So my friend Rick who I've done several other cars for brought me his baby. This is hands-down the very best looking car for it's age that I've seen in a long while and perhaps the most desirable for me to pick if I could hand-pick one to have of my own. Truly timeless and stunning IMO. Inside and out this car is in better shape finish wise than most 1-2 year old cars I've seen. The Nappa Leather is as fine and soft and like new as the year is rolled off the line.

This is his 2002 BMW M3 in Imola Red. As you can see, it has several subtle but tasteful modifications. What you can't see is the small VF Supercharger system located under the hood. I can't speak first-hand to it's performance but just a roll down the street to turn it around I can feel it's added power and torque ready to jump off the line. This one sounds awesome too but dare I say it looks better than it sounds.

It's a garage queen seeing less than 5k miles per year and likely more wipe downs than washes. With that came years of swirls that while still looking good overall, the vehicle did lack that pure wet shine that comes with flawless paint and being a solid red would really awaken once polished and coated.

To accomplish what he was looking for, Rick went with my Premium Polish Enhancement. We selected this as the paint is older and measured thinner than a full dual-stage correction would allow for comfort. Good news is the swirls weren't deep given they were done by hand simply wiper her down and I knew I could address them with relative ease.

From there he went with a dual layer coating from Cquartz. I added in a nice trim coating over the few black-bits including the windshield cowling at no charge and also gave it's engine a decent once over and the trunk a solid vacuuming.

So what does all the above translate to? Well, mother nature fought me off and odd with showers and mixed lighting but I think the pics show it off pretty well.


As you can see, it was a swirl city:








OMG that ride hieght and stance looks so good. He does have to raise it up a bit as it did rub just a bit over his new Firestone Tires. Not a big deal as it's only about 1/2" or so away from perfection.









I think the design is timeless and that this is perhaps the best looking front end on the 3 Series period.






18 years+ old and I am not kidding, there's 2 small chips on the entire car up front. The clear bra on there looks flawless as if it were done last week.












I LOVE the color and the pure red done up with a great polish and coating is dripping wet in appearance.









Mother nature and her mixed lighting but I still love this rear....






The quality of some BMW finishes leaves a lot to be desired but this one is nearly perfect in terms of clarity. Orange peel is near non existent.









Perfection in correction achieved. only a few trace marks are left in just about 2-3 places.






Many thanks again to Rick for the continued trust in my work. Looking forward to giving the M5 a refresh next week.


My Process:


  • Wash/Decon with Iron-X and Nano Mitt Medium
  • Polished with a Rupes Mille & a Nano both teamed with Yellow Mille Pads & a Flex 3401 with Orange Hexlogic Pads and CarPro Essence
  • Paint sealed up with CarPro Cquartz UK 3.0 in 2 layers with 1hr between them
  • Glass polished with Griot's Orange cutting pad and Griot's Fine Glass Polish
  • Glass Sealed with Rust-Oleum Never Wet for Glass
  • Tires Dressed with Meguiar's Hyperdressing
  • Trim dressed with WETS and wear applicable such as the grill and cowling, Meg's D4510 Plastic & Vinyl Spray was used
  • Wheels hand polished with CarPro Essence for added gloss and slight clean up with it's AIO property as some protection
  • Lower Grill & Side vents along with bits Under the hood treated with Meg's D4510 Plastic & Vinyl Spray