# Back by popular demand...



## The Cueball (Feb 8, 2007)

...well maybe not.... :doublesho :lol::lol::lol:

I haven't done any/much detailing for a while, but tried to sort out my RS6 this weekend.... this is my first detail in almost a year!

I've had the RS6 for a while now, but it's been in and out of various garages getting work done, things fixed, and then more things fixed.. plus I decided to leave it until I could be bothered to detail it, and the easter break was the perfect time...

Lots to do this weekend, some polishing, wet sanding, painting and I decided to have a bit of fun with a few of my gadgets... 

So, this is what I started with, a bit of dirt and dust, not been washed for a few weeks, probably since I got the wheels powercoated actually..

















And this is one of the scratches on the car, and I'm going to use this as a little "side project" to work through some wet sanding...



So, staying with the above for the time being... I got some toys out to try and understand the damage better...as things stand (all readings are average):

Paint readings - 195 um 
Gloss readings - 89 GU

And this is how it looks under my electron microscope:





With that done, it was onto the snow foam, Chemical Guys No touch





The car was then washed with ********** shampoo, a few mitts and of course using 2 buckets, AS G101 was used with a small brush to clean all shuts, handles etc.

I then gave the car another snow foam and cleaned it again using my Chemical guys clay mitt.

This left the car nice and clean, and clear of all contaminants, and showed how much work I have to get done bringing the paint back to life:







So, back to the project scratch, it now looked nice and clean:


The paint readings were obviously the same, but the gloss meter showed a jump up to 96 GU, and the microscope was showing the scratch a little better too:





I pulled the car into the unit and got it all dried off, then started to work with paint, firstly using a small brush to touch up some stone chips, then dealt with some road rash on the arches as they sick out a lot with mixing the paint and clear, then wiping onto the car - once dry this will be machined off, leaving nice fixed paint.

I also had to door trims to paint, and even though I used my usual method, this turned out to be a major disaster, as you will unfortunately see later on in the finished pictures...:wall::wall::wall:

After that, I started to wet sand a few areas, I think there was 12 in all... including the bonnet project..



Once the sanding was done, the paint readings dropped down to 192 um, and the gloss was a way down at 2 GU, again the paint was looking better under the electron.





I then got comfy and started my machine polishing... 3 stages for this car, firstly I polished the paint with my 3M Rotary polisher using Scholl 17+ polish and a brand new 3M yellow pad...

Some areas needed a second hit with this combo and everything was wiped down with IPA afterwards to remove any oils.

The next stage was refining/jewelling, again with the rotary, but using Scholl S40 and a 3M blue pad.

After another IPA wipedown, the final stage was using ********** paint cleanser with a soft finishing pad and my DA machine.

I didn't get may pictures of all those stages as I was just focused on getting the work done! But to finish off the little project, this is how the bonnet looked close up:



And the final paint readings were 189 um, the gloss was up to 106 GU and the paint under the microscope looked like this:





All nice and flat looking.... I got another few pictures from another part of the car, just to check it out:





Once all the polishing was done, the interior was cleaned using my tornador gun, leather cleaned with Zaino cleaner, glass all cleaned with IPA and a quick blast of AS bubblegum air freshener.

I cleaned the engine with the tornador and gave it a wipe over with PERL, which I also used on the tyres.

To finish off, I put 4 layers of ********** wax on the paint, 2 of their Number One, and 2 of the show wax, and that was me.

As I said, some good bits about the detail, but I was left really annoyed at the painting, but just means I have to practice a bit more... for now, I'll call them cool racing stripes... eh... for team Idiot... lol

Anyway, a few pictures all finished and in the sun....





















:thumb:j


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## s29nta (Mar 9, 2013)

you still got it:thumb:


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## lowejackson (Feb 23, 2006)

Welcome back 

Nice work on the car although I am intrigued by the microscope - more details please


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## President Swirl (Oct 23, 2011)

Awesome mate, long may you enjoy it.


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## Blackmondie (Mar 13, 2011)

Welcome back man ! Nice work you did there


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## Bill58 (Jul 5, 2010)

That's a great turnaround Cue! Welcome back!


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## ryans2 (Apr 8, 2014)

Looks really well that bud


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## dooka (Aug 1, 2006)

bonjour monsieur Cueball ..


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## suspal (Dec 29, 2011)

Cuey no mention of the toilet brush,are you alright buddy


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## Rayner (Aug 16, 2012)

Welcome back mate, car looks great now :thumb:


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## Tricky Red (Mar 3, 2007)

Welcome back elusive one. Good to see you back on here.

Lovely car and nice detail. Top man.


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## Trip tdi (Sep 3, 2008)

Nice to have you back, nice to see a old face back car looks the bomb :thumb:


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## muzzer (Feb 13, 2011)

Ohhh yeeeaaahhhhhh the Cueball is back where he belongs, your wit and repartee have been sadly missed buddy :thumb:


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## WAZ92 (Mar 26, 2014)

Nice job.


