D2 A8 Detailed

[Ska]

'97 Audi A8 pearl Aluminium Silver. I did this in late '07 over the space of two weeks. In that time I had people from my area walk by and pass all sorts of comments from "That's come up nicely" to "Fecking Hell your Nuts you are!".
As some of you may know detailing a car the size of the A8 needs at the very least a full weekend and two servings of spinach, so was up at the crack of dawn literally with all the detailing gear stacked near the front door the night before.

Products List:



Halford lambs wool wash mitt
Sponge (sills and arches)
AG engine & machine cleaner
WD40
CD2 engine dressing spray
Silicon spray
Chemical Guys Fast stain Extractor
Gliptone Leather Cleaner G11
Gliptone Leather conditioner G12
AG Vinyl & Rubber Care
AG Metal Polish
AG Glass Polish
AG Bumper Care
AG Intensive Tar Remover
Megs Trim detailer
Megs Endurance Tyre dressing
Megs NXT Car Wash
Megs APC
Megs Quick Clay bar kit
Megs Unigrit 2000/2500/3000
Megs Plastix
Isopropyl Alcohol
Menzerna- Power Gloss
Menzerna- PO85RD3.02
Menzerna- PO106FF
Megs Cutting and Polishing Pad
Klasse AIO
Klasse DGS
Collonite 915
Megs Applicator pads
Sonus Buffing bonnets
Megs NXT Paste wax
Megs detailing brush plus upholstery, tooth and paint brushes
Megs Microfibre cloths
Megs water magnet
AG synthetic chamois

Process

Arches: The years of dirt and recent outer CV boot explosion on both front wheels left the wells looking sorry for themselves; it didn't help that the grease had been on there for a couple months either. They needed a quick blast with the Kerschar first to loosen up any debris. Then it was sprayed with some AG engine & machine cleaner and agitated with Halfords interior brush. This got most of the dirt and grim off but there were great big blobs of tar and asphalt stuck to paint work, lining and suspension components. Then I remembered someone on the forum speaking of WD40 so tried that, again with some agitation of a toothbrush (yes it took forever - These A8 wells are simply massive).
But the end result was worth it, I didn't even know that there were any painted surface exposed in the well; so it was a nice surprise when it came up trumps. The linings were dressed with CD2 Engine detailer which seems to last a lot longer than AG vinyl & rubber care for me, whilst the electric wires were cleaned with some isopropyl alcohol and smeared with WD40 (this incidentally cured a low speed ABS Light problem I was having).



Wasn't sure how clean this could get after 139K miles of muck.



After the pre-wash and AG engine & Machine cleaner was applied you could
still see the blobs of tar bonded to the linings, suspension arms and paint.



But with a bit of effort they came up quite decent, fronts were worse
than the rears.









Alloys & Tyres: Used AG Engine & machine cleaner on these to good effect then dressed with some NXT tech wax, tyres dressed with Megs High gloss endurance tyre dressing.







Engine Bay: Cleaned with AG Engine & Machine Cleaner and Megs APC (Ratio 4:1), Sound proofing vacuumed and under bonnet cleaned using Megs APC.
Radiator/condenser and Gearbox oil cooler cleaned with AG Engine and
machine cleaner rinsed and dressed with AG V&RC. Engine Covers and Trim
dressed with CD2 Engine detailing or AG V&RC. Rubber seals and hoses
dressed with silicon.


















Boot: Spare wheel well cleaned with Megs APC (Ratio 10:1), carpet vacuumed then cleaned with Chemical Guys Stain Extractor (Ratio 10:1) and wet/dry extractor and trim dressed with AG V&RC. Rubber seals
dressed with silicon.






