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Monday, May 13, 2013

Custom Exterior Detail on a 2011 VW GTI

I finally got some free time to detail the exterior of my car. I haven't washed it all winter and the last time it had a fresh coat of wax on it was the first week of last October.



Here is a perfect example of paint that doesn't have any protection on it (wax or sealant). Notice the beads of water. They are large and disproportioned.



This is what waxed paint should look like when wet. The beads are much smaller and closer to each other.



Let's take a closer look at the wheel areas. The wheels weren't bad, just covered in pollen!



Wheel wells



Notice the paint fading and stripped from wheel weights. More on that later.



Exhaust tips needing some serious help. No matter what I do I can't keep these things clean.





Grime Reaper is my go to for cleaning wheel wells, exhaust tips, engine bays, etc. I used #0000 steel wool with Grime Reaper to clean up the tips.



Here it is working on the wheel wells



Time to wash the paint. I use Chemical Guys Maxi Suds II in a foam gun to make sure I get a lot of suds and a even coverage of shampoo.





Time for some clay. A clay bar helps remove dirt, tar, and other contaminates from the paint that doesn't come off during the wash process. Notice how blue the clay is in this picture.



This is after using the clay on just one door.



After claying the entire exterior, the car is hosed down to remove the oils from the clay lube. The car was dried.

It was a nice day out so I decided to clean the doorjambs outside.



I pulled the car back in and started on the wheels. Each wheel was taken off the car in order to paint the wheel weights and get an even coverage of wax. I painted the wheel weights first so they could dry before waxing.





I noticed some heavy swirling on the wheels. I went with Meguiar's D300 with an applicator pad. It's quite abrasive but finishes down well and is easy to remove.





Some swirls were left behind but overall a huge difference. Not bad for doing it by hand!



Blackfire Wet Diamond was used to wax the inside and outside of the wheels. It is easy on and easy off, while leaving months of protection.



While I had the wheels off, it gave me a good chance to dress the entire wheel well. I went with Meguiar's Hyper Dressing. It spreads evenly and leaves behind a glossy finish.







After shot of the wheel all buttoned up. Blackfire Wet Diamond Tire Gel was used to dress the tires.



Time to polish the paint. It wasn't too bad. It was covered in swirl marks, however they were very light. I decided to go with Meguiar's M205 with a white pad. It has long working time and buffs out very easily.



Some areas on the car had some bizarre marks. I have no idea where this came from!



After a couple of passes with the M205, it was gone.



After the entire exterior was polished, it was time to add some protection. I decided to go with Optimum Opti Seal. I have been using this more and more lately. It's an amazing sealant. You can seal a whole car with this stuff in 10 minutes and it will give you months of protection. It will also leave the paint extremely slick and smooth.



The exhaust tips were topped off with Chemical Guys Metal Wax.



Overall, they came out pretty good. Some contamination wouldn't come out.





RainX was applied to all exterior windows. This stuff is awesome. Rain will bead right off your windshield.



~~AFTER SHOTS~~