# VW Golf GTi (Mk5) - Protection Detail (for Winter)



## Dave KG (Feb 23, 2006)

Today's detail was on a rather nice two year old VW Golf GTi D
SG, in grey metallic... The owner wanted the car cleaned and protected for the winter months, and also have the opportunity to see some detailing in action with emphasis on seeing and having a go at claying.

The car arrived looking like many cars on the roads at the moment, after a drive up the motorway - covered with salt!




























First tackled on the car were the wheels and arches... Meguiars APC cut 4:1 was sprayed using a foaming spray head into the wheel arches and allowed to dwell while the wheels were cleaned. Bilberry Wheel Cleaner, cut 4:1, was used to clean the wheels:


Spray on
Leave a moment to dwell
Agitate the wheel insides using a long bursh, through the spokes to remove dirt
Clean the wheel faces using a Swissvax Wheel Brush
Rinse thoroughly using the pressure washer

It was clear at this stage that the owner of this car keeps it very well as no aggressive cleaners or tar removers were required to bring the wheels up spotless...









(after pic)









(after pic)

Note the wheel insides cleaned easily here - can typically take a lot more effort where they have never been cleaned before:










The arches were rinsed out under pressure before rinsing the wheels, and using my hand along the insder of the arch rim to gently loosen trapped dirt where the arch liner goes in towards the wing panel, ensuring all dirt was removed from the arches... may seem stranhge to do that atthis time of year, but if a job is worth doing... 

With the wheels and arches cleaned, it was on with the bodywork... Stu foamed and rinsed the bodywork first using Supa Snow foam and then with Bilt Hamber Acti-Foam (my preferred), just to show the owner the differences:



















The car was then rinsed, removing most of the dirt without needing to use a mitt - the joys of foam  The car was then washed using the two bucket method and some Meguiars Shampoo Plus, before being rinsed ready for claying.

Only a light clay was required here - Meguiars Mirror Glaze Blue Mild clay, using Last Touch as a clay lube. Light sweeping stroked and you could feel it pulling out contamination so keep going until the clay runs smooth... the owner of the car had a shot, was keen to learn this stage and picked the clay bar up nice and easily and happily worked on door 

With the car clayted, it was time for the cleanse and protection stage for the paintwork... but first, a scan around the car using the Sun Gun revealed the dirver's rear door and rear 3/4 had notably more swirls and holograms than the rest of the car:




























Bodyshop repair here... so to get this to match with the rest of the car which was relatively swirl free bar some deeper RDS, these areas were machine polished by rotary using Menzerna PO106FA Final Finish before the cleasning stage... This tidied these areas up beautifully, much to the owner's delight, and ensured there weren't patches on the car with more swirls than the rest:




























This was not a correcton detail, but I was keen to see these little bits corrected.

The paintwork was then cleansed, using Klasse AIO - a product I really like on silvers and greys (seems to leave a slightly "cold" gloss that suits these colours very well IMHO... Applied by hand, using medium pressure and worked for abiout one minute per 2' square section before being buffed off... This cleansed the paint and added a first layer of protection for added durability... and the car was looking good after this:





































One the paintwork was cleased, it was prtoected using Collinite 476S wax, applied in a nice thin layer and removed after a few moments... keeping the layers thin to ensure ease of removal. Collinite was chosen for its proven durability for protection through the winter months.

The wheels were protected also with Collinite 476S - a product I have been testing on wheels of late, and have found to exceed the durability of most dedicated wheels waxes!! So after thorough testing its now going to see use in this department as well! Tyres were dressed with Meguiars Hot Shine applied by aplicator, and arches with Meguiars All Seasons Dressing:










The arch...










Glass was cleaned using Meguiars Glass Cleaner Concentrate, plastics and rubbers with Black Wow (the front honeycomb grille took a good while to dress!).

The car finsihed, in the unit:














































And outside for some final after shots 














































a little more arty...




























and a little more arty still... 



















A very enjoyable day, and a lovely well cared for car to work on


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## KleenChris (Apr 4, 2008)

great finish on a tidy looking car :thumb:


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## ipodsandguns (Jul 31, 2008)

stunning work and motor


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## Luckymonkey (Mar 19, 2007)

Golf looks good, nice 5 series in the background :thumb:


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## edthedrummer (May 30, 2007)

Absolutely flawless, and i've come to expect nothing less than that from you Dave.


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## spitfire (Feb 10, 2007)

Nice reflections on there Dave:thumb:


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## Sandro (Mar 16, 2008)

awesomeness dave!! i loooove the mk5! looks great!


