Bimmer kicked my butt

[TornadoRed]

I've been detailing my own cars as a hobby for about a year now and it was getting kind of old just washing and waxing new cars. I did some correction on my daughter's white neon over the winter, but I was getting the itch for a challenge. Plus I have about 5 years worth of wax that I need to try.

There's a friend at work that picked up a '95 BMW 5 series that was a good challenge. The previous owner took very good care of it, mechanical wise, but the paint has lost its luster. I see the car in the parking lot and it's always clean, so I figured he'd might like to have me spruce it up. When I asked him if I could detail it, he looked at me like was crazy, but he was all for it.

My plan was to do a clay, a simple light polish, and I wanted to finally try my Griot's Best of Show wax. Also I was going to do mild interior clean and dress with Wolfgang's Vinyl and Rubber Dressing which I like on my own cars.

After he dropped the car off we walked around it and I started to wonder what I got myself into. I should've taken a closer look before making the offer. Everywhere I looked was defect of some kind. He told me the car has been repainted which I didn't realize how important that information was until later. Also, the previous owner had two dogs. Yep, one look inside and I made up my mind that I wasn't touching it.
I started by washing each panel with DP Rinseless and claying using Mothers clay with DP Rinseless as lube. As I was claying, I noticed that the paint actually has a metallic flake!

Once the clay was done, I started on my test spot on the trunk. All I can say is this paint was hard. I used a Griot's ROP with a Griot's orange pad and Machine Polish 3 and it didn't even make a dent. Well that shot my plan for a one step polish. So I hit it with a Griot's orange pad and Machine Polish 1. That was a little better, but still hard work. (Quick review on GGMP1: easy to work with, a little hard to remove)

Test spot before


Test spot after. 50/50 pic didn't turn out.


So I moved on to the roof and then to the hood. This was not going easy. Many of the defects just weren't budging and I realized one big thing; whoever repainted this car needs to be shot. They painted over the old paint's defects. This made the job very frustrating because it was hard to tell what was correctable. Plus with it being so hard, it was going very slow. By the time I got to the hood, I had to switch to a 5.5" cyan pad for MP1. I should've switched sooner as it took fewer passes to get it to look decent. It was frustrating that I was working it so hard and not getting the results I would've liked. I was able to get the driver side done with the MP1 and cyan pad by midnight. I went to bed but couldn't sleep, so I went back out to the garage at 4am.

Later that day my wife came out and decided to take a shot at the interior. Since I wasn't going to do the interior, I didn't take before pictures. I really wish I had because my wife made that interior her #####. There was dog hair everywhere and all of the leather and cloth was nasty, as you can imagine hauling two dogs around. The only thing she used was a half bottle of Ultima Interior Shampoo Gel (it's not a gel haha) and several costco MFs.

Since this had taken a lot longer than I planned, I decided to use an LSP I knew would be quick and went with Wolfgang Deep Gloss Paint Sealant.

Other products used: Griot's Wheel Cleaner and DP Gloss Tire Gel. This was the first time I used the tire gel and I really like the look. The wheels were oxidized and damaged and the tried sidewalls are cracked so I didn't take pics.

Now the pics...

Hood before



Hood after


Hood w/ oxidation before


After (Not 100% grrrrr) Notice the UTTGP on the wipers and cowl (forgot the sprayers grrrrr)


Trunk before


Trunk after (scratches on the left would not come out grrrr)


Driver side rear 1/4 panel before


Driver side rear 1/4 panel after


Rear bumper before
Funny story here. He was recently rear ended and this was the only damage. The tail pipes punched two holes in the other car's license plate.


Rear bumper after. Check out the UTTGP on the trim! Compare to the lower piece. (which I forgot grrrr)


Passenger side rear 1/4 panel before


Passenger side rear 1/4 panel after


Passenger door before (this must've been where the dogs looked out the window)


Passenger door after (UTTGP on door handle)


Roof before (the new paint over the old bad paint)


Roof after (at least the reflection is better)

[2kredbb6]

Great JOB!

[Judge]

I don't think you should beat yourself up over that car. You did a lot with what you were given. You should feel good about those results. That E34 looks great now

[ScubaCougr]

Only you see the "defects" that are left. The owner and everyone else will see a gleaming mirror, especially those that took a good look before.

Very nice job!

[TLMitchell]

From what I'm seeing that's some pretty nice work, especially with what you had to work with.

Must be something going around, I was up for a challenge and am in the midst of receiving a buttkicking myself. I was polishing along with D300/MF DA when it got dark out and the humidity rose to 90% as the night cooled. D300 started to gum up during wipe off and I had to give up until tomorrow.

Here's a sample of the fun I'm having... the whole car was a swirl monster with some major-hard clear. This took 3 repeated sections passes to achieve this result.



Nothing like good, clean fun, huh?

Gonna make for an intersting writeup if I ever get done with it. What is it about large, black cars that makes them seem to get larger as you work?

TL

[oldmodman]

What are you beating yourself up over?
That car looks incredible!
Your friend should be very, very happy with that result.
I have a beemer dealer just a mile from my house and I always stop in there to drool.
And your work is far superior to theirs.
They just smear some goo on their cars to make them shiny. One good rain or two washes and they are all swirled up again.
You actually perfected the paint. I really doubt that your friend has any idea how good his car will look now that you have worn yourself out on it.

P.S. What did it smell like inside after the two dogs lived in there

[Midnight1700]

Man do I know what you went through. I just completed a jet black 2008 BMW 335i Convertible and had the same issues. I spent about 5 hours on the trunk alone. I even used M105 with a wool pad and it didn't seem to do much to correct the scratches. I ended up sanding in various grits, down to 3000. Even after that, the progress was very slow. Hopefully someone can chime in and provide some suggestions when dealing with such hard clear coats.

[Dr Oldz]

Looks awesome! It is just about impossible to get show car results from a DD. What you did is most impressive. When you can make a car look like a different car, you know your doing something right!

[TornadoRed]

The for the kind words everyone. This was a great learning experience. Someone asked me how much I charged for this and couldn't believe I did it for free. The way I see it, I got more out of it than the owner did. Although it does appear I'm beating myself up, I'm pretty proud of the results.

When the owner picked up the car, I asked him if he knew the paint had metal flake. He said no and asked how I put it in there. Haha.

[TornadoRed]

P.S. What did it smell like inside after the two dogs lived in there

I plan on sending a link of this thread to the owner because he hasn't seen the pictures yet. I don't want to say too many negative things about his car.

Let's just say it didn't have the new car smell anymore. For some reason I like the smell of the Ultima Interior Shampoo and hoped the interior would take on that smell, but no luck. My wife gave it a few healthy sprays of Fabreeze that didn't help either.