# Polished Bliss: Another Swirly One.....



## Clark @ PB (Mar 1, 2006)

Just finished this Car this evening and shock it was another swirly one, why is it all the worst ones i do are generally ones with rock hard paint? :lol:

Here's the car before i started yesterday morning:



















As it was pissing down yet again, i never took any wash process pics, but it was the usual steps taken - 2BM, clayed, wheels were cleaned with Menzerna 7.5 Gel, engine cleaned with Megs Super Degreaser etc...So i'll just crack on with the polishing stage 

*Polish*:

Once inside and taped up, i took paint readings using the pocket sized gauge for the metal panels:










And the Posi 200 for the plastics:










The car was healthy in most areas, showing an average of around 120 microns however the lower sections were in the 90's. A couple of areas were below 80 so these were taped off as this is pretty close to strike through level on most VAG cars. The bumpers/spoiler were around 100 microns so all in all pretty good 

The paint was full of swirls and RIDS (which seems to be the norm lately!):




























Again, the pad used to correct the paint was the 3M Compounding Pad:










This was used with IP [email protected]'s to good effect.

*Test section before:*:










*After*:



















A few more correction shots, the one below shows the typical RIDS that remained on a couple of panels:





































The drivers door had a nasty scrape, so i polished this area with Menz Powergloss:

*Before*:










*After, not completely gone as it was too deep*:










Once all the rotary work was done i PC'd the front and rear lights:

*Headlight before*:










*After*:










I then machined the whole car again with a blue 3M Finishing Pad & Menz [email protected]'s, this really helped bring the flake out in the paint :thumb:

Last job before the application of the wax was to touch in a few stone chips, using an artists paint brush:



















(sorry bout the blurry pic)

I switched the heater on for 5 mins which helped dry the paint really quickly. 

Then out with the Vintage:










This was applied by applicator pad as always and then left to cure.

The car isnt being collected until Saturday so Rich is doing the interior tomorrow, so i did the last few remaining jobs:

The tailpipes were in desperate need of a spruce up!










After some BF Compound and Unigrit 2000 they looked alot better:










The engine was dressed with 303 Aerospace Protectant:



















I then jacked up each wheel to get in to the inner rims properly as there were some tar spots i couldnt fully remove during the wash stage, this allowed me to dress the arches at the same time with All Season Dressing too 










Wheels were done with PW Wheel Sealant and the tyres were dressed with BF Long Lasting Tyre Gel, i also gave the glass a quick once over with Meguiars Glass Cleaner Concentrate.

A final wipe down with Field glaze was all that was left before i got out the camera for the after pics, i think i did a pretty good job of capturing the wetness the Vintage gives this time 













































































































Thanks for looking as always  :thumb:


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## GateKiller (Jul 6, 2007)

As always, Impressive work 

Let hope the owner keep it in mint condition.


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

Great work as always Clark, some really nice defect removal there.

I'm loving the flake on the wheels!


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## R30 (Oct 30, 2005)

Thats stunning. I'd normally steer away from buying a blue car because the swirls seem to show up even more, but when you can get it to look as good as that it's a beautiful colour to have. 

Hope he/she keeps it that way too.


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## Janitor (Feb 14, 2006)

Yep, quality stuff Clark

I often wonder how much after care owners actually employ..? Do they really change their habits to help keep defects at bay or do they carry on regardless after their car becomes sh1t-all-over once again..?


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## Clark @ PB (Mar 1, 2006)

Gaffer said:


> Yep, quality stuff Clark
> 
> I often wonder how much after care owners actually employ..? Do they really change their habits to help keep defects at bay or do they carry on regardless after their car becomes sh1t-all-over once again..?


I'd say around 90% actually do very well in their maintainance of the car, but at £4-500 for a full detail they'd be pretty daft not to look after it or its a complete waste of money.

There are a few that you see a month or 2 later and you wonder what the hell they've been doing and it used to wind me up, but now it doesnt bother me so much because once its left us in as good a condition as possible, there's not a huge amount more we can do except make sure they have all the right products and know how


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## visor (Sep 8, 2007)

WOW! that look really nice :thumb:


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## leistrum (Feb 10, 2007)

:thumb: That really does look superb - I like the bonnet reflection shot


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## Mark J (May 10, 2007)

Always a pleasure :thumb:


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## Nica (Jul 4, 2007)

Such a nice color, I'm a big fan of blue and the vehicle it's self is quite nice.

Thank you for the picture of the 3M Compounding pad, look forward on getting my goodies from Rich.

