The car in question is a VW Golf TDI Mk5 – 2008 – United Grey. A full ‘Pro Reflect Detail’ spread over a few days. No before shots but I had this for a quick half day session over Christmas so a lot of the initial prep had already been done. The car had travelled only a handful of miles since the prep work.

With the wheels being so small, it is hard to get behind them so off came the wheels.

Plenty of the usual road grime and brake dust.

Cleaned using Meguiar’s APC and Bilberry Wheel Cleaner with various brushes.

IronX treatment on the front…..

….and several times on the back.

Which left the fronts looking like this….

and the backs looking like this. Unfortunately the brake dust had got to all of them around the centre.

Fitted back on the car with a coat of tyre gel.

With the wheels off, it was time to get those arches cleaned. A good opportunity to get rid of that Winter salt.

A strong ratio of Meguiar’s APC was left to soak before using various brushes to get rid of that grime.

These rear arches liners like to soak up the soap so a good rinse is needed.

Much better!

Now that the wheels were done, it was time to clean all the exterior trim and glass with Meguiar’s APC.

I removed a lot of tar spots at Christmas but some new spots had appeared.

From the makers of IronX, TarX shifts tar spots with ease.

TarX dissolves the tar for easy removal.

Wipe away with an old (but clean) microfibre.

Under the bonnet was given a clean with Meguiar’s APC and a light rinse. Removed excess water and sprayed Autoglym Vinyl and Rubber Care.

It had been clayed at Christmas so it was just a wash with Chemical Guys Extreme Bodywash.

This is how it stood after half a days prep.

The following evening, I took some paint readings before machine polishing. Generally the paintwork was in very good order for a four year old car but there were a couple of minor scratches and very light swirls that I wanted to get rid of.

Also there was this on the roof; the remains of bird droppings.

Course polish on a white pad left it like this. A little bit slightly showing but a marked improvement.

There was a very fine scratch from the front of the roof nearly all the way to the back. Before and after

Finally this weird looking semi circle at the front of the roof. Before and after.

Plastic lights always seem to get hazy over time.

A lot better!

The rest of the car was given a fine machine polish on a yellow pad. A wipe down afterwards and then the first of two layers of Collinite 915 Marque D’Elegance.

The interior was given a good hoover together with all the plastics, leather and glass cleaned and treated.

Not the best photo but 23+ hours later left it looking like this.