AudiOn19s

The Handling like a god argument aside....the stock US ride height is not pleasing to the eye. No sports sedan should sit that high. So doing suspension is a win / win. Lower the car and make it look better and the side effect will also be a lower roll center and better handling. Throw some sways at it and you'll be amazed at the difference. Andy

Needs dropped....BADLY! and not to offend...but clean vs. properly polished and detailed are worlds apart and can be rather drastic esp on a car that age.

Welcome sir.

I would except I've still got the snows on my Audi too...so I have no room to talk! thanks for all of the compliments gents. Andy

Paint was corrected with the following process: Megs M105 / purple wool pad / Rotary Mega M105 / Orange light cut pad / PC Megs M205 / White polishing pad / PC Zaino Z5 / Grey Pad / PC Topped with DoDo Juice Supernatural v.2 wax Sadly with the overcast skies on Saturday the after shots aren't that great: http://www.andymobiledetail.com/images/Picture%20394.jpg http://www.andymobiledetail.com/images/Picture%20400.jpg This was as close as I could get to a full sun after shot http://www.andymobiledetail.com/images/Picture%20409.jpg http://www.andymobiledetail.com/images/Picture%20389.jpg http://www.andymobiledetail.com/images/Picture%20386.jpg http://www.andymobiledetail.com/images/Picture%20422.jpg In the garage you can see a hint of the Graphite flake that's in this paint: http://www.andymobiledetail.com/images/Picture%20432.jpg My helper inspecting the lowers to make sure everything is clean: http://www.andymobiledetail.com/images/Picture%20430.jpg

It's been about 8 months since I last detailed this car and man they have been hard months. This is how it looked upon arrival!!! http://www.andymobiledetail.com/images/Picture%20343.jpg http://www.andymobiledetail.com/images/Picture%20351.jpg http://www.andymobiledetail.com/images/Picture%20354.jpg http://www.andymobiledetail.com/images/Picture%20355.jpg As you can see under all the dirt if you look closely, at least the paint wasn't THAT bad. Still being hard Audi paint it wasn't exactly going to be a walk in the park either http://andymobiledetail.com/images/Picture%20345.jpg Hummm...someone unskilled with a rotary buffer has had their hands on the car. Luckily it was confined to just the passenger rear quarter. I'd later find out that he had the paintless dent guy come out to fix a small issue and this is what he was left with http://www.andymobiledetail.com/images/Picture%20352.jpg http://www.andymobiledetail.com/images/Picture%20378.jpg There were also lots of random scractches and misc. scuffs all over the car that I'd find once it was washed and clayed. http://www.andymobiledetail.com/images/Picture%20369.jpg

And a few of it tucked away in the garage awaiting pick-up. As you can see the color looks much different under the different lighting in the garage. http://andymobiledetail.com/images/Picture%20492.jpg http://andymobiledetail.com/images/Picture%20494.jpg http://andymobiledetail.com/images/Picture%20498.jpg Thanks again to Scott and his father. Andy

The end results: http://andymobiledetail.com/images/Picture%20461.jpg http://andymobiledetail.com/images/Picture%20460.jpg The paint cleaned up beautifully and had a really great flake to it. Depending on the light it went from an almost maroon to a great hue of red. http://andymobiledetail.com/images/Picture%20463.jpg http://andymobiledetail.com/images/Picture%20466.jpg http://andymobiledetail.com/images/Picture%20467.jpg These took a little bit of #0000 and lots of elbow grease but came out great http://andymobiledetail.com/images/Picture%20469.jpg http://andymobiledetail.com/images/Picture%20473.jpg http://andymobiledetail.com/images/Picture%20488.jpg

Well, I bet you thought you were going to see pictures of Scott's Stealth, sadly I was camera-less when I detailed his car a few weeks back but he was kind enough to set up an appointment to have his father's Charger R/T detailed. The car arrived dirty but honestly you could tell this car was well cared for and kept after. Upon Arrival: http://andymobiledetail.com/images/Picture%20434.jpg http://andymobiledetail.com/images/Picture%20437.jpg http://andymobiledetail.com/images/Picture%20440.jpg http://andymobiledetail.com/images/Picture%20444.jpg http://andymobiledetail.com/images/Picture%20446.jpg http://andymobiledetail.com/images/Picture%20448.jpg After washand clay the paint was corrected using the following: Megs M105 via Rotary and purple foamed wool pads. Then Menzerna 203 power finish via a white polishing pad After an Alcohol wipedown I was happy with the finish and moved to application of Zaino Z5 via Porter Cable. Final wipedown was then done with Zaino Z8 grand finale spray.

Agreed, it's an outstanding product but read the instructions closely and study them as it's important to follow them to the "T" in order to get best results. Andy

I've seen good results from using this product. http://www.1z-usa.com/einszett_klima_cleaner.html Auto Assets carries if if you want to find it locally. If that doesn't work then you need to take everything apart and clean it.

