Hey Everyone, great idea on the thread and thankyou for the information,

I do however have a question:

I have recently purchased a Lava Grey A3 S-line and the sales guy is trying to get me to go with the supaguard extra. I had it on my last A3 (Phantom Black) which made it quite easy to clean and they gave me some high quality wax which was great but,

Is Supaguard worth it?
Is there an alternative? (i dont mind putting some work into it)
I have heard some wax can be quite abrasive, is this true?

Thanks
Steve

 

Steve,

I'd recommend skipping the dealership offer protection. You would be much better off prepping your own vehicle at a fraction of the cost along with much higher quality results. How much is the dealership trying to charge for their protection? I'm assuming $1,000 or more. Their process is no better than you applying a quality sealant no matter what they try to tell you. I've heard some dealerships try to tell people they don't have to wax their car for 5 years. From my experience, there are hardly any products that make it past the 6 month mark (some will under the right conditions).

Any pure wax is non-abrasive. There may be a few cleaner waxes as they are called, or all in one products, that try to correct imperfections while protecting the paint at the same time. These products are fine for saving time, but the results are not nearly as good as if you are using a seperate polish and a seperate wax. This would be the only time there may be abrasives in the wax. What you may have it confused with is that swirls and imperfections can happen when waxing IF: 1) your applicator is contaminated 2) the surface has not been properly prepped during the washing and claying phase 3) you use a non-paint safe towel when removing the product. So if you have a new applicator, you properly prepped the paint and removed any contamination on the surface, you will not create any imperfections when waxing your paint (unless you are grinding the pad into the paint which should be common sense not to). Make sure you remove any product with a quality microfiber towel and you should be fine.

I encourage you to fully prep your own vehicle for optimal results. Here is a great thread to get you started if you are interested in reading about properly prepping your own new car. I'd be happy to put together a package based on your needs to get the most out of your new A3 S-line. Caring for it properly from day 1 is the best thing you can do and will save you a lot of time and energy in the future, potentially correcting imperfections that the dealer was kind enough to add in your paint.

For some further reading on the detailing process, read through some of these helpful detailing how-to's.

Let me know if you have any questions on anything.

George

 

Hi George

Thanks for taking the time to reply to me. I have over the weekend used the little wax i had left from my previous cars supaguard package, which is 'ok' but im out of wax now, out of alloy cleaner and have no interior products or glass cleaner at all.

The garage are trying to charge me £250 (as i live in the uk), so, if you could put me together a package, assuming you deliver to uk, that would be great. Assume i have nothing (as i basically dont). I started off more concerned about the outside of the car having never had a previous car with leather, however i am reading a fair amount on 'you need to look after the leather' as well, so whatever you recommend i will look into.

Thanks in advance
Steve

 

Steve,

We ship all over the world.

I'll be shooting you a PM for a package to fit your needs. Look for it in a few minutes.

George

 

Thanks for addressing my questions about wax/sealant, George.

Can you give us some tips on dealing with windows? I have two scenarios on my hands:

1. Older car, 5-7 years old. Windows are badly damaged by water etching.
2. New car, windows in perfect shape.

I've tried hand polishing the etched windows with a light polish to little effect. Thought I'd ask around before trying with the PC.

Can a normal paint polish be used on windows? Are spray waxes/sealants at all useful on glass?

 

I just wanted to add that I have been following this thread as a lurker and decided to order some product from Detailed Image to detail the black A4 I have. I spent a few hours detailing my car today following George's step-by-step instructions andthe results were very satisfying. I've been detailing cars for some years now, but I learned a lot from this thread and George's advice. Black cars are difficult to keep shining, but mine is now.

Thank you!

 

scottburton11,

Regarding the neglected windows. Try using a mixture of water and distilled vinegar (50/50). This will remove any mineral / calcium deposits that are often left behind in water spots. If that does work, you can try a cream glass polish, such as Glass Scrub.

If neither of those do the trick, you'll have to resort to something more aggressive, which at that point I'd recommend seeking the advice from a professional. You do not want to risk making your glass worse for visibility reasons / liability, and to really put a dent in removing imperfections such as pitting, scratches, swirls in glass, you need a rotary buffer that spins 10k+ RPMs.

For regular maintenance on your glass, I typically will prep the outside windows with the Glass Scrub mentioned above at least once a season (or as needed) and follow up with Stoner's Invisible Glass for regular maintenance. Best way to get a streak free shine is I use 3 towels. 2 general purpose microfiber towels and 1 glass specific microfiber towel with a low nap. The way I use them is I'll mist a quick spray of Stoner's onto my first general purpose towel to apply the product. Thinner is better, the less product on the glass the better chance of a streak free finish. I'll use the second general purpose to wipe away 90+% of the excess product, moving slowly and overlapping each pass. I'll finish up with the glass specific microfiber towel, again wiping slow and applying some pressure, which should leave you with a streak free finish.

You can apply a sealant or wax to the glass to have it sheet off the water / contamination easily. Ideally, you want to prep the surface with something like the Glass Scrub prior to application for best results. Typical waxes do not usually hold up as well as a synthetic sealant because of the pressure from the blades, it strips off protectant rather effortlessly. A good combo to try out if you're interested in the Glass Scrub is this glass kit, with the GS and Rain Clear Gel, which is like RainX on steroids.

Let us know if that water / vinegar mixture does anything on the water spots.

bagherra - Great to hear you are getting better results using some tips you picked up from this forum. If you have any questions on anything please do not hesitate to ask. We greatly appreciate your support of Detailed Image. Post some pictures if you can of some of your work!

George

 

Hi George,
Here are some pix of the A4 and 996 post detail. It was a lot of hard work - 7-8 hours for both cars combined, but I'm happy with the results.





Reflection of the sky on the A4 bonnet:

 

bagherra - Thanks for sharing the pictures of your work. You can definitely tell that you put a lot of time and effort into the vehicles. Great job on the details!

George

 

Quick n' Brite, for everything