# Audi S3 Clean Up



## mohitos (Jan 25, 2013)

First time poster here. :newbie:

Having just bought an Audi S3, 2007, I thought it might be good to post over time progress of the car's clean up.

The car has good provenance (one owner, 39,000 miles) but sadly the friend I bought it from had never really cared much for it. It's never received TLC and is really quite grubby - never polished or waxed etc etc. Still, I'm convinced it's a minter underneath.

I'll post up photos as I progress with the clean up.

I've started with the engine:

I used Meguires APC and jetwashed carefully. Agitated where necessary and reapplied if still grubby. I dried with microfibre towels and then applied some AG Instant Tyre Dressing. I have ordered some 303 Aerospace and will give that a go when it arrives.

Before:





































The top of the oil cap had gone astray. I used narrow headed pliers to remove it and replaced with an OE item off eBay.










After:



















Washed but not dressed:




























Finished product:










Petrol flap:



















Meguires APC


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## Bustanut (Jun 11, 2011)

Good start there buddy. Keep the pics coming.


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## Chrissyronald (Jan 15, 2012)

Big improvement there mate!


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## Type.R (Feb 4, 2012)

great job you have done there fella :thumb:


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## JoshB197 (Nov 18, 2012)

Great job mate


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## TJenkos (May 6, 2009)

Did you get the pressure washer under the bonnet, or was it an APC spray and wipe?


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## mohitos (Jan 25, 2013)

TJenkos said:


> Did you get the pressure washer under the bonnet, or was it an APC spray and wipe?


Yes I pressured washered but as accurately as I could and I had the engine running but from cold. Sprayed generously with APC, agitated where needed with brushes, and rinsed with a pressure washer. Then went again where it was required.


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## Wout_RS (Jun 13, 2012)

nice! keep posting more of this car! i love these one so much!


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## TopSport+ (Jul 22, 2012)

looks good


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## TJenkos (May 6, 2009)

mohitos said:


> Yes I pressured washered but as accurately as I could and I had the engine running but from cold. Sprayed generously with APC, agitated where needed with brushes, and rinsed with a pressure washer. Then went again where it was required.


Nice work, you had a good turnaround..


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## mohitos (Jan 25, 2013)

Managed to figure out how to embed the photos in the body of the thread.


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## squeakyclean32 (Mar 13, 2010)

I also find it's best to break the cleaning down into different areas/jobs when time is limited eg - engine then interior then bodywork etc ....looks like you have made a great start :thumb:
Looking forward to seeing your next lot of pics :thumb::thumb:


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## mohitos (Jan 25, 2013)

squeakyclean32 said:


> I also find it's best to break the cleaning down into different areas/jobs when time is limited eg - engine then interior then bodywork etc ....looks like you have made a great start :thumb:
> Looking forward to seeing your next lot of pics :thumb::thumb:


Yes, I have an awful lot to do but relatively little time, so plan to break it down into bite sized chunks. Next will be a full body decontamination using:

- 2 bucket wash
- Iron X
- Tardis

Will then dry it and start claying. Never done this before and have bought Bilt Hamber for the job. Have bought the soft stuff as the weather is so damn cold the regular stuff I have is rock solid.


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## bazz (May 15, 2007)

good start fella and look forward to more pics and im sure once you have given it some tlc you will be rewarded for you eforts


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## Mike steele (Jul 14, 2007)

Good work!:thumb:

Same as mine so I'll look forward to more pics!


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## mohitos (Jan 25, 2013)

More updates today. I managed to grab some time to start the de-contamintion process. It's going to take a while with this car !

Started with a snow foam with Auto Finesse Avalanche










Washed it with the two bucket method, although I'm not sure why I bothered given how the entire car needs machine polishing.

Pressure washed under the arches and sprayed them with Meguires APC.

Iron-x'd the entire car. The photos tell the story, even on a grey car

Wing and bonnet










Roof










Bonnet










Rear










I used an entire bottle of Iron-x and in freezing conditions it really goes quite glutinous. Sprayed on and then worked it in with a damp cloth and left to soak:










Pressure washed the car thoroughly. The gravel turned purple.

Then repeated the process with Tardis. Removed a load of tar, especially from around the arches and lower half of the car.

This is where we are now:










The entire car needs claying now. I started with the roof. In this cold weather the clay really didn't perform brilliantly - half the roof took 30 mins and I aborted ! The entire car is covered in tiny white paint specs, probably from a house being decorated or similar. It comes off with claying but is really hard work.

More to follow. Claying the whole car is going to take an age. I'll post some photos up of these white spots tomorrow. On a grey car it's more difficult to show the transformation in photos, but it's slowly getting there.


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## Desertduck (Sep 30, 2008)

Use a jug of warm water to keep your clay in to keep it soft. Use two bits. One in the water while using the other. Once the piece your using gets too cold swap them over :thumb:


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## mohitos (Jan 25, 2013)

Desertduck said:


> Use a jug of warm water to keep your clay in to keep it soft. Use two bits. One in the water while using the other. Once the piece your using gets too cold swap them over :thumb:


Fantastic idea!


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## GaryxG (Sep 8, 2010)

Good work fella.

