Monte Carlo Blue BMW M5 - Detailed by Lawrence

[lawrenceSA]

Well....its bigger than I thought it would be. I reckon the bonnet is the single biggest panel I have polished to date :crazy:

But with good reason obviously... the 4.4l twin turbo V8 making 560 HP. The owner was gracious enough to allow me to take it for a drive when he collected it on Sunday evening (my deepest thanks again bud :hug: ) and its quite astonishing how the quickly near 2 tons can be hurled at the horizon :crazy: :driving: :grin:

So early on Saturday morning I pulled the car out the garage and managed to snap a few pictures.

The paint was in much better shape than his Alpine White M3 I did last weekend http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/show-n-shine/86651-alpine-white-bmw-m3-detailed-lawrence.html but was definitely in need of some love.

The boot lid did however did have a rather nasty scratch in it

So after getting set up and ready to start cleaning the wheels, mother nature decided it was time we experienced some rather ridiculous wind....something we hardly ever get in my part of the world... add this to the behemoth that lay before more, it was head down and no more pics for a while.

I did manage to capture some bleeding on the wheels - everyone loves a bleeding pic :lol:

So here is what happened before the camera came back out again.

Arches, Tires, Wheels
-HP rinse arches, tires and wheels.
-Clean arches with a prototype APC, which even in its developmental stages, creates a long lasting better dwelling foam that rinses away easier, and cleans better, than my current go-to APC, using a Mothers Fenderwell Brush
-HP rinse
-Clean tires with Meguiars All Wheel and Tire Cleaner and a Mothers Tire brush.
-HP rinse
-Repeat tire cleaning
-HP rinse
-Wash wheels and brake calipers with VP Bilberry Wheel Cleaner @ 1:6, Daytona and Daytona Jnr brushes and Valet Pro Boars Hair Brushes
-HP rinse
-Dry
-Remove tar using Autoglym Intensive Tar Remover
-Spray with APC and HP Rinse
-Dry
-Remove bonded and embedded ferrous contaminants on wheels and brake calipers with Valet Pro Dragon's Breath Daytona and Daytona Jnr brushes and Valet Pro Boars Hair Brushes
-HP Rinse + flood rinse
-The faces of the wheels were then polished using a MF Applicator pad and Mothers Power Metal
-Later the tires would be dressed with Optimum Optibond and the rest of the wheels sealed with Menzerna Powerlock and the arches dressed using Shield Sheen

Engine bay
-Blow loose dust off with compressor
-Clean with APC, MF Towels and various Brushes
-Clean/Polish/Protect (AIO) using AF Tripple by hand, and using the Shield DA with 4" LC White pads
-Plastics dressed with Shield Sheen

Exhaust Tips
-Cleaned using APC, MF towels and various brushes
-Polished and protected using Mothers Power Metal

Wash
-HP rinse
-Applied Valet Pro Citrus Pre-wash via a spray bottle, left to dwell
-HP rinse
-Applied Valet Pro ANSF via a MTM Hydro, left to dwell
-HP rinse
-2BM wash using lambswool wash mitts and the same shampoo I was busy testing last weekend. I am liking it a little more :thumbup:
-HP rinse
-Flood Rinse
-Dried using ONR and WW drying towels

Decontamination
-Tar removed using Autoglym Intensive Tar Remover
-Iron removed using Valet Pro Dragon's Breath
-Remaining contamination was clayed off using Shield Heavy Duty clay with ONR as lube.

Paint correction
-Paint readings (avg 105µ on the Ferrous panels / avg 72µ on the Aluminium panels)
-Flex 3401 / Menzerna SF4000 / 5.5" Tangerine Lake White Pads.

I managed to get the car outside in a brief moment of sunshine

Paint protection
-Soft 99 Fusso Coat Dark

Interior
-Vacuumed
-Seats cleaned with APC then protected with Collinte 855
-Plastics and dash cleaned with APC then given a final wipe using Autofinesse Spritz

Glass
-Glossworx Glass Cleaner

Door rubbers, window rubbers, exterior plastic trim
- Cleaned using Shield Heavy Duty Vinyl and Rubber Cleaner
- Protected using Aerospace 303.

By the time all of that was completed on Sunday afternoon I put 28 hours into the detail.

But the wind was still howling like crazy so I wasn't prepared to take the car out to get pictures and have it covered in dust before the owner got to see it.

So this is all I managed to snap in the way of afters, mostly just with my cell phone

As always, thanks for looking, and any comments or questions are welcomed.

:hi:

 

[Moldavite]

i saw that same made M5 in person and it is infact much bigger than a regular sedan
Great work!!! it turn out looking fantastic!
Thanks for sharing

btw your detail arsenal is awesome lol

 

[Garyhw48]

Excellent work on a beautiful automobile. It would have taken me twice as long to do the work that you did in 28 hours.

Thanks for posting all of the great pictures. I really enjoyed them.

 

[jamesboyy]

Amazing work on that M5 that blue really pops now

 

[HUMP DIESEL]

The M5 is a very deceiving car as far as size goes. I also felt like the hoods are so huge. This color is one of my favorite colors.

