# DetailMyCar - Project VW Golf GTi, Mk5. Big write-up (pre-sale) for customer.



## DetailMyCar (Apr 19, 2010)

Right, this could be a long one... and one that I will have to come back to over the coming weeks to update it.

The car is a 2005 VW Golf GTi, with 91k miles on the clock and is actually owned by one of my Wife's directors. He basically asked me to help sell it on as it needed a bit of TLC and he doesn't have the time to deal with it.

Not a problem I say, so I went to pick the car up. On driving home I made a mental note of all the issues I discovered:


Alignment is out, wheel pointing left for the car to go straight.
Air-con is warm, not even slightly cool
Front bumper corner is badly scuffed
Wheels all badly kerbed and bubbling all over
Wheel nut caps all white due to strong wheel cleaners / TFR's being used
Rear parking sensors not working
Sticking rear brake caliper
Car seriously under-boosting (feels like no turbo)
Headlights badly yellowed
Paintwork is generally just very dull, almost looks grey and has bad swirls all over.

So by the time I'd got home, I'd already added up a fairly large bill so the car was taken into my local Bodyshop (Headley Bodyshop) to carry out a few of the repairs:

1) Wheels - Done by www.myalloys.co.uk

Process is: Chemically stripped, put through a cleaning machine to remove all chemical deposits and dirt. Shot blasted with apporpriate media to remove final stubborn particles. Put into oven to remove any trapped air, and into a spray booth for applying powder coating primer. Back into the overn to be baked for necessary time to ensure curing has been completed. Wheel then left to cool to a temperature suitable for painting. Alloy wheel front and inside is painted, flashed in the oven before being inspected and further coats added if necessary. Powder lacquer is then applied to the face and inside (Highly durable), oven baked then removed and inspected for one final time. New rubber valve inserted and the tyres are then refitted, balanced and sent back to Headley bodyshop.

Unfortunately I don't have any before shots but here's the afters (Before calipers painted and new Wheel nut caps)




























While there the following jobs were completed by the bodyshop/service centre

Front bumper re-sprayed
Parking sensor control module & one sensor replaced (and painted)
4-Wheel alignment carried out
Air-Con Re-gassed and checked for leaks
New rear pads fitted

Once I picked the car up, there was still the big issue of the car having a lack of power. I started calling around and found that it was due recall by VW for the coilpacks to be replaced so I got that booked in hoping they may help the problem, or at least discover what the issue might be. These were all replaced but the car was still down on power so using the power of the internet I got some great help from the guys on mk5golfgti forum and they all advised it sounded much like a typical Diverter valve (dump valve) problem as the original item was a poor design with a rubber diaphram that was prone to split as the car got older.

I ordered the upgraded version fitted on later models and got the car down to Piper Auto's so we could replace it.

Up on the ramp it was clear to see the grease/oil around the old diverter valve:



















When removed the whole thing fell apart showing a clearly broken rubber diaphram which was hopefully the cause of a boost leak.


















Nice new part:


















New one fitted









The car was instantly a different car, and far far better - MPG was back up in line with my Skoda VRS (same engine) and it was pulling perfectly now all through the rev range.

This was great, a simple £30 part fixed what seemed like it could be a big problem! (Hate to think what it would have cost and how many parts the Dealer would have replaced before finding this to be the issue) - Massive thanks to the Mk5golfgti forum for this diagnoses - Who says you can't diagnose faults over the net 

Anyway, on to the Detailing work!

Here's how the paintwork was looking:














































Headlights looking terrible!













































The car was cleaned up with the usual process of Snow foam, Hand wash, Tardis & IronX before claying to remove final contamination



























I carried out a test (http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=277198) to see what combination would work out of:

S17+
S3 Gold
CarPro Fixer
Gliptone Step2
Meg's 105
Menz 85RD 3.02









As the test showed, the right combination of Megs 101 and a Hex Logic White pad was giving good correction, although quite a strong combination the paintwork was bad enough to need it! The whole thing would then be refined using Scholl S40 on a Black Scholl Waffle pad.

Here's some shots from that test:

Before


















After M101


















After refining with S40






















































Looking far better and after spending a lot of time out in the boiling Sun, I sealed the bonnet up with FK1000p, and applied SCG Barrier Reef wax over the top just to add a bit of protection while it was left until the next weekend.

On to the next week!

Headlights were all taped up, and ready to be wet sanded to remove the damage - Starting with 1500, 2000 & 3000 Meg's Unigrit paper

During






















































After polishing with S3 Gold, and refined with 3M Extrafine


















Passenger side during


















The next step was to carry on polishing, the drivers side wing was as follows - 50/50 with no light source still shows even on a cloudy day so you can see how different it was looking, it transformed from grey to black!


















