Enhancement Detail - Candy White Golf GTI

[RussZS]

Today saw me travel to a surprisingly sunny Shrewsbury, to BespokeCarCare's rather impressive Detailing Studio, to spend the day performing what was supposed to be an enhancement detail to a Candy White Mk5 Golf GTI.

The Golf itself is owned by a friend (Craig) of my friend (Al) who owns the silver Golf GTI I detailed yesterday.  He had contacted me saying that his car was generally very clean, but he was becoming frustrated with the swirl marks he could see after washing on a Sunny day, so I said I'd spend a day on it for him and correct as much as I could.

I'd spent last night helping Lee@Bespoke correct a black BMW 320D, which was honestly one of the worst cars I'd ever seen - detail on that coming up soon - so in return, Lee agreed to give me a hand with the Golf.  Davemm also very kindly offered to help too, so we thought this would be a quick one...

Craig arrived promptly at 9am, and I was amazed at how clean the car was!!


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Nothing too serious at all!

As always, I started with the wheels, tyres and arches.

Take one lightly soiled Mk6 Golf GTI Monza:


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As the wheels were pretty clean and protected with Chemical Guys Wheel Guard, I decided to proceed gently as no harsh chemicals were required here, and clean the wheel with Autosmart G101 along with various brushes:


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Older MF towel used behind the wheel spokes, but I'll be adding dooka mitts to my collection soon :)


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Rinsed with Kranzle K7:


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Next, the car was snow foamed via CYC HD Lance, Kranzle K7 and Meguiars Hyper Wash:


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Note how hard everyone else is working!!  :p


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G101 used where required on badges and panel gaps, along with rubber seals:


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We opened the boot to a bit of a surprise!!


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:doublesho


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The Petrol Cap was in a bit of a state too:


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Autobrite Degreaser applied here too:


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Meanwhile, I was busy working around the shuts and sills with G101 and where required, Surfex HD:


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Lee got busy sorting the green mess:


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Petrol cap after agitation and rinse:


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Green gone!


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G101 on rubbers:


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The car was then fully rinsed with the Kranzle.  Next I washed with Sonus Sheepskin Mitt and Auto Finesse Lather:


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After a rinse - looking much fresher!!


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Craig had clayed the car recently, and it showed, the paint was silky smooth, but whilst washing, I had not quite a few iron particles present in the clearcoat, so out came the trusty IronX, applied liberally (apparently I'm a bit too liberal with my application, lol!) to the entire car:


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As ever, superb performance from IronX - it shifted pretty much all of the contamination after 15 minutes or so, and a thorough rinse.

Next we dried the car with Uber Towels from Elite, then moved the car inside to begin assessing the paint. 

There were a few thin points around the edges of the bonnet:


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but generally the paint was in good health.

Lee, Dave and I began on various sections - roof, bonnet and OS door respectively, to find which combination was giving the desired results.

I started off with S17+ from Scholl on a Scholl Orange polishing pad, via Rotary:


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Meanwhile, Dave was using a SSP with S17+ on his Flex Rotary:


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I wasn't happy with the level of correction I was getting with the Orange Pad and S17, so I also stepped up to a SSP:


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Lee meanwhile was using SSP and S17+ via Festool on the roof.

In summary, we were finding the boot to be significantly harder than the rest of the car, requiring Dave to step up to Scholl S3 via Rotary and SSP, then refining with S17.

On the rest of the car S17 was correcting very well, but was leaving a fair bit of hologramming behind, meaning the finish would need refining.  We only planned to do an enhancement detail on this car remember, but we got a bit carried away I think, and tried to get this as perfect as possible in the time we had.

[RussZS]

Knowing that the S17 via SSP would need refining, I decided to try my trusty CYC DAS6 Pro with Megs D300 and a MF Cutting Disc:


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Amazingly, it was finishing down incredibly well and did a superb job of swirl removal:


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Me working the MF system on the NS wing.


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It corrected much more quickly than we were able to achieve with S17 on this paint...

Meanwhile, our beautiful assistant Milly (my Girlfriend!) wanted something to do, so I got her doing what she does best (detailing wise ;)) and asked her to protect the wheels and dress the tyres:


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Meanwhile, Craig (the owner) was looking a little bored, so he offered to sort the exhausts:


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I was very impressed!!!

Meanwhile, I finished up machining with D300 and the MF discs on the rest of the sides of the car, the bumpers and the boot:


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Next, we prep'd the paint using Blackfire's excellent Gloss Enhancing Polish, courtesy of Dave (thanks mate!)


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Meanwhile, Milly was busy cleaning the glass with a Dodo Mint Merkin and Auto Finesse Crystal:


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Nice bit of teamwork!!


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Dave very kindly removed the GEP residue, meaning it was time to finish up with LSP.

I decided against advice and went with a wax on white - Auto Finesse Spirit!


