Titanium Silver BMW X3 - Detailed by Lawrence

[lawrenceSA]

After taking a couple of weekends off in a row I was really looking forward to detailing again :grin:

It had been raining a fair bit during the week prior to the vehicle arriving so it was obviously quite dirty....









But before we get to that, let's sort out the interior....

-Blow out loose dust
-Vacuum
-Carchem APC 1:15 via a foaming trigger head, brushes and MF towels to clean plastics and leather (including steering wheel)
-Autofinesse Spritz to protect plastics
-Collinite 855 to protect leather
-Brush carpets
-Vacuum
-Clean glass use Autoglym Fast Glass
-Door rubbers cleaned with Shield Heavy Duty Vinyl and rubber cleaner
-Door rubbers dressed with Aerospace 303

A few shots along the way













It rained pretty much the whole of Saturday which I actually enjoy...(even the bit where you are outside washing the car in the rain ops: )

So first up as always is the dirtiest part of the car, the engine bay....any dirty water that happens to splash outside the engine bay during cleaning will land on the fenders which will still need to be washed, so you only need to clean that area once, as opposed to washing the car first, then messing dirty engine bay muck, back onto your clean paint.







-Blow off loose dust
-Clean with Carchem APC, MF towels and a Valet Pro Boars Hair Brush
-HP Rinse
-Blow dry
-Dress engine bay with Autofinesse Dressel
-Rubbers cleaned with Shield Heavy Duty Vinyl and rubber cleaner
-Rubbers dressed with Aerospace 303



Then the door shuts, boot shut and inside the fuel flap were attended to.



-Spray Carchem APC @ 1:5, let it dwell
-Agitate with a Valet Pro Boars Hair Brush
-Rinse x
-Clean/Polish/Protect using Autofinesse Tripple on a MF applicator pad



Then I tackled the wheels which had only been repainted the same week. The process was simply to rinse them and clean them using some Carchem Luxury Shampoo - no harsh chemicals - they will be given a full clean, decontamination and then protected in a few months once the paint has properly cured.

Then..... time to wash the car.... first a thorough HP rinse to try remove as much dirt as you can before making contact with the paint, minimizing how much could potentially be dragged over the paint... The car was then foamed (avoiding the wheels) using Valet Pro Advanced Neutral Snow Foam which was left to dwell then HP rinsed off. While the foam was on the car, all the badges, honeycomb, door handles, window rubbers etc were all agitated with a Valet Pro Boars Hair Brush. Then Valet Pro Citrus Prewash was sprayed onto the lower half of the car (excluding the wheels), left to dwell and HP rinsed off. The car was then given a 2BM wash using lambswool wash mitts and Carchem Luxury Shampoo. Then HP rinsed, flood rinsed and dried using a couple of waffle weave drying towels and some ONR at QD strength.

Then the process of decontamination commenced. Valet Pro Citrus Tar Remover was used to deal with any tar spots present on the car



Carchem Revolt was used to eliminate the iron contamination



And Shield Heavy Duty Clay was used to remove any remaining contaminants in preparation for paint correction.

Paint readings were taken and no real cause for concern was found. The bonnet and passenger side front fender had been repainted and unfortunately not very well either. I found evidence of the following:

-Inconsistent texture (orange peel)
-Dirt nibs
-Runs
-Mottling (a blotchy look)
-Sanding Marks (clearcoat and basecoat)

The owner intends sending this back to have it repainted, and I will then get it properly finished out once it has gone through its proper curing time.

Capturing defects on silver paint isn't really the easiest thing in the world (well not for me anyway).... however I did manage 1 before/after and 1 50/50 that are show some of the correction process, which was done using the Flex 3401, 5" Orange Lake Country Hybrid Pads and Menzerna PF2300 and then protected using Collinite 845.



Before



After



There was also a small but fairly deep scratch right on the front edge of the driver side rear door which I was able to make look a lot

Before



After



The taillights were initially polished with the same combo I corrected the paint with, and were then re-polished with Flex 3401, 5" Black Lake Country Hybrid Pads and Menzerna SF4000..... the headlights were given a light polish with this same finishing combo.

The exhaust tip was also cleaned using Carchem APC @ 1:5 and then polished using Meguiars NXT All Metal Polish, MF towels and a Mothers Powerball Mini

Before



After



All the badges were then cleaned using Autofinesse Tripple and q-tips

Before



After



All the exterior door and window rubbers and exterior plastics were cleaned using Shield Heavy Duty Vinyl and Rubber cleaner and protected using Carchem Tire and Trim gel. The tires were dressed using Gyeon Tire. The glass was cleaned using Gyeon Prep and Instafinish Bead Off was applied.

I finished shortly before the owner came to collect the car and with the weather being what it was, I didn't want to take the car out the garage until he arrived, by which time it was starting to get dark so the pictures are really meh ops: :fear:

Cell phone pics still in the garage









And outside





Total time spent = 30 hours

Thanks for looking and any questions or comments are welcome.

:hi:

[Angus]

Awesome results and excellent attention to detail

[Sicoupe]

beautiful job as always my friend!

[PPierce]

Awesome job. I am new to detailing and learned a lot with your descriptions of your technique and the products used. Thanks !

[Sizzle Chest]

Excellent work and excellent results! Good write up! Thanks for posting!

[alpha]

Wow! Great work! These photos would make me consider getting silver for my next car.

[sayroger]

great work

[haris300]

Beautiful turnout! Looks brand new again. Great work and documentation as always.

[Joe@NextLevelDetail]

I just did a silver Porsche on a mobile job. And I could not capture the defects.

Tried different lights brightness etc.... I would see them and when I take the pic can't see much.

So I know how you feel the Porsche was so bad defected however I couldn't capture it on cam

[tdekany]

I just did a silver Porsche on a mobile job. And I could not capture the defects.

Tried different lights brightness etc.... I would see them and when I take the pic can't see much.

So I know how you feel the Porsche was so bad defected however I couldn't capture it on cam

Not sure if you are using a phone or a real camera, but if you have a camera, use a tripod and manual focus. You WILL BE able to show imperfections.