Paintwork - initial wash & clayFirst things first, find the car from under the dirt. I wasn't too fussed about the wheels at this point as they were to be removed and detailed fully later. However, clearing some of the brake dust would reveal just how scuffed they were.
First I sprayed an even blanket of neat P21S Total Auto Wash over the entire car from the side mouldings down including the wheels (within seconds the dirt on the tyres and some of the brake dust had begun to loosen and run), grille and headlights to to help loosen the fly splatter. This was left to dwell for a couple of minutes.
This was followed by foaming the whole car. For this I put about an inch of Elite Snowfoam into the spray bottle of the Gilmour. Into of this I added 3 cap fulls of CG Maxi Suds II and topped up the bottle with water. With the Gilmour on the 1:64 setting I covered the Bora in a blanket of foam. Standing back and aiming the gun slightly above the area I'm aiming at rather than directly at it allowed the foam to mix with the air before contact and gave a slightly thicker foam with more bubbles. This was then left to dwell for roughly 5 Minutes.
Whilst the foam was doing its stuff, I prepared the two buckets for the wash. Using Chemical guys white buckets, I filled both with warm water, into the wash bucket I added Meguairs Shampoo Plus at a dilution radio of about the recommended 1:128. A grit guard was placed into both wash and rinse buckets.
All loose dirt and what remained of the foam was then washed away with the Karcher. This removed the vast majority of the dirt and left the Bora looking pretty clean considering what it started like. This was followed up by washing with the usual two bucket method, starting at the roof and working down. (also making use of one of L200 Steve's tips of running the Shmitt along the edge of the rinse bucket first to remove much of the dirt from the shmitt before actually rinsing). All areas below the side mouldings and also the front and rear bumpers were washed using a Megs Lambs wool mit. The Bora was then rinsed using a Metal Trigger spray from B&Q set on the 'shower' setting (as it was pretty cool and over cast day I was able to wash the entire car without the need to rinse half way). Seeing that I was to clay next I didn't bother to dry the car.
Next was to clay the car. Firstly I cut away a corner of an old disposable seat cover and placed three fingers inside and used this to run over the paint surface to feel just how bad it was. Sure enough as expected, it was pretty rough. Initially I thought about going straight in with Sonus grey, but, decided to give Sonus green a try first with the view of upgrading to grey had I needed too (which I didn't). I filled a jug with warm water and cut a bar of Sonus Green into three, using 1/3 at a time and keeping the others in the warm water to keep them nice and soft.
Again starting with the roof and working down the bodywork I proceeded to clay the Bora using a strong mix of Megs Shampoo plus with water in a pump spray as a lube. (Picture after just 1/8th of the roof!)
Once each panel had been clayed I rinsed down to prevent any streaking from the Shampoo. Before claying below the side mouldings on the doors and also the sides of the rear bumper I de-tared the areas with AG intensive tar remover. Applied using a Megs foam pad, left to dwell for a minute or two before removing the excess along with the remaining tar with a Megs Ultimate wipe.
Everything on the car was clayed including the glass, lights etc. I treat claying as a very important step and one I will not rush. Total time spent claying, just over 4 hours and used 2 bars.
Once the claying process was completed, I re-washed the Bora again. After the final rinse, I gave the car a thin coat of Autoglym 31 - Autogloss Rinse cut roughly 100:1, then went round the car again with an open ended hose before drying using Sonus Der wonder WW towels and Megs last touch cut 1:1 as a lube.
Before any work was done in the coming weeks, the Bora was washed using the same system as above except after a couple of weeks I invested in a aquagleam to help with the drying process.
Paintwork - Paintwork Renovation.Now that the Bora was clean I was able to inspect the paintwork fully. As I suspected, there were many, many defects. The entire car had the usual swirls and light scratches. There were plenty of chips too, especially around the leading edge of the bonnet and front bumper, which to be fair I expected to see on a car thats covered this mileage so quickly. The nearside had obviously been scraped along a bush at some stage and the body coloured mouldings on this side also had chunks taken out of them. The front bumper corners had been scuffed and the rear bumper had signs of being parked up against a wall. The nearside rear quarter had been resprayed at some point (confirmed later by the PTG readings) and had plenty of buffer trails on it. The bootlid looked as though something like a briefcase had been scraped across it and both mirror edges has been caught and scuffed. Added to all this were a handful of car park dings dotted around the car.
Firstly I took a large number of readings with a CM8828 around the car, typically taking 6 readings for roughly every six to eight inches or so square area around the car and noting the lowest number in each area as I went. The Bora seemed to have a pretty healthy level of paint to play with and as I thought the near side quarter had been painted with readings over 50um more than the rest of the car.
