Wes_R x R8 (113 pics)
 

Hi everybody,

Todays write up is on a Ibis White R8 with the silver side blade, very classy in my opinion. I had seen this R8 before near the area where I had grown up and can actually remember spotting it one night on my way to the Pacquiao vs Clottey fight(I asked the owner later to confirm it was him). Funny how a car you admire on the street just ends up in your drive way... I love it when life works out like that :).

Anyway let's get into the write up.



Here she is and a quick walk around of the car.
Attachment 30720

Attachment 30721

Attachment 30722

Attachment 30723

Attachment 30724



I start with the wheels/engine/exhaust first, reason being things can get messy and you wouldn't want that mess with a clean already washed car. So we start with these areas first.

Brake dust covered rim
Attachment 30725

Applying Autoglym Custom Wheel Cleaner.

Anything non acidic to clean your rim is best and one thing I love about this cleaner is it's ability to pull dirt out of the tire very well and with some agitation you can turn a brown tire back into black which is great for later on when you apply the tire dressing. You wouldn't wax a dirty car would you? But yet a lot of people dress their tires while they are still dirty not realizing brake dust gets on the tire to.
Attachment 30726

Agitating the inner barrel with my EZ Brush.
Attachment 30727

Cleaning the rim face with a microfibre mitt.
Attachment 30728

And cleaning the caliper with my Race Glaze Brush.
Attachment 30729



Cleaned up the exhaust as well.

Here they are with some Chemical Guys Grime Reaper applied to them.
Attachment 30730

Used my mini EZ Brush to clean in between the dual exhaust.
Attachment 30731

And a 0000 steel wool pad to clean inside the pipes.
Attachment 30732

Here is an after of how the driver's side looks.
Attachment 30733

I didn't want to do an all out cleaning on the engine as I believe this is the same V8 from the RS4 and the coils are exposed, so to get them wet would mean problems. Yet I couldn't just leave the engine bay dusty because it is on display and will be looked at. So I used Optimum Power Clean cut 30/70 with water and wiped the engine bay down with a damp microfibre cloth getting clean areas that I could reach. Afterwards I wiped on Meguiars Hyper Dressing cut 20/80 with water for a natural finish.

Here is an after pic of the engine bay.
Attachment 30707



Just before the wash I wanted to clean up all the mesh vents & etc. So I took my Race Glaze Brush and the Optimum Power Clean and cleaned up all these areas first.
Attachment 30708

http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/n...ommysr8/20.jpg

Attachment 30709

http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/n...ommysr8/17.jpg

Attachment 30710



After brushing out the vents I foamed down the car with Prep Wash to strip off any silicones that might have been applied to the paint. Doing this would help reveal the true condition of the paint stripping off any filler products that might have been hiding anything.
Attachment 30711

Let it dwell for a bit while I prepared to wash the car.
Attachment 30712



The two bucket method was used to wash the car. The reason for washing with two buckets is simple one bucket is water the other soap, after every panel you rinse off the dirt from your wash media in the water only bucket before you dip it back in the soap bucket. Doing it this way prevents you from dragging dirt all over your paint causing more swirls on the paint. Some can say that I am going to polish out the swirls any way but I feel it is backwards to induce more while I am washing.
http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/n...ommysr8/23.jpg

Natural Sea Sponge was my wash media.
Attachment 30713



Dried off the car with my waffle weave towels and then brought it in to clay the paint.

For those of you not to familiar with what clay does, it basically sheers out contaminants embedded in the paint. This can be raildust, fallout, or even just tiny dirt debris. If you wash your car and run your hands along the paint you will probably find that it is rough. What you are feeling is the surface contaminants.

Riccardo Yellow clay was used. I had run out of lube which is usually Meguairs Last Touch cut 50/50 with water but this time it was just straight water.
http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/n...ommysr8/25.jpg

Paint was fairly contaminated but not terribly.
Attachment 30714



Moving along I measured the paint to look out for any low spots or if anything had been repainted. I found the paint to be fairly thick with every panel being 170 microns or more with the average being about 200 microns. I found it funny that a stone chip I noticed still had paint in it instead of exposed metal, just to give you an idea of how thick the paint was as well Audi paint is known to be rock hard so that helps to.
Attachment 30715

Attachment 30716

Attachment 30717



I masked up all the non metallic trim to protect them from getting burnt.
Attachment 30718

Attachment 30719

Now we begin the surgery.

I was hoping to just 1 step polish the paint but with Audi paint being rock hard I had to 2 step it to correct the swirls and then to jewel the paint to a high gloss.

