# Ultimate Shine: Audi R8



## Ultimate Shine (Jun 3, 2008)

It's been a while since my last post. Very busy with work just now but had to do a write up of this cracking Audi R8. Customer came to me with this car complaining that it wasn't looking as sharp as he wanted,

A few before,





































































































So now onto the intensive wash stage first up was a Pre Foam wash with Megs APC and a little citrus degreaser mixed and then foamed up at 60oC.















































Now I like to foam the car up 2 or 3 or even 4 times prior to wash stage to ensure that the maximum amount of dirt is removed without contact with the surface all @ 60oC and my rinsing @30oC. 

During these stages I get the detailing brushes out and pay particular attention to all small gaps and rubbers this is done with soft brushes to ensure again no damage. 

A new brush on trial.





























Handle not long enough





























Next spoiler raised to clean the underside





























Car had been rinsed by this stage making sure all panels were rinsed thoroughly.

Engine bay






































Next a soaking with Megs super D @ approx 6:1 (the halfway point between 10 & 4) Not too strong and not too weak. Very important when doing a vehicle like this 

After soaking and then agitating with brush and then finally rinsing all the Super D off, Even though you are careful you will still get some product come back out and over the side this has to be rinsed immediately. Then shut the lid and rinse the back end of the car and let the engine do the drying with heat. 




















Door checks





























Tar Spots











More dirt











Undersides of door were very dirty and took a harder brush to clean.




















Then lifted the luggage compartment and found masses of tar spots on the inside edge of bonnet











Then my camera batt ran out. Well I used 5 litres of Tardis and a whole lot of patience to get the tar spots off. Car was washed with usual 2BM and rinsed with purified water

Wheels done with Gloss It wheel gel. After a quick phone call to Rich @ PB to make sure the gel was ok for the diamond cut finish. Better to confirm than take a chance!

Tires degreased and arches degreased and cleaned.

Car taken inside and given the black Barron treatment. (Great tool)











This was a full 8 hr day to wash.

*Day 2:*

Sun gun inspection time and there were many RDS from poor washing by previous owner.






































Onto claying with purified water and Gloss it Mild Clay




















Rinsed and dried to remove dirty water again.

Well the first section to be tackled was the back end.

light before,





















Now the next picture was me at midnight using moon light to machine the tail gate section that had the hardest paint known to man on it.











A day to get the whole back end right without risking the overall depth of the paint too much. 

The car started with approx 125 and I removed 5-10 microns to get it looking good. Some very deep RDS were left but they faded away due to machine polishing and silver paint.

A bit of Gloss It xtreme cut BETA with same cut level as Megs 105 but nice to work with and like all other Gloss It products nice smell.











Now starting to show signs of Gloss











*Day 3* 

Major machine compounding round car, at times fast cut plus on a gloss it grey knitted pad. 

As I figured out the car had scratch resistant clear and was mental hard to correct. When you machine this finish you have to do what doesn't feel safe to achieve correction otherwise nothing would happen.

A few defects and corrected,




















So paint before,











After a FCP on a Gloss It orange,











Then some refining with Megs 105,











Before,











Me polishing with door open,











Corrected,











Door After,




















Must admit I was curious to see what the EVP pad prime was going to do for the machine polishing, but as it is similar to baby oil when you squirt a little on the pad it makes it well lubricated and makes for a lot less dust,











Sometimes you need to resort to hand correction work as rotary machines can be too fiddly round tight spaces.











Notice a harder choice in Backing Plate as you need it to push harder than normal on the paint finish.











Car machined to Megs 105 level 

Next to try out my new glass sealant,











Glass cleaned and applied and left to cure for 5 mins,




















Buffed off with towel. Car then taken outside after 30 mins of curing time for the glass sealant and then the postman came









Oh yes my new toy. I had left the refining for this.



















Gloss it Blue and 205 and at finer points Gloss Green with 205

Car then given a Top inspection wipe down ready for LSP.











