Opti-Coating the Audi R8, finally...

The last we saw of this car was back in early Spring when the owner had just received it. With life events getting priority, this car has pretty much sat in the garage for 5 months. After touching base right after I got back from the UK, we quickly booked the R8 in for its makeover. Similar to his last R8, this car was Metallic black and needed some paint correction before applying both Opti-Coat and XPel clearbra. It was time to get to work...

Delivered in the rain...

In order to try and get ahead of schedule (something that never seems to happen), I washed and klayed the R8 late into the evening (23:30). This offered the first signs of how badly the paint needed to be corrected with micromarring over most panels and some heavy scratches in the rear hatch and front fenders.

Paint contaminants being removed with klay... (please don't mind my blister)

Washed and klay, ready for drying...

Polishing the V10 carbon deposits off the tips...

The next morning we finally got a decent look at the condition of the paint and started selecting our attack procedure. It quickly became obvious we would need a compounding polish to remove the deeper scratches and then bring the luster back with 2 steps of fine polish. Because the R8 has so many tight angles and concave pieces, I would be using both the Rupes 21 Bigfoot Random Orbital and a small 3 inch adapter on a Porter Cable random orbital for tight spots.

nice comparison side by side of the Rupes and Porter Cable...

Corrected the small panels and tight areas with the Porter Cable as seen here on the mirror...

 some overspray on the rear diffuser before correction...

 

cleaned up decently...

Once we finished with the smaller areas, I got going on the large panels. As all Audi's generally have a hard clearcoat, I attacked with the Rupes and a wool pad for the first compounding step...

 Quarter panel after compounding with the wool pad. Leaves a nice dull haze but removes the deep scratches...

Deep scratches on the rear hatch...

After compounding the entire vehicle, we followed up with some finer cutting polishes to clean everything up...

The Rupes Bigfoot in action...

 Getting there after some passes with finer polishes...

 The constant reminder of paint correction, blue tape and dust...

We were keeping the partial front clear bra on the car, so had to polish around that...

Quick washdown with Optimum No Rinse to remove all polishing dust and fillers...

After rinsing the car down and cleaning up all the excess polish dust off, we started Opti-Coating. As usual, you have to make sure the surface is clean and corrected before application. Once that is done, its a straight forward install...

 Applying Opti-Coat on the carbon side blades...

 Notice the Opti-Coat hazing up...

More haze and flashing away...

 To get to the wheels and calipers, up she went on the lift...

 Calipers coated...

Inner barrels coated to repel brake dust...

 Wheels torque to 90lb ft and back on the ground...

The signs of a heavy paint correction, used pads and a bag of Goldfish...

After touching up the engine bay and trim, we got going on the interior. Pretty basic cleanup with some Zymol Vinyl, Treat, and Lexol Cleaner on the seats.

 Scrubbing the leather with Lexol Cleaner and a soft horsehair brush to agitate the dirt out...

 Applying the Zymol Treat to nurish the leather...

 Love the old school gated shifter, especially on this V10...

We took the R8 outside the next morning to inspect and see how everything turned out. Have to love how the Opti-Coat cures and becomes so slick and reflective over a few hours. Its quite amazing to have such a great finish along with the great durability with one product. You can be the judge...