What sort of paint is an A2?

willTDi

Member
Hi all,
Being a new owner of an A2 I am unsure what sort of paint the A2 is!
Is it soft,medium or hard?
Just so I know for when i detail it for the 1st time.

Cheers

Will
 
it's pretty hard, but remember that the wings and bumpers are plastic and everything else is aluminium, so heat can be a problem....

Bret
 
As long as you don't use T cut you'll be fine and use a medium cut cutting compound if you have to but most you can just get away with a wash and clay then polish


Phil
 
I would have said all Audi paint is soft. They always scratch very easily and if you try to polish out minor scratches in the gloss coat you are in great danger of ending up needing a respray like me. (Hopefully end Aug when I can spare the car for 3 days which they want to do drivers door and wheel arches which I have messed up) Think I have spent more at Halfords trying to match my Dolphin grey than a complete respray would have cost. I once had a new 80TDi estate which Audi sent a technician to inspect due to the surface scratches which constantly appeared, they said it was slightly soft and redid the gloss coat under warrenty which made not a jot of improvement, just gave a bit more to polish out the marks. So I would say be very careful. I have now scratched my windscreen cleaning off some overspray with thinners ??? The overspray has gone but must have been enough to mark the screen. Very annoying. Have found a 'screen polish' which says it will remove minor scratches but have yet to take the plunge as it is £17.99 . Still looking/enquiring for a better solution. I am always very careful about my cleaning, for instance will never ever use a sponge (Soft brush with running water only) and always use new cheesecloth for polishing and always wet it before applying the polish. So I am very careful. I would say proceed with care, and enjoy. Cheers Colin.
 
My experience is that the glass is soft.

You *will* scratch the clearcoat using a brush. Minor scratches take 10 minutes with wet 4000 grit and some Menzerna light cut, followed by a decent wax.

If you're scratching it, you're doing it wrong, sorry. And Halfords? What were you buying?

I'm at the point that I'll probably use the Menz on mine this autumn; it's the first time it's been even close to necessary and that's only because I can see the minimal swirls in the clearcoat. Should take about an hour to do the whole car with a soft pad and some medium-cut... depending. I'll have to test.

Bret
 
I work for a refurb centre that does 6 month old Audi's and i found the paint to be very hard and thick, it all depends on how you flat a scratch as there's a right and a wrong way . As for removing over spray with thinners if you don't use the right thinners you wont get the paint off as its temp controled as youncon wipe thinners on you paint and if its factory it shouldn't remove the paint, because your car was baked at over 100 degrees and the thinners you buy from like halfords it will be a 80 degree or less. On your screen you could also use a clay bar as thats what they are designed for

Phil
 
Thanks for info, especially re claybar on screen. I have bought a claybar kit but there is no mention about using on glass, and as it traps the dirt I thought it best to remove the slight overspray with thinners, which worked but must have had some dust which has scratched the screen. The scratches in my paint were too deep to polish out hence the respraying. I might experiment with using thinners on my drivers door as I should have stopped by the bottom where the scrapes were but stupidly did the whole thing with clear coat which has ended up looking a different colour to the rest. We shall find out if it has had previous resprays when it ends up bare ali. Prob end up with new look all polished alloy. Dont know about the plastic bits though. Now begining to wish I had lived with the original scratches. Cheers Colin.
 
PS also thanks to Bret, Touch wood I havn't managed to mark my clearcoat with the brush, I use a now old very soft brush which has a soft red rubber casing which I bought from a classic car restoration place. Cant remember when or where, must have been when I had my AC Aceca, so its very old, but still does a fine job. As to Halfords, its the only place locally that mixes paint for aerosols. Audi's own Dolphin grey was nothing like, but my last one from Halfords X7Z (-4 black + 2.5 pearl & 1.5 blue) was virtually spot on even in sunlight. Unfortunately the girl (Nikki) who mixes it (nobody else will do specials) is on hol for 2 weeks. So Ive got to wait to do my last little bit. PPs Had to reverse 1/2 a mile down a narrow lane for a 'B' woman with a horse box yesterday now have engine management light back on. Grrr. Also the Epc light came on but went when I restarted. Its done it before, the garage just cleared the fault and said nothing was wrong dont bother until it gets worse. Well I am bothered. Any ideas. Its sounds like the choke is on when it plays up. Regards Colin
 
Just watch it when you try to remove the paint on the bottom of the door as its not just a case of putting thinners on as you may find some stuff will come off and other bits wont. Plus if you usd enough thinners on original paint it will at some point rub off ;) . One more thing the next tin of spay you get may not come out the same as the tints they use if they haven't been mixed the same or you don't shake them up the same you will find they will come out a different shade

Phil
 
Re thinners.

Thanks for advice re thinners, might leave it until I can afford proper respray. Also your right about the mixing, Halfords Nikki says if the last person didn't mix each colour before adding it can affect the final colour, so she always trys to make sure the container is nearly full for me (prob only cause im her best customer) Thanks again Colin.
 
Re thinners.

Well Guys, thanks for your advice re thinners. Yesterday I took the plunge and 'stripped' the paint I had done on my drivers door down to the rubbing strip (the body coloured one (does this come off easily ?? as it is a bit mucky where it joins the body) I am now back to the original finish (good) apart from a small patch near the bottom which I will tackle today (the reason for the spraying to start with) But now I have a dull V shaped mark right in the middle of the door. Will look at it through a magnifying glass but suspect it is from a previous repair. Woe is me looks like the complete respray is still on the cards. Regards Colin
 
Hi Colin. Have you thought about getting a smart repair? I had a scratch in the drivers door, a lot of damage to the passenger wheel arch and a couple of stone chips in the drivers door. I got a local smart repair company to fix this for me. The results were amazing far better than I expected. It cost me about £250 when the body shop quoted over £1000

If you find a Vbra registered repairer you should be ok http://www.vbra.co.uk/

I did a search on there and there is a place in Newton abbot so not to far from you.

Good luck

David
 
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Good point made by David - I did exactly that with my paint repairs a few weeks ago - got my local ChipsAway franchise out who repaired both corners of my front bumper and my rear passenger door scrape for about half of what a full bodyshop respray would have cost.
 
Thanks David and Dan will get a quote from smart n/abbot, my main prob is being without the car while it's being fixed. Had another go at the door today, not looking too bad now. Gave the mistery dull patch a couple of squirts of gloss coat, almost dissapeared, just now got to try to blend it in. Will have to suffice until end of Aug when I can prob manage without it for a few days. Just noticed my dolphin grey fingernails, good job Trago only had big cans of thinners yesterday. £6.98 for 2l. Thanks again for all your help. PS did you ever find the answer to your code that said no info transmitted?? Mine have not reappeared (yet) but it was running like choke was on today in traffic. I have taken to leaving a gap and running in second which runs ok. Its only in bottom or reverse. Very odd. Cheers Colin
 
The guy I used dose mobile. But as I had a fair bit of work he picked the car up. He only had the car for the day. From 8am and dropped it back at 3.
 
Thanks again chaps. The bodyshop wanted it for 3 days. Will get quotes from chips and smart. Bodyshop said they would need to bake it for a day. Cheers Colin
 
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