# mk4 Golf PD250 - Dirty Dirty Deisel Paint Correction



## jonjay (Feb 28, 2008)

*DIRTY DIRTY DEISEL CORRECTION
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The benefit of writing after you do a detail apart from the simple fact that the event hasn't happened yet is that you can look back and assess what went right, what went wrong and what needs to change.

I think with anything you do, in time you gain a confidence and you want exposure to new challenges to keep things fresh. That's all well and good until you hit something that knocks you for six. Try 3 years without a polish with a car that's used as a daily driver and 186k on the clock! The car is a hybrid turbo diesel with a bad tendency to chuck out those dirty diesel fumes out its rear end.

Rams and I have been planning this detail forever and what turned up was a dirty dirty diesel car and it presented itself like so.
































































Drawing on past experiences I already knew what products I was going to use. I have also almost relegated the Menzerna Intensive Polish to the bench with P203S being the star player. My logic behind this is that with intensive Polish you just don't get the finish for the time it takes to properly break down the product. I find it dries up much quicker than the other Menzerna range. I still used Menz IP on the bonnet where it needed that extra cut.

*Products*
*Wash n Drying*
Meguairs NXT Tech Shampoo
Meguairs All Purpose Cleaner 
Chemical Guys Orange Degreaser 
Autosmart Tardis
Bilberry Wheel Cleaner
Valet Pro Snow Foam
Super Plush drying towel
Chemical Guys and Meguairs microfibres

*Body Work*
Cleanyourcar fine polyclay
Menzerna Power Finish (203S)
Menzerna Intensive Polish (3.02)
Dodo Juice Lime Prime
Meguairs ScratchX
Meguairs Metal Polish

*Glazes, Sealants and Waxes*
Autoglym HD Wax
Meguairs Last Touch

*Plastics, Rubbers and Glass*
Chemical Guys New Look Trim Gel 
Autoglym Glass Cleaner
WD40

*Tools*
Meguiars G220 mk2 machine polisher
Karcher Pressure washer
Sonus foam applicators
Menzerna Polish Pad (Orange)
Sonus SwirlBuster Pad
Sonus Green Polishing Pad
Swissvax Detail Brush
Vikan Wheel Brushes
Polished Bliss Wheel and Arch Brush
3M 3434 Masking Tape
500w Halogen

*WHEELS*
Wheels were soaked in Bilberry Wheel Cleaner. The Arches were also soaked in CG Degreaser and All Purpose Cleaner worked in with the PB Brush.




























*CLEAN STAGE*
Valet Pro snow foam was left to soak for 5-6 minutes and sprayed off. I applied a second coat of snow and proceeded to wash with Megs NXT wash. With amount of dirt on the car to start with I didn't fancy adding more swirls and scratches to the mixture.



















Car looked pretty good soaking wet! I was looking forward to making that a perm look. 









Claying was just mental, the car *obliterated* the clay bar. By the end it was falling to pieces!










At this stage in the detail I was really losing the will to live. I was really worried detailing the car because the paint condition was awful and the task ahead was looking bigger than a day's work. Spending 1.5 hours just claying the car was totally unexpected and definitely the strangest experience with a clay bar yet. Some panels where smooth to the touch but the clay bar was coming out black? Never seen that before!










*CORRECTION STAGE*

After trying out a few different combinations P203S and Sonus SiwlrBuster Pad seem to work. I must admit I was not happy with the overall level of correction. The paint just didn't play ball on different parts of the car. Some panels were soft, some panels were hard and some even sticky. I had to make a decision that I was not going to able to achieve the level of correct I normally achieve with VAG paint cars. I think in these scenario's its best to know your limitations and my limitations were time and experience. I think if I had the car for longer I would have chosen a complete different approach and most definitely would have wet sanded some parts. In light of my difficulties the results were still a night and day difference.

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Before - big long scratch mark









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A painful 4 hours later and here are the results after the first stage. I did hit panels several times and I must admit some panels really tested my patience. However I think the effort made a difference in the end.























































*RESULTS*

Unfortunately with time not on my side I didn't get time to take pictures of the second pass with Lime Prime. I also didn't get time to show the cleaning of plastics, rubbers and glass that the mrs helped me with as she realised I was struggling with this one. The car was finished off with two coats of Autoglym HD Wax with the second coat applied an hour apart. In an ideal world if I had the car for longer, it would have been 24 hours apart to allow the wax to cure and bond better.

Anyway here's the results, I took plenty this time round!



































































































































































As always thank you to my mate Rams for letting me detail his car. Hope you enjoy it mate! I am guessing Kenny's golf is going to be a lot worse? I expect a free engine rebuild of something or the keys to his 500bhp Cosworth! lol

Hope you all enjoyed the detail and the write-up!

*Detailers Notes*_
- Know my limits. Sometimes you can't correct every single scratch and every single bit of RDS.
- Rotary would have helped on this detail._


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## ajc2306 (Sep 20, 2006)

Great work. Not heard of a VW PD250 Anniversay before. I'm guessing it is not something VW did as their diesel engines in the Golf with 130 and 150bhp.


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## Dtfrith (May 22, 2010)

Thats amazing. really deep reflections. note to self 'must buy a black vag car'


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## yetizone (Jun 25, 2008)

A huge improvement and some stunning reflection shots :thumb:


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## 4937Liam (Feb 4, 2010)

Very nice results on a very nice car. Never heard of a PD250 either i bet that shifts! I follow some of your details on seatcupra.net and you always seem to achieve good results on the hard vag paint.
I just wish i had the patience and technique to correct my swirl monster of a Leon, maybe one day...


