Hi All,
This isnt really so much of a detailing thread more of a rant and request for advice, but it does show what can be done with the basic detailing kit.
I bought this car from Shrewsbury Audi last week, part ex for my beautiful S4 which had to go. I paid what I think is top money for the Avant and got bottom money for the S4. To be honest I wasnt in the right frame of mind to buy the car and didnt spend long enough looking it over. When I started cleaning the car I was appalled at its condition and cant believe the dealers screwed me so much.
On face value the car looks ok with whatever Audi valeters use to hide defects -
Started with a good snow foam left to dwell and brushed into badges, shuts etc followed by a good wash with Jeffs Autowash followed by a dry off with towels.
Its at this point that the trouble started, to be honest I nearly cried, the car had so many paint defects it was untrue, scratches everywhere and the level of contamination was unbelievable, the only way I can describe is that it felt like a uniform overspray accross every surface except for the bonnet and the front apron.
There where full body length scratches along the passenger side -
Nasty scratches on the rear arches -
Stone Chip peppering on the front arches, the front apron has been sprayed -
Scratches over every door handle -
After pulling myself together I set too with the clay, this was a brand new piece of clay, this is what came off the windows alone -
Then it was out with the DA, using Menzerna RD3.02 on a lake country cutting pad and multiple passes I was able to remove about 80% of the defects but it took about 7 hours work. I made another pass with Menzerna 85RE which gave good results, another 2 hours work -
On too day two, I gave the car another wash to remove all the residue from polishing. Moved to a lighter pad and polished using LimePrime in a couple of passes. Then on to glazing pads and PoorBoys Blackhole Glaze applied in a single pass, polished off then a single coat of Blackfire Midnight Sun wax, intending to give another coat 24hrs later only its rained since I finished the car! Managed to take a couple of shots before it got too bad -
Apologies for the quality of the phots didnt get much time. So I have rescued the car I believe although I need to do another day on stone chips and deeper scratches.
I had a chance to clean the engine bay on friday night, it was filthy and had obviously never been cleaned, used Mequiars Super Degreaser, painted the raised lettering on the engine cover red because the silver had stripped (I used the paint seam roller technique which is dead easy!) and dressed all the hoses with Aerospace and treated any furred alloy housings with WD40 -
At the time of buying the car I was told the wheels where being re-furbished due to bad kurbing, I didnt realise until cleaning them that only two have been re-furbished so I now have two completely different coloured sets of wheels!
Just to make matters worse I spotted an issue with the accelerator during the test drive and although I told the salesman about it no effort was made to fix it as the fault was still there when I picked the car up, then to make matters even more worse when I got home and with the car fully warmed up I could hear a nasty rattle coming from the high pressure fuel pump housing, so the car has been back for the accelerator issue to be fixed and has to go back again for the fuel pump issued to be sorted.
So advice time, not a happy bunny, some of this is my fault because I didnt check the vehicle enough but then I went to an Audi dealer because I fully expected to get a car that was sorted for the £13,850 I paid which I think is high for a vehicle of 52K mileage and what I would describe as poor condition. Do you think I have a case based on my experience and the photos to make a strong complaint? at the very least I want the other 3 wheels refurbed and the illegal spare tyre replaced!
How much would it have cost me to have all the defects professionally corrected? Perhaps I could go for the materials costs at least.
Or am I wrong in expecting an Audi dealership to make more effort with its cars before they are sold?
Apologies for the long post!
This isnt really so much of a detailing thread more of a rant and request for advice, but it does show what can be done with the basic detailing kit.
I bought this car from Shrewsbury Audi last week, part ex for my beautiful S4 which had to go. I paid what I think is top money for the Avant and got bottom money for the S4. To be honest I wasnt in the right frame of mind to buy the car and didnt spend long enough looking it over. When I started cleaning the car I was appalled at its condition and cant believe the dealers screwed me so much.
On face value the car looks ok with whatever Audi valeters use to hide defects -
Started with a good snow foam left to dwell and brushed into badges, shuts etc followed by a good wash with Jeffs Autowash followed by a dry off with towels.
Its at this point that the trouble started, to be honest I nearly cried, the car had so many paint defects it was untrue, scratches everywhere and the level of contamination was unbelievable, the only way I can describe is that it felt like a uniform overspray accross every surface except for the bonnet and the front apron.
There where full body length scratches along the passenger side -
Nasty scratches on the rear arches -
Stone Chip peppering on the front arches, the front apron has been sprayed -
Scratches over every door handle -
After pulling myself together I set too with the clay, this was a brand new piece of clay, this is what came off the windows alone -
Then it was out with the DA, using Menzerna RD3.02 on a lake country cutting pad and multiple passes I was able to remove about 80% of the defects but it took about 7 hours work. I made another pass with Menzerna 85RE which gave good results, another 2 hours work -
On too day two, I gave the car another wash to remove all the residue from polishing. Moved to a lighter pad and polished using LimePrime in a couple of passes. Then on to glazing pads and PoorBoys Blackhole Glaze applied in a single pass, polished off then a single coat of Blackfire Midnight Sun wax, intending to give another coat 24hrs later only its rained since I finished the car! Managed to take a couple of shots before it got too bad -
Apologies for the quality of the phots didnt get much time. So I have rescued the car I believe although I need to do another day on stone chips and deeper scratches.
I had a chance to clean the engine bay on friday night, it was filthy and had obviously never been cleaned, used Mequiars Super Degreaser, painted the raised lettering on the engine cover red because the silver had stripped (I used the paint seam roller technique which is dead easy!) and dressed all the hoses with Aerospace and treated any furred alloy housings with WD40 -
At the time of buying the car I was told the wheels where being re-furbished due to bad kurbing, I didnt realise until cleaning them that only two have been re-furbished so I now have two completely different coloured sets of wheels!
Just to make matters worse I spotted an issue with the accelerator during the test drive and although I told the salesman about it no effort was made to fix it as the fault was still there when I picked the car up, then to make matters even more worse when I got home and with the car fully warmed up I could hear a nasty rattle coming from the high pressure fuel pump housing, so the car has been back for the accelerator issue to be fixed and has to go back again for the fuel pump issued to be sorted.
So advice time, not a happy bunny, some of this is my fault because I didnt check the vehicle enough but then I went to an Audi dealer because I fully expected to get a car that was sorted for the £13,850 I paid which I think is high for a vehicle of 52K mileage and what I would describe as poor condition. Do you think I have a case based on my experience and the photos to make a strong complaint? at the very least I want the other 3 wheels refurbed and the illegal spare tyre replaced!
How much would it have cost me to have all the defects professionally corrected? Perhaps I could go for the materials costs at least.
Or am I wrong in expecting an Audi dealership to make more effort with its cars before they are sold?
Apologies for the long post!
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