Applicators for task and a G220 DA with Gloss it Red pad and a Gloss it Red applicator for the tight bits.











Now first coat applied and left for 1.5hrs and wiped off. Then the next coat applied and left overnight to cure. 


Tires Gloss It Tire
Wheels and pipes sealed with Blackfire Metal
Plastics in engine bay and in front compartment with 303
Leather done with Raceglaze twins
Interior cleaned with Megs APC and various cloths
Dressed with 303
Arches with Megs Hyper Dressing
Mats shampooed with Duragloss Foam carpet cleaner and my Tornador cleaning gun.
Glass wiped with Duragloss Glass Cleaner with Rain Repel on outside and Megs glass cleaner inside with glass cloths
A tin of AS Smart Trim was used on hard to reach pipes in the engine bay. This product has a nice controlled spray pattern for fine tasks.
Car given a final dust and wipe down with Gloss It enhancing Spray.
Now the next couple are between the Project Awesome coats so one layer applied and buffed off. I had taken outside for a picture just in case it rained the next day,











Those lights are amazing




















Now the engine compartment on these cars have lights on either side of it that when you unlock the car come on and light the engine bay under the glass. They have the same LED's as the front headlights so give off a stunning glow. 

Now the next 3 pictures took half an hour to take while I sussed out how to get the lights to work. But well well worth the hassle. You decide what one looks best,




























The little details make all the difference to me!


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## Ultimate Shine (Jun 3, 2008)

Now something different. I always take my after shots with my Canon EOS450D but I asked "GARY-360" along to take some snaps with his nice Nikon D3 and a nice 24-70 lens. What a piece of kit here are his pictures




































































































Here are mine,

















































































































































































































































Thanks for reading and comments welcome

LATE NOTE: Gary-360 did say that if anyone is wanting a photoshoot done of their car he is willing to do so. He will discuss prices with you but lets put it this way you could have bought probably 9 EOS 450D's for the cost of his camera and 1 lens let alone any other lenses.

I will get you back again mate:thumb:


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## Faye_Sri (Jan 13, 2009)

Awesome car, awesome job!


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## Gary-360 (Apr 26, 2008)

Great write up Paul and excellent work.

Silver's a bu99er to get a decent shine but you cracked it with this one, the photos don't do this awesome machine justice!

Gary


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## ahaydock (Jan 4, 2007)

Stunning - thanks for sharing :thumb:


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## Grizzle (Jul 12, 2006)

Lovely job pics look excellent, give the Green coloured brush a miss its very poor had one may years ago when i started detailing, also....give that bog brush a skip stick with your Swissvax style brushes worth the extra money (just my honest 2p's worth)


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## Gleammachine (Sep 8, 2007)

Quality work and pictures Paul, got the best out of the colour there mate.:thumb:


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## Perfection Detailing (Nov 3, 2007)

Very nice Paul:thumb:


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## Guest (Oct 4, 2009)

Whats your opion on the pad primer?


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## Sonic (Jun 28, 2007)

Wow, one of the best write ups ive read IMO :thumb:

You used some new products to me, which id never considered using.

The owner certainly got what he wanted. Awesome pictures at the end, looking very sharp.


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## ads2k (Jul 12, 2006)

Stunning.......


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## Ultimate Shine (Jun 3, 2008)

matt1263 said:


> Whats your opion on the pad primer?


The pad primer isn't something i would have bought but i got a shot from someone out of interest. It amazed me but then again Gloss It stuff always does:thumb:



> Great write up Paul and excellent work.
> 
> Silver's a bu99er to get a decent shine but you cracked it with this one, the photos don't do this awesome machine justice!


Thanks Gary and I really enjoyed someone else into photography taking pictures with really expensive equipment. You take great pictures as well.

Oh I have ordered a Kettle so next time


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## 98m3/4 (Aug 12, 2009)

Absolutely amazing job, Paul


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## Guest (Oct 4, 2009)

Does that mean you are buying some or not?