Keep the pics coming.


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## jamesgti (Aug 9, 2007)

Good turnaround.


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## Soul Hudson (Jul 5, 2011)

Excellent work my man. Keep it up and im sure the results will make it all worth it.


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## gally (May 25, 2008)

Lovely mate. Stunning colour and I simply love the 8P. Brilliant allround hot hatch.


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## mohitos (Jan 25, 2013)

Back outside at 930am this morning. It's amazing what can be done during my daughter's nap times!

Started claying in earnest. I cut the Bilt Hamber clay bar into four and put them all in a jug of very hot water. As suggested, I rotated through them and changed whenever one was getting very cold and/or ineffective.

Pretty pleased with the results. As I'd mentioned, the car is/was covered in tiny specs of white paint. I imagine it's house paint that's fallen on the car. As the car has probably never seen polish or wax in five years, it was well and truly bonded to the paintwork.

This is from half the bonnet:










A decent amount removed and obviously the white paint won't even show on the clay. It's amazing that stuff is still coming off the car given what was removed with Iron-X and Tardis.

Quite a few of these things on the car too. No idea what they are but they're stubborn as hell:










They are mostly removed now although some have left a slight discolouration to the paintwork, only really noticeable very close up. I am hoping a machine polish will sort that out.

The claying really started to bring the colour out in the paintwork. The flakes are starting to show for the first time in what, until now, has been an extremely flat finish - you can see them in this photo. You can also see a few of the white spots of house paint I'm removing. The car is literally covered with them over every panel and every window.










I have clayed the roof, bonnet, all windows except windscreen, and off side. So that leaves the near side and front and back of the car which I intend to complete tomorrow.

I used Bilt Hamber regular as it's intended for heavier duty use and these paint spots are particularly difficult to remove. I also had a piece of Meguires clay bar and have to say I was quite impressed with it. You use it with their quick detailer rather than water to lubricate, but it was more pliable and seemed to remove more contamination in less time.

I had a little bit of time this afternoon (another nap for my daughter, what a life!) so decided to take the long route to Halfords and buy some Autosol for the exhaust. I'm enjoying driving the car so detoured and found myself down a national speed limit country road. Terrible road and single track - I went as far as I could and was then faced with this !










Anyway, it means I have to snowfoam and dry the car down in the morning, before I resume claying, which is a right PITA !

When home I spent about 15 mins on the exhaust pipes.

Before



















After




























A quick, easy and satisfying job. I'm sure there are better products than Autosol, but it always does the trick really well. I applied it with 0000 grade wire wool and wiped off.

Back to those white paint dots over the car. I'm having success removing them from the paintwork, but they are also on some of the window rubbers. I've tried claying them off the window rubbers and also tried tar remover, but they are stubborn as hell. Anyone have any tips for removing them ?


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## mohitos (Jan 25, 2013)

Why my daughter thinks 6am is a reasonable time to get up on a bank holiday weekend is beyond me. Anyway, she was ready for a nap by 9am so I've been back out.

First things first, I snow foamed and gave a quick once over to remove the grime form yesterday's hoon. I read some tips on here to improve the consistency of the foam but I'm still not entirely happy with it. I'm using AF Avalanche. I always jetwash the car before I apply it - perhaps this is wrong as the foam then runs off wet bodywork. Can somebody let me know how to improve the thickness of the foam ?










Then resumed claying to remove the remainder of these little buggers:










They are pretty much off the car now, yet I still find a few here and there. Anyway, I think I could be finding them forever, so time to move on.

I removed the paint spots from the window rubbers too. I used to paint removing DIY wipes and my finger nail, which is now black. Seemed to be the only way.

So the car is now fully clayed and ready for machine polishing. Here are some of the offending items I will try and remove - it looks a bit of a mess but most seem very shallow so I am hopeful:





































This one is a touch up on the driver's door. Not sure what can be done but I shall try and improve it.










I am a complete novice at machine polishing but have all the gear (ATGNI!).

I will use a combination of the following and report back:


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## GaryxG (Sep 8, 2010)

Hope you got plenty of that blue masking tape stuff?


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## GaryxG (Sep 8, 2010)

Oh, and don't pressure wash before snowfoam.


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## mohitos (Jan 25, 2013)

GaryxG said:


> Hope you got plenty of that blue masking tape stuff?


I do!


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## GaryxG (Sep 8, 2010)

Nice!


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## s3 rav (Apr 30, 2008)

Great work there so far. Any more updates?


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## mohitos (Jan 25, 2013)

Not had much more time in afraid. I've gliptoned the leather and machine polished the bonnet. The rest will have to wait (car now in garage under a cover!).


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## mohitos (Jan 25, 2013)

Finally some progress, sorry for the delay !

I've taken the car as far as I can. Reasonably pleased given it was my first attempt to machine polish. All of the superficial scratches have come out.

The bumpers front and rear are unfortunately just too far gone, as are the alloys really, so I have booked the car in to have these resprays and refurbished respectively after the bank holiday. It'll then be a minter once again.

Also just had the cambelt kit, water pump, spark plugs haldex oil and brake fluid done, so the car will want for nothing.

