95' M3, my 1st attempt at detailing, the start!

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neverman

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Well this is my daily driver... finally moved into the same town I work in and after 10 years of commuting on I-5 I'm sorry to say I have a rock chip or 300. I decided to see what I could do with my car after finding these forums and making the tough choice on whether to keep her or get an E46 M3. Well, after replacing her suspension with a TCKline coil over system I guess I'm keeping her for awhile.

The plan is to get her as clean and swirl free as I can before I do the rock chip repair. i can't see spending the money on fresh paint even though that's what she really needs. If I make it passable I can live with that, know what I mean... Choices are what define us, no?

The hood is in pretty bad shape (if you go to my gallery you can see these shots a touch larger) I didn't want to blow the thread up with huge photos!
wash1.jpg
.

2 more shots of car after a good hand washing (liquid dish soap and some turtlewax "ice" soap, was on sale at dollartree)

wash2.jpg


wash3.jpg


Hood looking out garage...

Not too many actual swirls for a car that has NEVER been detailed in it's life. I guess I took ok care of it during washing. If only I didn't hit all those damn rocks!!!

1st shots after polishing, I only did the hood so far... busy night.
polish1.jpg


All hope is not lost, much better "black" IMO. It is a couple hours later in the day.

polish2.jpg


Next up is the sealers and wax photos... damn photo locked up my texting ability as I couldn't scroll down past the photo :)
 
Sealed with Fourstar UPC and UPP... pretty nice products.
seal1.jpg


Not much of a change to my eye here but it "hid" alot of defects. Especially visable when you see the after shot of the hood from outside looking in, as in this photo.

hoodsov.jpg


Huge change in my book. And now for the money shots of Souveran, well as good as it gets on 1st pass before I do my rock chip repair.

sov1.jpg


And one before it starts raining on my parade outside...

sov2.jpg


Products used were:

Wolfgangs Clay (man, did I discolor some clay!)
Poorboys SSR2.5 and SSR1 (edge 2000 pads and xmt pad conditioner and cleaner. think I went with orange and blue)
Fourstar UPC and UPP
Souveran Paste

Supplemented by a PC7336 as found at Lowe's for dirt cheap. Thanks to everyone here for giving me the ooomph needed to get this started. Still a lot of work to do but there is hope. I really don't want to repaint.
 
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The gallon of "ice" carwash was on sale for like a buck fifty or something rediculous. I only bought it to lubricate during my washing and knew it wouldn't matter as I wanted the car stripped anyway. Maybe I'll donate it to my daughters car washing needs~

Other products I used were a guzzler, some indigo's and some p21s wheel cleaner. Kinda only half-assed my wheels while I changed my suspension out. I'm sore as hell from that job.

edit in: you can't see em' due to the angle used I think, they're there and healthy. But the 2 hood shots while in the garage looking inward are IMO an amazing change. There was literally hundreds of white dots all over, I almost cried before I started, I certainly second guessed what my efforts would bring out. :)

Oh forgot, look right by the knuckle on the drivers side windshield wiper. huge chip at the edge about 1.5"s up from the power bulge :(
 
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clear difference in outcome, but please leave dishwashing liquid in the home, it should NEVER be used on cars.
 
Good Job! I like dishwashing soap to wash the engine compartment if it's not to bad. It has a mild greese cutting ability and works very good. I don't use it on my paint.
 
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Looks good man, I hope my first attempt turns out that good.
 
Great job, and this is your first attempt. Awesome:applause:
 
First attempt wow your good and the car looks great....awesome results for the first time detailing.
 
Grew up in San Diego (La Mesa actually) and now live in sunny ol' Oregon. Only took 7 years to almost adjust :)

Thanks for the kind words all. I can't wait to do the rest and see how much life the car has left, does that point to personal issues I should worry about?

I figured the dish soap would be fine as long as I was going to clay/polish etc. as I wanted a good "stripping" done, there was wax on it that I wanted to remove. Still a bad choice if you know you're going to tear it all down?

Any good products for doing glass on a car this neglected? Stoners gets alot of print here, stick with that? How many products do they make for glass that I should consider?

Also, when I tackle the sides of the car should I remove the trim strips? They're pretty beefy on the BMW's of this era. What trim product will bring the black back and not require application every week?

It actually dusted some snow this morning, I broke out my guzzler so I could sleep. Another strange thing transpired.... as I was driving I stayed well back in traffic so I didn't get water/dirt from the cars driving on the wet roads. How long does that habit take to fade before I can resume my normal aggressive driving style? I feel like such an old man~
 
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