Sorry for the questions.

Oh yeah, car looks fantastic :thumb:


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## Ultimate Shine (Jun 3, 2008)

matt1263 said:


> Does that mean you are buying some or not?
> car looks fantastic :thumb:


That means i will be using from now on. It stops the need sometimes for mixing products and then you can concentrate on one product on the pad and not as much dust. I actually think the pads will last longer using this, not that i worry about that with Gloss It pads:thumb:


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## Guest (Oct 4, 2009)

Thank you very much for taking time to answer me.


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## Buck (Jan 16, 2008)

Great work Paul - the finish looks superb and certainly a good showing for PA too!


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## Janitor (Feb 14, 2006)

Tidy work :thumb:

But '5 litres of Tardis'..? :doublesho Were you drinking it too..?


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## Dr Forinor (Oct 14, 2006)

Hey mate, good to see the finalised write up and its good to see you also are into photography. I own a Canon 350D which I love to bits but I want to upgrade it some time in the future. 

Great work on that car, hopefully you'll be able to turn my car around the same soon


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## dw0510 (Oct 22, 2006)

Nice write up look forward to seeing more of your work.


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## adam87 (Dec 11, 2008)

Damn that looks good! Top job!!


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## Nissan SE-R's (Jan 1, 2009)

Stunning car.... awesome pics and a great job done.


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## ianking (Jun 6, 2007)

Cracking job on a cracking car.


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## mwbpsx (Jun 23, 2006)

Awsome pics but..................................before finished pics try a trip down the road to get surface rust off brake discs :thumb:


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## clcollins (Jul 30, 2007)

Awesome finish, looks super clean and sharp :thumb:


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## Sonic (Jun 28, 2007)

mwbpsx said:


> Awsome pics but..................................before finished pics try a trip down the road to get surface rust off brake discs :thumb:


And get rust dust over the freshly cleaned alloys? You'd have to clean them again!

I thought it looks quite "rustic"


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## Revolutionrock (Sep 27, 2009)

well done


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## Rich @ PB (Oct 26, 2005)

My word... another great detail, but the difference between the two cameras used is quite amazing. I know we experienced a similar leap when we moved on to my D300 for our after shots (instead of our trusty compacts!), but the D3 shots are something else. Well done Paul, and well done Gary - car looks awesome! :thumb:


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## DuncanMon (May 25, 2009)

Fantastic write up Paul, pictures all came out fantastic.

I was lucky enough to be along at Pauls unit for most of the time he was working on it other than the hard day of compounding, he really did pour himself into this one! Was great to watch him at work.

Car was a mess when it first came along and the amount of tar was just unbelievable, the car was covered in brown running tar marks during the lengthy tardis stage, got there eventually though!

When it was finished it really was fantastic, the gloss on it was amazing, even more so considering its a silver car. Really needed to see it in real life, the pictures came out amazing but it was just so much more than that.

I dislike that picture where my Corsas facing the wall though. Looks like the R8s aggressive front end has scared it away!


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## kinbeam (Oct 5, 2009)

*very happy customer*

As the lucky owner of the R8, I cant thank ultimate shine enough, i know how much effort he poured into my car and it was way beyond what was paid for,a genuine guy doing a very high quality service, and yes the photos dont do it justice.


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## colarado red (Jun 5, 2008)

awesome work.Detailed write up.Those second lot of pictures definitely do your work and car justice:argie::argie::argie::thumb:


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## Racer (Oct 27, 2005)

Superb work and it came out just perfect :thumb:

The time spent in the car just say it all


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## Planet Man (Apr 12, 2008)

Great finish and top quality work yet again:thumb:


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## saxoboy07 (Oct 20, 2007)

Lovely correction work and finish on the R8 great photo's by you and Gary:thumb:


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## Exclusive Car Care (Jan 14, 2007)

nice write up with some quality pics and the finish looks superb:thumb:


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