MK7 "Random / "Stupid" Questions Thread"

[victorofhavoc]

Good job!

Well, to be honest this all depends on the technique. When I first started I used to get neck and back pain, once I did the detailers course with Yvan I realized I was the one causing all the pain. Death grip on the machine, tight shoulders while polishing, etc... Yvan not a young dude and he polishes a car in less than 1/2 the time most "professionals" do, with no pain. Once I started to relax and let the machine do the work my pain as 90% gone. I used to grip the tool as if it was going to fly out of my hands, now I barely grip it. I set the speed lock and just glide it where it needs to go.

Also, in comparison, my old electric DeWalt rotary weighs more than the new DeWalt battery rotary with a 5aH battery on. The DeWalt battery rotary weighs almost the same as my Flex PE 14-2.


I didn't see this till now... I'm old, so I rarely use a mask when doing this. This said, the Adams Graphene does smell a little stronger than the other brands I mentioned. There are guys that use a mask, Larry (from AMMO detailing) use a freaking 3M filtered mask like the ones I use for spraying urethane paints, a little overkill in my opinion. Also to note, I use a wash pad between panels, so my polisher really don't create any dust.

Yeah, a gti takes no time to polish and you don't hold the polisher vertically very long... A large suv on the other hand is an entirely different beast. My wife's q7, the hood is basically the same height as my gti roof and it takes me doing it in 4 sections with one either really reaching ( shoulder pain) or being on a stool and leaning (back of knee pain). Her roof has to be done in either 4 or 6 sections (if not doing the glass), and each requires me leaning with a stool. In total there are 25 total sections at least, and it takes roughly 10 mins per section to polish and wipe down. Do it as two steps and you're looking at 50 total section touches and 500 mins of total effort. Over 8hrs...its no surprise detailers charge what they charge to polish this car to 80%. That's a lot of time to account for the difference of a battery that probably weighs 2-3lbs. In comparison, I break the gti into 12 sections, and they're all super easy to reach.

I don't put any pressure on the polisher and just let it do all the work. There's no death grip here, or pressing, or shoulder lifting, or anything else abnormal. Inevitably, time and just control of the thing is what gets to me.

Heres some shots of recent effort... Still looks okay for a nearly 7 year old car.

Just a note on the mask thing... It's not about the respirator but about the vapor. The solvent vapor from ceramic coatings can be pretty intense and it's an organic suspension... It requires an activated carbon filtration in order to filter out properly. Probably won't kill you doing it once or twice, but do it daily or weekly and you'll want that p100 mask filtration designed for it. The rule with any general chemical usage is "if you can smell it, you should mask".

 

[Maiden69]

A large suv on the other hand is an entirely different beast.

You mean something like this? Wet sanded the sides and tailgate 1500 by hand, 3000 trizact with the polisher, then Optimum Hyper Compound/Hyper Polish two step coated with OptiCoat Pro+. Made me hate black paint forever. This is where the 6" polisher shines... other than on a vehicle like this, a 5" is better. My truck so I wet sanded, I won't recommend anyone do it on a daily thought... I did it just to "kiss" the orange peel peaks, not to completely remove them, the 3000 trizact with a soft backing plate sanded the imperfections on the orange peel "valleys" giving more clarity and better reflection. 3 days job 12+ hours a day. Can be done faster, but when you rush a wet sanding job, 9 out of 10 you end up burning through paint either wet sanding or polishing.

I have this platform/step ladder to do the roofs and high areas, like the hood on the truck.

 

[victorofhavoc]

You mean something like this? Wet sanded the sides and tailgate 1500 by hand, 3000 trizact with the polisher, then Optimum Hyper Compound/Hyper Polish two step coated with OptiCoat Pro+. Made me hate black paint forever. This is where the 6" polisher shines... other than on a vehicle like this, a 5" is better. My truck so I wet sanded, I won't recommend anyone do it on a daily thought... I did it just to "kiss" the orange peel peaks, not to completely remove them, the 3000 trizact with a soft backing plate sanded the imperfections on the orange peel "valleys" giving more clarity and better reflection. 3 days job 12+ hours a day. Can be done faster, but when you rush a wet sanding job, 9 out of 10 you end up burning through paint either wet sanding or polishing.

View attachment 297719

I have this platform/step ladder to do the roofs and high areas, like the hood on the truck.
View attachment 297720

Your truck looks great! I hate doing trucks.. The hood is so unnecessarily tall, lol.

Actually, I had to wet sand the area on the Q7 hood where the branch fell. I did 1500 then 2500 by hand with basically no pressure. I hate having to wet sand areas like hood and roof since they take the biggest environmental beating anyway, so you're just reducing your durability in favor of appearance, but is what it is I guess, lol.

That's a handy stool! Where did you get that one?

I'll also mention, my wife "helped" me by wiping down after I polished, but she dry wiped some panels while they were dusty... Guess who had to do some repolishing. She then helped me with leveling and buffing the ceramic behind me so I could move faster... And again guess who had to go back and polish the high spots . We both learned some valuable lessons.