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## 500tie (Oct 15, 2009)

Nice to see your work back again looks as good as new


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## spursfan (Aug 4, 2009)

Good to see you back Cuey:wave:
cracking job on the scratch and lovely car to boot

Kev


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## Fraser911 (Mar 31, 2014)

Brilliant job 

Am I just being stupid? Or how the hell you measure the gloss of something?


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## alexjb (Feb 13, 2011)

Amazing turnaround! Very nice 

All hail The Cueball!!


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## Big Buffer (Jan 1, 2011)

Simply stunning


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## alexharvey (May 16, 2013)

that is amazing and hard work i bet

i want that car!!!:driver:


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## Dode (Jun 13, 2013)

Looking good


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## Moggytom (Dec 28, 2011)

car looks great  prefer it to the s4 ?


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## jamesgti (Aug 9, 2007)

Great work.


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## tonyy (Jul 26, 2008)

Great work:thumb:


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## Bulkhead (Oct 17, 2007)

lowejackson said:


> Welcome back
> 
> Nice work on the car although I am intrigued by the microscope - more details please


Just looks like a relatively low magnification light microscope. Electron microscopes don't give you colour for a start!


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## The Cueball (Feb 8, 2007)

Cheers all..... :wave:

:thumb:



lowejackson said:


> Welcome back
> 
> Nice work on the car although I am intrigued by the microscope - more details please


Cheers... it's the same one as this, only I got it from the US where it's a little bit cheaper...

http://www.polishedbliss.co.uk/cgi-...tal-microscope-cat11.html#aCEDM0001#aCEDM0001

:thumb:



suspal said:


> Cuey no mention of the toilet brush,are you alright buddy


The wheels didn't need too much, they have 2 coats of Ceramishield and 2 of Rotundus wax... so a quick snowfoam and they are clean again! :lol:



Grunty-Boii said:


> Brilliant job
> 
> Am I just being stupid? Or how the hell you measure the gloss of something?


Cheers, you use a gloss meter to bounce a light off the paint, and it measures the surface refection.

:thumb:



Moggytom said:


> car looks great  prefer it to the s4 ?


Yes, it's a far better car... still not quite sure if I like it more than the S8 though...

The car has had some work done to it, so now has 570bhp and 864 Nm of torque, so it's a bit tasty... :driver::driver::driver: :devil:



Bulkhead said:


> Just looks like a relatively low magnification light microscope. Electron microscopes don't give you colour for a start!


Yes, for some reason my spell check didn't like the word Celestron and decided to change it to Electron... :lol::lol:

:thumb:


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## Mad Ad (Feb 7, 2011)

Cuey, how are you?

Tasty motor and nice turn around.


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## Christian6984 (Dec 20, 2007)

Stunning work, what a transformation :thumb:


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## Zetec-al (Feb 28, 2011)

Nice car!


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## MadOnVaux! (Jun 2, 2008)

Stunning car 

I always thought that Audi should have fitted tinted/darker rear fogs in these A6 models, as they always seem to stand out in the black surround.


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## Wout_RS (Jun 13, 2012)

Nice work!

Do you have a gloss measuring on your paint reader or do you use something different for that?


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## suspal (Dec 29, 2011)

Wout_RS said:


> Nice work!
> 
> Do you have a gloss measuring on your paint reader or do you use something different for that?


Cuey has a gloss reading meter.


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## SystemClenz (Oct 31, 2008)

Welcome back mate :thumb:


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## aerodynamic18 (Feb 12, 2011)

Welcome back


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## Skodaw (Mar 19, 2006)

Welcome back! Fabulous car, looking really good too


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## The Cueball (Feb 8, 2007)

cheers guys....

:thumb:


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## bigslippy (Sep 19, 2010)

Gloss meter , electron microscopes .... you going all Star Trek on us cuey??:doublesho

Cracking work on a beast of a car :thumb:


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## The Cueball (Feb 8, 2007)

after a few weeks off, I manged to get the unicorn cleaned again...





































I think the S8 had been feeling a bit lonely, so starting shouting for attention by throwing up error codes...so a quick scan, chat and a clean later, we are friends again (I hope)





































all done for another few weeks......


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## suspal (Dec 29, 2011)

Nice work cuey like always buddy.


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## MadOnVaux! (Jun 2, 2008)

Loving the S8


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## magpieV6 (Jul 29, 2008)

oooh bet that can go! Very nice Cuey xx


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## Tuddie (Aug 14, 2010)

Awesome!!


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## streaky (Dec 2, 2006)

muzzer42 said:


> your wit and repartee have been sadly missed buddy :thumb:


:lol::lol:


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## Soul boy 68 (Sep 8, 2013)

Supurb work Cueball, just an observation if you don't mind, but did you do the tail pipes? and also, what is the Tornador gun? :buffer:


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