The pictures of during the corection are quite nice :thumb:

Thank you for sharing and a great job once again.


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## 1000lakes (May 12, 2007)

Nice work and good choice for jacking the car up.


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## Kadir (Jun 14, 2007)

Always a welcome pleasure seeing you work your magic on these cars.. Awesome stuff! :thumb:


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## tdekany (Jul 22, 2006)

Stunning work!!!!!:thumb: :thumb: :thumb:


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## ads2k (Jul 12, 2006)

Polished Bliss to the rescue again......

Stunning work as always Clark.


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## maesal (Nov 24, 2005)

Nica said:


> Such a nice color, I'm a big fan of blue and the vehicle it's self is quite nice.
> 
> Thank you for the picture of the 3M Compounding pad, look forward on getting my goodies from Rich.
> 
> ...


Hi Nica, I tried it yesterday and with the 3M backing plate, they're amazing, you should try them. :thumb:


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## maesal (Nov 24, 2005)

Incredible work Clark, congratulations mate !!


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## JonoST2 (Apr 25, 2007)

Fantastic results :thumb:


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## GlynRS2 (Jan 21, 2006)

Superb correction work and a stunning finish. Which is amazing given the hardness of that Audi paint :thumb:


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## Warduke (Sep 21, 2007)

:thumb: Wow great work there on the paint correction..looks way better lets hope the owner looks after it a bit better now...:thumb:


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## benji330i (Jan 8, 2007)

RS3 eh that's a new one to me!
Fcukin mint job Clarkey boy as always.....


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## A20 LEE (Feb 20, 2007)

nice job, how many hours did you put into that one?


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## Clark @ PB (Mar 1, 2006)

cheers folks!


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## Clark @ PB (Mar 1, 2006)

A20 LEE said:


> nice job, how many hours did you put into that one?


This one was around 18 hours Lee


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## matt (Jun 29, 2006)

Clark, what areas suffered from low paint levels and did you correct them somehow?

Matt :wave:


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## Mr Singh (Apr 4, 2006)

Superb :thumb:


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## astra-bertone (Mar 16, 2007)

as always clark stunning work


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## Clark @ PB (Mar 1, 2006)

matt said:


> Clark, what areas suffered from low paint levels and did you correct them somehow?
> 
> Matt :wave:


Just at the bottom of the back arch lips (where the stone's always chip the paint  ) were the areas too low to be corrected, so these were HD Cleansed a couple of times to fill as much as possible.

The areas that were low but not too low (85ish microns) to not be polished were taped up during the cutting pad stage and then polished with the 85RD stage, this didnt take all the swirls out obviously but it got rid of the flatness of the paint and made a significant improvement. There were only 2 or 3 areas that were actually taped up anyways and they were only about 1cm square in size, so no big deal


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## adb (Jul 13, 2006)

Great work Clark!

I always wonder this - how do you pro's charge for your details? Is it a flat £x amount or do you charge £x per hour? If you charge per hour do you say before hand how many hours it will take and stick to that when you bill them or do you give them an estimate? I've always wondered as obviosly you get some that turn out relatively easy and then others that can be a right mare and take ages longer than you anticipate.


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## Clark @ PB (Mar 1, 2006)

adb said:


> Great work Clark!
> 
> I always wonder this - how do you pro's charge for your details? Is it a flat £x amount or do you charge £x per hour? If you charge per hour do you say before hand how many hours it will take and stick to that when you bill them or do you give them an estimate? I've always wondered as obviosly you get some that turn out relatively easy and then others that can be a right mare and take ages longer than you anticipate.


Everyone's different, we used to charge £30 an hour (we used to give a max quote of hours so if we went over the time frame then tough on us) but we've changed over to fixed pricing now as we have a pretty good idea of how long it will take to cover a detail. If we have someone wanting custom work done for a concours event etc then we will normally charge £35 p/h.

We also charge £100 extra for using the likes of Vintage as an LSP


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## alexsix (Sep 23, 2006)

Bloody hell mate. Your work is always perfect.


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## Mark M (Nov 29, 2006)

Saw it in the flesh today, man Vintage looks awesome. 

The car was glowing :thumb:


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## SMB (Sep 12, 2007)

Thats some great work and a really good finish. :thumb: 

I need to get my S3 looking like that.