I have to say, I've really taken to the car. I've come from allegedly much fast cars, but the car is surprisingly quick. And I mean really quick !

So some photos:

Masking up. Some scratched visible on the roof here:



More masking up. In hindsight, I'm not sure that all of it was absolutely necessary:



Scratches on the rear bumper. There are so many including real parking dinks that I've decided to have it resprayed:



Poorly touched up parking dink, I will be attending to this later:



More scratches visible on the roof. Hard to know what caused these really, but machine polishing minimised / removed them:



Scratch on the front wing. Again, removed successfully with machine polishing:



And more on the bonnet:



I was so keen to get on that I didn't take any photos during the machine polishing. Still, after polishing I snow foamed to remove the dust:



After snow foaming I did an IPA wipedown. Never done this before. Earlier in the thread you may remember that the car had been covered in tiny white specs of house paint. I'd removed most of these with a clay bar which was arduous and not at all enjoyable. The IPA removed any that were left SO easily that I wish I'd done this much earlier in the process.

Following the IPA wipedown I gave the car two coats of Colliniite 915 Marque D Elegance Wax. I've found the trick with this is to remove it pretty quickly and before it's fully dried, otherwise it can be a right PITA to take off.

So the finished product. I know the photos are awful - from an iPhone in failing light - I'll try to capture some better ones:


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## bazz (May 15, 2007)

that's looking in pretty good shape now fella and from the pics the alloys look in good nick so I assume they have got pitting and such like on them when close up


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## mohitos (Jan 25, 2013)

Yep, they're good from afar but far from good! 

I guess after 5 years they're just never going to be great again. I don't think they were regularly cleaned and years of baked on brake dust has taken it's toll.


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## percymon (Jun 27, 2007)

Great job - judging by the iron-x photos I reckon that car lived its days in a railway station car park.


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## nev12 (Jun 16, 2012)

Just reading though, great thread. acidently thanked a post though! Touchscreens! just In case you wonder where the random thank came from


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## rhyst (Feb 17, 2013)

I love the s3 how much was it mate ?


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## mohitos (Jan 25, 2013)

Well I bought cheap tbh as a mate was about to PX it against a new Audi, and I paid him the same money. 

But I've now spent to bring the car up, including cambelt, waterpump, haldex oil, brake fluid, spark plugs - and plan to have both bumpers sprayed and the wheels refurb'd. So it was probably fairly priced in the end.


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## rhyst (Feb 17, 2013)

What does it go like ?


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## mohitos (Jan 25, 2013)

Stink !


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## hephillips (Jun 21, 2012)

Great job and really good posts, you've inspired me to do mine! I loves S3's, as you say extremely quick aswell! 

By the way you mention in your post that you did an IPA wipedown. Please can you tell me what this is, sorry I'm a bit of a novice.


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## mohitos (Jan 25, 2013)

Ah - the IPA thing was new to me aswell. It a mix of IPA and water applied after polish and before was. It strips the paint of any polish residue so that the wax adheres to the surface fully.


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## hephillips (Jun 21, 2012)

Ah ok thanks. I've been looking into it and a few people seem to say that it removes polish and wax so is good for showing swirls and getting old product off. Would it therefore be better to put on before the polish and wax? I'm not critiscising, just want to see what peoples thoughts are as to which way round is best. I don't want to spend time polishing and them remove it all...:wall:


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## mohitos (Jan 25, 2013)

Hmmm. I'm a novice so I wouldn't necessarily follow my lead, and I'm happy to be corrected on use. 

I think it depends on whether you want the polish to mask paint defects and leave filler before waxing. If you do then don't use IPA. I'd paint correceted so was happy to remove all polish and have the wax adhere to the paintwork better.


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## hephillips (Jun 21, 2012)

Got you. That makes sense, but then what is the point of polishing, as an abrasive cleaner rather than a filler?


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## mohitos (Jan 25, 2013)

Exactly.


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## hephillips (Jun 21, 2012)

Thanks mate.:thumb:


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## TSL 333 (Mar 22, 2009)

Nice!


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## mohitos (Jan 25, 2013)

I've now had both bumpers resprayed and the wheels completely refurbished (tyres off etc).

I waxed the bumpers and wheels today to protect them.

I've even fitted a child seat so my 17 month old daughter can journey in this car.

I've also take some photos with a proper camera. Project completed, now all I have to do is drive it !













Oops - I knew I should have vacuumed before this photo:


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## S9XLY (Dec 11, 2012)

Good work my man


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## sprocketser (Aug 4, 2012)

You did a killer job on that Audi mate ! Just saw this thread , sub d .


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## ashton1 (May 7, 2013)

Nice job mate. Ref your post about snow foam consistency, will hunt down the link that I came across that answered my exact same question. But basically the thing that worked for me was adjusting the pasture of the nozzle to about 1mm, guess it forces the mixture to work harder to get out the lance and finally got my thick foam!


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## mohitos (Jan 25, 2013)

Car now for sale if anyone is interested !


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## Rlb-A4 (Jan 23, 2011)

What's your asking price?


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## s3 rav (Apr 30, 2008)

What's replacing it?


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