Slangwerks

Cracking beading mate, love that car!

I don't know anything about web design but I know when a site looks clean and professional - and that does, just the job to fit with the name! Should be really good when you've got customer galleries etc on there too.

G3 is great if you know what you're doing, but it's highly abrasive and will easily mar the surface of the paint, similar to hard T-cut use, so I'd avoid it if you're just gettig familiar with cutting polishes etc.

Hi mate, The Meg's 3 step system is great and will probably help give your car a good shine. I really like steps 1 and 2 but step 3 isn't great, as it doesn't last very long. Personally I'd buy steps 1 and 2 and then get Meguiar's Gold Class wax or NXT tech wax instead of step 3. Gotta agree with the above though, a machine polish would work wonders, so that should be your next consideration if you're still not happy with the finish.

Likewise mate! :D

Today's task was my mate Dave's bora! Overall the car is kept very nice, but the previous owner's wash regime and 90 miles a day commute have taken a bit of a toll on the paint. The detail didn't start until quite late so it was more of a 'sort the worst bits' than '100% correction' detail. Before - Washed with Sonus shampoo with 2 bucket method and lambswool mitt, wheels and arches cleaned with CG degreaser, then wheels hit with meg's hot rims and wheel brush to get some stubborn ish off. Dryed with last touch and a CG magic dryer waffleweave. then onto the paint. Some of the swirls: And there was a fair bit of hologramming on the door and 1/4 panel - looks like the previous owner had a go with a polisher and something harsh! So - to work. We knew the clear would be rock hard so went with Menzerna Intensive Polish on an SFX-1 pad, using the 'slow cut' technique. Was my first time using Menzerna and slow cut, but it worked well on the swirls and we got good results after two hits on the bonnet: before After better photo with LED torch The menzerna sorted the hologramming too - didn't get a great pic though (wrong area! Although I couldn't find where the hologramming used to be to phot it, so that must be a plus point!) With the main problems tackled we just had time to sort a glaze and sealent out - so we glazed the car with Clearkote RMG, then sealed with CG FS acrylic sealent. then dressed all trim and tyres with sonus, cleaned glass with AG fast glass. The results: Not bad for a short day and hard paint!

3Corsameal - I agree with riley in most respects, but if you do decide to remove the swirls by hand using Scratch-X then you will need a few things: 1) Patience - VW paint is usually very tough, even when machine polishing, so you will have to do the same section 4 or 5 times to really start getting the defects out 2) Applicators - meguiar's foam applicators are good, but Sonus professional hand applicators are better and easier to use for swirl correction by hand -have a look at http://www.cleanyourcar.co.uk for some. 3) Pressure - Scratch X contains diminishing abrasives, which work by starting off as large particles to cut the paint, then as you work the product they break down, leaving a nice smooth finish. To get them to perform properly you'll have to use a lot of elbow grease, or 'use a bit of passion' as Meguiars say. Products like T-cut don't have dimishing abrasives, so Riley's right about these - the more pressure you use the more chance you have of going through to the primer! :shock: Don't know if it's been mentioned but you'll have to wax etc on top of whatever product you use, as when you're 'cutting' paint the first things to go are the top layers, so wax/sealent etc will be removed. As I said, VAG paint is tough, especially by hand, so a lot of people opt to fill the swirls instead of cutting them out, as Jedi explained. If you want to permanently remove swirls and not just temporarily 'fill' them though, it might be worth paying a detailer to machine polish your paint to give you a perfect finish.

Nice work mate, car looks 100% better!

Jim - Have a look at the bonnet I've just done on a mate's MK1 cabrio: Didn't take a before shot, but here's the mid point: As you can see, the half I haven't attacked yet is very faded and milky Here's the finished article: This car had been t-cutted so much that the paint had been burnt through in quite a few places - for this reason I tried not to use anything abrasive (machine polishing was a no-no due to how thin the paint is) I used Meguiar's Deep Crystal paint cleaner (£8 from halfords) and this did the majority of the work, it's a chemical cleaner so removed the dead paint without stripping any of the good stuff (like T-cut does) I then followed this up with Meguiars #7 glaze and an acrylic sealent to 'lock in' the nourishment. I agree with PhatVR6 that Zymol HD cleanse is probably the best stuff to use on faded red, but if you're after a budget option the Meguiars paint cleaner should give you results without too much paint loss! By the way, the Zymol you use is 'cleaner wax' so if you use a polish before putting it on your zymol will actually remove some of it! Some 'proper' zymol or any decent Carnauba wax will give better results (with much less dust!)

Looks great mate, excellent wheel choice! Just put 16" RX's on mine, and they're definately lighter than the 15"s that came off - probably the loss of unsprung weight that's making your C handle better!

