S4 Machine Polish

darius6745

darius6745

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Alright chaps.

Recently bought a B8 S4 avant and could really do with a machine polish. Its got light swirl marks and the metallic paint is looking a bit dull. I have tried by hand and to be fair not done too bad but its still not great.
I have had a quote of £160 from a local mobile guy which is a decent price but I've just moved house and had another baby so time are hard lol
So im contemplating getting a polisher which I've seen for about £50 and having a go myself. Is this wise or do you think i should wait and leave it to a pro?

cheers in advance
 
£160 sounds very cheap...do you know his experience and what tools he will be using? Audi paint is notoriously hard and typically needs a pretty hard compound to do the cutting, which inevitably leaves hazing, so will need to be followed up with a fine polish to refine and restore clarity. A 2-stage polish on an Avant would take hours...!!

£50 for a polisher sounds cheap as well. Which one is it? Would probably advise you to go for the DAS-6 Pro as the cheapest option. With DAS6PROGROUP discount code (I think...) on cleanyourcar.co.uk you can get it for £99. Will need pads and polishes though....becomes a slippery slope from there on out...!
 
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£160, as said is extremely cheap. We just conducted a 2 stage correction on a B8 S4 and the products alone the customer requested almost came to £150. My words of advice.... generally, you get what you pay for!

Out of interest where are you located?
 
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I think as the others have said it sounds far too cheap. I'd live with it for now and save for a proper correction. Good detailers spend a good chunk of their time fixing cheap detailer's mistakes.
 
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Also remember that the £50 polisher won't come with any pads or polish. I recently bought an equivalent Das 6 Pro + from Clas Olsen for £70 and then spent another £90 on stuff to go with it. After a little trepidation I had a go at machine polishing the car and overall I was pretty pleased with the results. Now it's in no way a professional job and they are still some slight swirls in places as I only used the lightest of polishes (Scholl Concepts S40 anti swirl) but it was a good experience and I don't regret it. I just couldn't justify a proper professional job as Bristle Hound has pointed out it would be at least in excess of £500 and that was a lot more than I was willing to spend. Now if I really liked my car and was thinking of keeping it for a long time it would be different.

The best advice I can give (if you want to try it yourself) is advice I completely ignored as I was too eager to start. Go to a scrappers and get a bonnet off any vag car (preferably the same colour if possible) and practice on that. It realy does give you some experience and confidence before starting on your own. I went to an open day and spent about 2 hours with a pro detailer asking loads of questions and had a go with a DA and an Orbital on a scrap bonnet. The DA was easy to control and it's just about getting the technique right, the Orbital which is what most of the pro's use was a complete and utter nightmare. The damn thing went where it wanted to and was easy to mark the paint if you don't know what your doing. Hence why you need a pro or a lot of experience. He taped the bonnet so you could see the before and after differences and to be honest I would've been over the moon with the result after the first pass, but he thought it was crap and went on to do more passes to reach perfection (and complained that he wouldn't be able to do everything he wanted to as he didn't have the right stuff with him). This is the pro difference really as they want perfection and are willing to achieve it. The home user settles for a lower figure as they don't have the confidence to keep polishing away. I'm still considering having some tuition with him as that's a service he provides and I'm sure would be money well spent.
 
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Supa Koopa said:
Also remember that the £50 polisher won't come with any pads or polish. I recently bought an equivalent Das 6 Pro + from Clas Olsen for £70 and then spent another £90 on stuff to go with it. After a little trepidation I had a go at machine polishing the car and overall I was pretty pleased with the results. Now it's in no way a professional job and they are still some slight swirls in places as I only used the lightest of polishes (Scholl Concepts S40 anti swirl) but it was a good experience and I don't regret it. I just couldn't justify a proper professional job as Bristle Hound has pointed out it would be at least in excess of £500 and that was a lot more than I was willing to spend. Now if I really liked my car and was thinking of keeping it for a long time it would be different.

The best advice I can give (if you want to try it yourself) is advice I completely ignored as I was too eager to start. Go to a scrappers and get a bonnet off any vag car (preferably the same colour if possible) and practice on that. It realy does give you some experience and confidence before starting on your own. I went to an open day and spent about 2 hours with a pro detailer asking loads of questions and had a go with a DA and an Orbital on a scrap bonnet. The DA was easy to control and it's just about getting the technique right, the Orbital which is what most of the pro's use was a complete and utter nightmare. The damn thing went where it wanted to and was easy to mark the paint if you don't know what your doing. Hence why you need a pro or a lot of experience. He taped the bonnet so you could see the before and after differences and to be honest I would've been over the moon with the result after the first pass, but he thought it was **** and went on to do more passes to reach perfection (and complained that he wouldn't be able to do everything he wanted to as he didn't have the right stuff with him). This is the pro difference really as they want perfection and are willing to achieve it. The home user settles for a lower figure as they don't have the confidence to keep polishing away. I'm still considering having some tuition with him as that's a service he provides and I'm sure would be money well spent.
Click to expand...


Thanks for this, it does help and make me want to give it a go, might try on the wife's car first lol
 
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I was in the same position as you, was quoted £700 for a stage 2 correction so decided to buy a da, pads polish and do it myself.

Took some time but eventually got rid of all scratches and swirls.
Image
Image
 
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darius6745 said:
wow that looks amazing! how much did you spend on bits to do it?
Click to expand...
All in about £180 that's including the da pads and polish. It was a lot of trial and error with pads and polishes starting with the least aggressive until I found out Audi paint is very hard so went straight to a heavy cut polish and heavy cut pad.

This combo worked for me:

-Scholl heavy cut polish with a chemical guys orange hex logic heavy-medium cut pad ( this removed the worse scartches and swirl marks)
-Menzerna finishing polish with a chemical guys white polishing pad (this removed finer scratches and any holograms/marring left from the cutting stage)
-black finishing pad to apply glaze ( this gave the paintwork a nice glossy finish)
-also had two lake country spot pads as these are smaller and can reach the hard to get areas

With that combo id say you'd be about the £160 mark to have everything you need to do it yourself obviously excluding your protection after the polish, wax etc.

Hope this helps
 
I need to have another go at doing mine, i used megs ultimate which probably helped a little but didn't really remove much of the swirling etc, will have to get a harder compound and have another go in the summer!
 
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