Under LEDs


















Other before shots


















Before









After









After









The whole car was polished with M101 and finished for the day. Next day I drove it to the unit and gave it a full wipe down with Eraser and set about refining using S40.

After refining the car was given one further wipe down with Eraser and prepared ready for waxing, using AS WAX on this as it's nice and easy to use and leaves a really good finish for the money plus lasts a good 4-6 months!



















Finally the Wax was all buffed off to leave the paintwork now looking FAR better, still quite a few little jobs to do (Caliper paint, new wheel nut caps to be fitted etc)












































































































































































That's all for now!

Next I'm stripping the calipers and painting them along with hubs, then a few other bits like Engine bay clean up.

Then it will finally be going up for sale!

Great fun though so far, and the first time I've ever had to do quite this much on one car


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## Nally (May 30, 2012)

Great headlight restore 
( another one for the maplins light lol )


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## JJ_ (Oct 26, 2005)

The OEM paint quality difference between an 05 and later 07/08 etc models is quite staggering. The paint looks of a higher quality.


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## deni2 (May 4, 2011)

Lot of work involved, looks much better now :thumb:.


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## cossienuts (Oct 14, 2008)

massive improvement


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## VW STEVE. (Mar 18, 2012)

Mint,just a new set of wheel bolt covers now.


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## DetailMyCar (Apr 19, 2010)

VW STEVE. said:


> Mint,just a new set of wheel bolt covers now.


Already got them 

Just got to paint the calipers too


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## JBirchy (Oct 9, 2010)

Absolutely brilliant job! I bet he thinks twice about selling it now?

Fantastic car, i loved mine so much and in that shape, you must have added at least £750 to the value of the car.

Great read too!


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## Ryan (Feb 18, 2008)

subbed this. How easy is it to strip and re-paint the calipers? my mkv gti has a chip out one and was looking to do this with them all to give them a freshen up.


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## DetailMyCar (Apr 19, 2010)

Ryan said:


> subbed this. How easy is it to strip and re-paint the calipers? my mkv gti has a chip out one and was looking to do this with them all to give them a freshen up.


Not too bad to be honest, I had the sticky one apart last night with the help of a friend - Just need a caliper wind back tool to push the pistons back in once they've come off the car....

If you take your time and use good masking tape you can do them on the car, especially if you're just touching them up it's even easier!


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## CraigQQ (Jan 20, 2011)

looking good mate.


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## President Swirl (Oct 23, 2011)

Stunning, good as new.


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## MLAM (Jan 21, 2009)

Already looking far better Nick.

On another note, any reason why the alloys were done at My Alloys instead of Headley? if you want to PM thats fine with me.

Incidentally when I worked at MINI the alloys were taken there too for refurbs if they were really manky.


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## cotter (Aug 31, 2008)

Looking great :thumb:


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## DetailMyCar (Apr 19, 2010)

MLAM said:


> Already looking far better Nick.
> 
> On another note, any reason why the alloys were done at My Alloys instead of Headley? if you want to PM thats fine with me.
> 
> Incidentally when I worked at MINI the alloys were taken there too for refurbs if they were really manky.


Thanks Michael! My alloys do the work on behalf of Headley it's just easy to go through headley as you can leave the car with them and they'll take them all off etc


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## adlem (Jul 6, 2008)

Certainely looks a lot different to when I saw it! :thumb:


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## Neil_G (Nov 22, 2010)

Just thinking how I can raise some money to buy this car.
Really impressed with the complete turn around service you've done.


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## Mr Face (Jan 22, 2009)

Great job fella, stunning finish.

I wish I wasnt tempted by these :wall:


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## tonyy (Jul 26, 2008)

Great job:thumb:


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## AaronGTi (Nov 2, 2010)

Again mate, nice write up.

Can't believe it's only had 1k views  :thumb:


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## DetailMyCar (Apr 19, 2010)

AaronGTi said:


> Again mate, nice write up.
> 
> Can't believe it's only had 1k views  :thumb:


Haha I thought that was good for 2 days


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## DMH-01 (Mar 29, 2011)

Great job there mate :thumb:


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## j3ggo (Dec 7, 2011)

Brilliant


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## Estuardo_VW (Aug 20, 2007)

i really like the colour of the wheels!

Do you have any paint code?

The work is supperb, a total restoratation, keep waiting for the next pictures


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