This particular Bora V5 belonged to Andy's wife who had booked a Gold Waxxx Detail and wanted to see me at work as he had just purchased a Porter Cable 7424 and was looking to learn the ropes as he also had a Volkswagen Corrado he wished to tackle himself. Andy duly arrived at 9.30am as planned and we began to look over the Bora for defects. It was fairly evident under the bright sunlight that the panels housed a fair amount of swirl marks although, other than that, the car looked very clean and tidy indeed.

I began the detail by rinsing the wheels and applied a dose of Carlack Wheel Cleaner and left it to dwell for 3-4 minutes in which time I rinsed the rest of the car. After cleaning the wheels with a range of wheelbrushes, I shampooed the car with Meguiars Gold Class Shampoo & Conditioner and rinsed it clean. Claying was next up and I used a new block of Meguiars Quik Clay with the aid of Meguiars Quik Detailer acting as lube. It was evident after claying the roof and bonnet that the car had been clayed in the distant past and Andy confirmed he had clayed the car just three months ago. I continued to clay the remainder of the car since I had already started paying closer attention to the lower sills. The residue was then wiped clean with a microfibre and Quik Detailer.

Onto the polishing stage and I set up a test area on the roof and hit the spot with a Sonus SFX-2 Polishing Pad sporting Menzerna Intensive Polish PO91L on the Porter Cable 7424 on speed setting 5 and following a wipedown noticed the swirl marks looked untouched. I decided since we were tackling extremely hard Volkswagen paint that I should cut to the chase and tried the test area with a Sonus SFX-1 Cutting Pad sporting Menzerna Power Gloss S34A. The combination worked very well and around 80% correction was achieved via one hit. To refine the finish and remove the substantial micro marring I hit the area with a Sonus SFX-3 Finishing Pad sporting Menzerna Final Finish PO85RD and this combination of pad and polish improved the finish and left a nice gloss to the paintwork. I proceeded to work the rest of the roof and bootlid with the same combination of pad and polishes. I then allowed Andy to have a go with the PC7424 on the bonnet just to get a feel for the machine on a flat horizontal panel. After a couple of minutes he admitted that it was not as easy as he first envisaged and struggled with the vibrations on speed setting 5. I eventually took over and finished the bonnet and side panels.

After a bite to eat and a brief discussion, Andy and I decided to use a glaze followed by a wax for the finishing stage. A coat of Meguiars #7 Show Car Glaze was thinly applied with an applicator pad panel by panel and buffed within a few seconds as we did not want the glaze drying in the hot weather. This was followed by a thin coat of Swissvax Saphir wax which was applied with an applicator pad and buffed after 10 minutes or so. Even in the hot temperature the wax cured extremely well and buffed with ease. The combination of glaze and wax worked tremendously well bringing out the flake in the paintwork with great effect.

Onto the wheels and Andy and I worked Chemical Guys Wheel Guard into the alloys using our fingers to get into the spokes. The excess was then removed with a polishing cloth and I dressed the tyrewalls with Chemical Guys New Look Trim Gel. The windows were then polished with AutoGlym Fast Glass which completed the detail.

Upon standing back, Andy was astounded with the finish and was extremely pleased with what had been achieved on the paintwork. The flake was outstanding and the paint had a true wet-look finish. Under the sun, I did notice a few minor marks here and there but Andy was having none of it and could not have wished for a sharper finish. Around 90% correction was achieved throughout which was not too bad considering we were dealing with hard German paint and the severity of the swirl marks to begin with.



The photos - click thumbnails to enlarge