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## adb (Jul 13, 2006)

Clark said:


> Everyone's different, we used to charge £30 an hour (we used to give a max quote of hours so if we went over the time frame then tough on us) but we've changed over to fixed pricing now as we have a pretty good idea of how long it will take to cover a detail. If we have someone wanting custom work done for a concours event etc then we will normally charge £35 p/h.
> 
> We also charge £100 extra for using the likes of Vintage as an LSP


Cool - thanks. You must get things in that you think "nice and easy, should be soft paint" and then it turns out to be a respray with paint like granite! If they were paying by the hour, they could have a bit of a shock when they come to collect :lol:


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## Summit Detailing (Oct 9, 2006)

top drawer as always fella 

you do seem to do lots of Audi's!:thumb:


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## swordjo (Sep 17, 2006)

Looks awesome- the Removal of once last defect would be the icing on the cake though. the R from the front of the S3


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## Nica (Jul 4, 2007)

maesal said:


> Hi Nica, I tried it yesterday and with the 3M backing plate, they're amazing, you should try them. :thumb:


Thank you for the feed back maesal :wave:

I ordered some from Rich, for some strange reason I can't get these pads here in Canada :wall:

I phoned 3M Canada they said they can't get it, I phoned 3M US and they can't get them either, they have different sizes and different types of pads but definetly not like the ones Clark used here.

Well I'll get my hands on them anyways, Rich is going to take care of me 

Sorry to go off-topic here


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## Clark @ PB (Mar 1, 2006)

V12MSM said:


> Saw it in the flesh today, man Vintage looks awesome.
> 
> The car was glowing :thumb:


I think i did pretty well in capturing the wetness of the wax this time, but it still looks better in the metal i rekon? 



adb said:


> Cool - thanks. You must get things in that you think "nice and easy, should be soft paint" and then it turns out to be a respray with paint like granite! If they were paying by the hour, they could have a bit of a shock when they come to collect :lol:


Never assume untill pad and polish go to paint, there's always one car that'll throw you a curved ball lol!



Chris_A3 said:


> top drawer as always fella
> 
> you do seem to do lots of Audi's!:thumb:


I keep meaning to go through all the cars we've done to see what the most popular cars are but you're right, i think Audi/BMW must be up at the top :thumb:



Nica said:


> Thank you for the feed back maesal :wave:
> 
> I ordered some from Rich, for some strange reason I can't get these pads here in Canada :wall:
> 
> ...


I noticed your goodies were all boxed up last night, i used the box to sit my camera on while i did the tailpipes actually :lol:


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## maesal (Nov 24, 2005)

I'll wait for your comments. You could buy in Canada the white ones, I don't know if they're nice, I didn't read comments from them.


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## Kev_mk3 (Sep 10, 2007)

bloody hell thats fantastic


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## ChuckH (Nov 23, 2006)

Truly stunning work !!! :thumb:


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## Mark M (Nov 29, 2006)

Clark said:


> I think i did pretty well in capturing the wetness of the wax this time, but it still looks better in the metal i rekon?


Definately, it was superb. Angela was in the office and I just kept looking at the car when she was doing the math :thumb:

That is the first car of yours I have seen in the metal, and you can really appreciate how good the paint looks.

The unit is so toasty, but the office, that is like the sahara! :lol:


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## Phil H (May 14, 2006)

always stunning work!!


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## vpricey (May 8, 2006)

Pure quality once again Clark!!:thumb:


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## Auto Finesse (Jan 10, 2007)

WoooooooW not bad, not bad at all......... top stuff clark


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## phil440 (Aug 19, 2007)

great turnaround i love flake on the wheels never something Ive noticed on them be for ill keep a eye out next time i see 1


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## Clark @ PB (Mar 1, 2006)

V12MSM said:


> Definately, it was superb. Angela was in the office and I just kept looking at the car when she was doing the math :thumb:
> 
> That is the first car of yours I have seen in the metal, and you can really appreciate how good the paint looks.
> 
> The unit is so toasty, but the office, that is like the sahara! :lol:


aye they've always got that heater on in the office with the door shut, i just put the big one on for 10 mins every couple of hours, it gets too hot otherwise but it lets the Menz work :thumb:



phil440 said:


> great turnaround i love flake on the wheels never something Ive noticed on them be for ill keep a eye out next time i see 1


I'm pretty sure the centres had been painted mate, the other BBS's i've seen in that style weren't as flakey as that


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## Neil_S (Oct 26, 2005)

Bloody hell mate, more top drawer results.

I've missed your writeups over the past few weeks as I cannot access photobucket on the move due to content blocking 

But now I can remind myself just how good a detailer you are


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## Maxym (Apr 27, 2007)

Knockout turnround, mate. Do you ever wonder how long it'll take before all your good work is ruined with more swirls and RIDS???!!


