This car was a pleasure to work on. I really love the E60's BMW's, and was actually dreaming over an M6 in Monterey about a month back. The owner has only had the car since February, but he bought it brand new. It was a left over from '08 and he wanted it looking better than brand new.
The owner had sent the car off to the "detailers" and after 4 hours of work, it showed just that, 4 hours of work. Even in the heavy metallic flake of space gray you could could still see holograms popping out from the bottom of the hood, by the tonneau cover, and gas cap. As well as left over wax residue on the paint, and on the trim as well; and polish residue in most cracks/crevices. Needless to say, the owner wanted a bit more attention detail to be paid to on the car, as well as a glossy finish not achieved by the previous work.
Total time spent on the car was a touch over 25 hours!! On with the story..
When I first received the car at around Noon on Friday afternoon:
Left over wax and residue...
Door jambs showing a little wear and tear
The engine bay was dressed with some greasy dressing.. it'd need to be removed:
First up was the wheels, as usual. They were doused with P21S Wheel Gel and let sit. The tires got Eimann Fabrik Tire Cleaner and the wheel wells received Eimann Fabrik Hi-Intensity Cleaner
And then agitated with various brushes:
Once the wheels were finished, I pre-rinsed the car with the Karcher pressure washer filtered with DI water:
Then the car was foamed with a paint cleansing 2:1 ratio of Chemical Guys' Citrus Wash and Clear:
I was careful to keep as little foaming stage suds off the top as possible, because owning a convertible myself, I know how long it takes to get all the suds out of the poores of the fabric. It was later cleaned with 303 Convertible Top Cleaner, and Protected with 303 Fabric Guard.
After I had ONR'd the car, after my pressure washer took a dump along with my CR Spotless seen in a seperate thread, I spot clayed the car with Riccardo Yellow and Luber as clay lube.
The car was then inspected under halogen lights. It looked decent, but I didn't spend a lot of time trying to capture every defect because it would have been a waste of time trying to find the right angle/light source to picture defects in the very neutral silver metallic of Space Grey.
A few DEEP scratches:
There was also these REALLY weird spots on the paint, about three total, check these out:
I'm baffled as to what it is! It wasn't strike through because paint depth readings were consistant on and off the spots!
Trying to capture the holograms on the car:
Paint was a little bit on the thin side, but healthy non-the-less:
No pics of me polishing really. But the combo I ended up landing on was Menserna PO203 Power Finish + Lake Country Purple Foamed Wool for two passes on horizontle panels, and one pass on verticle panels. Then it was folowed up by Menzerna 106fa and a 3M UK Yellow Polishing pad for one pass to clear up the minor hazing left by the wool. But the BMW Clear was still tough as nails!
The headlights and taillights were also polished with this same process. They were then sealed with two coats of Jeff Werkstat's Acrylic Jett with an application of Acrylic Gloss in between, and then after.
Hood finished:
The owner had sent the car off to the "detailers" and after 4 hours of work, it showed just that, 4 hours of work. Even in the heavy metallic flake of space gray you could could still see holograms popping out from the bottom of the hood, by the tonneau cover, and gas cap. As well as left over wax residue on the paint, and on the trim as well; and polish residue in most cracks/crevices. Needless to say, the owner wanted a bit more attention detail to be paid to on the car, as well as a glossy finish not achieved by the previous work.
Total time spent on the car was a touch over 25 hours!! On with the story..
When I first received the car at around Noon on Friday afternoon:
Left over wax and residue...
Door jambs showing a little wear and tear
The engine bay was dressed with some greasy dressing.. it'd need to be removed:
First up was the wheels, as usual. They were doused with P21S Wheel Gel and let sit. The tires got Eimann Fabrik Tire Cleaner and the wheel wells received Eimann Fabrik Hi-Intensity Cleaner
And then agitated with various brushes:
Once the wheels were finished, I pre-rinsed the car with the Karcher pressure washer filtered with DI water:
Then the car was foamed with a paint cleansing 2:1 ratio of Chemical Guys' Citrus Wash and Clear:
I was careful to keep as little foaming stage suds off the top as possible, because owning a convertible myself, I know how long it takes to get all the suds out of the poores of the fabric. It was later cleaned with 303 Convertible Top Cleaner, and Protected with 303 Fabric Guard.
After I had ONR'd the car, after my pressure washer took a dump along with my CR Spotless seen in a seperate thread, I spot clayed the car with Riccardo Yellow and Luber as clay lube.
The car was then inspected under halogen lights. It looked decent, but I didn't spend a lot of time trying to capture every defect because it would have been a waste of time trying to find the right angle/light source to picture defects in the very neutral silver metallic of Space Grey.
A few DEEP scratches:
There was also these REALLY weird spots on the paint, about three total, check these out:
I'm baffled as to what it is! It wasn't strike through because paint depth readings were consistant on and off the spots!
Trying to capture the holograms on the car:
Paint was a little bit on the thin side, but healthy non-the-less:
No pics of me polishing really. But the combo I ended up landing on was Menserna PO203 Power Finish + Lake Country Purple Foamed Wool for two passes on horizontle panels, and one pass on verticle panels. Then it was folowed up by Menzerna 106fa and a 3M UK Yellow Polishing pad for one pass to clear up the minor hazing left by the wool. But the BMW Clear was still tough as nails!
The headlights and taillights were also polished with this same process. They were then sealed with two coats of Jeff Werkstat's Acrylic Jett with an application of Acrylic Gloss in between, and then after.
Hood finished:
.
. I just bought a gallon of each with my order last week.. only 3 more days 'till it all gets here!!