You can't be too far from my wife either. She's in the same area of the building. On the economy front, we lost roughly 20% of our IT department here at my work. Thankfully I"m in a group that's critical to money coming in the door so we are safe and sound. On the car side of the industry, I'm not actually suprised that the repair / maintenance side of the industry is still doing well. Seems like people realize they might be holding onto their cars for a longer period of time and are more focused on making sure they are well maintained in order to have trouble free time with them. Same goes for detailing. We've had the busiest spring ever. We usually settle into a relaxed pace by this time of the year but I'm overbooked like crazy and don't see that changing in the near future. Andy

Red S4?

Somewhat on topic, my work "buddy" just asked me what I though of the $3 car wash on Sawmill... I just walked away.

It's deteriorated and basically developed what looks like paint cracking or severly swirled paint all over the surface of the bra. I know it was like that when Erik got the car so I can't say what lead up to it but there's no fixing it at this point. I've got old school 3M film on my M3 that's been on there going on 7 years now and other than a slight discoloration (common in the older fimls) it's held up amazingly well. Andy

Ha...agreed. Need at LEAST an hour to wash a car correctly. I'll aslo agree with the rant about people not keeping their cars clean. More and more high end stuff I see lately is completely trashed. I hear first hand alot of the Lease mentality. The only time they really care what condition it is in is before they have to turn it back in at the end of the lease. Before that they could give a shit. "No sir....I can't completely fix your BMW wheels that are severly pitted from you never washing the brake dust off of them in the 3 years you leased your car". Andy p.s. If the dirty GT-R in question was black I too saw one that was rediculously dirty Sunday in the Polaris area.

HBD man!

Ha...uhhh...NO.

It's a consumer line product so I'd assume you can find it through any retail chain that carries Meguiars products. I can't say I've ever specifically looked for it though.

Yes...several. If you're trying to do the work by hand Meguiars SwirlX comes to mind. However on GM paint (hard) it's likely you're going to need something more agressive which means you'll have to buy two different polishes. One cutting compound and one polish. Meguiars M105 / M205 combo would be great but needs to be used by machine to really work to it's potential...oh and they're not cheap! You should be able to find them at local paint / body supply stores. On GM paint...I'd lean towards Yes on the high speed buffer. I doubt the craftsman orbital is up to the task either. You can do it by hand...but you're more likely to have success using a glaze to cover up the defects than trying to remove them by hand with a polish. **edit** Each paint is different though. Maybe try out the SwirlX by hand and see what happens. A friend of mine just used SwirlX with a craftsman orbital on his car and I was suprised with the results. His car does have soft paint though which isn't common on GM cars.

Even I haven't found a good source for clay in bulk unfortunatly. Though the consumer based products are close to $20 now because they package it with other crap. I just buy the 200g bars from distributers online...still like $25 for those bars though but you get alot more clay than in the general kits you find at the local stores. Is that your White Talon that's in the parking lot!!! I've looked at that thing 3 days in a row and can't believe how nice it is.

By hand? With machine? - what machine/ pads?

All, Thanks for the compliments. I left out the Process / products info if anyone is interrested: Washed with Meguiars gold class Clay with Zaino Z18 clay bar using Optimum No Rinse / water as lube Cutting: Meguiars M105 / purple foamed wool pads / Rotary @ 1600rpm 2nd stage: Meguiars M105 / Orange light cut foam pad / PC 7424 speed 6 Polsihing: Menzerna Super Intensive Polish / white polishing pad / PC 7424 speed 6 Finish / Seal: Optimum Poli-Seal / white polishing pad / PC 7424 speed 6 topped: Zaino Z8 Grand Finale spray. Wheels: Mothers billet metal polish Tires: Meguiars High Endurance tire gel. Andy

Wing needs to go back on. There's some marks on the deck where it sat and rubbed the paint pretty well from vibrations not to mention the holes left behind. I'm sure we'll see the same when we pull your wing to clean your car too.

And some finished shots. It was late when I got done so excuse the poor lighting. Even the wheels cleaned up better than I had expected for no more time than I had left to address them. I told Erik he needs to spend about 3-4 hours with them, a 6-pack and a tub of metal polish and they will look perfect. http://www.andymobiledetail.com/porsche/picture%20120.jpg http://www.andymobiledetail.com/porsche/picture%20121.jpg http://www.andymobiledetail.com/porsche/picture%20127.jpg http://www.andymobiledetail.com/porsche/picture%20124.jpg http://www.andymobiledetail.com/porsche/picture%20139.jpg http://www.andymobiledetail.com/porsche/picture%20148.jpg Thanks for looking. -Andy