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## Trist (Jun 23, 2006)

Great work Dave :thumb:


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## Piratez (Jun 28, 2008)

Excellent work Mr Dave:lol::lol:


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## pixor (Jan 11, 2008)

A great job. Those wheels are one of my all-time favourite designs.


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## HC1001 (May 27, 2007)

Top notch Dave............:thumb:


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## Perfection Detailing (Nov 3, 2007)

Very nice Dave and great attention to detail with regards to correcting the defected areas with the menz im sure that added to the overall finish of the the car:thumb:


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## Rowan83 (Aug 21, 2007)

That looks fantastic, might have to give the Klasse AIO a try sometime! :thumb:


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## notsosmall (Sep 13, 2008)

I love those wheels very clean too :thumb:


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## Ross (Apr 25, 2007)

Really nice work and car.


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## Neil_S (Oct 26, 2005)

That does look great, the colour is one of my favourites too. Good work on the honeycomb grille too, I do hate doing those!


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## caledonia (Sep 13, 2008)

Superb as always Dave. :thumb:
Just a quick question, How do you apply the Black wow to the Honeycomb Grille. I have a similar grille, and have tried cotton buds, detailing swabs and the like with heat and also with out heat. But it always applies to thick. In turn attracting dirty, especially in the corners.

Just wondering if your technique differs, from mine.

Gordon. :thumb:


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## Dave KG (Feb 23, 2006)

caledonia said:


> Superb as always Dave. :thumb:
> Just a quick question, How do you apply the Black wow to the Honeycomb Grille. I have a similar grille, and have tried cotton buds, detailing swabs and the like with heat and also with out heat. But it always applies to thick. In turn attracting dirty, especially in the corners.
> 
> Just wondering if your technique differs, from mine.
> ...


I use packing foam to apply it - rip into a suitably sized piece and the wrk the product into the griller - the honeycomb on this grille is actually quite large, large enough for me to get my finger in so its a case of a small piece of foam and one fiknger to get into the griller - facing up to start then turning to face down to get the base and then check to ensure even coverage around the region - time consiuming but worth it


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## joe_0_1 (Apr 7, 2007)

Nicely done :thumb:

Is Klasse AIO almost identical to Carlack NSC?


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## ads2k (Jul 12, 2006)

Nice job there Dave :thumb:

Oh the joys of having a unit at this time of year.... nice as well to correct the areas that had seen paint to make them match the rest of the car - nice touch


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## Dave KG (Feb 23, 2006)

joe_0_1 said:


> Nicely done :thumb:
> 
> Is Klasse AIO almost identical to Carlack NSC?


Yes it is, pretty much the same in terms of perfromance and application.


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## jasonbarnes (Sep 10, 2008)

brilliant work there dave that golf looks something else now:thumb:


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## Bigpikle (May 21, 2007)

really nice wet gloss in those final pics Dave :thumb:

great attention to detail as always and getting those swirls sorted. Not tried Klasse personally but LOVE the Werkstat stuff, which all share the same original DNA. I also think it makes a great base for max protection.

VERY tidy looking package of a car


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## shane_ctr (Dec 17, 2006)

lovely work :thumb:


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## Christian6984 (Dec 20, 2007)

nice work that looks brilliant


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## ahaydock (Jan 4, 2007)

Great work and some nice pics.


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## SevenW (Sep 19, 2008)

Great work


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## saxoboy07 (Oct 20, 2007)

Gorgeous golf:argie: stunning work:thumb: really nice depth and gloss to the paintwork and great photo's also


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## dps1973 (Dec 18, 2008)

Great work mate love the colour.


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## colarado red (Jun 5, 2008)

awesome nice glossy finish:thumb::thumb::thumb:


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## Racer (Oct 27, 2005)

Great looking job :thumb:

What is your durability time regarding 476 in wheels??


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## tom_mol69 (Dec 26, 2008)

Good work mate (Y)


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## scooby73 (Mar 20, 2007)

Good work Dave.:thumb:

I have been using Carlack NSC topped with a layer of LLS, and then two layers of 476s, for winter protection on my cars. Have found it looks good, with excellent durability.


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## Petrol-head (May 26, 2008)

Great work Dave as always and some excellent pics too :thumb:


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## Seth (Dec 21, 2008)

Interesting to see that klasse combination was not used. Klasse SG apparently is the sealant choice over their AIO and bonds well. It would've been interesting to see 476 on top of SG over AIO. But glad to see 476 over aio work well...


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