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## Trist (Jun 23, 2006)

That looks amazing, love the flake on the wheels :thumb:


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## scooby73 (Mar 20, 2007)

Another top job! the Audis look stunning in that blue:thumb:

Which pad/polish did you use on the pc to do the headlights?


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## djmotorsport (Nov 24, 2007)

First Post.

It's my car and I have to say I'm stunned at the results PB have managed to produce. The car is 7 years old and I'm the 3rd owner - I've been using Meguires 3 stage on my cars for a few years now, so I hope I didn't inflict too much of the damage Clark had to fix. I'll be ensuring that it stays this good as long as I keep it.


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## bidderman1969 (Oct 20, 2006)

PW Wheel Sealant? which one is that?


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## mattjonescardiff (Dec 12, 2006)

Great car, great colour, great detail. cheers!


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## Padtwo (Apr 11, 2007)

Great work mate!! One question tho. In the 14th and 15th pictures (the two above the scrape on the door) it looks like there are lots of tiny spots on/in the paint, bit like pin pricks. What are they? Common? I've seen some in mine, just wondering if it was curable, if it was me, or just one of those things lol!!


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## ChriS3 (Feb 28, 2007)

djmotorsport said:


> First Post.
> 
> It's my car and I have to say I'm stunned at the results PB have managed to produce. The car is 7 years old and I'm the 3rd owner - I've been using Meguires 3 stage on my cars for a few years now, so I hope I didn't inflict too much of the damage Clark had to fix. I'll be ensuring that it stays this good as long as I keep it.


Hey DJ, nice to see the S3 is still running well. Looks like yours was as bad, if not worse than mine. I think Glen was getting quite sentimental when I was chatting to him on Saturday - good thing the keys were hidden from him.

Top job Clark. I'll bet you'll be cringing if anymore noggy blue S3's get booked in


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## ROB WOODHOUSE (Nov 13, 2005)

lovely correction there as always looks really wet, love the correction on the lights looks really clear now


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## blair (Jul 31, 2007)

Wow. What a turnaround.


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## Finerdetails (Apr 30, 2006)

great job Clark


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## Clark @ PB (Mar 1, 2006)

Neil_S said:


> Bloody hell mate, more top drawer results.
> 
> I've missed your writeups over the past few weeks as I cannot access photobucket on the move due to content blocking
> 
> But now I can remind myself just how good a detailer you are


Thanks very much mate 



scooby73 said:


> Another top job! the Audis look stunning in that blue:thumb:
> 
> Which pad/polish did you use on the pc to do the headlights?


PC with a 4" cutting pad and Menz 3.02 



djmotorsport said:


> First Post.
> 
> It's my car and I have to say I'm stunned at the results PB have managed to produce. The car is 7 years old and I'm the 3rd owner - I've been using Meguires 3 stage on my cars for a few years now, so I hope I didn't inflict too much of the damage Clark had to fix. I'll be ensuring that it stays this good as long as I keep it.


Glad you're happy mate :thumb:



bidderman1969 said:


> PW Wheel Sealant? which one is that?


PW - Poorboys World 



Padtwo said:


> Great work mate!! One question tho. In the 14th and 15th pictures (the two above the scrape on the door) it looks like there are lots of tiny spots on/in the paint, bit like pin pricks. What are they? Common? I've seen some in mine, just wondering if it was curable, if it was me, or just one of those things lol!!


Its just "speckles" from stones and grit etc mate, not enough to actually chip the paint through to the primer/metal but enough to indent the paintwork 



ChriS3 said:


> Top job Clark. I'll bet you'll be cringing if anymore noggy blue S3's get booked in


Tell me about it - Sprint Blue RS4's are ok though


Again, thanks to all for the comments :thumb:


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## phil440 (Aug 19, 2007)

Clark said:


> I'm pretty sure the centres had been painted mate, the other BBS's i've seen in that style weren't as flakey as that


i see thanks for clearing that up:thumb:


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## Ess_Three (Dec 19, 2007)

Clark said:


> I'm pretty sure the centres had been painted mate, the other BBS's i've seen in that style weren't as flakey as that


Centres were split, machined for clearance of the powder coat and powder coated with a flake in the clearcoat, by Coatech in Carnoustie.
Steel grey with flake clearcoat for the centres, bright silver for the rims.


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## mitch 106 gti (Oct 21, 2007)

Looks bloody great mate!


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## samm (May 19, 2006)

Lovin the RS3 badge.


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## Mossman (Jan 10, 2008)

Fantastic, very impressive and the owner must have been delighted!


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