zmcgovern45
New member
- Sep 5, 2012
- 3,443
- 0
This is a BMW 335i that looked to be in fairly good shape when it was dropped of yesterday evening... until I took a closer look. I've spent about 6 hours on the car so far and will finish up tomorrow with another full day of work. I've taken care of the major defects today and am quite happy with how they turned out.
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 destroyed by a previous buffer. The owner tells me that the last time this car was buffed was by the dealer. That just goes to show you that the dealer isn't the best way to keep your car clean. While they do possess the tools to do the job right, many times they are in a hurry and simply do not take the care and caution required to produce a high quality finish - or an inexperienced employee is put to the task of detailing these cars and he/she simply doesn't know any better. Check out the pictures, you'll be amazed at the work the dealer did on this car.
Process so far...
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 (hood and trunk) via PC 7424XP
-Polish: M205 w/ Orange Pad via PC7424XP
-Wiped down with 10% IPA solution
...Will finish polishing and apply sealant tomorrow, as well as some other finishing touches of course...
Exterior Before:
^looks fine from a distance in low light. Just needs a good wash, right?... wrong
^Dirty wheels
^Quick inspection with my 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
^You can see a good amount of water spots etched into the clear coat
^The area where the dealer "detailer" left his mark
^More pigtails found
^Roof
^Trunk
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 destroyed by a previous buffer. The owner tells me that the last time this car was buffed was by the dealer. That just goes to show you that the dealer isn't the best way to keep your car clean. While they do possess the tools to do the job right, many times they are in a hurry and simply do not take the care and caution required to produce a high quality finish - or an inexperienced employee is put to the task of detailing these cars and he/she simply doesn't know any better. Check out the pictures, you'll be amazed at the work the dealer did on this car.
Process so far...
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 (hood and trunk) via PC 7424XP
-Polish: M205 w/ Orange Pad via PC7424XP
-Wiped down with 10% IPA solution
...Will finish polishing and apply sealant tomorrow, as well as some other finishing touches of course...
Exterior Before:
^looks fine from a distance in low light. Just needs a good wash, right?... wrong
^Dirty wheels
^Quick inspection with my 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
^You can see a good amount of water spots etched into the clear coat
^The area where the dealer "detailer" left his mark
^More pigtails found
^Roof
^Trunk
rops:
