Horizon Detailing - 2006 Laguna Seca Blue E46 M3 Correction

[Darkstar752]

Sup guys, this is my first post in a really, really long time. Good to be back :applause2: Gonna keep it short on the text for now, this was a 1.5 step correction as the paint was pretty thin. I'll let the pictures do the talking Questions/Comments are always welcome!



Car had ~80,000 miles on it.



Upon arrival, this customer drove 1.5 hours to have me detail it so it was pretty dirty:

Started with the rims, just a quick clean as they were gonna be replaced in the next month:

Bugs got their pre-soak with APC:

Car was then foamed, twice:

Fresh bar of Riccardo was chosen:

Car was pretty contaminated, after 1 panel:

Washer jet cover removed to clean under it:

Clean:

Surgery Prep:

Let's see what the paint looks like :doh: Swirl-maina/hologram combo package.

Even the dim lightbulb on the side shows significant marring:

First paint reading :doh: :doh: :doh: Avg was in the 90's/low 100's, range from 82-120.

Only 50/50's I took, was pressed for time. This was after the first hit of P203, followed up with 106FA but can only see that in the afters.

This panel had the deepest scratches/thin paint, got about 85% correction, other panels with more paint I was able to get to 98-100%

Some kind of etching:

Etching removed:

 

[Darkstar752]

Once I got around to the back, I noticed the keyhole was COMPLETELY black. ***? I cleaned a tiny bit as you can see just to check it wasn't supposed to be that way:

10 painstaking minutes and many Q-tips later...

Polished hard till bout midnight, snapped a pic and hit the hay to wake up early the next morning as I had another client coming mid-day:

Started the next morning with the mats, 50/50 of the front ones:

Driver's after extraction:

Steamed the entire interior, after pic of the M pedals:

Sills before/after:

Smoking vents

Interior after:

At this point the 2nd client, visible in the background, showed up so I shuffled the cars around a bit and did an IPA wipedown and pulled it out into the sun to inspect the polishing job up to this point, most of it was done, still a couple areas needed it(roof,bumpers). As you can see, quarterpanels came out close to 100, hood about 90some%. Paint is still naked. :

Pulled back in, reflection's back! Wearing a Detailersdomain shirt :applause2:

Finished it up, put 2 coats of Powerlock on, 24 hrs apart as I had the car for 3 days. Still needed undercarriage spray, applied later. Final sun pics:

Exhaust tips shining again, insides have some water condensation:

Thanks for viewing! Questions/Comments welcome

 

[Thomas Dekany]

Excellent work! I really like that color.

 

[Darkstar752]

Excellent work! I really like that color.

Thank you



I like the color a lot too, nicknamed it the Cookie Monster when I was working on it Very hard to get an accurate picture of the color though, kept brightening up in the photos too much. Need to get the hang of this DSLR...

 

[Barry Theal]

Looks awesome man! I love them cars. we had one here a few months back. Great car for sure!

 

[mikenap]

Hey man, just saw this on M3forum.net, that's a great looking LSB M3. It looked pretty rough before you got your hands on it, so I hope the owner was impressed with the outcome. Great work on a beautiful car, even if I am a little biased.:chuckle:

 

[VroomVroom]

I love that color - nice car, and terrific work! I am curious about one of the pics...

Is the glass scratched from the wiper?