Polished Bliss vs BMW 320Ci (last '06 detail, first Zymöl detail)

WX51 TXR

WX51 TXR

New member
This was an almost perfect job. Protection only detail on a Porsche Cayenne on day 1, followed by a two day correction detail on this BMW 320Ci on days two and three – all in a nice big, well equipped garage. Clark did the Cayenne on his own, and didn’t bother with any pics, as it was fairly clean to start with. However, we knew that the BMW was going to pose more of a challenge, so we employed our standard tag team routine from the outset. You’ll notice from some of the pictures below the absence of the driver’s door mirror – what isn’t so noticeable is the hard life this car has already had (it’s only two years old), with the paint featuring ubiquitous swirls, numerous deep random scratches and several small dents. With a new wing mirror on the way, all we had to do was correct this list of defects (with the exception of the dents!), and add winter protection. In a change to the regular way we write up, here we describe what we did and only what we finished with…



Wash



Whole car was foamed, pressure washed, washed by hand, rinsed, treated with glue and tar remover, refoamed and then rinsed again. Arches were degreased and pressure washed, wheels were cleaned with wheel cleaners and wheel brushes.



Clean



The fingertip test revealed plenty of bonded surface contaminants on the horizontal panels, so these were clayed using an aggressive clay bar.



Polish



After final drying off following the claying step, here’s what we were dealing with, and some of the equipment we used to sort the paint out…



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With plenty of paint to play with (120 microns on average over the whole car) we set to work by compounding all of the panels using a rotary polisher, and then followed this up by applying a finishing polish, again by rotary. One attempt on each panel was largely sufficient to give 99% correction – a couple of panels received multiple attempts in order to nip out more serious defects – all work was monitored using a digital paint gauge. Here’s some good 50:50 shots…



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And some decent before and afters of the bootlid…



Before



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After



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Some general shots after the polishing stages…



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Interior/Engine



The interior and engine bay were then cleaned using standard methods, and in fairness didn’t need much work, so only a picture of the engine is shown below – all of the shuts were thoroughly cleaned out at this stage too.



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Wheels



The alloys were treated with a wheel sealant, and the tyres received two coats of tyre dressing…



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Protect



In order to remove any last traces of polish residues and other contamination, we treated the paint with a deep cleanser, to provide the perfect base for the last step product. We then applied Zymöl Carbon to the paint, using a wipe on, wipe off method. This significantly enhanced both depth and glossiness without muting the metallic flake in any way. Here are some shots taken after the application of the wax…



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The detail was finished by cleaning the glass inside and out thoroughly, and spending half an hour or so checking all of the panel gaps, grills and trims for residues. Only when we were 100% satisfied was the car presented to the owner. We think this finish is one of the best we have ever achieved – 99% correction, in 14 hours, with every zone of the car fully detailed. Working conditions were great, and the owner a delight to work for – if only all jobs were so good.



:)
 
WX51 TXR- after seeing your work on the red Audi S4 I suspected you'd do a super job on this one too, but you still surprised me!



This one *really* struck home for me as I've been attacking my (bought very used) M3 with some pretty aggressive products and pads, many, many passes with the metabo...and I'm not doing nearly as well as you did on that one. You guys are doing some incredible work.
 
wx51 txr, good to see you posting again! i was wondering where you were, and once again... excellent detail!
 
Outstanding as always! :goodjob



Just amazing how time and time again, you get the paint so nearly perfectly defect free.
 
Your work is simply incredible. The amount of time, effort, and overall outcome really show what professionals you guys are. It's awsome how you seem to acheive a completely perfect finish on ever car you do. Amazing work, my jaw absolutely dropped at the wetness!
 
Thanks everyone, pretty blown away by the response! Clark and I have regular anxiety sessions; it seems to take us soooo long to do a lot of the cars we do, we keep thinking we must be slow or inefficient. But then the argument turns around, and we think, well it was corrected to as near to perfect as possible... and this will take a lot of time... so it's no problem. I think with us the bottom line is that we treat every customer car as if it was our own; how would we want it? The answer is as near to perfection as we are capable of, so that's what we do. That said, we still learn something new on virtually every detail we do, and that continually spurs us on. :2thumbs:
 
Oops, forgot to mention, for the reasons outlined on the S2000 Vintage thread, we are not allowed to name non-Zymol products used on Zymol details, due to our licencing contract with Zymol. However, I can answer products queries by pm. Also, if you follow our work, you'll find our non-Zymol details contain info on what we like to use for most tasks. :)
 
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