Since I got this car it has swirls/ holograms whatever people call these things and it has been greatly annoying me. I almost feel too shy to take it out to events because really it detracts from the car. I am also a bit of a lazy car washer and because this thing get dirty so easily it gets washed often at the carwash. Lately I also noticed hard water streaks on some of the doors and decided well it is time to sort this out.
Bought a almost new second hand shield machine and because it seems to be good enough for the ocassional DIY'er i bought it. It came with a whole bundle of pads and I bought a few extra bits from Crazy Detailer.

So this morning around 9 I got all the bits together and decided today is today. I got no pics of the washing but I started with some Pressure spray and diluted APC(my little karcher will draw in a fluid separately with the water and then DNA super suds - 2 buckets and a microfibe wash mitt. Got her in the garage pronto and dried it with microfibre cloths. (we have borehole water that dries with white marks if you leave it in the sun)

So then It was me and learning this clay thing. So I cut a 1/4 of the block of DNA clay and moulded and got it workable. Using the DNA detailer spray I started on the bonnet and man I could not believe the difference that made to the paint. It was immediately a LOT smoother and felt totally different and smooth. I was amazed. Honestly never seen this stuff before and it was just amazing. I did the WHOLE car including the glass. And then once you did that you actually realize how bad the paint really is. The clay came away quite dirty after each pass and I managed to keep folding it clean.

For those that want to know how much you need because nobody ever seem to address that - I managed to do the whole car with that one 1/4 block and just less than half a bottle of the spray detailer. Remember this is quite a big car.

I then taped up the bits I did not want to get polish on which is also quite time consuming and around 13:00 I was ready to get on with the machine polish. I tried the 3:1 with one of the very soft pads that came with and it did very little. I then tried a green pad that seems a lot rougher and after a go with that it seemed to work quite well to get rid of the marks I was after. So I started in sections as recommended by Mike Phillips. As you all know it is slow going but it was quite nice to see those dam swirls disappearing.
some sections needed another pass. It is probably not at any of the pro guys's standards but I am very happy so far. I also realized just how hard it is to actually photograph this. Actually video seems to do better.
I stopped at 18:00 and so far I did the bonnet, fenders, front bumper and the right front door. Will continue after work tomorrow. I suspect it will take most of the week. I will post a few of my pathetic attempts at pictures just now.

Bootlid holographs

bonnet


Right rear flank



Right front door. Hard water marks



How dirty the clay gets from a single panel pass


This much detailer was used to clay the entire car



More of the bonnet and both front fenders.






car taped up and ready to go.




bonnet piece after second test pass. I see it is basically out of focus but it looks a lot better.


Fender Before


same spot after


Bonnet was done here fender not


Righ hand fender section





pad after doing the bonnet. I swopped it at this point for a fresh one and washed this one.


Right hand door hard water mark - before


Door after.


Needed a seond pass and looked like this after.


Thanks for everybody that sold me the stuff, Lawrence for advise and my wife that kept bringing cold drink otherwise I would probably have died out there of dehydration. it is tough work. I recon something as big as this car is probably a bad idea as a first time but what the heck, It needed doing

Mr. Panic, you did very well man! It is nice when people spend a day on their car and notice how much work actually goes into detailing. Keep it up, I am very keen to see the end result.

Only 2 cents from me would be that you really don't need to tape up the whole window or headlight... Even if you do "slip", the polish isn't bad for either

Thanks yes I realized after actually using it that the machines are really nothing like old rotary machines and really don't chuck polish so much. I really just don't want to semi polish a light and then have to really get stuck into them.

Nice one Stephan, as with your motors, you will succeed with this. Why didn’t your wife bring you a beer?

Great work bud.

Epic !

Very nice work
Huge difference !!!

Very nice work
Huge difference !!!

Excellent first attempt bud, you can only get better from here!

pretty stellar outcome for a first try, reckon the old girl is gonna look fantastic once you're done

The difference in how she looks is huge already. Now the problem after is does ot go back to regular carwash and I teach them or am I now stuck with washing it myself for the rest of her life.

panic-mechanic wrote:The difference in how she looks is huge already. Now the problem after is does ot go back to regular carwash and I teach them or am I now stuck with washing it myself for the rest of her life.

Car washes are always a bad idea, even the "good ones".

Focus on getting some proper sealant on the paint, which will help with the dust/dirt build up on the paint...

Well it is a V10 S6, might aswell wash the old girl yourself. Do you have shots of the entire car after?

Entire car is not done yet. As soon as it is finished there will be some shots. Currently just up to the front doors. Round two this afternoon.

EPIC - so glad you had success - the paint looks so much better.

Well done meneer!!!!!

