jedi-knight83

No.. all S3s have elec recaros that adust height (doesnt go as low as i would like and also it seems to pivot from the front so it just seems to tilt it forwards instead of raising it straight up), back tilt and lumbar support (an absolute must for me!!) The sideing back and forwards is manual so you can access the rear easy. (although the tiny little handle is a bugger to use and tilting seats forwards is a two handed job unlike the corrado... something my GF constantly moans at!) however... having used an S4 cab for a weekend which has elec forwards and back and you have to tilt forwards with a button for access to rear which takes ages.. i much prefer the trade off of having non elec forwards and back in the s3

i havent heard a non bose car but in my opinion the bose isnt great.. if i haddnt got bost it would be a hell of alot easier to just upgrade speakers... with bose you would need to rip it all out and start again and i cant be bothered so i'll just stick with it.. but its by no means top quality sound. the setup in my old vr6 was much better

symphony 2 in my old noggy and the noggy for the sake of history... RIP Concert in my current s3 I like having the tape deck up front as i use a tape adapter for my ipod.

i think noggy blue looks great on the s3. My first s3 was noggy with all black leather. I didnt realise the onld shape s3 had the option of interior light pack but it will consist of extra lights around the footwell and little red leds that shine from the roof to light up the gear stick area. to clear up the earlier question... the stereo options were as follows Concert - standard single depth tape headunit Concert 2 - single depth cd headunit Symphony - double depth headunit with single cd and tape Symphony 2 - double depth headunit with 6 cd changer and tape all options could be bose or non bose. bose consists of a different eq on the headunit, an amp in the right hand boot cubby, different cabin speakers, sub in left hand boot cubby with 2 very small speakers...(the standard sub has a single larger speaker but neither are brilliant and the bass is the weak point of the system) (all 4ohm though so really annoying to upgrade just the speakers as very little aftermarket 4ohm stuff... need to rip everything out and upgrade if you gonna do that so pointless getting bose if you want to upgrade speakers) Also all 4 HU options can have the optional 6cd changer in the boot.

£ 500.00 BOSE Sound System £ 107.00 Front Centre Armrest £ 349.00 Acoustic Parking System £ 400.00 6 CD Autochanger £ 801.00 Electric Slide/Tilt Glass Sunroof with Pre Select £ 241.00 Polished Aluminium Door Mirrors not sure about the autodim rear view mirror and as already said.. leather was standard but below are the other options my car has and the prices i know £ 325.00 Cruise Control £ 354.00 Heated Front Seats £ 74.00 Luggage Net

there was one in my old car thread.. i'll dig it up for you..

congrats on the purchase. I looked at a few cars from fontain before getting mine privately. I didnt realise they did any face lift cars on a X plate?? thought the earliest ones were 2001 Y plates just before the 51 plate switch. Oh and just so you know leather was standard (the alcantara trim was a no cost option)... but the sunroof is a very rare £800 option and a nice thing to have (i have it on mine)

Did this detail last week but i finished at 10:30pm and aside from being completely knackered.. it was obviously dark outside. This car has been in storage for the past 7 years and was looking a little dull on arrival. 28k on the clock and a nice feature of having an original blaupunt graphic equaliser stalk fitted to the radio. Anyway.. First off i tried out AGs new Acid Free Wheel cleaner. Needed a bit more work than their usual wheel cleaner but the end result was still the same so thumbs up. Didn't take many pics as i was working too hard.. also washed the boxter while i was there. So after the pre-wash, shampoo and clay it was into the garage and taped up ready for some tests. Lots of random marks, mild swirls and a couple of bad bird mess marks. Bird mess was wet sanded then polished back with AG 03b compound, rest of the car was polished with Menzerna IP 3.01. Not sure what was up with my camera... but all of my swirl shots came out blurred or under exposed!! :wall: Not sure why but time ticked by very fast. maybe something to do with alot of panels being hit twice not to mention the wetsanding. Anyway.. The Paint Cleanse was was then applied followed by the yellow premuim wax. Final dressings, glass, etc The outside photos were taken today (i was back doing a couple of other cars) Engine wasnt detailed... i just liked the look of ti so thought id show it :) Thanks

i have found some bird poo's only come out with wet sanding and maching polishing back to gloss