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## d.g (Jul 13, 2010)

Looks great finished but maybe a case of too much in 1 day?


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## TheGooner84 (Jun 29, 2010)

ajc2306 said:


> Great work. Not heard of a VW PD250 Anniversay before. I'm guessing it is not something VW did as their diesel engines in the Golf with 130 and 150bhp.


No it started out as a 150 anni. a few are starting to gain on him by using the turbo from the 3.0 audi Q7.

BIG difference mate :thumb:


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## jonjay (Feb 28, 2008)

Cheers for the positive feedback guys. Definitely took on too much for one day. 

The car started out as a tdi 90 and had a full engine transplant and bar the seats which are from a TT had a full r32 interior.


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## dooka (Aug 1, 2006)

:thumb:


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## toosmiles (May 5, 2007)

an excellent turn around m8,it was in a shocking condition


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## paulmc08 (Feb 3, 2009)

to achieve those result's with the time you had is nothing short of amazing:thumb:

could even be worthy of a "Blue Peter Badge"

top job fella


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## Ian2k (Apr 13, 2009)

Awsome job


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## jonjay (Feb 28, 2008)

paulmc08 said:


> to achieve those result's with the time you had is nothing short of amazing:thumb:
> 
> could even be worthy of a "Blue Peter Badge"
> 
> top job fella


Cheers! Blue Peter Badge would be great


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## pete5570 (Jun 11, 2010)

You did a great job on that car! Look stunning and great reflections. That mk4 shape still looks good today.


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## Duff (Dec 2, 2008)

Fantastic work there - can't believe you did this in one day. I've just done my black Mk4 and it took me 3 days! 

Had similar problems with the paint reacting differently all over the car which was quite frustrating.


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## Leemack (Mar 6, 2009)

nice work mate


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## DNZ 21 (Feb 10, 2009)

that came out very nice mate, good job :thumb:


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## alexskord (Jan 29, 2009)

good.very nice work


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## saxoboy07 (Oct 20, 2007)

Great work, i know for one Vag paint is seriously hard to correct, i always use a rotary on vag paint due to it being so hard.


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## james_death (Aug 9, 2010)

Stunning ill have to take notes as the wifes black polo needs doing and the hexlogix and megs 83 are not correcting fully the rover and thats supposed to be soft pain.


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## jonjay (Feb 28, 2008)

Thanks guys!



saxoboy07 said:


> Great work, i know for one Vag paint is seriously hard to correct, i always use a rotary on vag paint due to it being so hard.


Just bought myself a new rotary polisher because of this car.


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## Dornrade (Sep 26, 2009)

That is wicked!!!!I wish mine scrubbed up like that


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## slrestoration (Nov 11, 2009)

Very tidy transformation & an enjoyable write up:thumb:


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## jonjay (Feb 28, 2008)

slrestoration said:


> Very tidy transformation & an enjoyable write up:thumb:


Thanks dude, glad you liked the writeup.


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## John @ PB (Aug 25, 2010)

Good result there, nice glossy finish. 

Liked your pragmatic notes to yourself at the end. Rotary may have helped but, as you proved, a DA can correct defects in hard paints. Personally I'd have gone to a Menz White Pad but you still got a great result.

:thumb:


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## slrestoration (Nov 11, 2009)

jonjay said:


> Thanks dude, glad you liked the writeup.


Ticked all the right boxes & included some self assesment which makes it satnd out. Good on ya!! :thumb:


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## raeno (May 4, 2010)

Is this the same dude from the MKIVS.net?


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## mjd (Dec 18, 2006)

Simply washing the car made a noticeable improvement, but the additional effort was certainly worth it. Congrats!


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## jonjay (Feb 28, 2008)

John @ PB said:


> Good result there, nice glossy finish.
> 
> Liked your pragmatic notes to yourself at the end. Rotary may have helped but, as you proved, a DA can correct defects in hard paints. Personally I'd have gone to a Menz White Pad but you still got a great result.
> 
> :thumb:


Thanks John. Really appreciate you posting.

I find that the Menz White Pad is almost too hard for a DA. My be my technique with it but I am sure you will get much better results with a rotary and that pad.



raeno said:


> Is this the same dude from the MKIVS.net?


Yes


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## GolfFanBoy (May 23, 2010)

Good job :thumb: It certainly doesn't look like a car that's done 186k miles now.


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## SubtleAggressiv (Jul 17, 2010)

Your hard works definately paid off, the car looks amazing. The paint looks so deep and wet I can only hope mine comes up just as nice


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## jonjay (Feb 28, 2008)

SubtleAggressiv said:


> Your hard works definately paid off, the car looks amazing. The paint looks so deep and wet I can only hope mine comes up just as nice


Dodo Juice Lime Prime tends to work really well in bringing up depth especially on VAG paints like black magic.

Of course depth is perception based


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## Baker21 (Aug 7, 2007)

Nice work there Jon, I have seen this motor on Edition38 many times, looking good for the mileage and a nice looking daily drive...............:car:


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## s3 rav (Apr 30, 2008)

Great work there. Looks alot better.


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## glendog74 (Jan 11, 2009)

Superb work - it's like a different car now! :thumb:


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## jonjay (Feb 28, 2008)

Cheers peeps.



Baker21 said:


> Nice work there Jon, I have seen this motor on Edition38 many times, looking good for the mileage and a nice looking daily drive...............:car:


Good friend of mine Rams. Glad to say it looks a lot better now.


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