zmcgovern45
New member
- Sep 5, 2012
- 3,443
- 0
This is a BMW 335i with only 8,000 miles on it and it looked to be in fairly good shape... until I took a closer look.
The trunk had some pretty deep scratches that were clearly visible, even from a distance. I lightly wet sanded that area and buffed it out, they are nearly invisible now except for 1 or 2 that were too deep for me to safely sand. Being that this is a daily driver, it is important to maintain as much clear coat as possible, and a "show car" finish is unreasonable, so sometimes you just have to accept that some defects will remain... especially the deep ones.
So after the trunk was taken care of, I turned my attention to the hood. I was blown away by what I had found upon my initial inspection under the halogen lights. A large portion of the hood had been damaged pretty bad by a previous buffer. The owner informed me that it was the dealer who last touched this car. Check out the pictures, the before pictures may scare you, but the after pictures looks great.
Process:
Interior:
-Vacuum
-Vinyl & Plastic Dressed with 303
-Leather Dressed with Meg's Leather Conditioner
-Glass with Stoner's IG
Exterior:
-Wheels: P21S Wheel Cleaner Gel
-Wash: CG Citrus Wash and Gloss
-Dry: DI Waffle Weave Towels
-Clay: DI Fine Clay with ONR as lube
-Wet sand (Scratches on trunk): 3M 2000 Grit
-Compound: M105 w/ Surbuf Pads (on hood, roof, and trunk) via PC 7424XP
-Polish: M205 w/ Orange Pad (on sides and rear of car) and w/ Black pad to follow up the M105 on all horizontal surfaces. Applied via PC7424XP.
-Wiped down with 10% IPA solution
-Wash (again): ONR
-Sealant: CG Blacklight followed by CG Hybrid V7
-Tires: Dressed with Meg's Endurance Gel
-Glass: Stoner's IG
Total time: ~11 hours
Exterior Before:
^looks fine from a distance in low light. Just needs a good wash, right?... wrong
^Dirty wheels
^Quick inspection with my Brinkmann xenon light... Looked like mostly typical scratches and swirls, found out I was wrong when I took a look at the car under the halogens the next day
^deep scratches on the trunk
^dirty
^Dirty
^Inspecting the hood under halogens after washing the car
^You can see a good amount of water spots etched into the clear coat
^The area where the previous owner or detailer left his mark
^More pigtails found
^Roof
^Trunk
Interior Before: (Filled an entire 5 gallon bucket with trash while cleaning this car out! )
Interior During:
^50/50 shot of conditioned leather: Untreated on left vs. Treated on Right
^50/50 shot of protected vinyl: Untreated on left vs. Treated on Right
The trunk had some pretty deep scratches that were clearly visible, even from a distance. I lightly wet sanded that area and buffed it out, they are nearly invisible now except for 1 or 2 that were too deep for me to safely sand. Being that this is a daily driver, it is important to maintain as much clear coat as possible, and a "show car" finish is unreasonable, so sometimes you just have to accept that some defects will remain... especially the deep ones.
So after the trunk was taken care of, I turned my attention to the hood. I was blown away by what I had found upon my initial inspection under the halogen lights. A large portion of the hood had been damaged pretty bad by a previous buffer. The owner informed me that it was the dealer who last touched this car. Check out the pictures, the before pictures may scare you, but the after pictures looks great.
Process:
Interior:
-Vacuum
-Vinyl & Plastic Dressed with 303
-Leather Dressed with Meg's Leather Conditioner
-Glass with Stoner's IG
Exterior:
-Wheels: P21S Wheel Cleaner Gel
-Wash: CG Citrus Wash and Gloss
-Dry: DI Waffle Weave Towels
-Clay: DI Fine Clay with ONR as lube
-Wet sand (Scratches on trunk): 3M 2000 Grit
-Compound: M105 w/ Surbuf Pads (on hood, roof, and trunk) via PC 7424XP
-Polish: M205 w/ Orange Pad (on sides and rear of car) and w/ Black pad to follow up the M105 on all horizontal surfaces. Applied via PC7424XP.
-Wiped down with 10% IPA solution
-Wash (again): ONR
-Sealant: CG Blacklight followed by CG Hybrid V7
-Tires: Dressed with Meg's Endurance Gel
-Glass: Stoner's IG
Total time: ~11 hours
Exterior Before:
^looks fine from a distance in low light. Just needs a good wash, right?... wrong
^Dirty wheels
^Quick inspection with my Brinkmann xenon light... Looked like mostly typical scratches and swirls, found out I was wrong when I took a look at the car under the halogens the next day
^deep scratches on the trunk
^dirty
^Dirty
^Inspecting the hood under halogens after washing the car
^You can see a good amount of water spots etched into the clear coat
^The area where the previous owner or detailer left his mark
^More pigtails found
^Roof
^Trunk
Interior Before: (Filled an entire 5 gallon bucket with trash while cleaning this car out! )
Interior During:
^50/50 shot of conditioned leather: Untreated on left vs. Treated on Right
^50/50 shot of protected vinyl: Untreated on left vs. Treated on Right
rops:
