. After 124k miles it looked as good as new!

The leather in my old Passat CC was pretty good but it had only done 22k when I got it, and I kept on top of it but I fear the previous owners of this GTI didn't really care, hence why it looked like it had never been cleaned. It looks better in the flesh now though after Joe has steam cleaned it and treated with Gliptone conditioner!

:thumb:


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## joelee (Nov 28, 2009)

JBirchy said:


> Thanks for the comments guys. I think the seats look like that down to the dodgy lighting in the warehouse. That said, VW leather is known for going a little saggy over time. I know exactly what you're talking about with Alfa leather though, I had a 156 Saloon a few years back with the black 'Momo' leather. After 124k miles it looked as good as new!
> 
> The leather in my old Passat CC was pretty good but it had only done 22k when I got it, and I kept on top of it but I fear the previous owners of this GTI didn't really care, hence why it looked like it had never been cleaned. It looks better in the flesh now though after Joe has steam cleaned it and treated with Gliptone conditioner!
> 
> :thumb:


Well said there mate


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## AGRE (Sep 25, 2008)

Enjoyable write up as always 

Looks great now, :thumb:


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## edewer (Jun 10, 2009)

Just bought myself a Shadow blue one of these that looks to be about the same condition, so glad to see the results. Has given me hope that mine can look this good again aswell!


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## JBirchy (Oct 9, 2010)

edewer said:


> Just bought myself a Shadow blue one of these that looks to be about the same condition, so glad to see the results. Has given me hope that mine can look this good again aswell!


Thanks very much! You won't be disappointed, they're a wonderful car. I owned one a few years back and it's the best car I've owned, I loved every minute which is why I've got a new Mk7 GTI on order! :thumb:


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## diesel x (Jul 27, 2013)

Great work and write up.


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## luke w (Dec 11, 2012)

Cracking work! Nice one


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## VW Golf-Fan (Aug 3, 2010)

Spot on, lovely motor!


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