Bit of a busy week and only just got home so thought i'd do a post with the whole of this weeks work. So first up was a top up on the Carrera GT. Unlike many supercars this does get alot of use so had fly's splattered over the front and other road muck and grime. Prewash, Shampoo, Dry, Waxed with Premium Wax (47% Carnauba Content) Then onto the 996 GT3. I had de-swirled this a few weeks back but the owner had then decided that the orange peel on the wings was too bad so asked for me to correct this. After the wash the area was wet sanded and then polished back with the following combo AG 03B compound > IP 3.01 > 106FF Photos during the process Then re-cleansed and waxed and then the whole car was waxed again with the premium wax. Then midweek was this 07 plate Cooper S. Have done a couple of cars for this customer so far and he wanted the same treatment for his new Mini. Pre Wash, Shampoo, Clay (its been a few weeks since he picked it up and it did have quite a bit of dirt on it), AG Radiant Wax, Collinite 915. Then as i finished a little early and had to wait for his wife to come home to collect the keys i decided to add a layer of dodo juice green which went on easily and added a touch of gloss i feel. Then down to london for this lovely 996 GT2. 53 plate with 6k on the clock. Had minor swirling on most panels which i was booked to remove. Pre wash, shampoo, clay, deswirl with 106ff, Pre wax cleanse, Premium wax Before After Then end of the week and this monster. Just back from a trip to the nurburg ring which included 207mph on the autobarn, 8 laps of the ring, and a day on a drifting track. 207mph + flies = one hell of a mess to clear up! Car was covered in flys, tar, rubber, and general dirt. Pre washed twice, shampoo, lots of time with tar and glue remover and AG PM3 removing the flys, tar and rubber, Clay, Pre wax cleanse, Premium wax. Got taken out for a spin and WOW... i need this in my life!! never been thrown into my seat as much.. and the noise!! Anyway... thats for looking. Lots more to come next week :D Nathan

Throught id show this from yesterday. Freezing cold foggy start to the morning but warmed up a bit later on. Pait was very dull and you could clearly see lots of marks even in the dull light... but the owner had chosen not to have it machine polished at this time. Pre washed with AG PM3 and Shampoo'd Clayed with Sonus Green Paint Cleansed with some premuim brown stuff using the machine and working quite slowly to clean / correct / fill what i could Paint Waxes with some premium yellow stuff. 47% Interior cleaned and conditioned with Gliptone. Pretty straight forwards and both the owner and myself were happy with the results. One thing about the clay... ever had it where you clay a car and its all pretty clean apart from one panel? the drivers door was really dirty.. Also i did this video for those that wonder about applying wax by hand. I used a bit more than i should have as it was still quite cold at this point and harder to spread but you will get the idea... a little goes a long way. anyway... some photos.. Thanks Nathan

sure i'll try to sort something out basically though your looking at using about a kidney bean sized bit for quite a large area... atleast 1/2 - 1/3 a bonet and you do that by streching or pulling it over the surface with warm hands. I'll try to do a video.. ive got another zymol job tomorrow

Evening. Bit knackered so its not a huge write up im afraid. Arrived this morning to find this lovely old BMW. Was restored back in the early 90's. Has 35k on the clock... and lots of marring and light swirls on the paint :wall: Pre washed, shampoo'd and clayed as usual Took longer than usual to tape up with all the chrome etc.. but proved relativly easy to correct the defects with a megs polishing pad and 106ff Lucky i have a generator as there was a power cut in the area and i still had 2 panels to go. Once it was all polished i applied the Paint Cleanse via the machine at low speed on a megs finishing pad and then the 47% carnauba wax by hand. One thing worth saying about this car.... very very thin metal panels! the flex so easily it was difficult to actually use enough pressure to polish and wax without them flexing about too much. Also there was a WIDE variety of paint from 99um to 1100um in places) Anyway... it was getting dark so not the best after photos. Hopefully it will still be there when i go back to do the next car. Thanks Nathan

