My Very First Detail!

B

bonoz

New member
This detail was a long time coming. I had been researching about products, PC, polishes, waxes, sealants, etc. for a few months and had planned to tackle it this winter.



I must say that I have never ever done anything to this degree before. The most I had done was wash a car, and not the propper way; which meant using the same mitt for entire car and not using propper wash ethics to go about washing without inflicting swirls and scratches.



Well, finally after a very long time I spent detailing my car, it now shines like a crazy diamond ;).



Keep in mind though since this is my first detail there is quite a lot of room for improvement as my purpose for this detail was merely to get familiarised with the detailing psyche and its algorithm; which I did succeed in accomplishing.



Process:

Wash -- Mothers Gold California

Clay -- Mothers Clay Bar

Wash -- Mothers Gold California

Polish -- Orange LC pad/Menzerna IP (I found this to be the most frustrating experience)

Mother's Chrome Polish hand buffed on chrome grill, and on exhaust tips.

Klasse AIO on the hood, roundels, and wheels (hand buffed) only.

Wash -- Mothers Gold California (Third wash because of too much dust from Menzerna IP)

Tyres -- Eagle One Tire Shine

Sealant -- Klasse SG (2 Coats)

Wax -- S100



Before:

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After:

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I must send out a special thanks to DaveKG and David from bimmerforums.com. Also a thanks to all the members on this forum for their help and support.



Questions? Comments? Criticism? Suggestions?



-Thanks :)
 
definitely, a 100% improvement! nice job :up



p.s. did you dress the trim around the bumpers and side panels?
 
Man, you did a great job for your first detail! That looks better than most detail shops around here that call themselves pros.
 
Awesome job, that paint is slick and glossy! The results are amazing and very satisfying when you put that extra hard work into making your ride look so good.
 
Your last pic says it all! :up Great turn around on the Bimmer! I will say you did your homework and you should be very proud of the results. Only drawback is that you will always want to keep it looking that good! :hairpull





Walter

Co-owner
 
Looks great!! Quite the difference!!



You mentioned that the polishing was the "most frustrating experience"....what was frustrating about it?



I too started detailing not all that long ago with the help of everyone here and believe me when I tell you that their information is invaluable! Everything I do to a car is because of all the help I have recieved here!! This is the nicest bunch of people I have never met!! LOL!!
 
xtremeclean said:
Man, you did a great job for your first detail! That looks better than most detail shops around here that call themselves pros.
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that's not a good judge of a detail.. most the "pro" detail shops here are old men with rotaries who ONLY will use twisted wool pads.



but your BMW looks incredible now.. nice job!
 
Excellent work there, a huge improvement to the finish and the black looks nice and wet and deep now. Great reflections. Glad to see you got there with the car in the end, all the work you put in was well worth it. :up
 
Great job ! The car looked like a pale Grey in that first pic.

The turnaround is stunning...

...and ,yes, polishing can be frustrating. Hang in there ,though, you'll get better.



The hard part now is fighting the compulsion to clean it every time you notice the tiniest hint of dust or dirt on it...it CAN become obsessive (excessive).
 
Hey man awesome job! Looks great:xyxthumbs I saw your older thread where you had problems with the Menzerna IP and the dusting. Did you follows Daves slow cut method? If so, how well did it work for you? How well did the Menzerna IP removed your swirls? I know you had trouble @ first, but you had patience and did a very nice job. Im going to use the Menzerna IP on my black camaro and Red Corvette. Any advice be great if you wanna PM me. Take care.
 
First of all, I must dearly thank all of you for your nice words. Compliments from pros like you mean the most. :)





bigal3 said:
definitely, a 100% improvement! nice job :up



p.s. did you dress the trim around the bumpers and side panels?
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No, I just sealed them with Klasse SG, and then waxed them with S100.
 
mose said:
Looks great!! Quite the difference!!



You mentioned that the polishing was the "most frustrating experience"....what was frustrating about it?



I too started detailing not all that long ago with the help of everyone here and believe me when I tell you that their information is invaluable! Everything I do to a car is because of all the help I have recieved here!! This is the nicest bunch of people I have never met!! LOL!!
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It was the most frustrating because I was a complete, utter, total, noob at it. Having operated a drill machine a few times in life is the closest thing I had to the likes of a Porter Cable, and the lack of confidence, that was the frustrating part. Then I wasn't really getting anywhere and didn't get what I expected with Menzerna IP. And I hated using PC in such tight uncomfortable spots such as under the side-view mirrors, the front and rear bumpers, etc. But now I feel much more confident and feel that I have gained enough experience to fight the frustration whenever I do my next detail.



On that note, I must express my frustration of blue-taping my entire car. I'm a bit of a perfectionist, so I drive myself crazy in covering every little plastic/rubber trim.



Other than that it wasn't that bad, it was fun.
 
Nick_418 said:
Hey man awesome job! Looks great:xyxthumbs I saw your older thread where you had problems with the Menzerna IP and the dusting. Did you follows Daves slow cut method? If so, how well did it work for you? How well did the Menzerna IP removed your swirls? I know you had trouble @ first, but you had patience and did a very nice job. Im going to use the Menzerna IP on my black camaro and Red Corvette. Any advice be great if you wanna PM me. Take care.
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I did try Dave's slow-cut method and it really did bring out the best in IP. But problem was that I was running out of time, so I had to finish up the detail. If it takes you say 5 hours to completely polish your car with IP, the slow-cut method would easily take you a couple of days.



But yeah his method did work great.



But since I was running out of time, what I did was just spritz the pad with QD/Water, applied a line of polish on it, worked in a 3x2-ish area and then simply broke the polish down. Then if I wasn't satisfied, what I would do is spritz some more QD on the pad and re-work the polish.



But if you have time, then definitely try Dave's method.
 
Nice job for a first detail, I'm curious to see what the car looked like under the halogens after you finished out the IP, I know it's your first time but once you really get the nack of working your specific polish in, its quite easy to repeat the process and create outstanding results, "Practice makes perfect!" Car looks awesome btw :cool:
 
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