M
Mike1
Guest
Good Morning fellow BMW Fanatics
Today I give you not only my now favourite BMW colour but also one of my favourite details yet.
The BMW E90 325i, a flurry of style, power and noise. I have always enjoyed the 325i motor having driven an auto for 2 weeks a while ago. When I heard the car was Le Mans Blue I was unable to contain my excitement. My favourite BMW colour, in a body I love with a motor I love and then to top its a manual!
Booked for an enhancement detail I found the car parked up at Jandre's house (His dads car) waiting for some pampering. :joy:
So to begin, some pictures of her when I arrived:
The car was relatively clean with a heavy layer of dust and some brake dust on the mag wheels. However even in this state I could notice some of the offending paint damage.
I started off with the mag wheels, spraying them with Chemical Guys Degreaser and agitating with a variety of brushes before leaving them to stand allowing the cleaner to slowly take a bite at the tar deposits BMW wheels are known for.
The exhaust pipes were also given a bit of a spray and agitated ready for cleaning.
The engine bay was then sprayed down including the heat shield, shuts and a huge amount of leaves were removed from the air-ducts.
At this point I gave the car a thorough hosing with my High Pressure Hose, focusing on wheels, arches, exhaust and the engine bay removing the most of the grime.
Then my favourite part, I foamed the car down with a heavy concentration of Chemical Guys Maxi Suds Shampoo and left that to stand for 10 minutes whilst I ran around the car with the degreaser cleaning badges, plastics, door shuts and weather strips.
She was then sprayed down leaving me with this:
Once dried and taken around the block to remove any excess water I inspected the paintwork to get a better idea of what I was dealing with. The car had been buffed by a Panelshop recently after having some work done and it was fairly obvious that who-ever did the job was not competent.
The paint seemed marred with very micro-marring (usually caused by using polishes with too harsh an abrasive) as well as long buffer trails and Holograms. In some areas some swirls and scratches were evident but not quite as bad.
Taped up and ready for polishing:
At this paint I attacked the car with a Chemical Guys Pro Cut polish, working the polish in and revealing a very wet, soft and reflective paint. These results were obtained by doing 3 passes per panel and a few more on the roof, bonnet and bootlid.
The left side of the car polished:
The paintwork, although looking brilliant was then refined with Meguires Compound X with only one pass required further enhancing the clarity and gloss of the paint.
RAWR!
After refining:
Happy with the results under an LED Light I decided to pull the car out and do a quick walk around to make sure that the finish met my standards under direct sunlight. I was pleasantly surprised....
The finish was crisp, fresh and extremely glossy considering that I had not even applied a wax yet.
The wax of choice for today was Chemical Guys XXX Hardcore Paste Wax. I went for this as when applied the layer between the clear and wax is very thin yet very durable. This meant that I could get the durability and depth of a wax without compromising the beautiful metallic pop the Le Mans Blue showed off.
Two coats of this was applied leaving me with a wet, lush and gorgeous finish.
To be continued:
Continued...
With the paintwork out of the way I moved onto the interior and smaller details.
- Trim dressed with Smart Dressing incl Engine Bay and Tyres.
- Interior Vacuumed.
- Leather treated with Smart Leather.
- Windows Cleaned with Autoglym Fast Glass.
- Rims waxed with Rim Wax (And look at how amazing they look!)
Please make sure you are sitting ladies and gents... The after photo's!
Although booked in for an Enhancement only I managed to get quite a lot of correction from the paintwork. I was extremely impressed as I think I have truly managed to master my current product range to really get the absolute best out of a cars finish in the shortest time possible.
The owner was extremely happy, and it was an absolute pleasure being able to restore his beautiful BMW back to showroom condition.
What do you guys think?
With regards to my write ups, is there anything I can improve on? Am I writing too much or too little. Less detail or more detail? Is there anything you guys would like me to include?
All comments are welcome!
Thanks for reading.
Mike
Today I give you not only my now favourite BMW colour but also one of my favourite details yet.
The BMW E90 325i, a flurry of style, power and noise. I have always enjoyed the 325i motor having driven an auto for 2 weeks a while ago. When I heard the car was Le Mans Blue I was unable to contain my excitement. My favourite BMW colour, in a body I love with a motor I love and then to top its a manual!
Booked for an enhancement detail I found the car parked up at Jandre's house (His dads car) waiting for some pampering. :joy:
So to begin, some pictures of her when I arrived:
The car was relatively clean with a heavy layer of dust and some brake dust on the mag wheels. However even in this state I could notice some of the offending paint damage.
I started off with the mag wheels, spraying them with Chemical Guys Degreaser and agitating with a variety of brushes before leaving them to stand allowing the cleaner to slowly take a bite at the tar deposits BMW wheels are known for.
The exhaust pipes were also given a bit of a spray and agitated ready for cleaning.
The engine bay was then sprayed down including the heat shield, shuts and a huge amount of leaves were removed from the air-ducts.
At this point I gave the car a thorough hosing with my High Pressure Hose, focusing on wheels, arches, exhaust and the engine bay removing the most of the grime.
Then my favourite part, I foamed the car down with a heavy concentration of Chemical Guys Maxi Suds Shampoo and left that to stand for 10 minutes whilst I ran around the car with the degreaser cleaning badges, plastics, door shuts and weather strips.
She was then sprayed down leaving me with this:
Once dried and taken around the block to remove any excess water I inspected the paintwork to get a better idea of what I was dealing with. The car had been buffed by a Panelshop recently after having some work done and it was fairly obvious that who-ever did the job was not competent.
The paint seemed marred with very micro-marring (usually caused by using polishes with too harsh an abrasive) as well as long buffer trails and Holograms. In some areas some swirls and scratches were evident but not quite as bad.
Taped up and ready for polishing:
At this paint I attacked the car with a Chemical Guys Pro Cut polish, working the polish in and revealing a very wet, soft and reflective paint. These results were obtained by doing 3 passes per panel and a few more on the roof, bonnet and bootlid.
The left side of the car polished:
The paintwork, although looking brilliant was then refined with Meguires Compound X with only one pass required further enhancing the clarity and gloss of the paint.
RAWR!
After refining:
Happy with the results under an LED Light I decided to pull the car out and do a quick walk around to make sure that the finish met my standards under direct sunlight. I was pleasantly surprised....
The finish was crisp, fresh and extremely glossy considering that I had not even applied a wax yet.
The wax of choice for today was Chemical Guys XXX Hardcore Paste Wax. I went for this as when applied the layer between the clear and wax is very thin yet very durable. This meant that I could get the durability and depth of a wax without compromising the beautiful metallic pop the Le Mans Blue showed off.
Two coats of this was applied leaving me with a wet, lush and gorgeous finish.
To be continued:
Continued...
With the paintwork out of the way I moved onto the interior and smaller details.
- Trim dressed with Smart Dressing incl Engine Bay and Tyres.
- Interior Vacuumed.
- Leather treated with Smart Leather.
- Windows Cleaned with Autoglym Fast Glass.
- Rims waxed with Rim Wax (And look at how amazing they look!)
Please make sure you are sitting ladies and gents... The after photo's!
Although booked in for an Enhancement only I managed to get quite a lot of correction from the paintwork. I was extremely impressed as I think I have truly managed to master my current product range to really get the absolute best out of a cars finish in the shortest time possible.
The owner was extremely happy, and it was an absolute pleasure being able to restore his beautiful BMW back to showroom condition.
What do you guys think?
With regards to my write ups, is there anything I can improve on? Am I writing too much or too little. Less detail or more detail? Is there anything you guys would like me to include?
All comments are welcome!
Thanks for reading.
Mike