haha . i thought you had cleaned your own car there... but oh no... very funny

End of a long busy week and the third car for this client. The nice warm sunny weather from the first part of the week had disappeared so i didnt take any before pics as i wanted to get inside asap where it was warmer! Prewashed with AG PM3 TFR, Shampoo'd and clayed as normal though. Then inside and taped for a test... 106FF did the trick .. blocke down very well after approx 10 passes and left a lovely finish. 50:50 shot.. which was difficult to show anything due to the yellow... but i tried. action shot Was a big old car so worked round taking my time and going over the roof and bonnet twice where there were some deeper marks that remained after the first pass. Got finished by 5:15pm and headed home for an earlyish night. DAY 2 Arrived and applied a coat of SRP... which i did photograph.. but on yellow you couldnt see anything so pointless showing it.. then Collinite 915. Windows cleaned in and out with AG Glass Polish... glass was filthy by the way!! possible never cleaned inside!? Vacuum'd and all surfaces wiped down. Leather fed with gliptone. Final wipe down with Optimum Car Wax, wheels waxed and tyres dressed. Some indoor pics Then outside and rinsed down to get any remaining dust out of cracks and some beading shots... it was gonna get wet in the rain anyway.. End of a good week with some amazing cars... rather knackered now though. Cheers Nathan

2nd car for this customer. 900bhp track toy. Aftermarket sequential gear box... Carbon Fibre front end... all very nice. I spent the morning finishing the Vanquish so it was about 2pm by the time i started So this was before i started cleaning... Soaked in AG PM3 TFR and pressure rinsed, done again as it was really dirty, then shampoo'd. I could already feel how rough the paint was at this point. Out with the sonus green clay and it was amazing what this did. I was folding to a clean side every 1/3 of a panel and i did each panel 2/3 times to get it smooth. This took me about 2 hrs. Then taped the car up and did a test section. Ip 3.01 worked the best and this was the result. DAY 2 Carried on round the car in the above fashion.. apart from the front end which was Carbon Fibre and had much softer paint which was corrected with 106FF passing over much quicker than the metal sections. Covered the car in SRP.. been a few cars since ive used this and had forgotten just how well it compares to the more premium finish. During and after SRP pics. Then on with some Collinite 915. Then used AG metal polish to clean the exhaust up.. the inside being 10x worse than the outside which was just lightly tarnished. Then outside and rinsed down and dried... and wiped down with optimum car wax and glass cleaned with AG fast glass. Thought this was an interesting comparison... first pic is after rinsing down after clay.. the second pic is after waxing. And then the final pics... it had clouded over unfortunately so not as spectacular as the vanquish pics.. My past 3 days work... Tomorrow.. the yellow Holden Monaro Cheers Nathan

thanks for the reply guys. The owners house is a work in progess. House is almost finished and they have planes for a 3 car garage aswell. The blue thing is an r34 GTR putting out approx 900bhp in track mode. Its got a sequential box in it aswell. Yes the vanquish paint was very bad due to how soft it is... if the owner is carefull with washing it'll be like that again in 1-2 years unfortunately. GTR write up to come.

Im staying down in a place called Forrest Row (nr Tunbridge Wells) this week as i have a client that wants 3 of his cars given a deswirl detail. So yesterday morning i turned up at 8:30 and wheeled this out of the garage. Covered in dirt and dust it was quite difficult to see the defects. AG PM3 TFR and pressure rinsed, Shampoo'd, Wheels cleaned in and out, Then clayed with Sonus Green and into the garage and under the lights and time to sit down for 5 mins... So knowing Aston paint to be quite soft i started trying 85rd... which took 50% out... so i tried 106ff.. which did 80-90% so i tried adding a drop of ip3.01 in with 106ff... which did the job... but left maring... so then i had to finish with 85rd on a finishing pad.. so the job took twice as long.. 7hrs + on machine polishing alone. anyway... before and 50:50 shot. Then after a back breaking day i applied the premium paint cleanse by hand and then the 47% Carnauba wax. Got 1st coat all finished by 8:30pm and then home for a well earned nap. DAY 2 Started with a rinse and a wipe down.. got these pics of the water beading on the 1st coat of wax then on with the 2nd coat Time was ticking and i needed to start the second car asap (you will see it in the background of some of the pics.. full write up tomorrow night). Cleaned the glass with AG glass polish, dressed arches and tyres, Cleaned the interior and fed the leather with gliptone liquid leather. Waxed the wheels with collinite 915 and then took some photos... sorry there are loads .. actually... im not sorry.. i enjoy the photography part as much as other aspects of the detail... anyway.... Thanks... Nathan