HUMP

 

[Sicoupe]

Fantastic job Lawrence! Looks beautiful my friend

 

[lawrenceSA]

i saw that same made M5 in person and it is infact much bigger than a regular sedan
Great work!!! it turn out looking fantastic!
Thanks for sharing

btw your detail arsenal is awesome lol

Thank you very much

Excellent work on a beautiful automobile. It would have taken me twice as long to do the work that you did in 28 hours.

Thanks for posting all of the great pictures. I really enjoyed them.

Thank you. I was just really glad that I was able to get away with just a single polish... a multi-step correction would have been a real killer on this beast.

Amazing work on that M5 that blue really pops now

Thank you

The M5 is a very deceiving car as far as size goes. I also felt like the hoods are so huge. This color is one of my favorite colors.

HUMP

Thanks Hump - I really like the color too.

Fantastic job Lawrence! Looks beautiful my friend

Thanks Kyle - appreciate it!

 

[Zubair]

The Menzerna SF4000 really jewelled the paint, wow, what a finish!

 

[Mike@DedicatedPerfection]

Outstanding work on this M5 Lawrence! I thoroughly enjoy reading over your workmanship. Top notch as always.

The finished job turned out amazing and I'm sure the owner was quite thrilled. Nice to hear you got to drive it briefly.

I did manage to capture some bleeding on the wheels - everyone loves a bleeding pic :lol:

As always, thanks for looking, and any comments or questions are welcomed.

:hi:

This is the best wheel "Bleeding" shot I have ever seen!

rops:

 

[lawrenceSA]

The Menzerna SF4000 really jewelled the paint, wow, what a finish!

Thanks Zubair

Outstanding work on this M5 Lawrence! I thoroughly enjoy reading over your workmanship. Top notch as always.

The finished job turned out amazing and I'm sure the owner was quite thrilled. Nice to hear you got to drive it briefly.



This is the best wheel "Bleeding" shot I have ever seen!

rops:

Mike, thanks for your kind words. The owner was very happy with the way the car looked.... and I was very happy with the getting the chance to drive such a beautiful car.

Nothing like a win/win

 

[Rod73]

Fantastic! I'm about to do mine. My first time using a Porter Cable and abrasive polish. I'm using your work as inspiration, trying to get on that level!

 

[lawrenceSA]

Fantastic! I'm about to do mine. My first time using a Porter Cable and abrasive polish. I'm using your work as inspiration, trying to get on that level!

Thank you for your kind words.

The best advice I can give you if you are working with a PC type DA is to really slow your arm movement down and don't work too big an area at a time. Give the abrasives some time to do their work.

Barry Theal has a video on Youtube called something like 'abrasive isolation' - it is worth the watch and explains the concept of why moving with such a slow arm speed is so critical.

On a car like this with paint that is on the harder side, this is even more applicable....

That, and making sure you perform a test spot(s) BEFORE you tackle the whole car.

I wish you the best of luck when you tackle yours and hope to see your own 'show n shine' thread once your are done! :dblthumb2:

 

[HUMP DIESEL]

Outstanding work on this M5 Lawrence! I thoroughly enjoy reading over your workmanship. Top notch as always.

The finished job turned out amazing and I'm sure the owner was quite thrilled. Nice to hear you got to drive it briefly.



This is the best wheel "Bleeding" shot I have ever seen!

rops:

I know why Mike said this!! HA! Can't get away from the BMW's Mike! :xyxthumbs::xyxthumbs::xyxthumbs:

 

[Rod73]

Thank you for your kind words.

The best advice I can give you if you are working with a PC type DA is to really slow your arm movement down and don't work too big an area at a time. Give the abrasives some time to do their work.

Barry Theal has a video on Youtube called something like 'abrasive isolation' - it is worth the watch and explains the concept of why moving with such a slow arm speed is so critical.

On a car like this with paint that is on the harder side, this is even more applicable....

That, and making sure you perform a test spot(s) BEFORE you tackle the whole car.

I wish you the best of luck when you tackle yours and hope to see your own 'show n shine' thread once your are done! :dblthumb2:

Thanks! Using the Menzerna line, so I'm definitely going to work it for a while. And watching the Barry Theal now

 

[lawrenceSA]

Yes they do need to be worked properly so it may take a little longer than some other polishes - 8 passes is pretty much a norm for me - but they have managed to get me through everything i have thrown at them.

Obviously each person has their own technique but for me I try break those 8 pases up like this.

The first 2 medium to heavy pressure and really slow arm speed. This is where I think the abrasives offer their most cut, so take advantage of that.

The next 4 I slow the machine speed down by a half, my arm speed speeds up slightly and the pressure eases up a little.

The last 2 I slow the machine down another half, slow my arm speed down again and use very light pressure.

Obviously the above gets tweaked slightly on each car as they are all different.

I guess the idea is to lean in 'hard' and back back out to 'gentle' as you work through the passes. At the same time progressively slow the machine speed down slightly.

I hope that makes sense?

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