Lots of Elbow grease there Panic, good stuff!

panic-mechanic wrote:The difference in how she looks is huge already. Now the problem after is does ot go back to regular carwash and I teach them or am I now stuck with washing it myself for the rest of her life.

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

I wouldn't suggest taking it back to a car wash honestly....

In all honesty if you guys are willing to take your cars back to the corner car wash then you might as well not even attempt to clean the paint up cause it will end up in the same state unfortunately.

I also read that you used/use borehole water to wash your cash this is not a good idea

All in all car looking great Panic

Rsi huntered wrote:

panic-mechanic wrote:The difference in how she looks is huge already. Now the problem after is does ot go back to regular carwash and I teach them or am I now stuck with washing it myself for the rest of her life.

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

I wouldn't suggest taking it back to a car wash honestly....

In all honesty if you guys are willing to take your cars back to the corner car wash then you might as well not even attempt to clean the paint up cause it will end up in the same state unfortunately.

I also read that you used/use borehole water to wash your cash this is not a good idea

All in all car looking great Panic

Yeah I have to agree - stay away from the local car wash. Put simply they will never care for your car as much as you do and most feel nothing about dropping a dirty rag/sponge/chamois on the floor, then simply picking it up an carrying on.

Having had a small taste of how much work actually goes into correcting the marks they leave in your paint from poor washing and drying, I am sure you can see how off-putting the idea is to continually have to bust out the polisher to fix the paint - its hard graft. But even more importantly, there is a finite amount of paint on the car, and over-polishing will lead to the onset of early clear coat failure - and the repaint, if done properly, will hurt anyone's pockets.

As for the borehole water, I am sure you understand that there are likely to be way more dissolve solids in your borehole water and so the risk of hard water spots (as you have seen first hand) increases. Ideally you should be running it through some sort of filtration system (e.g. CR Spotless) but they are not cheap.

To mitigate the risk of water spots, do the following:

1. You can add some Optimum No Rinse to your wash bucket, which will help soften the water
2. Try not to work in the sun, which speeds up how quickly the water evaporates, and therefore how quickly the water spots form
3. Dry all the glass first, then the paint, then the other stuff. Water spots form quicker on glass than on paint, and quicker on paint then other surfaces
4. Never just hose the car down and let it air dry.

Learning to wash and dry safely is really not that difficult, and doesnt necessarily require a big investment in tools/equipment/time, and so if you have any questions in this regard, please feel free to shout. The better you wash and dry, the less you have to polish.

great turnaround, especially for a first attempt!

Great work Sir.

I have no choice on the borehole water. Stay on a plot with basically no municipal water connection. So there is no choice there. And the water marks and swirls came with the car already when I bought it.
We have learned that if you dry it quickly or out of the sun then it does not leave marks.
So anyway yes will have to self wash in future.
I was really struggling with one section behind the right rear door today. There is a section that was repaired and repainted and I just could not get it right. Eventually grabbed the one bottle that came with the polisher which was a heavy cut and that got rid of the scratches there. I then went back to the 3-1 and then made the biggest mistake so far. Grabbed a soft pad and a 3500 menzerna super finish that also came. Well I will just have to go back and redo the rest of the car with that when I am done. Damn what a gloss. I guess I should go pick up another bottle or must I really annoy myself and try the SF 4000?

Well done Mr Panic it was a huge difference, yup it is labor intensive work, and yes you learn of easier ways and faster ways of working as you go, for me the transformations always keep me going

Subscribed to this thread. Nice write up, its great seeing a transformation.

panic-mechanic wrote:I have no choice on the borehole water. Stay on a plot with basically no municipal water connection. So there is no choice there. And the water marks and swirls came with the car already when I bought it.
We have learned that if you dry it quickly or out of the sun then it does not leave marks.
So anyway yes will have to self wash in future.
I was really struggling with one section behind the right rear door today. There is a section that was repaired and repainted and I just could not get it right. Eventually grabbed the one bottle that came with the polisher which was a heavy cut and that got rid of the scratches there. I then went back to the 3-1 and then made the biggest mistake so far. Grabbed a soft pad and a 3500 menzerna super finish that also came. Well I will just have to go back and redo the rest of the car with that when I am done. Damn what a gloss. I guess I should go pick up another bottle or must I really annoy myself and try the SF 4000?

If you have SF4000 you don't need to get another 3500 Panic..... SF 4000 will give it gloss however what you need to bare in mind that gloss is in the actual paint perfection(the better your paint is.... the better finish you will get from the 4000).....

I clean my paint with SF4000 when I normally do my yearly clean up's on my cars.....

Just for curiosity sake Panic....

May I request :

When you complete your car and seal it..... can you update this thread say after 4 wash's with pics?

I would like to see how the bore water will interact with the paint itself (if that is ok with you?)