Interior: Carpets and door card upholstery cleaned with Chemical Guys Stain Extractor (Ratio 10:1) and wet/dry extractor. Took out what I could from the interior and cleaned them out of the car (left bits of my car hanging from the washing line). Interior cabin cleaned with Megs APC (Ratio 10:1), and dressed with a mix of Megs Trim detailer and AG vinyl & rubber care (Spray on/ wipe off immediately). The centre console wood trim got some Megs scratch X then Klasse AIO as it had a few swirls on it.
The leather seats and steering got a dose of the Gliptone cleaner worked in using another tooth brush then topped off with some Gliptone conditioner.






























Door/Boot Shuts: Used Megs APC (Ratio 10:1), Rubber dressed with Silicon spray vinyl dressed with AG V&RC, Paint treated with Klasse AIO.



Wash/Clay: Car washed with NXT car wash (2 bucket method) with some areas such rubber window frames/sills badges washed with Megs APC (4:1). Clayed using 2x Megs Quick Clay kits




Grill and black lower trim: Cleaned with Megs APC (Ratio 10:1) and agitated with paint brush and Megs detailing brush. Dressed with AG Bumper Care(worked in with stiff brush).

Stone chip repair: There were some minor chips on the front of the bonnet that needed attention simply because they were annoying me so I
filled them with some primer and a touch up pen then wet sanded it with some megs unigrit. (sorry novice photographer)







Glass & Head lights: AG Glass Polish with Megs polishing pad


Polishing: My car is old but the paint is as tough as nails; I had on a previous occasion last year used Megs DACP, Speed Glaze and DCP but
found it hard work (probably because I was using a Bosch orbital sander). So being lazy I tried out the Menzerna Power Gloss for specific scratches and two passes of PO85RD3.02 one with Megs cutting pad then 2nd with polishing pad all with a rotary. (Practised on a golf front wing I picked up from a local Body shop first)
Only the roof, bonnet and boot lid had significant swirls.



Final Polishing: Menzerna PO106FF with Megs Polishing pad



Wax/Sealant: Klasse AIO, Klasse DGS x2 24hrs apart, then a week later collonite 915 x2 24hrs apart




Final Pics

























Thanks for looking

[A8 Owner]

WOW looks good and lots of info
Just 1 thing tho since 2007 theres lots of new products, so u should do it again with the new products and as your car is so spotless and wouldnt realy show how good the product is on such a clean car, So in the intrest of fair compare think i should let u have my A8 for the weekend to try the products on it

[Conan_the_Librarian]

No more to say.....

Mike

[Ska]

Thanks for the comments fella's. I know Figure11 has been busy with some wet sanding lately as well so to keep up I'll be doing another detail when the weather allows in conjunction with a service, so will try a few new products. As to using your car a test subject I can only respectfuly decline as cleaning one A8 is sufficient to knock me out for a week!

[Architex_mA8tey]

Originally Posted by Ska

Thanks for the comments fella's. I know Figure11 has been busy with some wet sanding lately as well so to keep up I'll be doing another detail when the weather allows in conjunction with a service, so will try a few new products. As to using your car a test subject I can only respectfuly decline as cleaning one A8 is sufficient to knock me out for a week!

Hey Ska great write up and good stuff, I soo used to have energy for cleaning and detailing lol u sure youre not for hire? quick question whats good for cleaning/polishing the aluminium gear selector surround plate?
Thanks Neil

Top job there, excellent

[Ska]

Originally Posted by Architex_mA8tey

Hey Ska great write up and good stuff, I soo used to have energy for cleaning and detailing lol u sure youre not for hire? quick question whats good for cleaning/polishing the aluminium gear selector surround plate?
Thanks Neil

For hire? No I'm getting too old for this stuff
To polish the Aluminium I simply used some Meguiars Scratch X then put some collinte 915 wax on it as this has some laquer on it. Its now got some scratches on it thanks to leaving an irresponsible friends wife in the car for 15mins with her 3 year old literaly running up and down the centre console! who has also broken the hand brake wood trim in the process (should have made her pay for it dosey moose). Sorry I digress; you can see from Paul Waterloo's Audipages:
http://www.audipages.com/Tech_Articl...erremoval.html
How to properly sand the thing down, I might just get a new one its that bad now!