VW Golf III Cabriolet (1998) - detail job

Actually not my car but from my sister-in-law. As another car will not be bought shortly, the assignment was to improve the overall look of this 15 year old work horse. It is stored in a garage but used as a daily driver.

It has less then 100K on the clock and truly is a nice car IMO. A modest 90 horses under the hood, but perfectly suitable for some summer cruising y'all! The convertible roof can be opened and closed manually with the biggest ease - who needs fancy hardtops which automatically fold into the back anyway?

This model still has the boxier Golf style I am quite fond of. Call it a modern classic if you like, beats me. For the average Joe, the outside of this car seems to be in a good state. However, taking a closer look, inspecting the details, this showed otherwise, especially in full sunlight. Trauma attack!

Like the major part of our national car park, this car was washed in a improper way which caused swirls and holograms on the paint. Some of them were quite severe, it was no problem to catch them on camera. Other things I noticed were the neglected wheels, although I could see that the options in improving these were limited. Last but not least: The scarce plastic parts were lifeless gray. Definitely not my definition of a sunny ride!

First thing I did is covering this sucker in foam, seemingly there was less dirt then expected on the car so might have been overkill. Anyhow, there is no such thing as snow in August! After foaming I degreased the tires and cleaned the inside of the wheel arches (all of the mud there is quite annoying when the rest of the car is clean, trust me). Speaking about wheel gap, a hobo could sleep in the area between the tire and wheel arch! I had no problems putting my big trusty brush in (sound odd huh?).

The wheels were a nightmare and actually they still are. I used water, car shampoo and rim cleaner, but even had to pull out an old toothbrush to remove the dirt from the front wheels. Damages and cladded paint I ain't restoring sir, plus the wheels are quite closed so it was not doable to clean the inside thoroughly. At a certain point in your life, you will find a state of acceptance. So I figured this state of mind would definitely work for the wheels and made the best of it :)

The convertible top looked pretty good, but I have aquired some stuff to improve the look. Before doing so, I cleaned the top with All Purpose Cleaner and water 1:10 and again a trusty brush (where would we be without 'em)! Engine bay was as expected for an older car, a gathering of dirt, sand and oily pieces - even with low mileage. I know I showed some legendary engine-bay-cleaning-thingy in other topics, but I am going to skip it now. 'Nuff said.

Pic 6: Pino has left the building. That was some serious crap which needed removal!

Well, at least the crap was on the windshield!

It's a little easier that way.

Nice job!

Thanks!

Last days I treated the bodywork. Started on the hood, it took 3 hits with a medium polish before I found it acceptable. Actually it already looked pretty decent after 1 hit, so the paint on this VAG product was not too hard (on the newer models it seems to be a bee-atch). But in the naked sunlight there was still room for improvement, hence 3 hits on which I continued for the whole car. After polishing each panel I made a final hit with a cleaner, which creates the famous wetlook. Tada! Next couple of pic's - work in progress (sometimes I hate my hobby, so many hours put in polishing panel by panel ...). But results are always satisfying.

The interior I treated with stuff called Natural Look, this works fantastic. Making plastic in interior look new again without too much dramatic shine - simply looks natural I guess. Then some vacuum cleaning and the interior was finished. I believe an extractor would have worked great getting the dirt out of those old seats and benches but I simply do not have one.

Plus the long awaited engine bay pic - I could not resist plus it is still acceptable-ish regarding how it was earlier.

Damn fella, you visiting Aus any time soon? My car could use a thorough going over!

[quote=pimento;999806]Damn fella, you visiting Aus any time soon? My car could use a thorough going over![/quote]

Sure, that would be one of the things I [I]love[/I] to do after being in a plane for over 24 hours ;)

But for UCP members I guess I can make an exception! Now hold your horses - time is the limiting factor here.

But the Golf is finished, and the results are here.

Paint correction is 90%. Sure, there will always be scratches and the car is so clean now that every parking dent or small damage is visible. But for a 15 year old car it is a drastic improvement.

The metallic paint job had a complete make over, the wheels are acceptable clean and the plastic parts show black again. Cheers!

Looks fantastic! I am jealous of your patience and your skill. At some point I need to completely clean the CelSup as well as repair a few nicks in the paint.

Indeed excellent. If you fancy popping down to Catalunya I've got a challenge for you.

Then we can get wasted on beers and stuff! :D

Thanks guys!

I like to show that with the proper tools and a lot of patience each car can definitely look (almost) new again.

@Ferrer - Sounds good to me, especially the beers & stuff part :)