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Craig very kindly offered to follow me round removing the Spirit residue after it had cured.  It was clear as it was coming off, that the finish was going to rather special...


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So, what was supposed to be a one day enhancement, turned into 5 people and 6 hours (although I was the only one reeeally working :lol:) to give us a 95%+ corrected and protected Golf GTI.

Here are the finished shots:


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Craig was delighted with it, and we all commented how sharp it looked - probably the best finish I've ever seen on a white car (and I've done a few!)

After a short lunch break, we were back at it finishing off this 320D, which is probably one of the biggest turn arounds I've ever seen - write up from Lee@BespokeCarCare coming very soon (believe it or not Gordon, lol!!!)


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However, we'd noticed that we'd lost someone after starting the BMW...


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:lol::lol::lol:

I guess detailing isn't for everyone!!

Thanks for reading and thanks to Dave and Lee for their superb help, it was MASSIVELY appreciated, and thanks to Lee for the use of his superb unit.  Thanks for Craig for letting us loose on his pride and joy and a special thanks to Milly for her help on the wheels, the superb tea, the "polish please" services... oh and the indoor swimming pool she created!!

Cheers,

Russ.

[stealthwolf]

Fantastic write up. I've often thought how much easier detailing would be if there 2-4 people working on a car at a time. Think there was mention of someone tryin to start something like this up on DW

I digress.

Love the sharpness of the white. I agree it looks immense. With the boot hinge are, did you rinse with a hose or wipe the APC off with a damp MF?

[RussZS]

Thank you :)

You can have access to that unit for a small fee ;)

We used the Kranzle with the pressure right down on the boot lid. I was so impressed by it that I'm going to buy one!

[Teo10]

That looks amazing! I've wanted my car detailed for ages but some things happened which meant I lost my funds for it 

But once the weather is better I am defo going to get it detailed!

[stealthwolf]

Shrewsbury's a bit far.

Just had a look at Bespoke's website. They seem like a detailing/valeting company. Did you just borrow their unit? Are you working for them? How comes they didn't do all the work?

[swiftlupogti]

My car looks amazing!

and Russ the water is beading lovely this morning!I cant stop looking at it!

Would just like to say what a fantastic detailer Russ is, along with being a great guy,so much knowledge and i had complete trust with him working on my pride and joy.His attention to detail is second to none.

Also Lee from bespoke and Dave and Milly, thankyou so much for your help,such genuine people.

I will look no further when it comes to having my car detailed again.

 

[chris s]

I've been consideredin getting my car prepped for Winter, but can't find the time to do it myself.... can anyone tell me what sort of price I'd be looking at?  I am totoally clueless on these things

[RussZS]

I've been consideredin getting my car prepped for Winter, but can't find the time to do it myself.... can anyone tell me what sort of price I'd be looking at?  I am totoally clueless on these things

Prices will really depend on the detailer, their experience and their overheads etc.  A decent Protection Detail would be at least £99 or so I'd imagine and around £149 for something like the above which includes a single stage paint correction (although Craig received far more than that!)

Russ.

[RussZS]

My car looks amazing!

and Russ the water is beading lovely this morning!I cant stop looking at it!

Would just like to say what a fantastic detailer Russ is, along with being a great guy,so much knowledge and i had complete trust with him working on my pride and joy.His attention to detail is second to none.

Also Lee from bespoke and Dave and Milly, thankyou so much for your help,such genuine people.

I will look no further when it comes to having my car detailed again.

 

Thanks for the very kind words Craig, I will pass them on to all involved.  It was a really enjoyable day for me, it was nice getting some help, support and banter for a change too.  You did a wicked job on the exhaust and the trims also!

I hope you're happy with Spirit - I've had it on a few cars for 2-3 months or so and its still beading and sheeting like day 1, so it should see you through Winter with ease.  I'm glad we used it now, rather than a sealant, as it added a lovely wetness to the finish, coupled with GEP.

ATB,
Russ.

[maxload]

As allways a fantastic job Russ 

[big al]

Looks great, Though looks like a clean motor to start with which always helps.
See you out and about a fair bit Craig, and your car does look very well looked after (which can't be easy being a white one )

[swiftlupogti]

Looks great, Though looks like a clean motor to start with which always helps.
See you out and about a fair bit Craig, and your car does look very well looked after (which can't be easy being a white one )

thanks Al,

its getting there now,think it needs lowering,remove the rear mudflaps and get a smoothed grill.

also on the lookout for some winter wheels

[JoeDarKa]

Looks fantastic. Where do you get iron-x from? 

[AdeMcG]

yup it does look nice. ..But I just can't wait until you find other things to do with your time....lol Kids...wow...don't go there !!

On a serious note, I would love to know how to get swirls out of my Silver MK5, it was a demonstrator and I think they must of had signs and stuff on it's roof at some point.

Pointers most appreciated, but keep it simple as I don't even two bucket wash