Knowing that I couldn't do much with the front bumper, I removed it along with the grilles, number plate and other trim and sent the bare bumper skin away to be painted.
I tried to plan each session (usually a Sunday so long as it didn't rain) and the days leading up to it I prepared the areas to be worked on, Ie. building up the paint in stone chips etc. This was especially the case for the bonnet as it was the worse affected area for chips. To make my life easier, I actually broke the bonnet up into 8 key areas. On each session I would work on one of the eight areas along with a panel or two elsewhere around the car (this was done so that I could concentrate on a bite size area and correct the chips as best I could).
Before each session I used a smart repair touch up bud and VW Magic Black touch up paint to build up over a couple of days all chips big enough to be touched in. I layered the paint until a 'dome' of paint appeared above the surface. Once dry I used a 3M Finesse-it hand block, with 3M 268L Finesse-it 9 micron abrasive petals with Megs Last touch as a lube to flatten back the chips that were in isolated places. Areas that had multiple touch ups close together were flattened back using Megs 2500 followed by 3000 unigrit paper (which had been soaking in a bucket of water for a couple of days to soften) with a Megs sanding block.
Also any other deep defects Ie. the bush scratches were also much lessened if not totally removed using Megs unigrit 2500 and/or 3000 grit paper.
Before working on each area I taped up all non easily removable trim using 3M 3434 masking tape. The items that were easily removed Ie. badges and side repeaters etc were removed.
(After setting up a test area and testing a range of products I eventually settled on the following system. Yep, it had typical VAG paint!!)
The sanding marks and the remaining swirls and light scratches were removed using a Makita with a Megs cutting pad and 3M fastcut compound. I laid out a small line of product onto the paint surface (also a couple of pea sized blobs to start with on a fresh pad to charge it). Starting at 600 rpm I angled the rotary and moved it over the line of product to take it up then laid flat to spread. Then up to 1200rpm for 2 passes, then up again to 1500 rpm for the remaining passes until I was happy the product had fully broken down before retuning back down to 900 rpm to help refine. Excess was then removed with a Sonus Der Wonder polishing towel.
This was then followed with Menz PO85RD3.01 on a megs polishing pad. I put 4 pea sized blobs on the pad, roughly 1/2 inch in from the edge and placed the rotary flat on the panel. Again after starting at 600rpm to spread, I upped to 1200 rpm for as many passes as I thought necessary to break down the product before returning back to 900 to help refine. Again the excess was removed with a Sonus Der Wonder polishing towel.
I could have left it at this as it was pretty much LSP ready. However, I felt that by following with Menz PO85RD on a Megs finishing pad at 600 rpm to spread then up to 900rpm until broken down before returning to 600 to refine just added a touch more depth to the finish. This time the excess was removed with a Sonus Der Wonder Buffing towel.
I didn't want to go straight in with my LSP of choice at this stage simply because I knew it would take a few weeks to complete the paintwok renovation. So I gave each area a quick coat of Klasse AIO to offer temporary protection.
Once I had completed the paintwork renovation it was time to break out the Z - HD Clense. Firstly I applied the product using a Lake Country white 4 inch pad at speed 3 on the PC. I then followed this by going over again by hand using a clearkote blue MF applicator to ensure I got everything covered. Excess both removed with a Sonus Der Wonder buffing towel.
This was finished with two initial layers of Z - Carbon just to ensure an even coverage. Applied using the red side of a German foam applicator and buffed using a Sonus Der Wonder buffing towel..
A further two coats were applied at weekly intervals later.
Seeing that the front bumper had fairly fresh paint on it I didn't want to go too mad with this. After refitting back on the car, I simply used a Wolfgang polishing pad with Menz P0106FA on the PC. This was followed up with Z - HD clense with the PC and a 4 inch Lake Country white pad and again by hand with a MF applicator. This was finished with 3 layers of Z - Carbon with the rest of the car. All buffed using Sonus Der Wonder Buffing MF towels. (Sorry no pics)
Whilst I had the grille off I thought it was an ideal time detail that too. For this I first cleared away any dust with Megs Last Touch and a Cobra MF. I then used the white side of a German applicator with Menz PO106FA and polished the painted areas by hand. Excess removed with a Sonus buffing towel. After this I dressed the non painted plastic parts with CG New Look Trim Gel with a Megs applicator. The painted parts were then given two coats of Z - HD Clense and finally finished with a couple of layers over time of Z - Carbon.
I also fitted a new set of number plates, replaced the damaged door mouldings and stuck the badges back on using Wurth 4mm double sided tape.