My process for the first step was Meguiars M205 with a Lake Country orange pad on the Makita rotary and here are the results I was getting.

Before
Attachment 30690

After
Attachment 30691

Before
Attachment 30692

After
Attachment 30693

Before(I don't know what happened here, but it looks like brillio pad work)
Attachment 30694

After
Attachment 30695

Before
Attachment 30696

After
Attachment 30697

Before
Attachment 30698

After
Attachment 30699

Before
Attachment 30700

After
Attachment 30701

Before
Attachment 30702

After
Attachment 30703

Before
Attachment 30704

After
http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/n...ommysr8/41.jpg

Before
Attachment 30705

After
Attachment 30706

Before
Attachment 30672

After
Attachment 30673



The tail lights were even swirly so I gave those a polish to.

Before
Attachment 30674

After(this was after one hit, to correct it better it required a second hit)
Attachment 30675



I gave the car a wipe down with ipa alcohol cut 50/50 with water and then jeweled the paint with a grey 3M backing plate, a white Lake Country pad, and Menzerna PO85rd.

Here is a shot of me jeweling the paint.
Attachment 30676

And the results of my work.
Attachment 30677

Attachment 30678



After a couple hours of jeweling the paint and completing the last step I finally unmasked the car.
Attachment 30679

http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/n...ommysr8/58.jpg

Dusted out the crevices.
Attachment 30680

And then gave the paint a 2nd ipa wipe down to clean off the polishing oils.
Attachment 30681

Attachment 30682

Here she is cleaned up. No wax yet but still a nice gloss because of the jeweling.
Attachment 30683

As well before doing my last steps I double checked the paint with my 3M Sun Gun which omits the same spectrum light as the sun.
Attachment 30684

No swirls.
Attachment 30685


On to the waxing now to protect the new finish.

Wax for the day is Swissvax Concorso.
Attachment 30686

Attachment 30687



While the wax was curing I cleaned the windows with my Glass Master Pro and Stoners Invisible Glass.
Attachment 30688

Dressed the tires with Blackfire Long Lasting Tyre Gel which was applied then wiped off later for a natural finish. And I applied Poorboys Wheel Sealant to the rims to protect against brake dust and the exhaust as well.
Attachment 30689

Poorboys Wheel Sealant on the rims
Attachment 30660

An after pic of the rims and tires.
Attachment 30661

And Poorboys Wheel Sealant on the exhaust.
Attachment 30662

And an after pic of the exhaust.
Attachment 30663



I wiped off the wax and rolled it out to inspect it under the "light of truth".

Perfection(not really lol, there were a few deeper scratches but we got close enough)
Attachment 30664

Attachment 30665

Attachment 30666

Attachment 30667



Now the after pics and the fruits of my labour.

As a quick explanation, I did not adjust the white balance on my camera properly so the pics have a blue tinge to them but to be honest I kind of like it as it makes them look artsy fartsy. Anyway you be the judge.

Attachment 30668

Attachment 30669

Attachment 30670

Attachment 30671

Attachment 30644

Attachment 30645

Attachment 30646

Attachment 30647

I really like the gloss in this pic, not bad for a white car huh.
Attachment 30648

You can't have the engine exposed like this and not take a pic of it.
http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/n...ommysr8/83.jpg

Attachment 30649

Attachment 30650

Attachment 30651

Attachment 30652

Attachment 30653

Attachment 30654

Attachment 30655

Attachment 30656

Attachment 30657

I really like the composition in this pic.
Attachment 30658

Attachment 30659

I thought the reflection on the hood was crazy, it looks like another dimension in there.
Attachment 30630

A couple of those "cool guy" pics. No dry steering was involved in these shots.
http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/n...mmysr8/112.jpg

Attachment 30631

Attachment 30632

I like the way the hood looks in this shot.
Attachment 30633

Attachment 30634

Attachment 30635

The gloss in this shot looks crazy too.
http://i300.photobucket.com/albums/n...mmysr8/102.jpg

Attachment 30636

Attachment 30637

Attachment 30638

Attachment 30639

Attachment 30640

Attachment 30641

Attachment 30642



And the money shot.
Attachment 30643





I hope you enjoyed reading through and seeing the transformation, as well as picked up a couple things on the proper way of taking care of your car.

All comments are welcome and any questions feel free to ask.

Cheers,
Wes

I love this show!! I watch it everytime its on tv even if its a re-runn. This tron car is also so cool, how did you get the wheels to light up like that?

Good job, looks very nice. How much would you charge for a detail like that?
Mine dosen't need that extensive of a cleaning, it's just an A4. My wife's BMW needs something like that bad.