Germans are best known for building supercars and luxury cruisers, but every now and then they will sneak in something different. This Audi S5, along with maybe a few cars sporting the AMG label, is as close as the Germans get to building a good, old-fashioned muscle car. The thunderous aftermarket exhaust, lowered stance and blacked-out grill gave this car a mean, take-no-prisoners look. The sound of this V8 is incredible, more refined than an American car but ready to growl at any second.

It was apparent the car had been neglected by the first owner, with some deeper RIDS and scratches on the hood and trunklid. Almost half the driver's side had been repainted as well. When the new owner came by for the initial consultation, it was obvious this car lacked any kind of gloss. Swirls were everywhere, as well as holograms from the body shop and probably from the detail done where the car was purchased. Wanting to keep the car clean, he had it hand-washed frequently but he was educated enough to realize these hand washes weren't being done correctly and were doing more damage to the paint. Speaking with the owner and taking into account this car is a daily driver that shares a parking garage with several other residents, we agreed that a two-step correction would be best for this car. I was hoping for defect removal in the 85% range, without going too hard on the paint. This would leave room for further correction down the road if it ever became necessary.


Since most of us know how challenging Audi paint can be, I did the smart thing....I called my good friend and excellent detailer, David Strum, and coaxed him out of his self-imposed retirement yet again to lend a hand. Together, we were confident we could get this car where it needed to be in one day. One long, frustrating day. I'd hoped to take plenty of pictures before, during and after the detail, but we really jumped right into it so I have very few before pictures.


Here are a couple of the car outside before the wash. You can see how dull the paint is. It was overcast the entire day, so no good sun shots unfortunately.














Everyone's favorite foul-smelling ainkiller: wheel cleaner, Sonax, was used first to get most of the brake dust and grime off the wheels. This got the wheels mostly clean, but David went a few extra steps toward the end of the detail. I'll explain more later...










The car was then foamed with Chemical Guys Citrus Wash Clear and hand washed. I know most of you are jealous of my custom, Florida Gator colored rinse bucket.:cheer2: Get your own.






After washing and drying the car, I had my first chance to try the new Speedy Prep Towel. Bryan Burnworth recommended using it on glass for a few minutes to break it in before using it on paint, so we did. All I can say is...goodbye clay bar! I love this towel, it really moved the whole decontamination step along quickly. It didn't leave any noticeable marring, but the finish was pretty hammered anyway, so it was hard to tell.





Once the car was ready for polishing, we got started trying to find our best combo. Multiple combinations of D300, M105 and M101 where used along with MF pads and Megs burgundy pads. For polishing, we used M205 on a white LC pad.


Before




















Here is a feeble 50/50 shot on the resprayed rear quarter. Not the best quality pic, but you get the idea.

 

After shots are after compounding but before the final polish. Most are with LED or camera flash since the sun wasn't cooperating.



















Back to the wheels from before-these DPE wheels have a "unique" design in that the barrel is concave in the center. As a result, after any wash or rain, there will be a ton of standing water pooling in the concave. This led to some staining on this part of the wheel. Oh yeah, did I mention that the barrels aren't clearcoated? David used Auto Finesse Oblitarate, ONR and Duragloss 501 on some old, cut-up orange pads and meticulously cleaned each barrel by hand. The results were amazing.






For my part, I had the equally tedious task of hand polishing the grill. Even after a wash, the honeycombs were dull and waterspotted. I used Auto Finesse Tripple to clean and protect the grill. These were pics I took in-process. I cleaned up all the little edges afterward, but I just had to stop now and then to give my fingers a break.

Before



After



50/50





Finally- some after pics of this gorgeous car.



























Thanks for looking, and as always, comments and criticisms are welcome!

 

Great work, it really turned out nice. I feel your pain on the audi honeycomb grills, just worked on a TT RS and you really start to go cross-eyed after a bit!

 

Cleaness Mike, Audi grils are bad.................Bentley grills are worse.

 

Thanks man. Those grills look great, but wow what a b***h to clean!

Lol, thanks Bob. Never had the pleasure(?) of working on a Bentley, but from what I've seen, those grilles are 100x worse than anything else out there.

 

Looking good, great job.

 

sexy beast! I look forward to getting one eventually as a DD..... :*(

 

wow excellent restoration job! the s5 looks totally rejuvenated! i have a question though, how would you compare the paint quality of the s5 to other cars of similar value? i have an s4 and the paint jobs are similar by the looks of it but my biggest complaint is the paint quality. maybe im wrong and being too picky though

 

Thanks!

These cars are gorgeous, and the German V8 sounds unbelievable. It would make one sweet DD!

Thank you! The paint quality on Audi's is pretty good when compared to a lot of other cars in this category. The paint is generally thick enough for a couple of heavier corrections if needed, on the harder side (usually) so maintaining them isn't a nightmare like some cars, and not nearly as riddled with orange peel as newer BMWs. IMO, I would put the factory paint on par with Mercedes, and above BMW currently. Audi Brilliant Black is another story...hard to fix and relatively easy to swirl up.

In all honesty, for cars in this tier, Lexus has some of the best factory paint around.