yeah the 3m stuff and farcella that alot of shops use are poor and near impossible to get a crystal finish from. Menz Ip3.01 and 3.02 are fantastic though.. well lubed and break down nicely over 10 passes.

MK1Campaign, no offence but ive seen plenty of body shop work where they are not competant with a machine polisher. in general people dont work the polish for long enough and end up with terrible holograms and micromaring. Not saying this is the case here... but just because a person (not you) works in a bodyshop it doesnt mean they can correct to the same standard as some pro detailers. herisites, Paul Dalton (Miracle Detail) was the guy you saw... and yes the wax he uses is £7112 per pot.. but its refillable for life so the price gets cheaper effectively the more you use it. The £7k detail was a publicity stunt (which worked very well as it put him in the public eye and raised the profile of detailers in general)... but he only ever did 1 or 2 of these in reality. Most jobs are £600 give or take per day for him. Yes the stuff in the zymol pot is technically and enzyme and yes it turns to wax during the application process.. but i didnt want to bore people :)

it was zymol concours. The blurb is that applying by hand is essential to warm it so it can be spread over the panel while using the least amount of product. Using a pad causes waste and when its £200 for 220g you dont want to waste any

Firstly a little history of this car. Its a 1995 Virage Volante with the 6.3 widebody cosmetic look. However toward the end of the production Aston ran out of the normal 5.3 engine that should be fitted to this car. So the last 11 Virage Volante's got the new engine meant for the Vantage Coupe (to be released in 96) which had an extra 40bhp... this was the 6th from last Right... enough of that... This was booked in for a 2 day detail and was supposed to be at the customers house but with the poor weather forecast it was relocated to the owners business where there was a roomy warehouse. Once pre-washed and shampoo'd this is what it looked like.... I had been warned it was in bad condition.. Then clayed the whole car... which i then realised just how big it is! The PTG showed quite a mix! 340 one side of the bonnet and 150 the other side. 100 on the doors. 250 on the front wings and 400 on the boot lid. With that in mind i tested on a number of panels to find the best method. On the bonet i used a mix of ip3.01 with a yellow megs pad up to ip3.01 with a drop of power gloss on a burgandy pad. most of the rest of the car was ip3.01 on a yellow pad with a drop of PG here and there. The paint came up really well apart from a few rather deep marks on the bonnet and the boot lid (these were hit 2 or 3 times with mimimal paint depth change and agreed with owner these can be tackled next time with some wet and dry... but neither of our schedules would allow it at the moment) During correction with the brand new hood well protected. My attempt at a couple of 50:50 shots.. sorry there not that great.. will work on these in the future After on the bonnet Anyway this took hours... so i had to then crack on with the premium paint cleanse and then the premium 47% carnauba wax... i had to get the 1st coat on by the end of day 1 so it could cure over night ready for the 2nd coat on day 2. During and after waxing.. Finished the day at 6:30pm DAY 2 ... 10am (after collecting my s3 from the garage so was running late) Started very much the same way DAY 1 ended... :) .... after a wipe down with some last touch.. 2nd coat applied ... Next up were the wheels and exhaust. The owner had said not to worry too much as there were due to be stripped down and refurbed soon... but for my piece of mind (and because i didnt want them dirty in my photos :) ) i had a go anyway. Autosol metal polish with a foam pad did quite a good job (but obviously still need doing profesionally) Then they were done with SRP and waxed with collinite 915. Before After Exhaust was done the same Time was really cracking on so next was the glass in and out with AG glass cream polish, Arches and tyres dressed with AG products, paint wiped down with Optimum Car Wax, Interior wiped down and leather fed with Gliptone Liquid Leather.... and breathe.... and photograph :) Owner was over the moon. Thanks for looking Nathan