 

[Maiden69]

I hate having to wet sand areas like hood and roof since they take the biggest environmental beating anyway, so you're just reducing your durability in favor of appearance, but is what it is I guess, lol.

That's why I didn't do those, and the fact that you won't notice, unless you're 7 feet tall.

That's a handy stool! Where did you get that one?

Lowes, I bought it on sale about 5 years ago.

 

[carbon_gecko]

Hey, i have a 2016 vw golf s and i have a coolant leak it is only leaking when i do small trips like 3 to 10 minutes more or less, or if i turn on the car to check something, i sent the car to get checked, 88 bucks and they said it held pressure in the system so they couldnt "fix it", so here is my dumb question; is there something near the waterpump area that has a pressure switch or something that limits the coolant that needs time to seal?!? I have had to top off my reservoir with a couple liters over a two month period. The leak point is not visible due to the intake manifold, but the dripping is directly below the water pump. Anything to point me in the right direction is greatly appreciated.

 

[victorofhavoc]

Hey, i have a 2016 vw golf s and i have a coolant leak it is only leaking when i do small trips like 3 to 10 minutes more or less, or if i turn on the car to check something, i sent the car to get checked, 88 bucks and they said it held pressure in the system so they couldnt "fix it", so here is my dumb question; is there something near the waterpump area that has a pressure switch or something that limits the coolant that needs time to seal?!? I have had to top off my reservoir with a couple liters over a two month period. The leak point is not visible due to the intake manifold, but the dripping is directly below the water pump. Anything to point me in the right direction is greatly appreciated.

Sounds like it could be the thermostat or housing. Common failure point.

Are you sure you're not losing coolant on longer drives too? Could be evaporating off? The fluid level should go up after it's warm

 

[Wizzi]

Any high mileage south bend or other aftermarket clutch’s out there and how is it holding up?

 

[kyLman]

I know its extremely cold all over (-5 deg here in Michigan)... but do we still expect our cars to reach and maintain operating temp?
I've had (2) water pump assemblies installed in the last 3 weeks (1 was defective thermostat out of the box)
Do I have another bad thermostat? The below pictured temp is after 17 miles and 30 minutes of run time. It flirts between the below and the 200 mark.

 

[EpicTech]

Any high mileage south bend or other aftermarket clutch’s out there and how is it holding up?

ACT stage 2 (500/tq rated) went 70k miles, but then let my wife drive who thought 2nd gear was first, so now I have their stage 3 kit.

 

[Anthony3o55]

Does anyone know or so happened to have the bolts that hold the plastic trims in rear and the bolt that holds the rear seats?

I gutted GTI a couple months ago and lost the zip-loc bag I had with all the bolts when I removed the interior trim. I been trying to install everything back but have been having issues. I don't want to miss anything.

It should be simple. All I can remember the black trims was a bunch of black screws. For the seat it was a bolt and a nut if I'm not mistaken.

Thanks in advance.

 

[carbon_gecko]

Sounds like it could be the thermostat or housing. Common failure point.

Are you sure you're not losing coolant on longer drives too? Could be evaporating off? The fluid level should go up after it's warm

Sadly only on short trips when I drive 1 hr+ I check my overflow and it maybe is the finest bit lower, but on short trips it can drop the full fill max to min and set off the coolant warning. I tried talking to a vw tech and he was worthless.

 

[Kdubya]

Ok so something is going on with my central locking:

For some reason when i press the unlock button from the key fob it does the drivers door, and the two rear doors, but not the passenger front: (can’t open from the outside)

I have gone into the lock/unlock menu and tried selecting just one door and then changing it back but it’s still not fixing the issue:

Would any one have any ideas on what menu to look into?

 

[cb1111]

Ok so something is going on with my central locking:

For some reason when i press the unlock button from the key fob it does the drivers door, and the two rear doors, but not the passenger front: (can’t open from the outside)

I have gone into the lock/unlock menu and tried selecting just one door and then changing it back but it’s still not fixing the issue:

Would any one have any ideas on what menu to look into?

You have some sort of a fault. That's not an option.

 

[victorofhavoc]

Sadly only on short trips when I drive 1 hr+ I check my overflow and it maybe is the finest bit lower, but on short trips it can drop the full fill max to min and set off the coolant warning. I tried talking to a vw tech and he was worthless.

If you're starting off at max, you'll definitely leak from the overflow spout on the passenger side of the coolant reservoir. You should be starting around min and then at max when the car is warm.

If you don't top it off, does it actually empty the reservoir?

 

[PerceivedShift]

I've read its possible to set the gap on projected tip plugs like my Denso 5750s. But it requires some unnamed special "tools". I use a typical spark plug gaping tool, is something else needed?

I know they say you don't need to set the gap on 5750s, but ive read that sometimes the gap can vary to .030...would be nice to set them all to 0.024.