Cheers mate, The wheels are BBS RX in 7x16" 4x100 ET 42 (vauxhall offset) The wheels were custom refurbed by John Williams (owner of the black corrado above) in a smoke chrome finish. The vauxhall offset means they tuck in the arches nicely, great for a low C!might space the backs out until I can afford to go a bit lower!

swfblade - Cheers mate, mine isn't Dragon Green, looks exactly the same as Rico's in the shade, it just goes wild when the sun hits it, there's loads of metalflake in the paint! More pics here! http://www.the-corrado.net/.archive/forum/viewtopic.php?p=538375#538375

Cheers guys, really looking forward to E38 now! Thanks Bal, I've definately gotta go lower - as the wheels were originally on an awesomely low corrado that used to belong to Scruffydubber I think it would be rude not to go for a bigger drop!

Cheers guys, hopefully have a few more tweaks coming before E38 - we'll see!

Hi Everyone, I had to sell my Golf G60 Edition One a month ago as I needed money to sort out my wedding/debts etc, but there was no way I was going without a dub! So I figured the time was right to get a Corrado - I'd always wanted one and with decent 16vs around for good money I took the plunge and picked this up off forum member Wcrado (cheers mate).... 1990 1.8 16v in LA6U Dark Green Metallic, with some nice engine bits, lowered 60mm on 15x7 Melbers. The car was in good condition with a recent respray but was still full of G3 compound dust in all the door shuts and interior, and it had an intermittent starting problem. I've set myself a budget of 2.5k for purchase, upgrades and mods, and so far I've still got a bit left to spend! Pics from yesterday after the fitting of some new bits and a decent clean... Let me know what you think!

Looks great mate, plus your corrado is the same colour as mine - don't see many in this shade! Here's a pic with the sun out so peeps can see the colour better!

I ran a set of these on one of my Golfs (black 8v GTI) They're a nice rim and have aged well considering they came out a fair while ago! Think i'd prefer the keskins in a wide 16" to the BK's as they only come in fairly standard width 17" IIRC. Whichever one you choose they won't look bad!

Looks nice, really like those (bargain too you jammy get!!) Centres painted black would look ace too mind...

Very good guide there Jedi mate! I think the reason Megs supply a Quik Detailer spray with their clay (as opposed to plain water) is because, as you mention, the clay is quite hard so may need more lubrication than water alone would provide (could possibly mar the paint/clearcoat if not lubricated well enough?) Also it means they can charge a lot more for it! :lol: I'd be interested to try some 3m clay if it's as good as you say!

Cheers for the offer mate! I'm in Cardiff, but will probably get my mate who runs his own VW specialist (DUBusiness VW) to fit the new switch. I can clean cars like a legend, but not fix em!

As Steveo29 says, sounds like you're putting on too much mate.... NXT wax is a multiple use product - It contains glazing oils to give a wet look, light fillers to mask swirl marks and scratches, mild cleaners to remove stains from paint and some synthetic sealant to offer some paint protection. I love NXT, but you've got to be very sparing with it in order to avoid 'oily' looking patches in the paint. The best way to avoid these is apply the wax in two light coats, 24 hours apart to allow it to bond to the car, removing the wax and buffing with a clean microfibre cloth each time - if you're not using microfibre cloths then removing NXT is major ball-ache!! Also, if you top NXT with a carnauba wax (Poorboys Natty's Blue is my fave) it will be much more durable as it doesn't last that long on it's own. I love Meguiar's stuff but don't rate #3 Carnauba wax at all, it's got hardly any carnauba in it and doesn't seem to last more than a few days. harder paste wax like Poorboys Nattys, Chemical Guys XXX wax, Harly Wax, or even Meguiars gold class are all better for the money!

Tried it last night and the problem reoccurred, reading another thread someone suggested that if the ignition switch is on the way out then wiggling the key around can sometimes get the car to start. Tried a bit of wiggling and she started straight away, so looks like it may be the ignition switch - gonna replace it on the weekend and see if that cures it!

Perhaps...but the guys on the other two threads had the same problem when the ambient temp was high, unlikely to be a coincidence in all three cases. I might look at changing the switch anyway, if they're not too expensive - at least it would rule it out if it's not the problem!

Tried the search and there are two other threads with similar symptoms, but neither of them were resolved... Was thinking ingnition switch but not sure why the ambient temperature would cause it to fail/work intermittently?? Cheers!

Hi Guys. I've got a bit of an intermittent starting problem on my 16v corrado. Normally the car starts fine first time, a little bit rough sometimes but it's cammed up so thats to be expected. However, if it's warm, humid or sunny (as it has been lots recently) the key will turn to the first position, you'll hear the fuel pump come on and the dash lights blink correctly, as normal. Then if you turn the key to start the car nothing happens. It just doesn't fire and sits there. You've either got to try about seventy times or wait a minute or so and see if it will fire, sometimes it will, sometimes it wont. It doesn't matter if the car has been driven and the engine is warm, I took it for a 40-mile drive on Saturday morning, and it started first time when the engine was hot. Sunday I tried to start it midday (very humid in direct sunlight) and it didn't budge. Tried it once it got dark and it cranked and started first time. I've had the aftermarket immobilier removed for the time being to see if it was causing the problem, so it isn't that! Any ideas??