Car number 3 for this customer and a different venue for today. The GT3 is his dedicated track car and spends alot of its time at Fearnsport Porsche Specialists at Silverstone. Firstly id like to say thanks to them for being very accommodating. Im pretty sure im going to be back there now and again for other cars aswell which will be nice as they have some amazing machinery there! Anyway.. left the house at 7am and arrived at Fearnsport at 8:45 after passing 2 accidents on the A14 that had happened no more than 10 cars ahead of me! Wheeled the GT3 outside and took a couple of before shots. Not terrible swirls but swirls none the less. Pre-washed with AG PM3 via the foam lance. Then shampoo'd with AG shampoo and dried with a sonus yellow drying towel. Tar / Rubber marks removed with AG tar remover and then the whole car was clayed with sonus green clay. Then although it was still chilly it was nice and sunny so i thought i'd detail outside for a while. Did a few tests and decided onces again that ip 3.01 on a megs yellow polishing pad was the way forwards. Most of the front was covered in armorfend stuff (being a track car) but the rest was all treated in the same way Then it actually started snowing so it was into the garage for the premium paint cleanse applied via machine on a megs finishing pad at 600rpm Then on with the 47% carnauba wax applied by hand.. much to the amusment of the staff at fearnsport who made many jokes about me massaging a car. This is the only pic of me 'massaging' in which i didnt look like a dork (some will argue.. i still do! Andy ... Fearnsports owner watching over me Thankfully after almost 11 hrs the staff were all commenting on how good it looked and how impressed with the amount of work i had put in. I was pretty knackered so didnt take many after pics and completely forgot to take after correction shots... sorry Thanks for looking... Nathan

I didnt bother taking many photos today...... only kidding...:lol: So as most will know ive had this coming up for a few weeks now. Woke up just before my alarm went off this morning as i was quite excited about it. Not sure if one of these has been posted on DW before?? Truely amazing car. First thing that hit me was the size of the thing. Its huge. Longer and wider than i was expecting. Then there are the wheels. 20" with 330 width tyres at the rear and 19" with 295 (if i remember correctly) up front and coming in at £8k a piece. Anyway once i had finished drooling it was on with the job. The owner back it out (what a noise!) and i set about with washing. Pre sprayed with shampoo and rinsed and then shampooed with a washmit and 2 buckets. It was at this point that the owner told me he had previously had Paul Dalton detail his car and that he had be extremely happy with the work i had done on his boxter (apart from the fact he wasnt keen on the liquid leather smell)... Knowing how good Pauls work is i was quite chuffed with this comment but also knew i had alot to live up to with the CGT... Once dry it was back into the garage (i drove this time.. being very carefull with the £8k racing clutch). The paint actually felt quite rough so it was treated with sonus green clay and lots of last touch as lube to avoid any maring. This solved the roughness although the clay didnt show many signs of dirt. I had already checked the paint last week and knew there werent any defects so it was out with the premium pre wax paint cleanse. This was applied via finishing pad on the rotary at 600 rpm for the larger panels (yes it can be applied via machine with good effect. The smaller panels were treated by hand on an MF pad. Glass and all Carbon Fibre in and out was also treated by hand as were the wheels. Cleansing fluid was removed with a damp MF towel with last touch helping to remove any stubborn residue Then on with the premium wax which was 47% carnauba.. applied by hand to everything in and out. What little fabric there is on the interior was vacuumed and the inside glass cleaned. Wheeled back outside for the tyres to be dressed and for some photos. Wiped down just before i left with a spray wax. The owner popped back to collect the keys at 5pm and was extremely happy commenting especially on how good the carbon fibre looked once it was all waxed up. I can look forward to a passenger ride in the near future and also possibly a track day. Yet again an absolute pleasure to work in a well equiped garage. Now for the rest of the photos. Thanks for looking Nathan

back at this customers today doing one of his other cars (write up to come very shortly) While i was there i washed the boxter again and took some better daylight pics. Thanks for looking